The San Francisco call., 1904-04-10
IL R&~
". R1zRa
THE PROLIFIC

W n the gentlemanly Rogue Rid
N erhood in his voluntary in
struction % Bradley Head
stones pupils. and now. lambses, wot
grows in rivers, lakes an oceans?"
The pupils answered. And now. nay
desrs. If coffee boils in a pot and Cyrus
Townsend Brady writes a story about
coffee. wet is that story" our Mutual
Friend" unfortunately does not record
that with startling unanimity the
..larnbses' replied. "A potbOiler-" Evea
the severely correct Bradley Head
stone could not gainsay this definition
OF The Corner in Coffee"
CYRUS Townsend Brady himself does
not seem to take this story OF his .ovec
seriously lie evidently realized that
with his "A Little Traitor TO the South
appearing from another publishing
house almost simultaneously with the
birth Of his coffee story. there would
be occasion for some invidious remarks
upon the prolific character of his fle-
tion machine Furearmed, therefore.
against the reflections OF his critics, the
lately Reverend Cyrus Townsend takes
his readers into his confidence with
preliminary discourse in which he
confesses that he wrote a part Of this
story TO order as one would ill de-
mand on a wholesale hardware store.
Therefore / boldly announced Ito ths
importunate EDITOR that while l did not
have a story ] would write one for
him. Easier said than done" How true
this Nst word The Corner in Coffee"
witnesseth.
Again lifting the veil from the hal
lowed sanctuary OF the authors study,
Brady advises the reader that some
severe rebuffs from critics of former
story had led him TO decide upon an
innovation IN the line Of characters for
the present one. Some one had asked
the impertinent question, Who cares
anything for the love affairs OF a
young man Of twenty-five and girl
Of eighteen. anyway" This put the
author upon his mettle and he decided
tC show his versatility by picturing
love affair between man at least fifty
and a girl thirty-five. In The Corner
in Coffee" then. the tender passion is
TO blush its rosiest in blossoms well
blown. That last word, and the story
begins.
Elijah Tillottson. the bachelor lover.
is a hybrid cross between 81 Perkins
and Alkali Ike, who has come to New
York with q roll Of South American
money 10 see and be seen of society.
He is the plaything OF the upper ten
on account of his barbarisms of speech
and manner-barbarisms. by the way,
which are strained very near TO the or
binary "Rube" eccentricities of the
vaudeville stage; but these very crudi-
ties commend him to the blase tastes
OF Miss Constance Van Benthuysen
Livingstone, aetat So. the old-maid
heroine whom Brady has resolutely de-
termined TO clothe with a pale violet
halo of romance. At his second formal
call upon the ripe object of his affec-
tions the redoubtable Elijah pops the
question and is allowed to hope for the
best. fine Quixotic spirit in him
prompts him 10 defer coming to his
own until he can prove that he is not
a fortune hunter by raising his modest
one million dollars to ten. To do this
he sets about TO corner the coffee mar
ket.
Soliciting the financial assistance of
a friend from the woolly Brazils. Elijah
succeeds in getting the coffee market
well within his fingers when he discov-
ers that the rascally brother Of his
lady love has plunged all his fortune
and that of his sister into the balance
against the corner. Then follows a re-
markable thing. Not only does Tillott-
son 'igo broke" himself by breaking his
own corner, but that convenient friend
from Brazil, who has, of course, no in
a., Jaa hot 80
helping Elijah win his lady with dol
larz, readily consents to lose every
cent in the crash in order that lady
whom he had never seen might not
suffer. Hardly has the reader had time
TO catch his breath after this remark
able piece Of chauvinism before the
story closes in q sweet calm.
one cannot rid himself of the idea
that in this story the author is not at
all in earnest, and that, in fact, he
wrote IL in delightful dalliance with
experiment. The characters are pain
fully hackneyed; the blase o. NJ. of So
ciety. the cloutish jackdaw in the So
cial swim whose heart is true blue, the
fool Englishman of saving qualities and
the weak young brother. turned embez-
zler-these lay figures have worn even
the melodramatic sock threadbare. The
machinery Of the coffee change, which
Brady has adduced to work up the
climax of the plot. does not move with
the spOntaneity which comes OF a sure
handling. Fact is. Brady explains in
his useful fOrewOrd that he had to Sc
cure the services Of a broker and a
ton. more or less, of literature on the
subject before he could unravel the in
tricacies of bull and bear battles.
Easier said than DONE" saith Brady:
the author who promises to write a
story to order. Well spoken, that
C. W. Dillingham; & Co., New York;
illustrated; price 81 SOD
Brady is far more conscientious in
A Little Traitor TO the South" than
he makes any pretense of being in The
Corner in Coffee" Here is a dainty