The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1903-10-18
soThe Yellow yan," by the Author
of "No. 5 John Street 1t
Deals Mainly with Coun-
try Life in England.
TOM PAGES NEW BOOK
A Touching Story About Crippled Girl,
Written with Much Tenderness ana
Simplicity" The Rose of JOY"
Mary Findlator Builds Book
Upon Quotation from
Emerson--Booli Notes
of More or Less
Interest
THE YELLOW VAN. BY Richard White

ing. Published by the Century COM
pany, of New York. For sale In
Richmond by the Bell Book and Sta
tionery Company. Price N5o
A few years ago, No. John Street. by
Mr.. Whieng was book counted nota-
BILE by thinking people.
THE Yellow Van is the first thing
that Mr.. whiteing has written since the
issuance OF the first book which brought
him into notice at bound
"The Yellow Van" must be judged by
tho standard in literary excellence reach
I'd by its predecessor. That dealt with lile
In the East End of London. and was
strongly realistic.
1.-THE Yellow Van has to do with rural
England mainly, but tho secret OF It's
power lies in it's authors conceptions
of life and his manner of putting MS
conceptions into words.
His RembrandtesQue style of writing
causes the light graceful touches which
appear here and there in his narration
to gather added brightness from a
Swallowed background of suggested
tragedy. Luxurious living is contrastcd
with helpless sordidness; the charms OF
q gay pleasure-seeking existence seems
all the greater, In that 1t touches so
nearly upon what is altogether alien to
peace and happiness
Many types are characterized in "The
yellow Van," and in characterization
Mr.. Whteing shows his chief power. He
is a rcalist pure and simple. To him 1t is
a matter Of indifference as to whether or
not he makes pretty esuts. He writes With
an absorbing earnestness Of purpose anu,
provided he fulfills his main object, all
lesser considerations are brushed aside.
His estimate Of bridge whist playing
among women of high social position IN
England Is given in way that reveals
the Impression such things make upon
the man of thoughtful mind. and Is of
sufficient importance to be reproduced
here. He says in speaking Of bridge
whist party:
1T was a scene of strange contrasts,
the old and the new. The players, with
their charm of age and sex and evening
toilets, sat in q turret chamber with walls
q yard thick, glowing in the electric
light The middle ages had blinked ana
shivered here in the glare of pine torches
stuck in the wall in the fitful warmth
of log fires with the open easement for
their chimney. and In breezes that some
time inflated the tapestry like a balloon.
There was tapestry still, but it was only
part Of decorative scheme. Of which In
numera BILE curios In precious metals anu
trifles of every imaginable description
formed the details.
But the strangest contrast was In
the young women themselves. The stern
game unsexed them, and they took on
the fierce, relentless manner Of all who
are fighting for life.
1.-THE environment is everything. Put
Millions Eve at the pit mouth. 10 which
so many of her daughters have drifted
and sweet attractive grace Will no longer
be her distinguishing charm. Give the
Dorothea of Cervantes tough hand to
play for her bread and butter, or at any
rate for her pins, and she will have
the characteristics of the betting ring
What Mr.. Whiteing has to say about
the bridge whist players when the game
is over is still more interesting. He
moralizes over it in this style:
Gamblers are rarely nice to look at
after an all-right sitting, and young wo-
men are no exception to tho rule. Their
hair becomtts a tangle of shreds of
couture: their eyes are lusterlcss and
trimmed with stains of fatigue: their lips
are dry. Toilets that were studied COM
positions In the carelessness of art. arc
r.pow all astray in the muddle of mere
untidiness.
THE room is even worse than its oc-
cupants Rugs and table covers arc all
awry: soda water bottles litter the floor;
an odor of stale drinks, stumps of cigar
cites, cards crunched under foot make
1t disgusting. Yet the innermost misery
of all is not in these things, but In the
fact that girlhood has. for the first time
in social history, been smlrched with
these revolving associations. Wicked old
women have played for gain in all ages
1t has been reserved for ours to admit
young ones who ought TO be innocent &c
the partnership of such unholy rites"
THE ROSE OF JOY, Written by Mary
Findlater. Published by Mcclure
Phillips & Company. For sale by the
Bell Book and Stationery Company.
Price. $l,5G.
THE Rose of Joy has Il sentence OF
Emerson's for its motif and its title
The sentence says:
Here in the actual-this painful king
dom of time and chance-arc care. cankel
and sorrow; with thought, with the ideal
is immortal hilarty, the Rose of Joy
round 1t all the MUSES. sing"
Miss Findlater Is a fine writer She
pictures the ideal and brings the "rost
OF Joy" so close that one may inhale II!
immortal fragrance, but when one
stretches out hand to grasp 1t the I'm
gers close on empty air.
The rose of JOY" like the rose Of para
disc, Is thornless, hut Miss Emulate
makes II clear 10 see that 1t grows AM
Aourlshes only on soil immortal and II
the green meadows that stretch out be
side the river Of life, And between lie
the river of death,
Literary Notes.
"The Prisoners from the pen OF d.