The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-10-13
Right of Way"
Eagles Review of Latest
Popular Novel.


Popular Novel.
Gilbert Parker, who writes strong
Stories. has written his strongest one. It
Is new; called The Right of Way" The
Guthor takes an impossible character to
whom TO attach interest, and upon whom
10 concentrate esteem. For Parker first
Ofends any prediction his reader might
have for the chief character of his story,
and then slowly, with masterful slow
ness, wins for his creation all the re-
Epect in the world.
The character is that of a fop, Beauty
Steele" a barrister of Montreal; 4 cold,
Intellectual egotist who is forever screw
Ing a monocle into his eye and uttering
Arctic comments on everything in gen
eral, questioning religion in particular
and denying conscience entirely. He has
three admirable qualities. too deep in the
shadow of his frigid mental attitude for
any admiration, and these three are his
courage, which is a sort Of conviction of
The futility OF fear, his intellect and an
inherent honesty. Beauty Steele is a
quiet drunkard. He is successful par
ticularly in criminal cases. He secures
The acquittaI of a woodsman, and when
the latter would thank him. cries: Get
out Of my sight; you're as guilty as hell.'
He married a Kathleen" because he
Believed he had reached the age where
he should marry; he did not recognize
the quality of love; she married him
because he had the element of success.
One day his wife upbraids him for his
selhshness. his coldness. his neglect-this
<.
DAY he discovers that his wife's brother,
Billy. had forged his (Steele's) name to
extract $4,000 from trust moneys held
by Steele. He resolves to save Billy
The same night, in response to one of
the yellow streaks in his nature, he visits
q resort on the riverside. He offends the
Catholic riverrnen in his talk; there is a
fight: he is thrown into the river. He
is dead in public report The man who
was "as guilty as hell rescues him,
takes him to his hut near the French
village of Chaudiere. A head wound
makes him as a child. He is of simple |
mind A chance surgeon restores him I!
months later. He discovers in a news |
paper that Kathleen has married an |
other man. that Billy has permitted the |
world TO believe Steele to be the thief |
Rnd his memory is generally eXecrated. /
The change begins IN Steele, which is
worked out delicately to the end of the /
volume He can not bring himself to |
return TO Montreal to vindicate himself !
and TO humiliate the woman he did not |
love, but respected. He drifts into the /
life Of the Catholic village He over /
comes. prejudice and at length the habit !
Of intemperance. He grows into charita- |
bic ways, into simple manner. He drops !
not TOO abruptly and never entirely, the
artificial The flaming love Of Resale, a /
native, becomes a powerful instrument /
in this evolution. He loves at last, but !
he can not permit himself to marry
Kathleen has the right Of way. No one
knows his secret. though all pry for it. |
Slowly he endears himself 10 his fellows, /
though antagonized much and always
iapsing in such moments into the old
cold. critical Beauty Steele.
Resale. the Cure, most of the village, /
reconciled TO an infdel by his worth |
are finally determined TO rescue him into /
the church.
But it is not to be seen plainly that /
they ever succeeded. When he unfet- |
tered his emotions at last, when he rec !
ognized conscience and stood forth a
man admirable in all proportions and
attributes he could not honestly accept
religion. and he would not. In a prodi-
gous emotional moment, far along in
tho course of the story, Rosalie pleads
with him to pray He said in anguish: /
'-You have the right TO ask all that is
mine TO give-life. honor. my body in /
pieces. inch by inch, the last that l can
call my own. But, Rosalie, that is not
mine to give. How can pray unless 1
believer"
After greater and greater trials. he be-
comes a martyr in his defence of the in /
terests the church, and at the last after /
delirium and its fantasies. he permits |
his faithful friend, the Cure, to announce /
10 the village that ne would accept the 4
sacraments of the church in his last hour. /
And stil ne did not wholly lose the arti- (
fetal the old air of his life in Mon /
Treal On his death-bed he sees the I
fantasy Of death See" he said, point /
ing, who is that? Who? 1 can't see /
his FACET is covered. So tall!-so white, /
lie is opening his arms to me He is /
-closer-closeri Who is it?"
1T is death. my son" said the priest /
IN his ear. with a plying gentleness.
The Cures voice seemed to calm the 1
Rgitated vision to bring it back 10 the 1
outer precincts of consciousness There 4
was an awe-struck silence as the dying I
man fumbled, fumbled over his breast, /
found his eye-glass and with a last /
Feeble effort. raised it TO his eye, shining /
now with an unearthly fire The old in /
terrogation of the soul, the elemental /
habit, outived all else in him. The /
tdiosvncrasy of the mind automatically /
expressed itself.
Il INSTRUMENTATION" he whispered /
10 the imagined figure. and the light died /
Dut of his eyes. "Have-I-ever-bee 4
introduced-to you2"
To the general mind this new character +
IF Steele can never be loveable. if the +
author intended that. or fascinating. but /
as a picture OF strength. and of strength I
softened at last through tragedy. If re- /
rusing complete surrender. the story is I
semarkable- The love story in which .
the moral lesson is set. is novel To the .
point Of distraction, and so Disappointing
The volume is from Harpers and Broth +
ers. and is handled in Wichita 10y the I.
Goldsmith company.
ECKSTEiN ON ANARCHY