The times., 1899-04-09
Minor Fiction.

Minor Fiction.
THE Capsina,'' by f. f. Benson, has a
name which will be rather a puzzle to the
average book buyer until he buys the book
and glances over the first two pages Mr.
Benson will be remembered as the creator
OF that peculiar blossom of latter-day En-
glish literature, "DO5o," and of sub.e-
quent romance of Greek life entitled THE
vintage. The hero of the latter book was
young Hercules called Little Mitsos. 4"
ana the story dealt with the time during
the hrst quarter of the present century,
when the Greeks were busily engaged i'm
grinding black corn for the Turks" Z"
Ihose were the days when the atrocities
OF the Ottoman earned for him the name
OF the unspeakable Turk'-when Byron
made himself hero to the Greek noun
taineers, and for years sort of guerrilla
warfare was carried on, with all sorts OF
horrible deeds on the part of both nations.
| me Capslna is sequel to The Vim
tage, and the heroine is the chieftainess
OF the clan OF Capsas, beautiful, spirited,
ana courageous woman of twenty or twen-
| ty-one The hero is this same Mitsos now
married to the beautiful Suleima whom he
| rescued from Turkish captivity during the
| development of the authors earlier work
/
to her fathers shipbuilding business. and
| carries 1t on herself. She eventually
equlps Two or three warships and, herself
IN command of one of them, sails against
the Turks, with Mitsos as her immediate
subordinate. Not knowing that he is mar
ried, she finds herself falling in love with
ninn, Whiie ne has no consciousness of any
ieeiihg Tor her save good-comradeship. in
tense admiration, and entire LOYALTY In
| course OF time chance throws her in the
way OF his wife, who discovers her secret
ana is large-hearted enough TO refrain from
jealousy AT about this time Mr. Benson
begins to be a little uncertain of the fate
| OF his heroine. He cannot compromise her
with Mitsos; he cannot make Mitsos dis
| loyal to his wife or the Capsina tickle in
| her affection; he works out his problem
by making the Capsina behave as a sort of
friend to the family for two or three years,
unoetrayed and unbetraying, and finally
die In the servicelof her country
1t is an exquisite and touching story.
and well told, but there is somehow flaw
| in 1t which one feels rather than detects.
Mr.. Benson seems to have made up his
mind to study the art of drawing heroines:
ne gave one unique specimen to the world
in Dodo; and the Capsina is in some re-
spects another. The trouble with him is
Just this: he has not grasped the idsa that
| IN matters of love people are usually at
tracted by their opposites. He made
Dodo, the brilliant, the charming the pas
sionate, tire quickly of her simple. honest
husband The original of that portrait
married plain, Woodworking man some
time ago, and has not tired of him at all:
on the contrary, she makes him a most
devoted and delightful wife In the draw
Ing of Mitsos, Nh. Benson has understood
quite we'll that SO strong and vigorous a
man would be attracted by the gentle and
womanly type of woman; but he did not
| nave the sense to see that q woman like
the Capsina would not be likely to love
with all her heart a man of precise'y the
same qualities as herself. That is where
| he struck his false note, and, of course. the
whole thing rings false from the bagin-
| ming. The strong, capable, passionate wo-
man is character comparatively new in
| hction, although she has long existed in
| real life, and it may be added that men
have loved her. The Capsina is beautifully
drawn, and she is very real person, but
at the last analysis her creator-or obsery-
| er-fails quite 10 comprehend her. New
York: Harper Bros. S1.5O)
THE sturgis Wager by Edgar Morette
| is one of the best detective stories of the
season. 1t deals with that subject of per-
ennial interest to mankind, circumstan-
| tial evidence. Old as the theme NAV be
the plot and treatment are new and thor
oughly interesting. young reporter from
one OF the New York daily papers. Ralph
Sturgis by name, meets at dinner a wealthy
| physician who offers to wager 81 600
| against 500 that he can pick I'D any daily
| paper and from its columns select an un-
| solved riddle to which no detective can
Dl 70 ON
experience as a detective, accents the
| wager, and the. case selected is two uvs
ferrous pistol shots fired in or near one of
| the most reputable banks of the city
Sturgls examines the ground, and almost
| at once connects the case with a murder
| or suicide mystery involving an elderly
man found dead in a cab on the same dav
that the shots were fired. The process BY
| which he tracks the murderer not
only of this man but of sever
! al others and very nearly loses
MS own life in SO doing, is most in
teresting, but TO reproduce IL would he
| robbing the book of It's principal delight
There is love story. apparently intro
| duced for two purposes; the rescue of the
| nero IN the last chapter and the rounding
| out OF the character of the villain, making
MN human rather than an absolute fiend
IL Is 10 be hoped that Mr. Morette will
write more detective stories In the near f,,-
| ture; for rly good specimens of this ,Iaes
| Oh literature are not as common as they
inlent De, and the perusal of a detective
| story, written IN mastery style without
100 much extraneous material to spoil the
| interest in the plot, is one of the delights
OF life. Chicago: Frederick A. Stokes
| Company
"Pharos, the Egyptian is a new book
by Guy Boothby, and to those who have
read the previous works of this author lit
tie more need be said. The central figure
oil this romance is a reincarnation of
| Ptahmes, chief of the Egyptian sorcerers.
who figured in the time of Moses. and
most impressive old villain he is. The
author has evidently tried TO produce some
| such impression of an incarnation
of absolute evil as Stevenson gave
| US in Mr.. Hyde and though
the treatment is different the re-
suit is somewhat similar. We get the
picture of man of infinite resource and
unlimited fiendishness amusing himself by
| all sorts of diabolical enterprises, and ex-
ercising sorS of hypnotic power over those
| whom he desires to get into his tolls.
| Among these persons are Cyril FORESTER
\ a brilliant young artist, and a beautiful
| young violinist of noble family, Valerie de
| Vocxqal. It might be well If the pub
| fishers had introduced a footnote telling
| us how that name Is to be pronounced
| The chapter which forms the climax of the
| book Is decidedly impressive, and all the
others in some way lead up to it, Forres-
| ter is taken into an Egyptian pyramid and
| inoculated with the virus of a fearful
| disease. He is then taken through all the
1 ElirOna wi ba