New-York tribune., 1906-11-24

itself in inventing the curious and remarkable
incidents and adventures which befaIl the hero
ine-who travels to the island in submarine
vessel for the purpose of rescung her father
and a party OF inquistive and interested news
paper men who follow in yacht for the purpose
or resouing her. Why is it. we pause to ask,
that writer's engaged in newspaper work, and
familiar with newspaper life, when they
come to describe It IN print almost invariably
present 1t in a weird and distorted unsimili-
tude? Miss Gales picture of a daily newspaper
office and OF it's personnel is scarcely less wild
than the one she draws Of her invisible island
and is far less entertaining
A cheerful little story of the uneventful court
ship and early married years Of a suburban
couple is told in Mr.. Massons novel THE Won
Burners" 1t deals. in gently humorous fash
ion. with those domestic episodes which occur
in every family in the unconscious efforts of two
young people TO adjust themselves to an indi-
vidually novel but collectively common expert
ence. In this lies its appeal rather than in any
complication Of plot invention of extraor-
dinary incidents. The story is the reflex in its
general outlines, Of so many lives, and the ex-
aggerations for comic effect SO inconsider-
able, that its simple and essential truthfulness
IS most engaging. Each chapter affords the
author an opportunity for ulustra ting some
principle Of a homely and wholesome domestic
philosophy. so that the slender tale. with its
succession Of inconsiderable events is really
more than the literary trife it appears upon the
surface.
Mr.. seweN Ford has succeeded In investing the
hero Of Shorty McCabe," a retired prizefghter.
with qualities that without violating proba bu-
tty, make him pleasantly acceptable What is
more, the author has created a new New Yor,
type-and one that is far more true TO life than
most Of the previous attempts to give vitality
10 metropolitan slang. Shorty is perhaps a
little touched up. here and there, in order to
make him entirely acceptable to refined tastes
but he is never out Of character and his COM
mand OF colloquial Manhattanese is superb The
incidents which form the subjects Of the several
chapters are but slightly related. and were in
deed, printed serially as separate chapters but
there is a thread OF romance to hold them to-
gether, and they are, II not so strictly adherent
10 probability as is the character Of the chief
actor, invariably amusing. a clever and enjoy
able volume
The contrast between Shorty McCabe" and
the same authors book of short stories. True
gate OF Mogador.' is striking indeed Mr. Ford
is versatile. From the purely urban type de-
lineated in the first book, he turns, in the sec
ond, to the much simpler individuals Of Cedar
ton y. J. They are simpler. but they are not
one whit less interesting. \ On the contrary
these specimens OF humanity in hornespun make
uncommonly friendly company. Squire True
gate. who gives the book its title, a village
lawyer, who is inducted into a foreign consul
ship and there forgotten by his government
until he happens, in his artless way to prove
that in d crisis he as the right man in the right
place, is an American Of the sort we like to meet
in fiction. So is Hi Doolittle; So for that mat
ter, is every one Of AIr. Ford's personages, not
excepting the quaint young with theory
who turns up in the tale called Across &
Picket Fence" This last is an exceptionally
good example Of the romantic idyl extorted
from almost commonplace conditions in modern
American life.