The San Francisco call., 1909-06-13

\ a novelist often reaches his goal
N the collection of 16 short stories
by Frank Norris issued under the
title of THE Third Circle shouio
awaken an interest at once aosorbins
and profitable. That brilliant. incom-
prehensible and powerful sketch which
gives the book its name tells. as many
readers will remember, of the visit oil
sn eastern girl, Harriet Ten Eyck. and
her lover. young Hillegas, 10 the res
taurant Of the Seventy Moons in the
Chinese quarter of san Francisco
HiIlegas descends TO the lower story,
OF the restaurant in search of the Chi
nese boy from whom they had ordered
tea. and on his return finds Harriet len
Eyck vanished as utterly as Il the ear n
had engulfed her. The tale, though pos
sessiue inevitable crudities. is fore
shado.vinz Of the extraordinary force
and peuetration which enabled the
writer TO see straight to the heart OF
things and 10 depict them in the nefN-
Gus. Iorcible English which invarlaniy
finds lis mark Into his trenchant
phrases Norris has managed TO infuse
rnuch of the inscrutable mystery and
f,elaneholv of the east while filing his
pages with purely western atmosphere
The terror. rush and finality of the tale
are ina sscribable.
The IS other stories which comprise
Norris earlier work in this direction
range from the tragic note of Little
Dramas of the Curbstone,' portrayals
OF everyday happenings seen through
q poets eyes. through the infinite and
subtle patnos of "Toppan," a clever, in
falfOxr mn rrfed IN fhR woman
who never could understand but
whom he loved nevertheless and for
whom he sactihced his career, to the
iniinitsBle American humor of This
Animal Of a Buddy Jones" Splendidly
skeletonized. these few tales have the
merit OF Il set of fine etchings, where
the process Of elimination has been car
ried out 10 the last possible degree. No
one can read these Is stories without
being moved TO emotion OF some sort.
Their tragedy grips you with a sense of
illumination their comedy arouses light
hearted laughter. their pathos stirs
something deeper than tears. The tear
ing apart of the citadel OF human ma
ture as evidenced in his later works.
had its beginning here, and in his por-
travail Of the men and women he chose
as subjects the primal instincts. the un-
conscious basic motives, the age old
tendencies Of mankind, arc laid bare as
with a scaIpel. The imaginative and
descriptive forces at work in Little
dramas OF the Curbstone" rise at times
TO Zolaesauc heights, and IL Norris had
lived to write the novel Of San Fran
cisco which is TO place the city before
the world in it's curiousiy interviewer
social aspects the literary world might
have been richer by book that would
have lived.
The volume has AN Introduction by
viii Irwin. friend and comrade OF Nor
ris in the old hack days, when irwin,
Norris and Cosgrave, with half dozen
others, worked and strove for success
side by side. 1t is rather singular fact
that OF this circle three OF it's members
should have gone east TO achieve sue
cess Norris fame coming Immediately
on the publication Of his first novel
Cosgrave winning honors as the editor
OF Everybody's Magazine and Irwin
achieving marked distinction first as
the managing editor Of McClure's and
afterwsrd in connection with Collier S
Weekly and the Saturday Evening Post.
OF the trio il was Norris who won his
spurs first His beginnings as a writer
were made in San Francisco on the
Wave, and it is of these youthful. lucky
easy going days together that Irwin
speaks thus in his introductory words
His introduction follows in full
1T used to be my duty as subeditor
of the old San Francisco Wave to put
the paper TO bed We were printing a
Seattle edition in those days or the
Alaskan gold rush, and the last form
had to be locked up on Tuesday night
that we might reach the news stands
by Friday. Working shorthanded. as
all small weeklies do. we were over
lastingly late with copy or illustrations
or advertisements. and that Tuesday
usually stretched itself out into
wednesday. Most often. indeed. the
foreman and I pounded the last quoin
into place at q or o'clock Wednesday
morning and went home with the milk
wagons--to rise at noon and start next
weeks paper going.
For Yelton. most patient and cheer
ful of foremen. those Tuesday night
sessions meant steady work. /, for my
part, had only TO confer with him now
and then on a caption or to run over
a late proof. In the heavy intervals
OF waiting l killed time and gained in
struction by reading the back files OF
the Wave, and especially that part OF
the files which preserved the early
prentice work of Frank Norris.
He was a hero TO US all in those
days, as he will ever remain a heroic
memory--that unique product of west
ern soil, killed, for some hidden pur-
pose of the gods. before the time OF
full blossom. He had gone east but
q year since TO publish the earliest
in his succession OF rugged, virfie
novels-'Moran OF tn Lady Lefty.
.McTeague.' 'Blix. a Mans Woman,
The Octopus and The Pit The east