The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-10-08
ghe adaiia Daily Eagle: SUNDAY 1ornine @ober s. ass
A Great Book
Called "The
Ladder Of Fortune"

1.-THE Ladder of Fortune" by Francis
/ Courtenay Baylor, comes very near being
! the great American novel, which has long
been predicted and has never arrived.
1t is a wonderful book stenographically
| accurate at times, searching in its analy-
| sis. astounding in its display of knowl
| edge of the minute steps of common
! development in American life.
J That development Is this; the evolution
of the poor without taste to the rich with
! it. The authoress creates two characters
J and brings them together for the story,
in California. The mans name is With
/ ers. He is drawn in lines that are rec
| ognizable and typical of his kind. He is
not the strongest character in the book,
but the best the writer has drawn. The
woman is Mrs. Withers, who is the
strongest in the book and who, possibly
with an alteration in the tone of her
creator the authoress. might have lived
as one of the great characters of Ameri-
can fiction.
1.-The Ladder of Fortune is not the
vogue. Some of the reasons that it is
not will be enumerated briefly at the be-
ginning before the common story so ex-
traordinarily told. is related.
"The Ladder of Fortune is a killing
title based on such hackneyed meta
phor that it would crush and obliterate
the most popular book. The authoress
has never learned the American lesson
of action by. paragraphing, and the chap
terization in being infrequent, is sepo-
rife. The authoress permits herself to
preach too much. But, gravest fault of
ALL her consciousness of her own Gull
ture. robs her of a quick, whole-heart
sympathy for her characters which had
she been able to exercise, would have
made this the greatest book written in
America for years.
Mrs Withers, because of this evident
desire of demonstration Of culture on the
part of the authoress, is not fully drawn.
She must have had that keen home-loV-
ing. motherly spirit, which is so charac-
teristic of American women who rise
from poverty to opulence, however am
bilious they may become in the transit.
The women who evolute from poverty
to wealth in America are usually good
women, and they rarely if ever surrender
their goodness, their motherliness and
their "horse sense if they do add glitter
and affectation.
The narrative: Mr.. Withers is a rust
ling young man in California who marries
a milliner. The husband devotes himself
slavishlv to his desk and turns every
thing he touches in a commercial and
way to gold. His young wife
is coarse and uncultured She reigns at
a local hotel, with an audacity in dress
and 1ncouthness of manners. She talks
loudly: she dresses more loudly; she
splurges into the dining room in SILK,
with diamonds and a gold chain wound In
her hair She is beautiful. One day u
stranger and his wife come to the hotel.
Mrs. Withers shows off. She talks loudly
and tries to demonstrate that she feels
above her surroundings, rebuking the
walters, critieizing the service. But
mentally she is keen. She recognizes
something in the strange woman, some
thing indefnable, something worth emu
lating and attaining. She feels that the
plainly dressed, soft voiced little stranger
is her superior. And she commences to
mend herself. This is the beginning of
the rise of Mrs. Withers. With infinite
care and sleepIess watchfulness she be-
gins the hard task OF lInptoNlhS Hoi7OiA
The work of the authoress here is au-
mirable. Her knowledge of this eVolu-
tion. the mannerisms that accompany It,
the methods used to encompass 1t, the
nhrases that describe it, the minute ana
oddly directed steps which direct 1t are
in fiction. matchless. Dickens and Thack-
cry have never done better. For an IN
stance Mrs. Withers read novels to get
"nointers" on her conduct For a or1el
nariod she initiated the action or the
characters in novels, in every day HE
and one may imagine with what ludi-
crous results. She gets a home OF her
own It is wonderfully furnished Inc
husband in the advancing of money Is
accommodating. Her first house is mar
vel. The same old killing loudness char-
acterizes everything. The decoration OF
the narlor center table is wax flowers IN
a glass case, distinct sign post IN the
evolution in question, which everybody
will recognize.
Mr. Withers grew richer and moved 10
larger town. Mrs. Withers contriVed IN
a perfectly natural and delightfully."- wire
" wav to make jetsam of all the Mucous