The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-10-14

cannot but make one sorry for her, and
she really puts up with 1t as well as one
could expect. Wife No. 2 is sweet,
sensitive, appealing little creature. and
through no fault of her own is doomed to
have her heart broken. The man who Is
more or less responsible for all this trib-
ulation is not a criminal he is only
criminally weak, one of those creatures
OF impulse and temperament whom every
body joins in excusing for their pecca-
dilloes until, taught by this experience to
drift helplessly on the tide of circum-
stance, they are betrayed into crime,
when all their friends turn on them and
condemn them. The position in which
this unheroic hero is placed at the end
OF the book is so abominably unpleasant
that his worst enemy could not visa him
anything more sickening, and he takes
his retribution so meekly that enc can
not help still sympathizing with him
The book as a whole is compound OF
more unique things than an ordinary
writer could get together in a month OF
Sundays. New York: Harper & Brcs.
sI50)
"a Breaker of Laws" is new novel Of
cockney life, by w. Petit Ridge. The work
of this author has already challenged the
attention of the reading world and any
new book by him is awaited with interest
by those who are fond of character studies
in dialect. "Mordemly,' which preceded
the present novel, was one of the clever
est and most truthful books of its kind
ever written, and it is pleasant to find
that it is now being advertised under It's
original London name, instead OF under
the unmeaning title, BY Order Of the
Magistrate which was tackled to it for
American publication.
"a Breaker of Laws" deals with the adj
ventures of one Alfred BatesOn-the au-
thor is always particularly happy in his
choice of names for his characters, and
this one is cockney to the last syllable.
Mr.. Bateson begins the story as gentle
manly and peculiarly skillful housebreaker,
and after the first chapter or two marries
pretty housemaid and begins to lead
new life. In the process of his refOrma-
ton some professional philanthropists are
introduced into the story, and there is con-
siderable quiet humor in the delineation
Of their sayings and doings. The charac-
ter of the hero is absolutely perfect, as
good in its way as Mordemly was in hers;
and that of his wife is equally skillful in
drawing. The book is study in heredity,
environment, and the human will, not ex-
actly pessimistic, but certainly not opti-
mistic. Few can read it without seeing
plainly how the threads OF good and bad,
honesty and dishonesty, purpose and i'm
pulse. are braided up together in the hu-
man temperament, especially in the char
acter of a boy born and brought up in
London slums. of a criminal father and an
ignorant mother.
Whatever pathos Is in the tale is
quietly managed, and there is nothing
sensational about it. 1t is really more
of a sociological study than a novel. This
is true of Mr.. PETIT Ridges former book,
and in some ways this is it's superior. 1t
deals with deeper problems, and its range
is wider. The author has tried his prem
tice hand and is ready for his best work
Whether he will ever do anything better
than this cannot be predicted with GER
tainty, but in "A Breaker of Laws" he
has certainly written book on which
his reputation can safely rest. There are
no false notes in it, there is no affecta-
tion there is no melodrama or straining
after effect. On the other hand, it is not
in the least dull, and the characters,
while they are commonplace in the sense
of being typical, are not mediocre. which
would be quite a different thing. 1t is
not particularly easy thing to manage
the psychology Of a man of Alfred Bate
sons class. There is always a large
chance of making a misstep in threading
its labyrinths. But the author under
stands his subject perfectly, and the
character-study is as realistic as that Of
"'Mordemly," than which nothing more
could be said. New York: The Macmil-
Ian Company. sL50)
1.-The Courtesy Dame,' by Murray Gill
christ is an English story of rather
novel kind. The heroine is a young girl Of
humble birth, who is placed in a some
what equiyocal position as the protege of
rich nobleman considerably older than
herself. The time Of the story is nearly
hundred years ago, the place somewhere
in the north of England. The story is full
of the scent Of hedgerows and the flavor
of old country houses. 1t gives one the
sensation of porting over some dusty old
volume in library three hundred years
old and coming on the story written in
oldfashioned type, and the formal phrase
ology Of the last century-the kind OF
story which has to be read between the
lines Nevertheless there is nothing old
fashioned in the diction except where
there should be- as in the speech Of the
characters.
The theme of the tale is so unusual that
not the most astute reader could prophesy
the outcome, and 1t is, truth to tell, entire
ly unexpected though wholly natural. The
Courtesy Dame, Anne Witchett, is
charming and wholesome young creature,
woman, with simplicity and sweetness
Of nature which nothing can spoil. There
is one small slip In the realism OF the
story, which is common among authors
but somehow Jars on one in the reading.
In the days of her callow youth. while she
still talks in dialect, Anne writes let
ter, and instead Of being simply ill-spell-
ed and ill-worded, as 1t would be in reality,
the author writes it in dialect, with all the
s.rtif iya tod
son in writing letter. would ever say 'ef
| / weere a lass fro tn Bastile." That is
| the spelling of the writer of dialect, not
| of the person who speaks it.
The hero appeals more and more to one
| imagination as the story progresses, and
| the pathos of the denouement is one of
the finest and most exquisitely managed
| effects in the book. The authors skill
| is equal to his originality, and that is say
| ing something. (New York: Dodd, Mead
| & Co., s1.50)
1.-The Black Gown" By Ruth Hall. au-
| thor of In the Brave Days of Old and
1.-THE BOYS OF Scrooby," is story of old
| Albany in the days when 1t went by the
| name of Beyerwyck and was but newly
come into the hands of the English. The
| hero is stalwart Dutchman, Cornelis
or Neal Sleight. and the heroine, or at
| least the central feminine character, is
a old-hearted little Dutch coquette, Eve
Verbeeck Cecil Loveland. who is as much
of a william as the plot admits, is a mean
spirited little English officer, and there is
a Jesuit priest who plays an important
part in the development of the plot,
though he does not appear prominently
| in the story.
| The atmosphere of the time and place
| ;s welI reproduced and the ma terial clev-
erly handled. There is a chance for bril-
| liant effects of contrast in the contact
of Dutch with English civilization in the
| .ianaar lilo of old New York and though