The Washington times., 1903-01-25

. ElJ, just completed by FRANK MOTIFS
at the time Of his death, was the sec
ond volume Of a projected trilogy Of
novels dealing with the growth and
consumption of wheat, THE Octopus
being the first. It's scene is laid in
. Chicago, and the action of the story is
made up of the material afforded by
the commercial life Of that city, the
Stock Exchange III particular There
is no question but that this novel con-
tains the best description ever writ
ten Of the Chicago stock market dur
ing an attempt TO corner the wheat
supply, and for that reason. If for no
other. the reading public should count
the book well worth reading.
But there is much more in it than
this. The work Of Norris was all so
strongly individual, and so unique in
the difference of each book from all of
its predecessors, that one can hardly
say that any one novel is his best, but
this at least comes near it. If not so
complete as the McTeague book, which
made his reputation. it IS certainly
deeper and more thoughtful in certain
ways, and we must bear in mind that
it was not intended to be the last word
in the wheat story. 1t gives evidence
Of a maturity and serenity Of mind
which IS higher than the crudeness Of
early efforts. It is less French and
more distinctly American than either
Of its predecessors. Norris may not
have been a great genius, but ne was
a creative genius. and as such his
work possesses a distinction which no
merely brilliant work, however fin
ished it may be, can possess if il lack
this Ife-giving quality.
There is little need TO sketch the plot
in any detail, for the reason that
everybody who has not read it yet win
be reading it before the reviews have
ceased to appear Briefly, it deals
with a Chicago business man of the
Silas Lapham type, his career as a
Spectator in wheat and a leader Of
the bull side Of the market, and, op-
posed TO this. his private life as the
husband Of a somewhat restless and
interpretive Eastern girl. There is
a clever touch in making Laura Dear
born a girl born of a North Carolina
mother and a New England father
and brought up in Western Massa-
chusetts- Thus far the UnfaiIing Nor
ris intuition for the artistic values led
him straight to the point: but with
tc realism, he went wrong in one or
two details. He represents the people
Of her village home as Presbyterians,
when Presbyterianism is 50 little AT
home in New England that you VIII
scarcely find a church of that sect cut
side the larger cities, and further than
this he says that hearing Of her plan
of going on the stage "the Presbyte-
rian minister and a group Of lady dea-
conesses" called on her to remon-
strate- To say nothing Of the tautoI-
ogy in the term lady deacOnesses' -
as If there could be a gentleman dea-
coness-the deaconess is an institution
not Of the Presbyterian but Of the
Methodist ChurCh-and in a village
such as the one represented, no such
committee would ever call upon a girl
not Of their society, belonging 10 the
Episcopal Church, to demonstrate with
her on any subject whatever They
would simply go their way, shocked
wfthal. and leave her to tread the
primrose path Of daIJiance whenever
she liked.
But this is practically the only slip
Of the kind in the book. It may per
haps be accounted for by the fact that
almost all ,atter-day n0veIists think
that a mere book-knowIedge of New
England is all that is necessary to
enable them to describe it's life in de-
tail. As a matter Of fact. book-knowI-
edge Of any section Of our unique
country is not enough for the novelist.
He must know the land and the peo-
pie. else he viii graft their manner
tsms on a character Of his own con-
coction, and the result viii be a weird
and wonderful creature-but not a
real human being.
The love story in the book is ex-
ceedingly pretty, and it shows a true
knowledge of feminine nature which
few writer's Of this or any other day
can surpass- One may almost say
that Laura Dearborn IS the most sue
cessfuI Of Norris's heroines, as she
is the most complex Curtis Jadw!n
is as simple as Laura is involved. and
one Of the cIeverest touches in the de-
lineadon Of his character is that which
makes him q man of infantile kindIi-
ness and goodness Of heart. the kind
of man who, as the common phrase
has it. wouldn't hurt a fly, but who
nevertheless engages in financial
schemes which wreck the life and
happiness of millions Of people. The
key to this IS, as Norris plainly shows.
in the fact that Jadwin's elemental
Imagination can see nothing but the
phenomena Immediately under his
nose. He is blind to his wife's dra-
matte temperament, and the outbreaks
which nearly wreck her happiness and
his own; blind to the possible suffer