The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-11-05

Mott Wooley, (Herbert Stone & Coz,
IS one of the Castle CEaneycrow" style
of stories and mighty good one of its
kind. There is something doing from
the first chapter when the prince,
travelling incognito. falls in love with
an unknown New York girl who is haV-
ing trouble with an untamed automo-
bile, until the last chapter when ne
marries her and she becomes queen to
his king of Altenburg. Improbable, of
course. but interesting and we'll written
and conceived by good story writer
and what more is wanted?
No one familiar with the novels of
Mr.. William Dean Howells could fail
to recognize the very apparent in
huence of that author in Brand Whit
locks new story The Happy Average.
1t does not need that boyish letter of
the hero. Glenn Marley to his sweet
heart, late in the book. where he mem
tons some of the new books he has
been reading and enthuSes over Tour
genieff and Tolstoi with the HoWells
verdict that the Russians are the
greatest novel writers the world has yet
produced and expresses his admlra-
tion for "A Modern Instance to give
the clue to this young authors alleg-
lance to the dean of American iterati-
The whole book has the stamp of the
Howells influence; it is almost a slav-
fish imitation. Mr.. Howells' tricks of
language and expression. his manner
and his matter, his very phrases are
copied. You know Mr.. Howells' fond
ness for certain rather uncommon uses
of words? How he likes to celebrate
things and 'eXalt" them and realize"
them and sense them? Well, Brand
Whitlock does the same things in the
same way, or as nearly as he is able to
do.
For it must be confessed that although
he has given us a very good imitation
of his literary model, Mr.. Whitlock's
work is not yet up to the standard of
his master. But crude and immature
as 1t often is and in spite of some
rather clumsy touches and occasional
momentary suspicious of unreality, as
If resulting from a sudden fogginesS of
mental vision or a temporary failure
of the spring of inspiration, The Happy
Average is a good story of healthy.
natural interest and far above the I'M
happy average of present-day pop
Clar" fiction. Mr.. Whitiock's style will
require years of polish and improve
ment before it can compare in finish
and charm with that of Mr.. Howells,
and undoubtedly long before that eff
feet has been wrought hewill have learn
ed the folly and futility of wasting the
vital forces of his talent in an imitation
of any author. in place of the develop
ment of his own individuality Now,
perhaps, he is carried away by the
young hero-worshipper's delight in his
limitations of genius but later he will
come into his own and devote himself
TO the perfection of an original style,
better, because his own, than any Dor
in The Happy Average of more than
the mere ability to catch the trick of
another mans literary manner and 1t
gives proof that its author has the
right idea in novel writing, or in any
art ITO draw the thing as he sees it
for the God of things as they are
The Happy Average is an unpreten-
tiOus, Except in the artificial manner
which it's author had adopted in his
Eiavish devotion to the apostle of in
artifciality in fiction) &ory of the
''plotleSS novel, type of Mr.. HOwellS'
school of polite realism. For the great
er part 1t deals with life in a small
Ohio village and even when the scene
shifts to Chicago 1t is from the small
town viewpoint that we see the city
at home. These letters are among the
best things in the book-they are so
delightfully."- and typically sophomore in
their rather Stilted descriptions, their
formal and exaggerated righteousness
and their frank egotisIn. Readers will
enjoy. too, if they like the book at ALL
a characteristics incident in the chap
ter which tells of the hero's return to
MacOchee Ohia, after a years absence
during which he went out into the
world and sought and found his "for-
tune" as a Chicago newspaper man.
ton of journalist" as they persisted
in calling it, on a big city newspaper,
was a very exalted position indeed
Marley appreciated their attitude but
tried not to take advantage of the
brief period of glory which his city
his first visit home by putting on airs
Nevertheless when he went into
Cons drug store with a friend he
could not resist asking for a brand of
cigarettes the kind he smoked in Chi
cago. though he knew Con would not