New-York tribune., 1906-05-06

L 9gn7n
oOlors by Slglsmond de Ivanowski I2u0o m y "a
S& The Baker Taylor Company Tp -
sANDPEEP- BY Sara f Boggs With four irlus-
irall9ns oy May Bartlett 12mO. pp vi "a. Lit
Katharine Green With four iI1strafyyon.sa .all5a h
arthur Keller. l2no Dp. viii, S72 The Bobhs
Whatever else Mr.. Hopkins has done. in his
novel The Mayor Of Warwick" he has GER
taniy succeeded in presenting a lifelike picture
Of Hartford and OF Trinity College-the ..St
Georges Han Of the story. The artistic ac-
curacy with which the author has laid in his
background Of social and political conditions
n The city and thrown around these the aca-
dennc atmosphere Of the college, forces a refer
ence Of the drawing Of his leading characters
anc Of the situations in which he has nlaced
them, 10 the same standard Of judgment So
far IS the characters, viewed individually. are
concerned, the story merits praise. They are
strongly Differentiated, natural and so typical
mat any one who is at all familiar with the
ground nay amuse himself by trying TO analvze
the composite personages Of the tale into their
actual originals The main complication of the
I-9- however, is so unusual. so Intentionally
surprising that its revelation comes with q
greater shock Of unreality than Mr. Hopkins
with al his adToitness of elucidation is quite
aile 10 overcome Nor IS he likely entirely TO
convince his readers that the people he has
posted would act precisely as he has made
t-era act under the circumstances Yet il is
these very unusual circumstances that give the
Sto-y its unusual interest Il is impossible TO
a--4-e specifically to the complication in which
ite author has involved his characters without
sPoi-ng the effect he has prepared for the
italer- The book takes its title from a young
--a0r leader-streetcar conductor in the winter
ana professional baseball player in the summer
Who by his natural ability. his popularity
ard political astuteness, succeeds in getting
himself elected Mayor OF the city There is
another hero, however, a young professor OF
lIathematics in the college, a man Of Western
training and ideas. suddenly flung an alien dis
tlrbing element, into the stagnant waters Of
t-astern academic conservatism. AS thoroughly
GA, Of place at the start in his environment as
The new Mayor is in his. the story deals with
their respective efforts at adjustment to the
conditions which surround them, and with their
strangely tangled love affairs. The two heroes
aye matched by two heroines, one the daughter
Of the Episcopal bishop who controls the policy
OF the college, himself a delightfully."- pict-
uTesQue figure; the other, her maid OF these
tWo the former is the more complicated and in
ter=sting character, but the latter is the more
sympathetic and appealing. The story is well
written and, barring one improbable incident,
soundly constructed. Certainly it marks a de-
cIded advance over the authors previous work
Folly, the heroine of Miss Rickert's novel Of
that name. is an hysterical young married woman
wiki uncomfortable affections for the wrong
people. Unstable rather than vicious she en-
deavors in a Wayward fashion to be true to her
husband and her new baby, an acquisition that
surprises and interests her without arousing any|
very strong maternal feeling. She succeeds in
slocu-ng her love for a blasted poet until she
learns that he is in the grip of a mortal disease
aid has only year 10 live. Even then she re-
slsis the inclination TO go TO him on account
Of her duty to her child, whom she regards as
having specially been sent to keep her at home
i'lt when the infant passes away in a paroxysm
oi Group she considers that she has been re-
leased from her domestic obligations takes tear
III leave Of her husband, and joins her invalid
lover IN a remote village in Spain. By this time
however the poet is so III that all he wants is
10 lie left alone to die in peace. The demands
on his sympathy and attention caused by the
constant presence OF his solicitous and self
appointed nurse get on his nerves" to such
an extent that one day he sends for her husband
and hastens TO put the Atlantic between himself
and Folly. II is difficult to take such plot as
seriously the author evidently takes it.
The highly improbable character of the Incl
-51l, L