New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-09-06

Hon. Mrs. Walter II. ID. Forbes. l-mo' PIP I'D
ID. Appleton q Co.
A GENTLEMAN OF THE SOUTH. By william william
CARROT Brown 12mo. PIP - Inc Mao"ii'i'''
Company.
REJECTED OF MEN. BY Howard Pyle. Emo
DID. 269. Harper & Bros
NY FRIEND. ANNABEL LEE BY MaTy 90 6a'
Lane. limo. PIP 252 Herbert ;. stone q w.
From the subtitle of Mrs. Forbess ne"
novel Unofficial might perhaps l'lei
that she had written the book with one eSe
nm the stage. Certainly its incidents make tol-
.rable stage stun. We are introduced IN the
Prologue to beautiful girl sojourning win ner
Gather in 4 foreign land, and watching there Dy
his aeathbed with no friend near save ue
SIGNING Frenchman who does not know Whit
friendship means In actual life loving parent
leaving his daughter behind him. Holhei'e99
and forlorn does not hand her over 10 d CiSudI
stranger adjuring her TO make the latter h'PPS'
Rut far more fantastic things occur upon 'he
stage every night, and Mrs Forbes seems wei
within the conventions in launching her Hio
,o,t heroine upon a career which the rascally
Frenchman aforesaid causes TO take al Hehii0'
Of dubious windings. Enter. then. the Duchess
% v-or,ap Of infinite resource who has for years
,aeiectes her godchild the Alice whom NJ. Du-
boec has married and taken into his tolls anu
in her hands things proceed to develop IN new
WAYS Her Grace is active in proportion 10 heI
mast inertia, of which she is thorouehig
ashamed and, like all the providential intruders
of stage life, she comes armed not only WIN
goodwill but with weapons well calculated 10
make even the darkest villain quail Alice Is III
daenair Her gambler husband has driven her
70 bay. The man she really loves comes to her
rescue only in time to lie placed in an entirely
v-ratcbed position But the Duchess hovers in
the BACKGROUND and event follows event with
CELEBRITY AID a dramatic point which we know
are effective on the printed page and which we
believe would gain applause across the foot
lights Unofficial" is amusing.
"A Gentleman OF the South" swells the long
fist of romantic narratives which have been
poured forth in Illustration of the special brahd
Of chvalry supposedly characteristic of those Of
our ancestors who were born and bred the
other side Of Mason and Dixons line From
certain point of view this kind Of fiction is
legitimate enough, and might even seem de-
serving of praise. Your novel reader, 1t may be
assumed, can never be the worse for contem-
plation of 4 man whose sense OF honor Is acute
no matter what the state of his sense OF humor
may be- Yet we confess that we never encoun-
ter a sainted prig like the Henry Selden OF MT
Browns story without recalling n feVeTIshly
eager desire OF Charles Lambs on a famous
occasion. We want to feel the precious crea-
lures pumps, We lOiS 10 ulSlulb MS ANO-Ait'ii
dignity with a touch of Mr.. Barow). even
though it may involve calling in the services
of a small boy experienced in tying firecrackers
TO the coat tails of the great. But the author
of "A Gentleman of the South" renders such
reprisals these almost unthinkable, after all
one does not affix fireworks to a plaster image.
one let's Master Henry Selden pass. 1t would
be useless to attempt to disturb his appalling
sublmity his more than soulful demeanor. The
heroine loves to call him "Brubber." Such a
sloppily sentimental term of endearment might
ordinarily be expected TO fracture the COM
placency Of the most self-controlled Brahmin-
"Brubber' Selden never turns hair, The story
as n story is not bad. The idea of two proud
men separated by one tragedy and driven by
their feud to the enactment Of another was
worth working out But Mr.. Brown, like so
many of his predecessors, has thought it neces-
nature he could compass with the specious and
sckly coloring of what he is pleased to consider
a particular phase in social history and SO
he enfeebIes what ought to have proved
interesting little novel
Why has Mr.. Howard Pyle, who make
such clever pictures for the magazines, wasted
his time in the composition of Rejected Of
Men? In this book he presumes to retell the
story Of the coming of Our Lord. and he has
had the high-erected notion that he could best
reten il with characters and in terms 'appro-
rriate" to our own time He has done no new