New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-10-01
A Sheaf of New Stories, Mostly
Romantic.

tfUltidiftlOs
MIR INGLEsIDR BY E; V. Lucas. Ierno.
PIP Vii. SIS The Macmillan Company
rtzr LADY OF THE SPUR. BY David
Potter Frontispiece by Clarence +.
Underwood. 12mo. PIP. $50. Philadel-
phia: The ]. B. Lippincott Company
DEVIOUS WAYS. BY Gilbert Canaan
Emo, pp. $40. Duffieid- & CO.
THE SWORD MAKER. BY Robert Barr.
Emo. DID. SOS. The f. A Stokes Com
psny.
THE GAME OF THE GOLDEN BALL
Nv Elizabeth and Adrian Johnson.
Emo. PIP. SSl. New York: The Macaulay
Company.
THE HOUSE OK sTILTs. BY R. II.
Hazard. Illustrated by j A. lemon
I2mo. pp. $40. The G. ". Dillingham;
Company.
THE ROSE IN. THE RING. BY George
Barr NcCutcheon. illustrated IN colors
by a. ]. Keller. Dodd. Mead & Co.
in the novel as in the essay and in
that other literary form. If We may call
IL such, the anthology, Mr.. Lucas has
developed a mode Of his own 1t will
not do merely to say that he is uncon-
ventional, for that. after all. describes
many a modern writer. Neither Is ii
enough to say that he is original, since
originality may express itself within a
formula Perhaps he may with some
accuracy be characterized as very per-
sonal writer. one whose work owes most
Of its charm to quiet little ways. having
no great weight in a technical sense.
but always counting heavily in his
achievement Of success. Mr.. lngle-
side" has next TO no plot, and is not.
strictly speaking. a novel at all But
your fastidious reader OF fiction would
prefer il TO a good many well con-
structed tales.
The elderly Enclishrnan who gives the
book its title is an amiabie creature
with two daughters There is nothing
remarkable about these girls, as, in fact,
there is nothing remarkable about their
parent. Their friends are similarly I'M
DISTINGUISHED types. On the other hand.
not 2 person in the book is fatty COM
monplace, and over everything that the
members OF the Ingleside circle have 10
saw or 10 do Ny Lucas throws the sun
shine of his gentle hunor, All manner
OF things are touched upon in these dis
cursive pages-suffrag ettes, automobiles
gardens. dogs. literary oddities. and so
on through a long list. Often there is
Ienurely ironical saying thrown in with
the most casual gesture. It is a web OF
talk, Of reverie, of sprightly reflection.
II is all kindly and clever. all save the
preposterous portrait of an American IN
London. MIR. Waller. OF Umsquot, one OF
chose dull and tasteless caricatures
which so often prove TO US that even the
most urbane of Englishmen may turn
spiteful and heavy handed when he
gives his attention TO our countrymen-
IT is odd to find Mr.. Lucas writing in
clumsy vein. This blunder in art and
manners apart. his book is pure de-
light. which We cordially commend TO
lovers of that fiction which has in It
something Of the quality Of literature.
There are wild and Iawless doings In
the Jerseys Of the COS Of the last CEN
fury. The conspiracy, which does not
stop short Of planning murder. is caused
by a Colonial IlaAl1l idA c-eAAANf wv
those senai-feudal royal English grants
with q peculiar condition attached TO its
continued validity. That condition is
about to be broken when Tom Bell
comes riding out Of the virgin West, a
marked man. Circumstance leads him
To enter the complications Of the mano-
rial succession, and he at once becomes a
r,f- n q
word. The law and lawlessness both
NOW begin 10 stalk him. Then there Is
1.-THE Lazy OF the Spur" the heroine
N-rhose share IN the plot and the ad-
[k,entures and the sentiment of the story
y ,n,let be left untold here. Mr.. Potter has
constructed q readable tale, whose &C
.ion is fncessant and whose atmosphere
IS Economically remote and inter
es,tnr. The denouement is perhaps
little too much Of a good thing, but,
then, the heroes and heroines Of romance
have a long established right to all the
fanriness their author can bestow upon
them after heaping upon them mis-
understandings and dangers and trying
sheir characters. and their courage to the
utmost.
IA a criticism Of life Mr.. cannan's
~Devtous Ways sounds much more
rneaningful than Il really is. The devil
ousness IS too much insisted upon. at
fine ezpense OF that large logic which
can he read into the bewildering inogi-
oslitjes of existence which II IS one of
sbe functions OF fiction-in its dignity Of
criticism Of life-to coordinate ana
MACE IN their proper perspective within
,ha contracted space Of a novel. What
Mr. Cannan's hero became does not nee
~ssarily flow from what he was. He
merely is a rolling stone, rolling far and
wife. through America Asia and South
Africa. at the direction Of his restless
,ernperament- searching for he knows
,,ot what1.real nfe"-to return at last
% Y,ondon. where, IN a bed Of modest
financial moss. he finds an outer interest
On an Independent Theatre" venture,
and the inner meaning Of life in the ap-
nroaching birth Of his child. revealed TO
b,n, In the first instance by the subtle
rhange IN his wife's attitude toward him
rs the centre OF Ter being. The mans
hereditary endowment and his strange
,h75hood are excellently sketched. the