The San Francisco call., 1907-03-31
The Turn Of the Balance"

A novel bv Brand whltlock author Of The
Happy Average Ter innni.e ,sn'ss v
Iav Hsmbidce Published by the Bobbs-
Merrill Company indianapolis. Price Sl-59-
RAND WHITLOCK. most conspic-
IL uous OF the young American school
Of realists-the Brand Whitlock
who. as Mayor OF the large and
busy city OF Toledo, is having a unique
opportunity TO put into practice some
OF his theories OF civil government
has written another book and named il
not SO happily. one might suggest
The Turn Of the Balance" Whatever
she title was designed to convey as in
dioative Of the purpose and spirit Of
the story will hardly make itself plain
20 the average reader and il is this
same average reader who makes best
sellers" and nat failures. However,
the foreword. a fragment from W. d.
lIowells' "A Boys Town. is sufficient
lv Illuminating Of Mr. Whitlock's in
\ tention, thus:
. In fact. it seems best TO be
very careful how we try 10 do justice
IN this world. and mostly TO leave
retribution Of all kinds to God. VINO
knows
tent ourselves as mlcn as Posslole
with mercy. whose mistakes are not
so irreparable-
There you have the keynote, the
essence OF this novel: the injustice OF
ali human justice, the failure Of cor
rection TO correct 1t is a novel lack
ing almost wholly in dramatic con-
struction or arrangement. II is power
ful-that none will gainsay-but its
strength is the strength OF a searching
realism. not that OF artful composition
and subtle shading; also it is somber,
grim and hopeless, a little I'm the fash
ion OF Zola, or. more nearly, OF the
later Russian realists. Tt does not in
dict, save as the facts it sets forth
accomplish that end; it does not ar
raign. except in so far as It arrays
picture on picture OF the savage cruelty
: with which organized society, blunder-
Y * always and sometimes crushing
brutally. deals with its delinquents.
One may guess that the city is Mr..
whitlock's own Toledo and that the
men and the places OF the book are,
-thinly masked, those with whom and
among which he lives and works; about
his description OF them there is the un-
nistakable air Of actuality. But for
the Wards. prosperous business folk,
and the fter-business-hours side Of
Marriott and Fades. the two young
lawyers who love Elizabeth Ward, the
tale has wholly TO do with the under
world and its Hl-dehned line OF con-
tact with the world above il. At the
center Of it-and here is something
remotely ZolaesQue--is the Koerner
family: 'Gusta. the buxom maid of the
Wards: Archie, young and stalwart
Just home from soldering in the Philip
pines; the father, crippled by an acci-
dent in the yards Of the railway which
he had served for a lifetime. and the
, heavy, helpless mother, little Katie and
Jackie. The main current Of tragedy
bears the Koerners resistlessly to ruin
--Gusta to shame. Archie TO crime
prison and a felon's death. and the
others to what the police reporters call
a "Quadruple horror" Marriott, ever
for the defense in the criminal courts.
ever loses. and Fades. the prosecutor,
never fails TO convict. IT all goes
wrong; FOR the Koerners there is never
any hope OF escape from the justice
machine. and yet they are. in the be-
ginning, honest, kindly, simple folk
they arc merely meshed in the web OF
circumstance. caught in the trap set
Tor real criminals. The misery Of 1t is
that any big city has its company OF
Koerners.
without effort 10 sstirize or sp-
parent design 10 dissect, the tale goes
10 the heart Of more than one Of the
institutions through which society
deals with its own ills. Organized.char
ity is painted as any reporter for a
newspaper has seen it; the police sta
ton, the upper Office" the third de-
gree" are done with a terribly de-
pressing hdelity: the mockery OF trials
IN the Police Court and the futility OF
the poor mans appeal TO law against
the rich corporation with its 5uggied
statutes and perverted doctrines and
complaisant courts-all these are pow
erfuily depicted and yet are but in
cidentsl to tho almost piotless narra-
tive.
For the most part, the book is OF
thieves, OF crimes. OF prisons and OF
prison keepers. It is rich-almost too
rich for the uninitiated-in the argot
Of the underworld. 1t is criminal jar
son brought down TO a later date than
that Of Josiah Flynt and it might very
well have had a glossary to make st
Ineligible, but Mr.. Whitlock has
chosen to weave into the tale enough
OF explanation 10 enable the reader to
md out for himself the significance OF
broad" boob" gager," 'iamas,"
afritzer." hip" and so on for multi
tude of unfamiliar terms. Ir this direc-
tion the masterpiece of recondite slang
, IS letter from ''yegg" in work
house to another at large. In part thus:
I'm only hero for q Whop. and III hit
- r0z6 before the . q up. Fave