The San Francisco call., 1904-03-06
II Powerful NoOeI
of Paris Commune

IN always interesting: novels of
Paris in the thunder fit of revolu-
tion are ever enthralling. So it is that
a story far less better written than d.
William Barry's The Dayspringv
would be accepted with eagerness. DIR.
Barry's novel deals with the tinsel
days of Napoleon the Little" and the
sudden blackness and madness of the
Commune Robert Chambers book.
Ashes of Empire" which had such a
wide vogue a few years ago. turned the
rich opportunities of Paris last revolu-
ton TO account in no more telling a
manner than does this. latest romance
Of those troublous times. DR.. Barry's
story is thrilling enough TO satisfy the
tastes Of any devotee of Erckmann-
Chatrain.
The plot opens with the hasty flight
from England to France of Henry
Guiron, an Irish lad who has murdered
his hardhearted landlord and seeks to
escape the consequences of his crime
in the purlieus OF Paris. Opportunely
befriended by a young Frenshman for
whom he had once done a service
young Guiron-an alias, of course
finds himself among friends when once
in Paris and the chapter of his ad-
ventures begins. Cast into kindly
places by being made the secretary of
an Englishman who is, rather strange
ly, deeply concerned in French politics.
the refugee has an opportunity to
profit by his native Celtic wit and ready
address to the extent of becoming an
accepted member of a very select lit
tie salon, over which there presides
Madame Kingswood. This throws his
fate under the same favoring star as
that of la Comtesse de Montalis,
beautiful and romantic young widow
whose time is divided between deck
ing her late husbands grave with ILL
les and consulting a necromancer and
modern Casanova, Hiram Temple by
name.
Against the sinister and all-pervad-
ing power Of this charlatan spirit con-
Juror the hero finds himself set. Tenn
pie has succeeded in gaining such an
ascendency over the credulouS ladies
of Nine Kingwood's salon, especially
the romantic widow, that Guiron finds
a combination of circumstances, die
tated and arranged by the necroman-
cer forcing him into a dishonorable
position In despair he rushes out
from all this gay and rose-colored life
TO lose himself in the Sums of the
great city in pursuit of new-found
zeal for the cause of the Socialists 1t
is in the unfolding of the hero's wild
enthusiasm for the propaganda of rev.
olution, his association with the hare
Drained fanatics and journalists of the
red flag, his garret conspiracies and
secret meetings with the "miserables"
that the author does his best work
The terrible, seething pot of sedition
and anarchy which boiled under the
fragile throne of Louis Napoleon, the
mutterings of a distant holocaust to
throne and state, the blind fury of the
Reds lamenting everything on to hoped
for destruction-these elements of grim
portent introduced into the story give
it a quickening thrill.
With the general crash of everything
in the horror of the Commune the
story draws to a close. Vindicated of
the stain of dishonor falsely imputed
to him, triumphant over Temple, his
enemy, and heroically outlined by the
fires Of the Tuileries before the eyes OF
his lady, Guiron wins the heart of the
fair and romantic Comtesse and the
cooling ashes of Paris are sifted upon
the last page of the story.
Admirable in the main as Dr. Barry's
story is, it admits Of criticism on two
points. His introduction of the ele-
ment of the occult through the spirit
medium, Hiram Temple, weakens the
plot by just the measure that it fails
to win the credulity of the reader. Tha
occult should either be the absorbing
feature Of story-so persistent as ef-
fectually to put the reader under the