New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-09-13
FICTION.
Life IN Modern and IN older Days.

day. Page & Co.
THE MODERN OBSTACLE. By Alice Duer Mil
Ter. I2mo. PIP. 273. Charles Scribners sons
THE sPOILs OF EMPIRE, By Francis Newton
Thorpe. Emo pp. Al. Little, Brown * %
THE SAINT OF THE DRAGONS DALE. BY
William Stearns Davis. l6mO. PIP. 129- The
Macmillan Company.
THE. s!DGB OF YORK, IN THE DAYS Us ,- OF
THOMAS, LORD EAIHFAH. ~ E h g Cn
Marshall l2mo. pp. SIS T. L. button q %
MARTY. By John Strange Winter. 12mo PIP $SS
J. Il. Lippincott Company
The author of THE One Woman" has appar-
emily struggled between the desire to write n
story and the desire to write a tract. He makes
his central figure the hero of n romance ana at
the same time seeks to embody IN MN certain
ideas on life religion and love. The result Is
strange book which at moment holds the
attention through its melodramatic power and
ct the next causes the reader to smile with
something very like disdain. Mr.. DiXons d.
vi6ed purpose is largely responsible for this
dubious effect In fiction you cannot mix senti-
meut with sermonizing and accomplish anything
If value But we are not sure that The one
Woman would have been a better book even
if the author had clearer sense of form. Its
situations may now and then be moving, as we
have indicated above. but not even at his best
does Mr. Dixon suggest that he has studied life
ut first hand The details he gives of the diverse
aspects Of a great modern city doubtless seem
70 him to be thrilling with actuality, but they
might have been cued from the report of
pedantic socioogist for all the poisnancy that
they have in these pages. The fervid preacher
with socialistic leanings is not an unknown type;
but we 90 not believe that man like the hero
OF this book ever existed. Neither he nor any
Of the other characters in it ring true. 1t is
only Mr.. Dixon's faculty in the unfolding of a
sensational drama that saves The one Woman"
from being a bore.
The Modern Obstacle" is a tale of modern
New-York set forth with the measured anima-
ton BETTING the scene and the actors-the lat
ter being representatives of the world lying be
tween fashionable society and artistic circles.
and impinging on both The opening pages
promise the light amusement OF well-bred com
edy. but in due a sharper tension is felt.
Pauline Gale. the heroine, is undoubtedly in love
with Michael Rapier. Just Enthusiastically it
as difficult for her to marry man so ilI-prOvided
as he is with resources to make her more than
merely comfortable. They are parted and when
a millionaire arrives upon the scene it seems
the most natural thing in the world that the
heroine should marry him. But Mrs. Miller is
ingenious. and she has not written The Modern
Obstacle" simply to repeat the hackneyed story
Of the woman torn between two loves She leads
Pauline by unexpected paths to one of the odd
est Of situations and. as though this not
enough. brings her to climax utterly unlike
anything which the reader may have been an
ticipating. 1t is clever book
Mr.. Thorpe goes for the substance Of his ro-
nance. The Spells of Empire" to those earlier
years in the sixteenth century which witnessed
the disappearance of the Aztec empire under the
weight Of its own elements OF deterioration and
the pressure Of Spanish force. He pictures Incl
dents and personages Of the Old World and the
New, Montezuma and his sem-savage entour-
age and the Spanish king with his courters and
cccesiastics- The hero is young Spaniard who
goes from perils at home to perils across the
Atlantic. The heroine is Aztec princess.
Their romance is luridly Illuminated from begin
ming to end Mr.. Thorpe dispenses picturesque
Scarcely a page OF his narrative is without its
more less dramatic episode. Though The
Spells Of Empire" wants a lighter touch and
should move at a more exhilarating gait, 1t is
fairly well put together and Is readable.
A very pretty little story is THE Saint Of the
Dragons Dale" Mr.. Davis has entered into
the spirit Of those ancient times in the Thurin-
gian forest which saw the cruelties OF mailed
barOns. the fears of ignorant peasants and the
emotional disturbances of all of men
and women to whom witches and fairies were
veritabie shapes OF dread. and to whom a living
saint was no less potent than a dead one Early
Wa Ta-o in fha