The times., 1899-09-10
Minor Fiction.

| "The Carpet-Bagger," the joint work o.
Opie Read and Frank S. Pixley. enjoys
what is probably the unique dstincton of
having been written as a play before It
was put into book form. These two clever
writer's collaborated ON the play of that
title, which was brought on the stage by
Tim Murphy during the season of 1898 80.
and emboldened by the success of their
drama, determined to rewrite it as book
They probably had idea that this course
would help the play and the play would
help the book, and they had at hand sorne
remarkably good illustrations, in photo
graphs which had been taken OF the vari-
Gus actors at dramatic crises.
The story is, briefly. that of the career
of a certain fictitious governor of Missis-
sippi, who came there after the war with
the ayowed purpose of making money He
had been an auctioneer in Chicago
a soldier in the Union army, and
several other things, some OF them
rather rascally, all OF them requiring
brains, shrewdness, and executive abili-
ty. By the dubious methods of re-
construction days he gets himself into
the Statehouse and stays there. Then he
falls in love with a pretty widow, whose
| adoescent son at the same time falls in
love with the governors daughter. Nellie.
Owing to the widows influence the gov
ernor finally defeats himself for re-elec-
tion, restores to the State all that he has
| made out of it, and goes North poor but
with clean hands.
There is a great deal of good character
work in the book, although along certain
hackneyed and melodramatic lines The
The character of the governor is the strong
point, of course, and one sees the play all
through the pages of the book. The inter-
est, however, is continuous, and there is
plenty of humor, especially when the inev-
liable pair of comic lovers plan an elope-
| ment, and the governor catches the would
be groom up a tree. The press work is
daintily done, the cover is attractive, and
the story ought to sell. Chicago: Laird
Lee. $1,000
Lady Barbarity'' is an extremely i'm
probable but rather entertaining tale of
love and strategy, the place being an En-
| glsh country house, and the time that of
| Charles Edwards romantic invasion of
Great Britain. Lady Barbarity'' Il q will
| ful lass who falls IN love with a young
adherent of Charles Edward, and by va
| rious clever and daring exploits succeeds
| in saving his neck from the halter The
| plot must have taxedEthe ingenuity of the
author considerably, for there never was
| anything quite like it in literature The
| heroine furnishes the charm of the book
She is a saucy, witching, daring baggage.
and her story of the adventures and mis-
| haps of the young rebel is full of quaint
and happy turns of expression. The novel
is the work of ]. c. Snaith, author of two
or three other historical romances. New
York: D. Appleton & Co. $1,000
One of the interesting articles in the Sep
tember "Bookman" is an illustrated paper
on New York in Fiction" both pictures
and text being the work of Arthur Bartlett
| Maurice There is no doubt that the real
| New York novelist has yet to appear MANY
clever writers have touched upon phases
| of the life of the metropolis, but no one
| has yet reached the heart of It, Perhans
| one might say that the one thorough New
| Yorker among all fiction writers-the man
! who was born into the great city, and knew
! II, and loved it, and wrote of ii with all the
| insight and skill of the trained writer-was
| H c. Bunner. Whether he dealt with high
| or low life conventionality or Bohemia il
was always with assured touch and a
| perfect knowledge. If Bunner had not been
| as editor, too busy to devote much time to
works of love he might have been the New
| York novelist of his time. But he was liv-
| ing. not writing, and so the work remains
undone except for some short stories and
| that one mavelously tender little romance.
| 1.-THE Midge." Davis handles New York
with kid gloves on. Townsend's "Chimmie
! Fadden'' is a theatrical figure. Julian
Ralph's People We Pass" is one of the
best of New York books, but is, after all
the view of an outsider Dunbar has writ
ten of Little Africa" and Abraham Cahan
| of the Ghetto. but New York as whole re-
| mains unconQuered by the novelist