The Washington times., 1901-10-13

across the park, Brockhurst was sub
stantaly the same in the year OF
grace lS42, whenfthis truthful history
actually opens as it had been when
Sir Denzil's workmeu set the last tier
OF brlcks of the last twisted chimney
STACK IN It's place. The grand, simple
masses of the house-Gothic in its
main lines, but with much of renais-
sance work in its Idetails-still lent
themselves to the same broad effects
OF light and shadow as II crowned the
southern and western sloping hillside
amid its red-walled gardens and pep
per-pot summer houses its cleaning
ponds and watereourses. its hawthorne
dotted paddockss its ancient avenues
OF elm, of lime, and of oak. The same
panelings and tapestries clothed the
walls of its spacious rooms and pas
saSes; the same quaint treasures
adorned its fine Italian cabinets; the
same air of large and generous COM
fort pervaded 1t. As the child of true
lovers is said to bear through life in
certain glad beauty of person and
of nature, witness to the glad hour of
its conception, so Brockhurst on
through the accommodating years, still
bore witness to the fortunate historic
hour in which it was planned
As may be seen from this, the descrip-
tive passages of the book are charming;
and the misunderstanding is equally
brilliant and successful. Sir Richard S
almost royal in her superb and spirited
loneliness. The hero is a study of no.
bic nature trying to work out its own sal
walton through a fate of grotesque and
semi-ludicruus strangeness. The. concep-
tion of the author in making man OF
just this type the central figure of the
novel is daring to the point of bathos'
but the artistic methods of the book. and
ha troc ole ant n L
uation, save it from becoming a mon
strosity among romances.
This book is new example of ten
dency observable at the present time, both
in the novel and on the stage, to bring
to the front the unlovely, the deformed,
the commonplace, and show their hidden
heroic qualities. rather than choose, as
the old romancer did the finest and most
beautiful specimens of humanity for hero
or heroine. "Cyrano de Bergerac" was
salient example of this tendency in the
drama Sir Richard CalmaIy' is very
much the same thing in the terms of the
novelist New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.
s1.50)
'Shacklett," by Walter Barr, is, as the
subtitle announces, story of American
politics. The hero, Noel shacklett, is an
III nois politician of country origin, the
son of country politician down in
Egypt" who was familiarly known as
"Old Sammy Shacklett" was sheriff for
five terms, and had wife whom he rev.
erenced above all things. The type is
familiar one to every American. The
combination of his father and his mother
made Noel Shacklett remarkable.
Incidentally, this novel adds something
to the history of the Middle West. as 1t is
recorded in fiction. This history is COM
posite, complicated, and interesting, and
is not yet all written. In Shacklett Mr..
Barr has added an important figure, that
of the lobbyist with a saving remnant
of conscience.
Shackletts attitude toward reform in
politics and politics in general is fairly
well expressed in speech which he
makes toward the end of the book to his
wife on the subject of the political ma
chine. He says:
That's the mistake that people
make, my dear, exactly where they
make mistake. They try to stop
the machine when they ought to use
1t for their own ends It's just like
big threshing machine on a farm.
You can clutch the driving belt, and
the only result will be that You'll get
hurt. The machine goes on taking In
weeds and chess. and pouring out a
cloud of dirt and the pestiferous seeds
TO grow in the fields the next year.
But If you wait until the men are
of their guard, you can slip in
shock Of wheat behind their backs.
and that same machine will send out
No. hard ready for the Siext step of
milling IT into the finest flour you ever
saw TO sustain the body.
IT'S exactly the same way with
political machines. I've no sympathy
with the people that think they can
knock the machine in their own party
into smithereens by exploding a fire.
cracker under 1t or by all pulling to-
gether on the driving belt. The ma
chine that's accomplishing anything
at all is so well oiled, and has such
power behind II, that you can't choke
II down with paper wads, whether
they are of the old style white kind,
or the more recent Australian multi
column, talls-at-a-cOGnty-fai varie-
ty. But if you're smart enough you
can catch the chief engineer mapping
sometimes, a1d slip in some good men |
on him, and that same machine Will
send out officers of high character
ready for the next step of Official acts
that will be the best nutriment for the
body polite.
speech on politics when I'm out of
politics. It's too much trouble for
anybody with cuteness enough to do
it, TO lie out nights and Sundays to
catch the machine men off their
guard. Personally. I'd prefer to hire
to the boss at regular wages and work
for promotion in the regular gang"
While there is much clever work in this
,ook, and 1t will undoubtedly serve as
n eye-opener to many of its readers who
10 not know much about politics. there
re places where it does not ring quite
rue. The end of the book is rather melo-
out of keeping with the real
SIN of the first part, and leads to the sus-
icion that Mr.. Barr did not Know what
o do with his hero if he stayed alive. In
hort, while it explains some political
lethods, it is far from being a complete
icture even of one political machine.
New York; D. Appleton & Co., A.5Ol
"Bagsby's Daughter" by Bessie and |
Iarie Van Worst, is a clever little story
I modern American life, with a Chicago
tmosphere. 1t is good story to read on
he cars. or when one is tired, for there
5 nothing particularly heavy about it,
nd 1t is entertaining. The interest lies
lainly in the development of a plot, which
eads rather like that of a light comedy,
nd hangs on the chance separation of a
ride and groom on the eve of their wed
ing journey to Europe Circumstances
o arrange 1t that the bride goes TO Eu-
ope on the same steamer with one of her !
Id lovers, while the groom is left behind
18th one of his ante-nuptial friends. The
ituations follow one another with salts
ictory rapidity, and the small brother |
T the bride is one of the most delightful |
nall boys in recent fiction. CNew York: |
arper & Bros. a.50D
1