New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-11-23


Mr.. Ridges new novel of life among the poorer
classes Of London has merits which do at
once appear but which in due course make Their
effect and place the book in a credtable position.
Herbert Barnes. the hero, known to his fellow
workers in the district of Bermondsey as "Erb'
is an honest youth with certain gift of speech.
1t is his business to drive a van for one of the
great carrying companies but 1t is his pleasure
to harangue his companions, and every one else
who is willing to listen, on the woes of labor
and the cruelties of capital His pleasure, it IS
true consists to great extent merely in hear
ing the sound of his own voice. but he is never
theless sincere in the advocacy of what he be-
ieves to be really necessary reforms. The au-
thor gives us perhaps a little too much Of the
dicton Of his van men. and his local color
seems here and there to have been laid on with
trowel We could well spare. too, the account
of the party given in the servants hall of a
mansion in Eaton Square. This adds nothing 10
the movement of the story, and the humOTs q
the scene, as we suppose Mr.. Ridge would call
them. are as tresome they irrelevant
But once the reader has made up his mind 10
endure the cruditles in this book he cannot but
be interested In the portrait IT contains Of an
English workman bitten with enthusiasm for
agitation and strikes 1t Is drawn with admir-
able candor and impartiality; the things that
are good and the things that If not ad are at
all events sadly ignorant and feeble IN tbs
course of a rebellious employe, are set forth
with the vitality to be expected Of an author
who has observed his subject at first hand, ard
has other object than the telling of tie
truth We have in this novel vivid page from
part Of modern life that is too often exploited
with sentimentality or with melodramatic pur-
pose, and it should do something to Increase w
Outstanding OF difficult types and still more
difficult problems. Moreover, "Erb" is u anus
Ing story.
The opening sentences in Mr.. Marriotts Love
with Honour give an idea, only too clear Of
what Is to be expected throughout the book
The double bedded room afflicted one as q
multitude Of counsellors. 1t impossible 20
hit on a single object and say, Here he is; this
is the room Of that man There was nothing
discriminating, so to speak; and no sooner had
one started on trail suggested by the easel
and portfolios leaning il corner than one was
brought up suddenly by the bookcase over tie
mantclpicce, where the number Of works on
finance and political economy placed the
poetry books at singular disadvantage There
was a certain security in the picture at the head
Of either bed; one held to that and following tho
method Of Goethe's genuine scholar wariIy 6e-
yeloped the unknown" We know at once -
the author means US to know, that We are 10
be presented with a case Of two roommates hav-
know, also, what he is probably unaware Of
proc!alIning, that every thing in the book is go
ing to be hopelessly clever. We are not dsap-
pointed. Love with Honour" Is too clever by
half The author started. gather. with q
fairly interesting plot and with honest inten-
tons, If not with much knowledge of human
nature, where his characters were concerned
But he gives from beginning to end the impress
sion of caring good deal less about what he
has TO say than about the way in which he SAYS
1t. The result is disastrous The plot is a queer
shambng thing. now involving heavy strain
upon probability and lapsing into sheer
bonelessness. The hero, a photographers
to try his fortune kind OF superior vaga-
bond. His action is natural enough but he does
not himself, on the whole, ring true, and every
body else in the book is equally artificial. MI
Marriott gives US not human beings, with clearly
marked Municipalities, but puppets duly labelled.
He is fond of dragging in the precious" epthet
one of his favorite phrases popping in and out
and disgusting. On page he alludes to 1.-The
ritual of rising and going to bed; another
where a smokers preparation OF his pipe is de
scrbed, he tells that there seemed also a
customary ritual to be observed" and again in
a later chapter find a fastidious gentleman
playing the host with an Old World ritual"
The repetition is bad enough. But to use the
word at all Mr.. Marriott uses II is TO show
that anxiety for effect and that inability 10 get