The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-12
AMONG The BOOKS
Recent Remarks on Cyrus
Townsend Brady.
Two Novels Bearing His Name
Issued simultaneously.
10Th ARE READABLE.
Are Also Stirring and Tend
Toward Strenuous.
Items Which VIII Interest
Book Lovers.

The New York Herald book reviewer
has the following to say of the recent
efforts of Cyrus Townsend Brady, who
was formerly the Episcopal archdeacon
in Topeka:
The total output from Mr.. Cyrus
Townsend Brady during the last week
was only two novels-'"The Corner in
Coffee" &C. w. Dillingham; company
and "A Little Traitor to the South
(The Macmillan company.
Mr.. Brady is unfortunately limited
by physical disabilities. He is not a
Cerberus; therefore he has not three
heads. He is not Briareus; therefore
he has not a hundred hands. Mathe-
matically speaking, he has only one
hand and half head to devote to each
of two simultaneous novels. And, TAX
ing these facts into consideration, the
result is remarkably good.
Indeed, one cannot help wondering
what Mr.. Brady might do were he less
fecund. In the preface to 1.-THE Corner
in Coffee" he tells US that he has
plots for long novels to burn" and
he faeetfously adds: Perhaps most OF
way"
A true word spoken In jest!
Ii MIR. Brady were to burn 70 pei
cent of these plots and concentrate his
abilities on the remaining 20 there is nc
telling what he might not achieve. He
came very near producing a master
piece OF its sort in "A Doctor of Phil
osophy." He might (who knowS?) pro-
duce an actual, real masterpiece if he
cultivated that capacity for taking in
finite pains which in Carlyles eyes was
the secret of genius.
Both of these books are amusing and
readable. Both are full of stirring in
cident. Both show a liking for the ro-
bust masculine and spectacular vir-
tues which. illuminate the strenuous
there are ethical difficulties which are
not bridged by the authors ingenious
efforts at explanation and condona-
| ton.
In "a Little Traitor to the South" the
question is only technical one 1t Is
unlikely that a military sense of duty
would have allowed General Beaure-
gard to condone so readily and so gOoC
naturally the treachery of which Miss
Fanny Glen was guilty. Martial law
is martial law. While a consideration
of the excellent motives that led tt
her stark breach of faith might have
mitigated her offence, it could not pal
! late it.
The ethical difficulties in the other
novel involve every principle of COM
mercial honor. That honorable men
do create corners in the necessaries
| of life is fact, but a deplorable one
| But there is a hero who, after engl-
neering corner in coffee and finding
success just within his grasp, DELHI
erately and traitorously forsakes the
| bull side of the market for the sake o.
the ten millions which the girl he loves
has been tricked into imperilling on the
bear side. He ruins himself 20 save
her, it is true. So far it would seen
that his motives were of the noblest sort
He also ruins some scOundrelS VINO hat
underhandedly Joined the bulls agains
his express prohibition. So far, no ethi
cal question is raised. But, directly OF
Indirectly, his action must likewise have
proved ruinous to number OF lnnocen
persons whose interests were co-ofol
nate with his own.
Nor does it better matters when M
heroine seeks to make reparation fol
the evil that has been done by re1ectlns
| the superfiuous millions she has made
through the failure of the corner.
To her brother, who had misused hel
original capital and brought her to ths
verge of ruin, she insists that all tins
profits of the deal must be donated L
an orphan asylum
Its blood money and shame money,
she cries "You have ruined hundred;
\ of people by your operations L don
| know any way to make restitution
know it's impossible to give 1t back Il
your victims"
ave. but more directly they were th'
victims of her lover.)
''I know it's impossible to give L
back to your victims, but no dollar O
it shall you or any of US enjoy.
must and shall go to charity. That's
ALL
Whereupon her lover rapturously de
clares that she is the finest woman II
the world.
Which, perhaps. she was. But i
would be hard to prove that he wa!
| the finest man in the world.