The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-01-25
RECENT
PUBLICATIONS


The recent death of Frank Norris gives
a peculiar pathos to this. his posthumous
novel-publisned (by Doubleday, Page e.
Coz. six months after his decease- This is
the second OF the "trilogy' which he mad
undertaken the subject matter of which is
one OF the elemental forces Of the world
wheat-our most universal and our Oldest
food
The names OF two Of these books are
..The Octopus" descriptive of the struggle
between the great wheat bonanza farmers
of California and the railways. and 1.-The
Pit" a picture OF the great produce pit of
the Board of Trade Of Chicago, and its
wild and ruinous speculations- II Mr..
Norris had lived to complete ii the name
OF the third would have been ''The Wolf
a story picture OF one of the great bread
famines of the old world.
The idea was borrowed from Zola-one of
the worlds greatest novelists. In his life
time the Frenchman in one book treated of
the agricultural peasantry of France, clos
ing with a magnificent epitaph to the
earth-the common mother of us all: in an
other of mining; in still another Of stock
speculation upon the Bourse of Paris. All
these great epical subjects are treated
from the French standpoint. Strike out
from the last named book half a dozen
pages and Il is as marvellous a study In
stock gambling in Paris as the present book
of Norris is of grain speculation in Chicago.
In the December number of the North
American Review we have an entire article
given up to Frank Norris by the primate
of American literature. William d. How
els. OF late years Mr.. Howells seems am
bilious to furnish the world with a new vo-
cabulary. In the article in question he
uses such ponderous words "continen-
TALLY and epicality.'' If he keeps on in his
manufacture of words we shall each need
a pocket dictionary If we would read the
always suggestive, but often very difficult
and sometimes obscure sentences of our
greatest American novelist And yet these
two words are very applicable to Mr.. Nor
riss two books-''The Octopus and 1.-The
Pft"-of which two the first is the better.
Each of these books puts one in mind Of
such OF Shakspeare's titanic plays as
Lear
The author, Norris, Is treating of one of
the great forces OF the race-bread. While
ne condemns in scathing words the savage
and brutal speculation of the wheat pit,
whereby, as ne affirms, wheat is made cheap
or dear to the world at the apparent will
of the bulls or bears-still, there is another
and an economic SIDE to this same ques-
ton which Norris wholly ignores. 1t is
this same acute manipulation of the great
centrifugal forces of supply and demand
which keeps the price of the worlds sta
pies steady. Year In and year out the bal
ance between the give of the producer
and the take of the consumer oscillates
the least possible. Occasionally some wild
specuIator like the Jadwin of this story
I'VE all recognize at once whom he repre-
sents and what his real name is-attempts
the impossible Of cornering the wheat sup
ply of the world. with the foreseen result
TO any man of sense like his partner Sam
GREETING. of being crushed like a worm be-
tween the upper and the neither millstones
of the grain pit.
The charm OF this book Is the vivid de-
scripiion of that titanic impersonai force
wheat, and its effect upon the reckless spec
ulator-in one case suicide and in the other
Bankruptcy.
Both Jadwin and Cressler are well-to-do,
prosperous. middle-aged men. each resolved
not to dabbie in speculation. Both are
drawn into 1t against their wills. Jadwin,
the hero of the story, is a reputable man of
the Chicago type-a Sunday-school teacher,
Moody convert and successful realizes
tate dealer. He is not a bad man at heart
few men are-but his associates vulgarize
him. Gradually his talk becomes, even to
his wife. insufferably coarse. the lingo of
the street and of the pit. His success en-
ables him to live luxuriously He has a
private art gallery and in it big church
organ He also owns steam yacht. a
team OF fast horses. and what not of the
newly rich order. OF course such a man
must have wife to match. Such a one
offers herself in the person of Laura Dear
born. a handsome Massachusetts, girl, who
starts OF with three lovers, all proposing
marriage and all rejected in three letters
written one after the other one evening
when she was in her nonmarrying mood.
But Jadwin declines to stay rejected. Her
mo" to him means Ito hustle" and he
keeps at 1t persistently that Laura
yields. though all the time she is in love
with Cathell. the artist. All goes we'll after
the marriage until Jadwin becomes alb
sorbed in his wheat corner and neglects
her Then Cathell renews his attention and
with success. An elopement is arranged
between them, but just as Cathell leaves
the great State-street mansion Jadwin, the
husband, fortunately comes ina ruined