The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-08-02
. EoPLE OF r-s-S WHIRLPOOL. "
by the author Of The Garden

by the author Of The Garden
of a Commuters Wife is just
the sort of book which will find general
favor for summer reading-gay. grace
full. poetic. and full Of peculiarly fem
mime humor It is about the kind Of
book which might be written by the
brightest woman of ones personal &C
quaintance, about her own dinner
table friends and enemies, if a word
so harsh can be used about the people
at whom the author of this book pokes
gentle fun. Most of these objects of
mirth belong TO q summer colony
known to the New Jersey town which
they infest as The Bluff people" and
coming from certain circles Of New
York society in which money is more
abundant than good sense. The curious
title of the book is explained in a let
ter from Martin Cortright, adopted I'M
Gle Of the Barbara Of the book. He
says:
Everything, my dear Barbara, has a
precedent in history, or the basis of it,
II is we'll known that the Indian tribes
have taken their distinctive names chief
ly from geographical features. and these
often in turn control the pace Of the
people. The name for the island. since
called New Amsterdam and York. was
Mon-ah-tan-uk, a phrase descriptive of
the rushing waters of He'll Gate. that
separated them from their Long Island
neighbors. the inhabitants themselves
being called by these neighbors Mon-ah-
tans. anglice Manhattans. literally Peo-
pie of the Whirlpool. a title which. even
though the termagant humor OF the
waters be abGted. it beseeEs to me as
aptly fits them at this day
Now York is thereafter referred 10
as the whirlpool, and labeled dan
gcrous." so far as the distinctive fea-
lures CT its life are concerned; and yet
Barbara and ner husband confess them
selves fascinated By some OF the outer
eddies CT this pool, and rarely has a
better picture of New York been given
than Will be found il few chapters of
this book. in which "a country girl
and trauspianted Englishman show old
bred-in-t the bone New Workers the won,
Gers OF their own city" Perhaps IT is
the outsider who most keenly feels the
charm of these aspects of New York; at
any rate. there are many such who will
thrill with Barbara at the sight Of the
Battery lights, laugh with her at a
Fourteenth Street melodrama. and share
her sense Of the charm of a special SER
vice at midday in Trinity. In fact,
these few chapters make the book one
Of the rare New York classics in our
fiction. They are so true. so sympa-
thetic. and so vivid that they Will at
once find their way 10 the heart Of every
lover OF the great City of the Whirlpool.
But the colony at the Bluffs could
never see life through Barbara's rosy
spectacles, and they represent exotic
Americanism which deserves ali the fun
that is made of IL by disrespectful Chi
cago journals, observing country folk
who have not lost their sense Of humOr,
and such keep-witted and sensible wO-
men as Barbara. who can WELD trenchanr
pens 10 show its absurdities. II is quite
time that such book as this should be
written for circulation in those suburban
places where quiet country folk are be-
coming bewildered with the MULTIPLICITY
of standards offered or rather forced
upon them. When one reads in Hints
on Dress" in papers intended for circu-
Iation in farming regions and among
$40 week clerks, that all orgeRdie
gowns this year must be lined with silk.
and finds in the same paper information
for the people who keep but two ser
wants" one can but see that the imagi
nation OF the woman who never had a
silk-iined gown in her life. and never
went any further in the direction of
keeping a servant than hiring a washer
woman by the day-the mind OF such Z,
woman must often be sorely troubled
over the question whether she Is re
spectacle or not. II she is sensible, -
course, she keeps her own practical
standard of living and mobiles IL as suits
her means and convenience. without any
worry OF mind; but there are women
who are bothered by a feeling that they
are not in the fashion and Therefore
hardly respectable, II they fail 10 con-
form, outwardly at least, to the conven-
lions of far richer neighbors. To such
women The laughing wholesomeness of
Barbara's journal may come as tonic
and relief. II is not necessary 10 insist
that every American woman shall do her
own houseworl- in order TO recognize
the fact that woman may be thorough
~ a lady. and yet. from necessity OF