Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-25

1t states vital human problem.
THE UNwRITTEN LAW; Novel. BY
Arthur Henry. author of AN Island
Cabin" &c. New York A. S. Barnes
& Co.
Those who read Mr.. Henry's stories OF
outdoor life. An Island Cabin and THE
House in the Woods had no ground for
expecting him to produce such a strenu-
Gus, intense and disturbing novel as THE
Unwritten Law" Those earlier works
were delightful in their tender quality of
companionship, their worship of the woods
and the sea. They were so free from the
restraint of construction to be little
more than sketches. In his latest work
Mr.. Henry has seemed bent upon packing
in all the construction he could devise.
He has crowded his stage with characters,
and he keeps three or four romances run
ming at once. His main purpose evidently
less to tell a story than to offer a
panoramic view of life in New York, with
its shocking contrasts it's tempta tons, it's
failures, its shams. its hypocrisies. He has
succeeded remarkably in showing metro
politan existence in it's most significant
phases. The defalcation of a Brooklyn
bank president and Sunday school superin
tendent; the evolution of a counterfeiter:
the ruin of young girls; the sufferings of
the socially mighty; the rawness of life
in the Slums-all these elements demand
consideration from the attentive reader.
Poor old Karl Fischer. the engraver, who
loses all his savings through the defalca-
ton of the bank president, is an interest
ing type not so much for his own personal
qualities as for the important part such men
as he play in the drama of everyday life.
Mr.. Henry's evident purpose is to protest
against the shams of social conventions,
and to cry out, does his Mr.. Adams in
the tale. against injustice. The fervor OF
,f,,t, hat off
ness of the novelist.
4 SELF-MADE MANS WIFE; Her Let
tiers to Her Son, Being the Woman's
View of Certain Famous Correspond
ence. By Charles Eustace Merriman,
author of Letters from Son to his
Self-Made Father" Illustrated by F.
T. Richards. New York: G. p Put
nams Sons. Washington: Woodward
& Lothrop.
1t must be confessed that the reading
world is growing just a little weary of
the "self-made" literature. There has been
so much of it and it is so easily manufact-
ured that the rapid succession of self
made" books is getting on the publics
nerves. 1t is undeniable that there is a
certain amount of cleverness in this latest
product. 1t is bright in places. if dull in
others, and some, at least, of its anecdotes
are new. But there is no getting away
is growing too hackneyed to arouse en-
thusiaSm.
THE MYSTERIES OF THE JIMMY
DNORETZ; Russian Historical
Novel BY Charles w. Paff1ow. New
York and Washington: The Neale
Publishing Company.
The wisdom of writing prefaces to novels
has long been questioned. 1t is believed that
the story should stan or fall on It's own
merits. But apart from any artistic consid-
eratOns. predatory note, save other
than a bare explanation of circumstances
attending the construction of the tale, is
likely to lead to distraction. Thus in the
present instance Mr. Paffiow, who is we'll
known resident of W ellington. has pref
aced the story which he has compiled and
translated from unidentified European
sources with what he styles a prologue, in
the course of which he makes certain state
ments far more interesting than the story
itself After quoting Count Muraviev's dec
larattOn that Russia has a civilzng mis-
sion such as no other people in the world"