New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-09-16

rHF GAMBLER. A Novel BY Katherine Cecil
Thurston. illustrated. Emo, pp. 4sa Harper &
THE HUNDRED DAYS BY Max PembeTton
niustTsted. I2mo PIP. vii. SSs D. Appleton
MY FRIEND THE CHAUFFEUR, By c; n and
A. NJ Williamson. Illustrated ny F5 5sSyIjas
Lowenheim- Emo PIP ia Mcclure '''A''1
MRS RADIGAN Her Biography, with th sI.6 OF
MISS reaEl yea Bv ' Nelson Lloyd Emo. PIP VII
Sl4 Charles Scribner's Sons
In order to ind promising starting point LOT
her st,,dy of heredity, the author Of The Man
of the Hour goes remarkably far a1leio- 0lAe
provides her hero with the right father eaSi4S
enough The latter is manufactured OF ploueA'
,n q town out in the Middle West. and he re-
ioices in the thoroughly American name OF 30
siah winslow. But he is hardly calculated TO
Give his son quite the qualities needed for the
making Of Octave Thanet's story, so she brings
In 8 Russian princess TO marry Josiah ana start
the hope Of the house Of Winslow in the "oflu
with the proper moral equipment we 90 Ho'
deny the possibility of the thing. For all we
know there may be thousands or RUSSIAN
urincesses living in the Middle West each haPPE
On the smiles of her Josiah or Silas or Hiram as
tbs case may be. Nevertheless there Is an m
ooaer,ity about the situation unfoded in Tho
Man Of the Hour at which the reader baIks
and Il requires some confidence In the author TOT
b,-, IN nersevere and follow the narrative to its
close fortunately, Octave Thanet justifes ones
confidence, after while
She does this by the good old process OF max
ing her story interesting. as story. JOSIAH d
GOOD man, is practically itself. Olga, bis "lIe'
Is equally good, but q humanitarian OF the most
dictionary character. Their child inher1ts traits
from them both He has his fathers readiness
and courage his mothers idealism. The result
- that he finds life far more difficult than it
t1is Losing
,erents this rnillionaire's son is obliged. by
curious circumstance, to work out his own des-
tiny and that he does after a thoroughly IN
.eresting fashion is Octave Thanets atonelneht
for the artifcia1ity OF that expedient when she
has dragged in in order TO bring an element OF
utopiarisn into her book The second half OF
ssrhs Man of the Hour is much better than the
frat but in spite OF its I'll balanced character
we can commend # as a wholesome bit OF
American fiction
Mrs TTaurston struck twelve. in her way. when
she wrote 1.-The Masquerader." an imposslple
Int incidentally absorbing book In The Gam
bier" she scarcely comes up TO her own STAND
arr. She. too. like Octave Thanet, treats Of an
hereditary instinct. but in this case instead OF d
hero making the best Of a legacy OF virtue we
have 2. heroine making the worst Of a legacy OF
vice. CIodagh Asshlin is the daughter OF an
Irish gentleman, living his estate in the
country, where he saves himself from complete
boredom by giving free play 10 his passion lot
gambling The heroine and her young sister
find themselves penniless when their adored sire
has at last the grace to die. Meanwhile, Clodagh,
at any rate has learned tremendous lesson
and It is not until we have passed the middle or
the book that she suddenly discovers that she
possesses the same evil tendency which has
caused her family so much distress. Perhaps the
delay is TO be ascribed to her having made pros
porous If not particularly happy marriage I'M
mediately on her fathers death. She has been re-
moved from temptation, and everything in her
life has conspred to keep her in the straight and
narrow path. Yet, while admitting that there Is a
certain FEASIBILITY about the way in which Mrs
Thurston postpones her heroine's fall, we must
confess that the expectations reused by the title
Of the book are somewhat disappointed. We
look for the portrait Of a gambler, for a psyche
logical study touched with drama In place Of
this we have a rather commonplace tale of fem
fnine feebleness 1.-The Masquerader' had a
measure Of melodramatic force. The Gambler
is & much weaker and thinner piece Of work.
Every figure In it is unreal. and the plot never
rises above conventional plane
'aThs Hundred Days" a story OF Napoleon's
last stand against embattled Europe, resembles
al CT the romances with which Mr.. Pemberton
has long entertained his public 1t is himstly
suggests that the author has any serious insight
into character. On the other hand, the book
shows facility IN the manipulation of more or
less exciting incident, and 1t keeps the readers
curiosity alive. He cannot help wondering just
what business IN Life is followed by the young
woman who makes her appearance at the outset
In the clothes Of man, and Mr.. Pemberton has
Just the knack In narrative which Is necessary
to carry things along amusingly until the climax
Is reached. "The Hundred Days" is a trife
over which it is profitable to spend perhaps a
hundred minutes-but not minute more,
IT IS popularity understood. believe, that
inch makes enormous difference If It hap
pens to be at the end of mans nose. SINH
, larry, the Indulgence of a fad IN fiction makes
en- enormous difference If 1t happens TO be car
RED. say half a page too far. Mr.. and Mrs
Williamson have carried their Indulgence in the
motor fad as a source of interest in fiction. too
far by precisely three hundred and twenty-four
pages, the number of pages IN my Friend the
Chauffeur" The book is not bad. Perhaps the
reader hitherto unacquaInted with these authors
p; will find considerable pleasure in its string of
adventures, lightly and even airily hit of. But
recolections Of The Lightning Conductor and
I 1.-THE Princess Passes" somehow get between US
and enjoyment OF this third exploitation Of the
automobile. Too much of good thing is more
than enough. We have read MY Friend the
Chauffeur" with the best will In the world, but
we find its flavor little stale. The mystiica-
lions no longer mystify. The unconventional
8 loveuaakiny seems hagrantly conventional. The
authors are still clever but their zest IS gone
They ought to take a long rest or, If they simply
must build novels around questions Of locomo-
ton, they ought to turn their attention to the
al he Orf ba hal