New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-07-02


when detached from the context
The fun Is, indeed, everywhere-in the
points of view Of the different person.
ages in the book, In their killing con-
duct, and even in their names. Let the
reader turn in these pages to any Incl
dent involving the lawyer who is always
called in to adjust a difference and is
always adding to the JOY of the lark by
the oonsummate way in which he plays
both ends against the middle. The
reader will then see why it is that that
lawyer could only be called 'Mr. Henry
D. Feldman." The truth is that this is
a book of atmosphere, book in which
class is portrayed nonlinally In swift.
direct strokes. but actually in very
subtle fashion. It is enjoyable from
cover to cover. Decidedly Mr.. Glass is
most cordial appreciation.
Miss Willcocks's new novel is more in
teresting in some of its parts than it is
as a whole, owing, perhaps. to the mag
nitude Of its scope. THE Way Up
which she discusses. and which. on her
own showing. is decidedly not the ulti-
mate way out, is Fourierism, applied
successfully, SO far as the economic side
of the system is concerned, by the hero
of her story to an iron foundry, of
which he gains control with his wife's
fortune. But side by side with this ma
terial success of the venture Miss Will
cocks places a prospect of social failure,
collectively and for the individual-the
prospect of the deadening uniformity of
an organization that will cramp the
minds that crave the windy ways, the
open roads. the winding bypaths Of the
actual" Cooperation, which. was not
original with Fourier, is practically all
that has survived of his many theories.
On those of the rest of them that run
decidedly counter to Anglo-SaXon con-
ceptions of morality Miss Willcocks sides
resolutely against him in the persons OF
her hero and the woman who Is heart
and soul devoted to his work-and to
him.
The wife is the individuaIist Her
husband marries her, an uniformed and
uniformed young girl, and applies her
fortune to his purpose without even con-
sulting her or subsequently enlightening
her on the subject of his theories. In
accordance with them he takes her, who
loves beauty and the Joy Of living, to
ugly shadow Of the factory, until her
existence becomes a burden of gray
nIonotony. increased by his utter neglect
of her in the absorption Of his mission.
At last the moment comes when the
plant can be handed over to the work.
people, and with 1t comes the break.
The wife refuses, naturally enough, to
give her fortune to them, leaves her hus-
band and goes to London, where the
years of repression result in the now all
too familiar 'temperamentaP' reaction.
Miss Willcocks ends with the happi-
ness Of the individual, and leaves the
cooperative foundry to take care of
itself There is capital work in the
story. which bears traces of serious
thought on the problems Of the hour
but. as novel, it is inferior to the best
Of her earlier books. Art usually suffers
when 1t is made the vehicle of economi-
cal and social speculations. The fol-
lowing observation may be worth quot
ing:
Once, in earlier, harder ages. it was neces-
sary to be great man, Pascal, st.
Francis, a Bossuet Voltaire, that one
might clearly hear the murmur of human
misery To-day it is our highest triumph
and our greatest cause of discomfort that
1t suffices TO be only fairly intelligent. and
moderately sensitive in order to hear it
very clearly indeed.
Mrs. Reynolds's story belongs to that
class Of English minor fiction which will
never lack an audience, certainly not in
England, because 1t appeals to the sound
conservatism Of the mass of English
women, while yet satisfying their crav-
ing for dramatic surprises and situations
IN their placid, we'll ordered lives. Every
body in the story is "county''-even the
adventures was county" at one time
and so Is the girl from Vancouver, who
stumbles fainting and drenched "Out of
the Night" into that remote corner of
rural England. Some of the situations
Of the modern problem novel; are in
troduced-marriage divorce and the
rights Of the Higher MoraIity-but only
to be dealt with sternly. in the spirit Of
conservatism, that is still the spirit Of
the majority of us, and probably will re-
main SO long after the present fashion
in fiction has had its day. Mrs. Rey-
nolds's book is quite sound; at the
same time it is a readable story, with
an ingeniously constructed plot and
large cast of characters whom we read
lily recognize and hail as old acquaint-
ances, the right personages for just this
kind of fiction.