New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-19

FATA MORGASA- \ Romance OF Af' WI, Ttghe a.
Iustrations by the author Emo PIP. 4S6 The
OFF THE HIGHWAY. BY Alice Prescott Smith
12mo. PIP. 29s. Houghton, Mifiiin & Co
THE ~ TFi ad BY MaF 6om hss Luther m0
Hesketh Prich@Td With twelve illustrations
PRia e', 3 B. Lippn %Sa 556l0 ny '''
FokEHcKN BY F aa 9R yb6a Nth T.
Be1ab M n color by frank Sna
J. B. Lppincott Company
a new book by MT Jacobs is always a boon
"Dfalstone Lane is one of those spontaneously
funny stories which only born humorist could
write. 1t is funny in substance and Il is funny
in style. The author takes US into one of those
little English villages which he knows so well
how to describe and there he makes US
quainted with parcel of simple folk whose
words and actions. serious enough TO them
selves, are colored throughout by the demurest
dTollery. Mr.. Jacobs never forces his effects,
being born humorst; he is far too wise for
that The idea that a group of grown men
should be lured into the widest kind of a wild
goose chase for buried treasure is not, after ALL
utterly preposterous. Grown men have been
known TO indulge in enterprises quite foolish
The starting point in this book has. therefore,
nothing Inherently absurd about it. But Mr.
Jacobs would know how to eXtort absurdity
from q pie OF pig IRON, ana with sucn a lneTle
as that which is provided by the search upon
which certain jewellers in Gladstone Lane
bark. he is provided with a rich store of in
SEPARATION. He entangles his characters in the
most Astounding predicaments. He keeps them
at cross purposes with one another until It
seems impossible that he should ever be able to
straighten out their affairs for them. But he
is as ingenious he is funny. and the climax
to his farce is. in truth, nothing less than
terly. ii is so unexpected, SO natural and so
uproariously comic. Any reader wanting to be
cheered up should send Immediately for copy
Of Gladstone Lane"
The life of the art student IN Paris has been
made the subject OF innumerable stories by
American and English writers. 1t is novelty
10 come upon book written around that life
by a Frenchmau well acquainted with point
OF view and using our language. NJ. Castaigne's
"Fata Morgana" is odd romance, blend OF
Latin Quarter observation with Zenda inven-
ton. His hero is a young American painter.
and of the two heroines is a French
circus performer, the other a Chicago heiress
The people these three come 10 know include
the familiar types of Partisan studios at one end
Of the scale and the Duke Of Morgania at the
other At one moment we are following the
movement OF Bohemian life in the French CAPT.
tai with its gay comradeship its hard work
and its slangy wit. In the next we are reflect
ing, with some bewilderment, upon the dongs
Of the Duke aforesaid who wants to marry the
American heiress and whose people at home pre-
serve a superstitious veneration for figure in
their annals as Enthusiastically romantic as Miss
Ethel Rowrer IS modern The hero is more or
less in love with the object of the Dukes in
terested alteration. HeIia. the circus performer
is very much in love with the hero. and. de-
spite herself, gets mixed up in the affairs OF the
Duke Things are, indeed, considerably mixed
up in this tale. But the glamour remains. NJ.
Castaigne my be q little weak where the con-
struction OF i plot is concerned. but he draws
type with cleverness. and he gives Us some en-
pertaining glimpses of Bohemia The narrative
is vivid and readable.
..Of the Highway is a San Franciscan story,
in which men and women fall in love with one
another after the good old fashion. but have to
reckon with incidents new enough to lend
fresh interest TO the book in which they appear.
One scene which Mrs. Smith has devised pos
sesses originality with a vengeance. Drake Will
mot and his Agatha together on hillside
at night when they warned to jump out OF
the way Of something that threatens disaster.
The rest must be told in the authors own words:
The crisis was upon them. Around the moon
into sight ike some reeling leviathan. sentent and
iawless. Weight and a down grade made it a mad
thing; monslroas and death dealing. The sharp
curve threw it 70 the side Of the roadway but the
back ana with malevolent gurgie it dashed across
But the space Of the casks indecison-it could
not Ice called a second, or any calculable division Of
time-had given Drake opportunity to leap forward
sprang high; a clean. 1.-THE spring. HIS clutchins
hands found the end Of branch. II bent. but IL
gave him ieverase and ciaspns it with 10th hands,
The cask seemed to anticipate his movement and
reared vindictivey in its joltins roll. But though
q appended with all its strength, it was too low.
he dropped safely in the dust Of the road.
He d
s. struck the oak tree? [She was in the oak tree.I
But the oak tree stood untouched. The cask had
veered again. and now wabbled. with chucklng.
Its race run: the fbrous greasewood chained
IL well
The entrance of tragedy upon the scene in the
guise Of bounding barrel is we believe, some
thing new in the annals Of fiction. Fortunately
the author OF ''Oh the Highway does not else
where IN her book come so near to provoking
rnirth when she means 10 be serious. In fact
the weightier issues of the story are very well
handled. and the most interesting parsonage pre-
sented. clergyman with character of his
own. is portrayed with some sympathy.
Mr.. Luther's book, 1.-THE Mastery" purports
20 be a story Of New-York State politics It
contains frequent illusions TO the Fifth Avenue
Hotel. the Hoffman House and the Oriental
Hotel political headquarters. and gives a
description OF horn blowing election night
orgy in Herald Square. The hero has a nomina-
ton for the Governorship thrust upon him by
enemies within his party, an incident recalling
the manner in which ex-senator David B. Hill
was treated at Saratoga in 1894. But with these
few dashes Of local coloring ali pretence of
verisimilitude ends. The author creates a GER
tain realistic atmosphere, into which he punges
the characters he means TO exploit, and then