New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-04-13

THE MYsTICs. BY Katherine Cecil Thurston.
Illustrated. 12mo pD 80. Harper Bros
A BREAK IN TRAINING. and other Athletic
by Howard Chandler Chrsty. l6mo. Up. %
Outing Publishing Company
Mr. Smiths new volume is almost entirely
made up OF such stories show him at his best
If he falls below his standard in the one called
Miss Murdoch, Special" II is because he
ventures into a newspaper Office for his ma
terial and a kind of serio-comic fate seems TO
pursue the novelists who try to show their read
rs what Journalism is like. Their efforts are gem
orally wide of the mark and Mr.. Smith is no
more fortunate than his predecessors have been.
But he is very much at home in dealing with
romantic episodes set against picturesque Ola
World background, and he shows all MS accus-
toned skill. too IN treating the humors OF lie
in what may be roughly described as American
Bohemia The first story in this book The
Yelled Lady of STEAMBOAT" is pretty in itself ana
n is nrettilv told We are not sure. however,
but that Loretta OF the Shipyard which FOL
lows IT. would have better filled the place Of
honor. The incident handled in this IS endowed
with truer reality, and all through the MARIA
tive Mr. Smith maintains just the right tone Of
conviction He gets this tone the more readily
when the story I'm hand is one suggesting OBJ
servation rather than invention Indeed, some
of the best OF the tales in this book are really in
the nature Of anecdotes picked up in the paths
Of experience and then expanded and polished
for presentation I'm book. THE Beguiling Of
Peter C,riggg." for example, is one Of those odd
tales of New York life which one might expect
to hear almost anywhere. but which Mr.. Smith
has the knack Of setting forth with a certain
literary finish The collection whole is
sprightly and entertaining. 1t makes one Of the
best OF the new seasons volumes.
The fiction Of criminal adventure was bound.
sooner or later TO give us the burglarious
heroine With half the nOvelists in the world
ringing the changes on that motive to which
Conan Doyle gave new life, the exhaustion OF all
the possible types of masculine depravity is only
a matter of time and wise are those authors
who with cunning foresight begin now to d.
vert the mind OF the faded reader with Dick
Turpins in petticoats. Their task is hard. Some
OF the daring women We have recently encoun-
tered in fiction have struck US as being strange
" unsympathetIc. They incongruous in
scenes of deliberate wickedness, and only the
fantastic nature OF the situations in which they
are presented saves the day. But cleverness
will sometimes go far, and Mr. Vance, the au-
thor OF ''The Brass Bowl is undeniably clever.
The heroine OF this novel Is a radantly beauti-
full Young woman, who, for certain reasons
finds Il desirable to make experiments IN the
art OF thieving. rich bachelor is the victim
of her plans. but he proves troublesome Gus
toner In the first place. he looks so much
like the most notorious Jewel robber OF his day
that It is next 10 impossible TO tell the two
apart wherefore. when lovely young burg
lar reaches a really serious crisis in her ca
reer she finds herself entanglcd between two
men, and gets deeper and deeper into distress
There must be no socitude for probability in
the readers mind as he follows this narrative
He must grant full license TO Mr.. Vance TO fool
him 20 the top OF his bent. From a lofty point
OF view this is not 70 be thought Of for q