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

Hon Mrs. Walter II. ID. Forbes. l-mo' PIP -'''
ID. Appleton q Co.
A GENTLEMAN OF THE SOUTH. by, william william
CARROT Brown. 12mo. pp. u Inc Ad'ii'''"''
Company.
REJECTED OF MEN. BY Howard Pyle Emo
pp. 269. Harper q Bros
Ny FRIEND. ANNABEI, LEE. BY Mary Mac
Lane. limo. PIP 262 Herbert 3 Stone & ~
From the subtitle of Mrs. Forbes's ne"
novel Unofficial one might perhaps iiiei
that she had written the book with one eye
on the stage. Certainly it's incidents make toll
cradle stage stun. We are introduced IN ,he
Prologue to a beautiful girl sojourning with her
co,bar in \ foreign land. and watching there by
his deathbed with no friend near save de-
signing Frenchman who does not know WhaI
friendship means In actual life a loving parent
leaving his daughter behind him. motheriesS
and forlorn. does not hand her over 10 d casual
stranger adjurng her TO make the latter happS'
Rut far more fantastic things occur upon the
stage every night, and Mrs Forbes seems "eii
within the conventions in launching her hlHo-
co,t heroine upon a career which the rascally
Frenchman aforesaid causes to take all manner
Of dubious windings. Enter, then. the Duchess
a woman of infinite resource, who has Ior years
,ogloctad her rodchiId the Alice whom Nj. Du-
hose has married and taken into his tolls; and
in her hands things proceed to develop in new
yyavs Her Grace is active in proportion 10 her
past inertia, of which she is thorouehIE
ashamed. and, like all the providential lntruderS
of stage life, she comes armed not only win
goodwill but with weapons well calculated 10
make even the darkest villain quail Alice Is IN
despair Her gambler husband has driven her
TO bay The man she really loves comes TO her
rascua only in time to he placed in entirely
vretcbed posi;ion. But the Duchess hoVers IN
the BACKGROUND and event follows event with
ffp which
are effective on the printed page and which we
believe would gain applause across the foot
lights 'UroficiaI' is amusing.
"a Gentleman OF the South" sweIls the long
fist of romantic narratives which have been
poured forth in illustration of the special brand
Of chivalry supposedly characteristic of those OF
our ancestors who We're born and bred the
other side Of Mason and Dixon's line. From
certain point of view this kind of fiction is
legitimate enough. and might even seem de-
serving of praise. Your novel reader. it may be
assumed can never be the worse for contem-
rlation of 4 man whose sense of honor is acute,
no matter what the state of his sense or humor
may be. Yet we confess that we never encoun-
ter a sainted prig like the Henry Selden of Mr..
Browns story without recalling feverishly
eager desire of Charles Lambs on famous
occasion We want to feel the precious crea-
ture's bumps: we long to disturb his Roman
dignity with a touch of Mr.. Barlow. even
though il 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 as these almost unthnkable. after all.
one does not affx fireworks TO a plaster image.
one let's Master Henry Selden pass. 1t would
be useless to attempt to disturb his appalling
sublimity his more than soulful demeanor The
heroine loves to call him "Brubber." Such
ordinarily be expected to fracture the COM
placency OF the most self-controlled Brahmin-
"Brubber" Selden never turns hair, The story
n story is not bad. The idea of two proud
men separated by tragedy and driven by
their feud to the enactment of another was
worth working out But Mr.. Brown, like
many of his predecessors has thought it neces-
sary to overlap what elements OF mere human
nature he could compass with the specious and
sicky coloring of what he is pleased to consider
a particular phase in our social history, and so
he enfeebles what ought to have proved an
interesting little novel
Why has Mr.. Howard Pyle who can make
such clever pictures for the magazines wasted
his time in the composition of Rejected of
Men? In this book he presumes to retel the
story Of the coming OF Our Lord, and he has
had the high-erected notion that he could best
retell it with characters and in terms "appro-
Triate' to time He has done new