New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-06-30
SHORT STORIES AND NOVELS
STUDIES OF sLUM LIFE IN NETWORK
AND LONDON.

AND LONDON.
Emo, pp. 254 Charles scribner's Sons.
THE ALABAsTER BOX BY Walter Besant.
limo, PIP. 327 Dodd. Mead & Co.
THE FORTUNE OF WAR. BY Elizabeth n Bar
row. 12mo-, pp. 2eS. Henry Holt Co.
Robert shackleton is one of those young
writers who have lately been studying life in the
East Side OF New-York for the purpose of gath
ering material to be used in stories That he
has done great deal OF observing is made plain
by his collection OF short tales TooIney and
Others: that he hiss been able TO understand
the people and their ways clearly enough to
write from the point of view of the inside is
not clear. The fact is that Mr.. Shacketon
does what the real artist never does-he writes
down to his characters ne treats them with the
kindly consideration Of superior who is al
ways outsider. Consequently. he is never
able quite to do them justice. His best success
he achieves with the old colored nanny. who
figures amusingly in The Misery in Mis- Ran
dolphs Knee" With the sophisticated
characters. however. he betrays a very feeble
hand. Nevertheless ell of the stories are en-
Pertaining, and some Of them. in spite OF the ar
tiflcial treatment, carry considerable pathos. In
this regard Before the Archbishop has special
merit. A few of the stories are so slight that
t4-CS c-rtA tt4A48
volume. How Tooney Wiiled His Govern
ment Job" for example. woulo have completely
served its purpose exaggerated article for
the humorous columns Of newspaper Mr..
Shackleton writes with and vigor, and
he has skill in shutting OFF his narrative
suddenly, achieving an effect of some dramatic
value. But he is somewhat inclined to be mere
ly sensational, too. He likes. among other re-
grettabe things, to make statements OF this
before she actual darkness" This may be
the record of an experience on the East Side:
but in fiction 1t sounds preposterously made
up" 1t would be we'll FOR Mr.. Shackletcn to
bear in mind thar the writer OF fiction dealing
with conditions of actual life and character
gets his strongest effects by keeping to the
qualities and the incidents that carry convic-
ton.
There was five and twenty years
ago who played considerable part in journal
ism; he a power in the land: he was very
much respected as a power: he was good deal
talked about power So writes Sir Walter
Besant in his new novel, The Alabaster Box"
and he goes Now. the leading fact OF his
personality was that no one, not even his most
intimate friends, knew who he was or where
he came from. The mystery of the tning--the
strange fact that nobody in any town or VII
lage of the Three Kingdoms rose up in the DAYS
" -o .aIiiS ~ Setf1 tlln Dlotuer OF
the world more curious so that whenever the
paper which he conducted was mentioned some
one was sure to call attention to the singular
circumstances that no one had ever been able
to find out the mans origin. AT last he died
Now everybody said. we shall learn who the
mans people were They were wrong: he left
all his money to s person who could not be a
cousin or a brother any relation and said
not word in his will about his own people
he he
dering over this mystery" This is certainly
an interesting case: it ought to furnish Sir
Walter Besant or some other novelist with an
excellent plot. IN his present story however
the author has z motive quite as strange A
rich cid EngIishman. supposed to be z gentleman
himself, after giving his son the education Of
an English gentleman, confesses to the boy
that he made his money by usury in the Lon
don Sums. and that his pretensions to good
birth were shame. This confession starts the
story giving it the toach OF melodrama that ts
author loves. 1t grows thoroughly human as It
develops and it takes the young hero into Settle
ment work in London, where he has adven-
lures that widen his knowledge, quicken his
Judgment and make OF him fine man. The
book is written with great vivaci.y, and the
story tells itself In the dramatic manner. Con-
sidering the amount of work done by Sir Walter
Besant, Ii is astonishing that he should be able
TO keep it SO fresh and entertaining
In THE Fortune of War rather pretty
love story is told OF young English girl who
comes to this country during tn. Revolutionary
times and has number Of romantic adventures
The writer, however. seriously handcaps herself
by letting the heroine narrate the episodes in the
form of letters: the girl is constantly obliged
to repeat the compliments paid TO her by her
admirers, and the whole work Is given an
artificial flavor Miss Barrow has tried. but
mosphere Of the period.
Joel Chandler Harris will bring out a new
book Of short stories early In the autumn
through Doubleday. Page & Co. They will deal
chiefly with incidents in the Civil War and
they will bear the title of ION the Wing of Oc-
casions."
The Putnams have secured the American
rights to Mrs ELEPHANTS Memoir Of Queen Vic