The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-01-30
THE NEW PUBLICATIONS.
SOME OF THE LATEST BOOKS
 OF THE SEASON.

'sThe PIt'' by ahe Late Frank Norris
 One of the Readable Books of the
 Year--Neyy Books by Little, Brawn S
 Co.-OSher Hook Notes.
 One of the most important works of fiction is "The Pitt the new and much discussed novel by that gifted and la mented young American author, Frank Morris. which is the second of the se- ries of these stories he had planned un- der the general title, Epic of the Wheat" This novel he had completed just before his death. and it is now is sued in handsome style by Doubleday. Page & Co.,, New York. ''The Octo- pus,' the first of the trilogy, and "The Pit" are happily complete in themselves independent of each other, and they are notable novels, notable in conception and execution, and are monuments of his talent and literary ability, as says the New York Mail and Express: "The Epic of the Wheat pervaded the pages of The Octopus yet its dominating
 
 who, supreme triumph of the authors art, was as powerful, as masterful man when the reader was brought face to face with him as he had been depict ed in the episodes in which, unseen, he had shaped events. Even so this man his original was easily recognized confessed that he had not built the rail- road; ''the railroad builds itself" in re- sponse to the cry of producer and con- sumer, separated by the, breadth of a continent. This recognition of forces greater than man, in the very things he himself has created, recurs in The Pit Its speculator exclaims, T corner the wheat! Great heavens, it is the wheat that has cornered mel! and it is nature herself who, with a new crop, breaks the corner, and sends the foodstuff to Europe, starving because of the inter- ference with the law of demand and supply.
 "'The Pitt it is sufficiently we'll know nby now, tells the story of cor ner in wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade. It deals with picturesque tech nicality with all the ins and outs of the financial maneuvers employed in the creating of such a ccsler, the compacts and treacheries, the triumphs and misc ries that follow it's development it gathers the strands that run to Liver pool and Paris, to Odessa and Karachi, to the Argentine-to the wheat centers of the world, leading them all into the offices of the speculator's brokers in La Sale street. The corner is made; then the master loses his head, attempting to carry his deal into 8 second season, only to be overwhelmed by the flood of the new grain, as, in another sense, was the usurer in The Octopus"
 The Pit is less of an epic than The Octopus and much more of nov- el of present-day American life in one of its salient phases-the influence of the spirit of specuation upon our homes and the happiness of our women Its flaws are few, and not worth speaking of; it's merits many. It carries, the reader along to the end, and. leaves him, with much food for thought. It sus- tains the reputation it's author had earned with his earlier books: it rea- lizes the expectations aroused by The Octopus It comes at propitious mo- ment, when the deluge of the popular novel; has receded, to leave clear course for really good work. The Oc- topus' was carried along by the flood without much of the attention it should have aroused. Perhaps The Pit will bring it new readers; it certainly should do so.
 In closing the book, one cannot help voicing anew the regret that writer of such rich promise, of such sound achievement. was taken from us at the very beginning of his career"
 The Chicago News says of "The Pit'' in an extended editorial notice: Be fore Frank Norris, it's author, became a Californian he was a Chicagoan, having been born in this city and having spent his early boyhood here. In this his last book, which received the final touches from his hand just before his fatal ill., ness seized him. he has shown in re- markable way not only his high ability as a novelist, but his appreciation of Chicago life. He has given us a fine, true book, which presents careful stud- ies of certain most attractive charac- ters and which tells an absorbing story, with an incidental lesson or two that are we'll worth having, To the Chica- goan who can point out the very house that Laura Dearborn owned and in which she held hands, with Landry Court, as we'll as the great mansion overlooking Lincoln park, which she ruled as the wife of Curtis Jadwin, the people in the novel are satisfying and convincing. Jadwin's gigantic specula- tions move forward from day to day in manner to make you recognize the year and the day of the year on which he bought or sold wheat by the million bushels. Certainly it is Chicago life, and a very vital kind of Chicago life, that Norris has depicted with splendid art.''
 Copies of ''The Pit" for sale by the E. P. Judd company and the Pease- Lewis company. Price $1.50.
 No American is more familiar with the political life of Venezuela than Col onel William L. Scruggs, of Atlanta, who was for many years the United States minister to Colombia and Ven- ezuela. Colonel Scruggs' book entitled '"The Colombian and Venezuela Repub- lies" has been g. much sought after