The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-10-08

calculations at regular ten page intervals
OF mo fol, morbleu and mon Dieu. though
the last has force that no Frerchman
ever put into it, She breaks away from
these very rarely, but with invarible dis
aster, connecting phrases like un mile
didble, le grdnde Dieu, and mon cher petite,
and introducing US to an engineer general
Of the Great Monarch named vaubon. 1t
is in harmony with the accuracy OF the
story, though startling to the reader. that
her artist clothes her early Louis QuatoT1e
characters in late Louis Seize breaches.
A bright and consistent story of frivolous
society life is Emily Posts THE Flight OF
a Moth" Dodd, Mead d Coz. 1t may be
difficult to believe that the fashionable
set is as cosmopolitan and as devoid OF
sense or morals as the author represents,
and her young widow bound to see the
sights has her fling with a vengeance,
but her character is such as may exist
conceivably, and the reader will feel thank
full that she escapes the nasty pitfalls in
the path she has chosen. The story Is
well written and reads easily.
Following stra 1gely old-fashioned models,
the anonymous author OF Helen Alliston'
(John Lane, The Bodley Head) provides
us with rather incoherent tale that follows
stock patterns. She, If she is she, seems
to have condensed some Of the standard
forms, and serves them up gratuitously.
The main story, apart from the love portion,
has to do with a mob Of smart youngsters
who are amusing but, like most smart
children, generally too much in evidence.
The satirical pictures Of vulgar people are
overdone and clumsy. 1t reads like the
work OF a very young person who has had
an overdose OF standard British novels.
Children, amazingly precocious children.
and girls at that are the chief actors in
Miriam Michelsons THE Madigans' CThe
Century Company. AS each Of the stories
contained in the book appeared in maya
zine form it was amusing and original
enough. When they are put together as
a whole, we feel something like a surfeit
of good things and regret that nobody
was at hand to spank the lot Of Madigans,
girls though they be. and put them to bed
80 as to give the reader a rest. We have
no doubt the book will be popular, for the
appetite OF youth is marvellous, and no
doubt some one will ask for more OF Sissy.
The humorous dialect monologues that
Miss Anne Warner has been publishing
under the guise of stories in the Century
Magazine have been collected under the
title Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs.
Lathrop" little, Brown 4 Coz. One or two
are really funny; in most however, accurate
though the loquacity and the portrayal OF
character may be, the tone is of irreverence
and scoffing at things that are thoroughly
respectable, and one story certainly is in
outrageously bad taste. Women have
way OF rushing in where men hesitate to
tread.
Admirers of Mr.. Jerome X. Jerome's
mild humor will be rather disappointed
In his Tommy d Co." Oodd, Mead & Coz.
He starts with an ingenious idea, and the
glimpse of newspaper life that he promises
leads the reader on. But Mr.. Jerome seems
to tire OF his subject and his heroine very
soon. The stories he strings together have
less and less point as he goes on, and his
tragical wind-up is not only uncalled for,
but is painfully commonplace.
In "The Princess Thora" little, Brown
d CO.. Mr.. Harris Burland in a story Of
adventure leads us past the North Polar
ice into a land inhabited by the descend,
ants OF Adventures who were driven there
centuries before. These persons have re-
tanned the manners OF the bygone times
and are introduced to modern ideas by the
newcomers. Some time ago we reviewed
story in which tho same idea was de-
veloped in much the same way, only that
the unknown land containing the children
OF lost voyagers was placed underground
in the bowels OF the earth.