New-York tribune., 1908-03-25

/ woman
'ne burdens Of motherhood keep her in a perpet-
| ual state OF weakness and worry2 What is ber
| MI Gatty to do? Miss Sinclair tacitIv asks her
reader to pause and reflect upon this rnorentous
| problem Perhaps some readers will do So but
Others there be who are more likely TO protest
| that they prefer fiction to be fiction and not
morbid sermenizng
Mr. Jacques Futrelle has. we are sure no in
'eh'ion of preaching in his book of
snort stories The Thinking Machine on the
| Case" Cd Appleton & Coz His object is to
| afnuse, and he ought TO be successful with
every reader not crassly prejudiced against
oeNecuVe stories Though the central figure
IA snls oook, Professor Augustus s. F Y van
Dusen. is not a detective in the usual sense of
tnat term, he is miracle worker in the art of
oetecting crime and criminals iogician of
extraordinary powers, he holds the conviction
1hat logic, given something to start with can
prove anything Incredible things occur in
these pages A dead man goes careering across
'he waters in motor boat; actress dis
appears IN circumstances which make il i'm
possible that she should do anything of the Sort
quantity OF radium is stolen from room
which no human being could conceivably have
entered; beautiful girl is murdered in an
opera box. the only other occupants of which
are plainly innocent of doing her any harm and
L
The police are not of the least use. They only
bungle matters. But Professor Van Dusen sits
back, thinks the thing over, calls up somebody
on the telephone and, with maddening expedi-
tion and cairnness indicates the solution of
problem as dark night His performances
are little preposterous, 1t is true. but that is
Of no consequence. What matters it that Mr..
Futrelle is astonishingy fertile in the invention
of puzzles for his hero to solve, and equally
in hi hE-in
mode OF getting a. the point This is a capital
book for railway journey
Mr.. Fishers book on "Bonapartism" has set
the English reviewers writing with vigor
which goes to show that the career of the great
Napoleon will always be living question One
OF the most energetic OF these critics declares in
The Saturday Review" that each separate
phase Of the extension of Napoleon's rule in
Europe is capable of defence the grounds of
justice and expediency. 1T much better
he says. that these subordinate states should
be governed by members OF Napoleon's family
than by nlarshals. selected after the fashion of
CromwelIs major generals. Was Bernadotte
success, or can the Emperor be blamed for not
repeating an experiment which could only lead
TO treachery? The Bonapartes We're not an OBJ
scure Corsican family their fortunes
be characterized as endemic brigandage' If
they are welcomed in our own day as a valuable
addition to the reigning families of Europe, they
owe it TO the genius which elevated them and
to the benefits which they have conferred upon
mankind Does Mr.. Fisher seriously prefer the
Bourbons Of France Spain and Naples TO the
parvenus of San Miniato? A story was current
among undergraduates fifty years ago that the
noble head OF a college had once described DR..
Whewell as a man OF stupendous intellect but
of no extraction Whewen replied that his col
telect but stupendous extraction. Even Cha .
teaUbriand admitted the good government Of /
Italy under Eugene Beauharnais. and desired .
the victory of Napoleon at Waterloo"