New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-02-06
FICTION.
VENGEANCE. MYSTICISM AND PROVHt
CIALITY

MR.. rETERs BY Ricardo Stephens. NJ. -. c. NJ
Emo up. 30 Harper & Brothers.
GLORIA VICTls BY J. \. Mitchell l2m,. PIP ess
Charles Scribners So1s.
THE JUGGLER. by Charles Egbert Craddock
l'mo. PIP 400. Houghton, Miliin e. Co.
cHALMETTE. by Clinton Ross. Emo. PIP 26i.
}. T. Lppincott Company.
Mr.. Peters" has sev raj excellent qualities
dramatic pow"r humor skilful IL slight char
acter drawing and a simple and easy style. 1t
Is story Of human vengeance which since all
things work like the swing Of n pendulum
toward the hour Of its elimination is primarily,
1t would SEEM the sentence of Providence The
Pnch'ng OF an innocent man is avenged long
years after. by his son; and the real offender
who betrayed him to save his own neck and
the glib pleader who in vanity and excitement
sealed his fate. cxpiate each in tragic fashion
the crime Of one. the cruel weakness OF the
other. 1t is proof OF the deftness OF the au-
thoPs handling that he manages In a truly
grim and thrilling way the device OF a bit Of
music. a strain Of song which comes to shake
at the end the miserable consciences Of the VIC
tins and bring them death. 1t is as uncanny as
the call in Hermann
Mr.. Mitchell improves; his new novel shows
iirner hand. llvelier imagination and a
more sympathetic apprehension Of humankind
80 far as H. deals with the clever villain OF his
tale. with the boy who is so strange yet really
a mixture Of good and bad. and with the man
of Cod. VII )se heart is big as his brain he
Is impressive and convincing. His minor char
acters. too. are admirable in their way; the
young heroine. small az is the part she plays
Is made to show herself a winsome creature
But MT MItchelfS vein of mysticism, however
genuine it may be. does not seem to belong to
the story: Dr. Thorne's belief in the return to
the modern world OF the Saviour is used with
what appears to thc reader an Irrelevant effort
preparatory 10 the raising Of the dead by the
Divine Hand. which concludes the book. Other
writer's have brought into fiction this August
Figure-in The Carpenter" for example w ID
OConnor told story as reverent as it was
touching. But unless it Is TO teach a heart
wrenching lesson in the noblest way we DO not
feel that it is permissible to Introduce in the
realm Of the everyday novel Divinity itself Mr.
Michells closing scene Is. may concede the
outcome OF earnest feeling on the part of the
author but as an expedent it is inartistic and
II leaves the reader cold
'The Jugelcr' is an unmistakably feminine
book-if this had been her first publication
the sex Of Charles Egbert Craddock" 1t is
moreover. Of a feminnty which is behind the
times and not a little provincial No honora BILE
man OF the world With business cxperien,r
would rest for moment in the tangle Of merely
apparent wrong ioing which drives the hero OF
Miss Murfrec's tale into the tresome obscurity
or the Tennessee mountains. That tange is In
genlous but II ~ n strictly feminine ingenuity
which causes the masculine observer To chuckle
with derisi'c mirth The rustics OF The book
are portrayed with this authors usual care and
accuracy. they are. in fact. simple being9 whose
mental processes are not hard 10 describe The
accustomed liberal padding OF Tennessee
scenery helps to make long novel out Of the
smalles % plots. We wOrdcr II Miss Murfrce
does not weary sometimes OF these rciteIatipns
OF Natures effects, there is so little variety in
them that the same set might easily be used
for any number OF tales like the "cufs" in
familiar advertisements.
"Chalmeltc' is a story of the South In the
early part of the century. and is rehearscd -
its hero in style which even the infre1Ient
nove-rcader will recognize as artificial and
reminiscent OF better writers than Mr.. Ross
Thackeray among others. 1t Is historical to he
extent Of bringing in the battle Of Newt orleans,
General Jackson and the pirate Lalitte. The
hight IL described with some force. otherwise
the book Is weak in detail and vague In effect