Los Angeles herald., 1906-04-15

money or the trick of living in idle
ness without it. Mrs. Wharton made
what is termed a strong" book; possi-
bly, the strength of it is more in its bad
odor than in it's powerful construction
but that is neither here nor there. Now
comes one Morley Roberts and in 1.-The
Idlers," as one review has it, docs fol
the smart set of London what Mrs
Wharton has done for the American
social class. That is to say, he rakes
over the muck heap of its immortality
and rottenness and emits stencil tc
the extent of some $50 pages. No doubt
Mr.. Roberts meant well-he may be
given the benefit of doubt; perhaps he
conceived that he had a great mora
lesson to teach. He didn't drive II
home if he did. Instead he gives us g
wishy washy bundle of vile and putrid
insipidty. His plot is abortlve, his
characters are taken from unmention-
able houses and his story is not only
indecently smutty, but 1t isn't ever
clever or bright; it is inane, purpose.
less, prosy and tiresome. There seems
only one reason why it was put into
print: To cater to that imbecility which
believes that money means mora
obliquiy and that the rich exist simply
to make moral lepers of themselves
Mr.. Roberts may be proud of his book;
he ought to fumigate himself and
purify his pen with fire.
The Idlers. BY Morley Roberts. Bos-
ton: L. C. Page & Co. $1.50.
Rex e. Beachs THE Spoilers" which
has been running in a magazine. is out
i'm book form. This is story written
by a strong man. of a strong man, for
strong and 'groWn-up men to read. II
is q tale of impetuouS emotion, of brute
strength and courage, of swift and pas
sionate love and hate-a tale which tells
itself without fine words - vigorous,
forceful, mighty. 1t is a story of the
hunger for gold digged out of the hills,
and the binding hunger of a man for
woman and for woman's love-a story
of today that is true of all men and ali
real women since time began. The
scene is laid in Alaska during the Klon-
dixie days and the characters are not
minced.
The Spoilers, by Rex f. Beach. New
York: Harper & Brothers.
Detective stories must necessarily be
complicated, but in THE Passenger
From Calais" Arthur Griffiths has put
enough tangles to do the ordinary plot
maker for a dozen novels. The story is
fast one, covering most of Europe
having to do with wicked nobleman
his divorced wife, her twin sister, the
heir, retired colonel and half a dozen
detectives of one sort or another. So
complex is the tangled skein that Mt
Griffiths has to kill his villain-the lord
through apoplexy, in order to unravel
it. But the story is so snappy and
quick that 1t is we'll worth while.
The Passenger From Calais, by
Arthur Griffths. Boston: l.. c. Page &
Co. $1,25.
"Idyls of the Wild Rose" are five
stories by A. M. Nesbit which make a
claim on the public because they are
told in lyric form, though confessedly
violating all the rules of poetry. Nesbit
says poetry has long been shackled
and bound down by rules" and he
seems to be doing his best to snap the
chains. So strenuous are his endeavors
that the only remnant of lyric form
remaining is the capitalizing of each
lines first word. The book is small
it's chief merit-and the contents are
rot.
Idyls of the Wild Rose. BY A. M
Nesbit. Published by the writer: Bel
laire O,