Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-11-09
NEW BOOKS.


Eugene Banks. John Dorm, Promoter
is the suggestive title of the latest Chi
cago novel. In general, authors who
write of Chicago mention localities with
sort of embarrassment, as if they
were ashamed of having too intimate
an acquaintance with the city. Charles
Eugene Banks, the author of John
Dorm, Promoter" is evidently to the
Imanor born and proud of it. The novel
treats of Chicago scenes and Chicago
people. but there is no hesitancy in the
authors touch of the locality. He
treats Chicago as place familiar to
everybody. and is SO cheerfully familiar
with it himself that the reader forgets
To think of the city otherwise than as
Il well established amphitheater in
which the drama Mr. Banks has created
goes on.
Another pleasing feature of this book
is the unbiased judgment of the author
concerning the hopes and ambitions of
the industrial giants of this day. Mr..
Banks has evidently known men and
women for what they are worth, and
without prejudice. His promoter is
neither Il bull-necked worshiper of
money, nor an ignorant struggler after
social position. He has his ambitions,
his ideals, his loves and his hatreds
He is human, as Il man must be who
has continued and final success in any
CndeavOr. John Dorm is a man to be
liked, whether he succeeds or not-a
man with good red blood in his veins,
a big brain. and all governed by lofty
and appreciative soul.
John Dorm does not have his own
way in the book any more than he
would in real life cit is possible the
author has given us a real Chicagoan
transplanted from one industry to an
other). There are a dozen or more
characters that struggle with John Dorm
for first place in the book. Helen Chad
bourne. the heroine. is a beautiful de
velOpment of the modern woman. in
business from necessity, but not of ii,
sweet, gentle. sensitive. and yet strong
as Il man when ii comes to the point of
facing great difficulties in the business
wOrld-weail only in true womanliness.
The love story of John Dorm is so en-
twined with his ambition that il would
be impossible to separate them with
out destroying both; and Helen Chad
bourne is worthy of the devotion OF
such man.
In word. John Dorm, Promoter" is
an easy swing into the near future.
when it is not hard to believe the great
industrial corporations Of the world will
have at heart an ethical purpose. Mr..
Banks has shown the difficulties in the
way of such promotion; but he has
shown. too, that sentiment is not in
compatible with business: in fact. the
two go better together than apart.
There is a wide vision behind the
writing of John Dorm, Promoter" One
feels. without being told. that the au-
thor has had not only America, but all
humanity. in mind. The three races,
white. red and black, are represented in
their proper relations. The old north
and the old south are joined in the
heroine. and the new America is born.
The poetry underlying the present de
velopment of the country crops up in
sufficient quantities to attract other
workers into the fields of Indian lore
Ga field with which Mr.. Banks is al
ready familiar. as shown by his heauti-
full Indian legendary novel, a Child of
the SUM-.
But John Dorm, Promoter" viii be-
set down, after all. as a Chicago novel.
II has many of the virtues and some
Of the faults of that pushing. young
giant of commerce. 1t dares To take
chances in order to be genuine. Ill
challenges many of the pTecOnceived
ideas of the life Mr.. Banks treats of
with such Sociable familiarity He evil
IDENTIFY writes of what he knows. He
tells his own story, irrespective Of 9th
ers. He has written a novel that will
he widely read, and some optimistic
readers will declare Mr.. Banks Il proph-
ct who has foretold in his book the
coming of a better America. The bOOl;
is illustrated by 1G full page color plates
by August Abelmann and is printed
from large. clear type (Monarch Book
company, Chicago, $3.50.