New-York tribune., 1902-12-14
FICTION.
HUMOR OF VARIOUS SORTS.

IN KENs1NGToS, GARDENs; By J. NJ t,Is Bar
rie. 2mo, pp iv, S49. Charles Scrioners Sohs
the Ad1en5ares nlHaSofa Of Motor Car Edited BY e 4
and a. NJ. Williamson. l2mo, pp sS. Henry
| Emo pp vi, 2sO. Harper & Bros.
IDYLs OF THE GAss. By Martha Wolfenstein1.
cation Society of America.
limo, PIP. a2s. Frederick A. Stokes Company.
'"rhe Little White Bird" reminds us Of those
pictorial puzzles, now obsolete, believe In
| which is confronted by landscape ingeni-
| ously drawn and bearing some such legend as
| Find the cow" When the animal is found 1t is
| usually werdly unnatural creature. set up
| side down, with its horns driven into the top
| most part of tree. We have been compelled
to look for the central idea in Mr.. Barrie's book
| after this fashion. with results not dssmilar.
vaguer queerer book has not been written in
q long time By dint of severe effort we have
gathered that the suppostitious narrator is a
| bachelor with a haf-cynical, half-amable inter-
est in loves young dream and with a Iondness
for little children. Here and there the author
gives US what would seem to be first hand OBJ
servation of living models. and at moments. but
only at moments. he makes these models anus
ing company. Again there are touches Of faery,
like the following:
was not in its usual good temper at present. the
| cause being the tantalZing heart of the Duke
of Christmas Daisies. He was an Oriental fairy,
very poorly of q dreadful complaint, namely. IN
ability to love. and though he had tried many
ladies In many lands. he could not fall in love
with one Of them. Queen Nab, who rules in the
Gardens had been confident that her girls would
bewitch him, but alas, his heart the doctor said,
| remained cold. This rather irritating doctor,
who his private physician, felt the Dukes
heart Immediately after any lady was presented,
and then always shook his bald head and muir
INJURED, cold, quite COld!' Naturally Queen
| Nab felt dsgraced, and first she tried the effect
of ordering the court into tears for nine minutes
When Mr.. Barrie drops into this vein he Is
| beguiling enough But even these little gossa-
mer inventions insufficient to make The
| Little White Bird worth while. Pondering
deeply the possible for the existence Of
this fornless and sicky sweet production. all
| that occurs to credible explanation Of it
is that Mr.. Barrie, having read Lambs Dream
Children" thought that he would like to try
his hand at something of that sort himself and
would give free play to his humor. We know
that he has humor. 1t is the best element in
his best pages, and those, II they not litera-
ture, at any rate very pleasant to read. But
his humor is terribly diluted in this book. The
best pages in il far from being among the
best that he has written. He is whimsical with
out being amusing, he is sentimental without
touching the emotions. certain delicate quail
ity saves the book from utter failure the quality
Of an interesting temperament. But that is all
that can be said in favor Of The Little White
Bird"
Mr Barrie, with his temperamental charm,
can at least soften the readers dissatisfaction
with generally unsatisfactory piece of work
The authors of The Lightning Conductor"
having no temperament and no literary quality
whatever. are hard put TO it to make a success
of a story that entertaining if not very plausi-
BILE in motive and fairly well constructed. This
novel deals with the adventures of an American
heiress on her travels abroad At an English inn
she falls in with a smooth spoken scoundrel who
looks in her Aunt Mary's opinion, like duke,
and from whom she purchases on the spot an old
fashioned and fractions automobile, believing,
In her ignorance that il is of the latest and best
make OF course this is just the kind of idiocy
in which clever American girls indulge when
they are abroad-in the pages of the English
novelist of the present day. However. the alb
sl1rdty of the incident can be overlooked, for a
little later on in the tale, when the automobile
has conclusively proved its inadequacy, the hero
inc finds herself touring happily in one that is
really what an automobile should be, and her
exneriences are dverting Her chauffeur is an
English gentleman who has fallen in love with
her from a distance, and disguises himself as a
servant in order to be in her company, and.
when the time comes, press his fortunes with her.
OF course droI complications arise, and in these
find their Their humOr is