New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-07-29

Pape, 12mo, PIP Vii. 424 Houghton. Mfiin & Co
HECLA sANDwITH.. By Edward Ellington Val
entne 12mo, PIP 49, The Bobbs-Merrin Com
THE MORTGAGE ON THE BRAIN Being the
Confessions OF the late Ethelbert Croft. NJ D.
Charles Raymond Macauley. l2mo, PIP 29j.
Doubleday Page Go.
BROTHERS. BY Horace A. yachegI. With four
Dodd Mead & Go,
Mrs. Austins "Isidro" is a romance of the
good old fashioned sort, in which love and ad-
venture have everything their own way and
questions of character do not count To be
sure it is important that the hero should be Il
young. light-hearted man, but beyond that the
authors powers Of observation are not put TO
any very severe test. All that she has to do is
to carry Isidro over the trail in the California
Of the 30s, and TO have him fall in, at the
psychological moments, with divers individuals
necessary TO the working out of picturesque
plot. There is shepherd who kills anothcc
shepherd under just the circumstances to make
it possible for Isidro TO he accused of the muir
der. There is "A girl who crosses his path in
just the disguise necessary to confuse matters
when the confusing of them is desirable And
all the time, in the background, there is Il
naughty official moving heaven and earth to
find a lost daughter. We have indicated suffi-
GENTLY the elements out of which Mrs. Austin
has constructed her story, but must speak
further Of her way Of telling what she has to
tell It is a pleasant way, unpretentious and
fluent. The tale moves at a sprightly gait
through old Californian scenes, which the
thor paints with an affectionate hand. She may
not go beneath the surface with her men and
women but she knows her landscape well and
manages to make 1t contribute a charming at
mosphere to her pages.
''Hecla Sandwich" is story of Quaker life in
Central Pennsylvania in the five years just pre-
ceding the Civil War. stern days in the his
tory of our iron manufacture" when the old
open hearth charcoal-ron furnaces We're first
beginning to feel the effect of changed condi-
tions. Set into this background is the heroine
of the novel. the motherless daughter Of &
Quaker ironmaster of liberal views but strong
prejudices, who had married "out of meeting"
Between the conflicting influences of her hered-
fly and her environment Hecla has a hard time
of it when she returns to her home from a Mo
ravian boarding school, and experiences much
difficulty in finding herself. she is urged
this way, now that, by the opposing impulses
of love and duty OF a strong but inconsistent
character. she is interesting. if sometimes
irritating, personality. she lives in society of
strongly individualized types SO definitely out
lined and deliberately filled in that Mr.. Valen-
tine novel has something the erect OF q mosaic
of character studies. The story itself runs
rather suggishly in consequence. yet not with
out certain power that enlsts the readers at
tention to the end
The problem of personality is the subject of
THE Mortgage the Brain in which Mr.
Vincent Harper sets forth his views if they are
his views. with great elaboration of scientific
generalization and skilful evasion of scientific
details Briefly. the thesis which the story
is built is that human character is the result
of the physical action of the brain processes on
that portion of the essential life spirit which
animates each individual Alter temporarily or
permanently the action of the brain processes
and you obtain entirely different personality
I'm the same body-a theory which effectually
does away with the idea of moral responsibility
except III so far as the individual is able to con-
troll the physical characteristics OF his brain
cells The heroine is a charming woman. whose
brain cells subject TO such sudden and un-
explained changes that she is practically en-
dowed with a triple personality, a condition as
embarrassing 10 herself IT Is annoying to her
husband. The hero is physician. who sub
mits himself 10 the hands of band of scientific
experts TO prove 10 the lady. who is his patient
that her case is susceptible of surgical treat
ment and cure. While he Is somebody else
however, he meets the heroine in one OF her
incarnations many complications ensue. and he
eventually winds UP in an insane asylum. where.