The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-26
Mr.. Howells's Epistolary Story.


Mr.. Howellss latest story. Letters
Home" Harper 4 Bros.), is in the form
OF letters from New York. This has al
ways been an attractive FORM We re-
member well the spell that held us, when
we were younger, at the sight in the news
paper Of "Our Letter from Boston, 1t
seemed to us as though literature had its
spring and we'll, its dwelling place, its
-happy home,' in newspaper correspond
ence from that centre.
Not all letter writing is what it used TO
be. In hurrying world that art, once 80
deliberate and SO splendid, has come to
be business rather than pastime. 1t is
pleasant to find Mr.. Otis Binning writing
without haste and condensation to Mrs.
Walter Binning in Mr.. Howells's story:
my Dear Margaret: I am afraid it will
not do, and that you will have your brother
in-law back on your hands again. for the
winter, or lose him indefinitely. do not
mean lose him to New York; far from that;
as far as Europe, in fact. for IL were to
take stock the local commercialism In
SANITY penetrates ene's vocabulary OF
nv emotions, suspect that should find
myself evenly balanced between the I'm
pulse to board the next train for Boston
and the impulse to board the next steamer
for Liverpool"
So the story opens. 1t will be seen that
Mr.. Binning had time and that he was
willing to be at pains to make Mrs. Bin
ming wonder what he was driving at. His
letter IL six printed pages long. He speaks
In it of the charming letter-wrting habit
81 the eighteenth century mentions the
weather and the Florentine sky that New
York 90 often has in mid-December; COM
pares Manhattan sunsets with Back bay
e,nsets; touches upon Tammany and Col.
Warins and the Rapid Transit ditchtng;
treats comparatively Of New York and
Boston noises; is thoughtfully realistic.
In short, and gives bountifully OF local
color.
As the letters 60 on, not from the ready
Mr.. Binning alone, but from number OF
people just as competent as he Ia in the
subsidiary habit, story develops; but, OF
course, the reflection OF New York scenery
and life is not a sighted thing. Wallace
Ardith, writing home to Wottoma. in Iowa,
remembers with some pain that he has
been turned down by Certain Person,
but he does not allow the circumstance to
Interfere with the business Of receiving
New York impressions. He says Of this
city: Radiant, peerless divinity, her
splendor dazzles me, her sovereign beeuty
enthrals me, her charm intoxicates, mad
dens me! What is any mortal girl to this
apotheoeis Of Opportunity, this myriad
visaged Chance. this Fortune on million
whees There Il more material In
minute here, LIMO, than there Is in Wot-
toma in a year. don't want to go back
on the dear old place-or to it, as George
Ade said about IndianaI but there ia no
Wottoma when you think OF New York; 1t
wipes itself from the map and vanishes
from tho gazetteer
Then about3his pleasant feeling when he
came out Of tho little French restaurant
filed with six courses FOR 80 cents and
walked up Broadway. BY that time
every ones work u over and the people
are streaming to tho theatres, past the
shining shops on foot, and examining the
trolIeys, the women In furs and diamonds
and the men In crush hats and long over
coats, with Just enough top buttons open
to betray the dress tie and dress shirt.
II have laid In one Of those majestic over
coats already, and have got silk hat,
and would like to show 1t to you in Wot-
toma, where you can't buy silk hat unless
YOU send to Chicago for IT, At the doors
Of the theatres more gorgeous women
and more correct men are getting out Of
hansoms and coupes and automobiles
and trailing in over the pavements be-
tween rows Of respondent darkies in livery;
and life is worth living" In the same
letter, but by daylight, he goes into the
Park and sees the sheep and surprises a
pair OF lovers under the bust of Schiller
whom he proceeds to quote in the passage
about having lived and lovedD, and makes
the acquaintance Of charming old fellow
with side whiskers and drab CATERS, OF
whom you could see that he was his own
ideal OF a gentleman" and who looked
as IL no had been used to being one for
several generations
But it will be seen by so much how Mr.
Howells has not changed, and how he still
retains bis realism and his humor and his
literary charm The book is like him, and
IL needs no other recommendation.
u.~S Snttbaxva Rax iew n