New-York tribune., 1900-08-12


/ THE BOOMING OF ACPE E4r11. ANT, OTHER
"REMINISCENCES OF URBAN AND SUB
JRRAN LIFE. By John Kendrick Bangs. Il
Harper & Bros
The title of Mr.. Aliens new novel suggests
that the reader is to hear much of the stead
fastness OF things. AS matter of fact, The
Reign OF Law" is full of the warning of the
/ oreeds- The hero. a young Kentuckian has in
/ his veins the blood of an ancestor whose faith
in God was fortified by tolerant acceptance of
/ all his churches. But David grows up among
people whose sactariaEism is carried to the
point of bigotry, and the enthusiasm with which
he enters a theological seminary hoping to be-
! come minister, is soon cooled by the narrow
minded views of his instructors Then Darwin
rails into his hands and within two years he is
expelled from the seminary Returning to the
/ poor farmhouse in which his parents have
! cheered themselves with pride in him. he breaks
their hearts by the announcement Of his de-
| tachment from what they consider to be the only
church for Christian. How the breach between
| them is healed, what part the heroine. Gabri-
ella plays in David's career we leave the reader
to find out for himself We will not discount his
interest in Mr.. Aliens romance by describing
the plot in all it's details.
Some forbearance is necessary not only for the
/ readers sake, but for the reason that the plot
Of this book is too fraH to be rudey handled.
There is, indeed, next to no plot at all The
book opens with a vivid, readable account Of
the Kentucky hemp fields. 1t is as though the
| author were preparing US for a drama by setting
forth not only the scene, but the elements in
nature which are to affect the men and women
involved. Presently we discover. however, that
the dissertation on hemp has practically no ref
/ erence TO the substance of the novel That sub
stance is found chiefly in Davids mental and
spiritual struggles student Of religion. He
works in the hemp fields it is true but this fact
is Of no particular Importance. The last impress
sion left by The Reign of Law is that the
author realized at the outset the triteness of his
theme sought to lend it new color by Identify
ing it with the history of the hemp industry,
and failed There may have been, too, the desire
to make book of nearly four hundred pages, a
full sized novel where there was really material
for nothing more than a particularly brief short
story. The work contains some good descriptive
passages, notably when wintry scenes are i'm
ported into the narrative. But The Reign Of
Law is altogether a very light, ephemeral pro
duction Obviously composed, nevertheless, with
great care, We are surprised TO find it disfgured
| by one serious blemish of style. Until David
arrives at mans estate the author is so anxious
for US to remember his hero's immaturity that
he rarely calls him anything but the lad"
This expression appearing with sickening itera-
ton on page after page, at last grows intoler-
| able 1t suggests the Crudest tyrO rather than
an author as experienced and as fastidious as
Mr.. Allen.
There is sectarianism in Lying Prophets
/ also. sectarianism of the bitterest and most ig-
nCrant character. Mr. PhiIIpotts intertwines it
with idvIlic lovemaking, and though it is suf-
icientIy rebuked the grimness which it COM
municates to the novel is never dismissed.
Tragedy broods over these pages. The old
Cornish fanatic whose portrait is drawn at full
. length. and whose sombre traits have a heavy
influence in the story. becomes insane when he
/ loses his only son at sea. His daughter dies in
d great food. after having been rejected by him,
and the artist responsible for her fall from
grace only escapes death at the hands of her
pIishted lover by dying from consumption
twenty-four hours in advance Of the wOu!d-be
murderers visit. a gay book, decidedly, is
Lying Prophets, But it is very well written,
there is human nature between its covers, and
it reproGuces cIeverIy the atmosphere of
Cornish fishing village.
The stories by Mr.. Bangs about dwelers in
small suburban towns probably did very well
when published in periodical form. They hardly
deserve the dignity of being gathered together
in a book To read one of them after another
is not, we fear, TO be amused, though Mr.. Bangs
tries very hard to be funny. The reader il much
more likely 10 be bored.