New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-08-27
CURRENT FICTION
English and American Wives
Tales of Africa and the East.


son Emo. PIP. 351 The G. w Dilling-
ham Company.
illustrated illustrated 12mo = PIP. so5, Harper s
Bros
THE GOLDEN CENTIPEDE. By Louise
Gerard 12mo, pp 800. G. P. Putnam
Sons.
THE POOL. OF SILENCE. By II. De We're
Stacpoo!. Emo, PIP. SCI Dufiield Il Co
THE FLOWER OF DESTINY: OLD DAYS
OF THE SERIAL. By Margaret Nor
decai Emo. pp 500 G. p. Putnam s
THE DOOMED CITY BY John r. Carl
ing. Illustrations by p Forester and
Joseph Clement Coll limo. PIP. $40. Ed
ward Clode.
With all it's faults or loose construc-
ton and its unnecessary load of 1mped-
ing detail upon it, Mr.. Calthrops I'M
sci and Cold is yet worth reading Tor
the sake of the figure of its heroine,
real. strong, loving woman convincingly
presented. She is London music nan
singer with the talent of stirring its pa
irons. child Of the sluns. and she IS
secretly married to a man far above her
socially, who, soon after their brleL
happiness, discovers the mistake he mas
made. In the words of the only friend
who knows their relationship, she has
the veneer of vulgarity, he the veneer
of culture, and he has not yet the bra11s'
the heart and the experience to search
out the woman beneath the veneer. IN
stead. when he comes into the title, he
turns to the building of an ideal COM
munity on his estate, falling. OF course
in love with another woman IN the proc
ess. But his wife, who has refused to
take advantage of his offer. formally
made as a matter of honor, to acknoWi-
edge her publicly, sets about bridging
the chasm, while leaving to him the
decision of their future. One can pass
an interesting and not altogether I'M
profitable hour with Miss Lilly Lorette
at the tag-end of the summer season.
The successful wife of the story or
that title is present-day Patient Girl
selda married to a man OF moods 50
MANY and so contradictory that they be
wilder the reader. He is sort OF uni
yersal genius, a poet, flnancler. a
politician. with a weakness for pretty
faces and a fatal attraction for the op-
posite SEX A girl commits suicide for
his sake in the Adirondacks, he fasc1-
mates his sister-in-law. the wife OF a
Senator falls in love with him. he is an
occasional drunkard, he repeatedly I'M
does what success he has Won: but the
wife wins the day in the end, so Tar as
one can see, mainly by ignoring his
WEAKNESSES and peccadilloes, partly be-
cause she. too, is in love with him, but
also by a conception OF a w1der, a soclai
meaning of the bond between them,
which places his progress IN the World
the success of both of them in the Diff
fcult business of life, above personal
feeling above the inner bond, when
shall come last to crown her work t1c-
ton has been described as the art OF
foreshortening life, and a very difficult
art it is, in which perspective is apt
to get out of drawing. The purpose of
the book is far greater than its per-
formance; the reader must needs become
the authors active collaboration to
greater extent that should be demanded
of him; but once this concession has
been made "a Successful Wife is
rather interesting attempt.
Afrjca-north central and south-is
looking UP in current fiction, as 1t Is in
our literature of sport. 1t is doubtful
that there is any connection between the
two. rather is the increasing interest
in the Oldest of continents on the part
of English novelists to be ascrsbed to
Mr.. Robert Kitchens Mr., Rider Hag-
gard was an early sporadic case twenty
five wears ago. The Golden Centipede'
is a tale of the fever haunted. stean1lng,
sveltering west coast, Of blackguardIy
adventures. of witchcraft and mystery
and a buried treasure in ruined tenn
pie. The ornament that gives the book
it's name is dropped at the feet Of
young English girl on board an English
steamer bound for the coast, and mo-
ment later real centipede appears upon
her dress. It is CoaXed away from her
by a youngster whom the captain knows
TO be the worst villain on all that coast;
he bears tattooed centipede upon his
upper arm. 1t is a symbol. the key to a
mystery, and it spells ju-ju. And now
the adventures begin. INSCRIPTIONS
greed stalking a treasure hunter, and
love following to protect maid through
poisonous swamps and impenetrable
woods, with natives lurking in their
depths. The book is an average speci-
men Of it's genre. no more.
Mr.. StacpoorS African story, The
Pool Of Silence" was published in Eng
land some years ago, but makes its first
appearance in an American edition only
now. IT is a novel with a somewhat be-
lated purpose--that of making violent
attack on the administration of the
Congo Free State and it's head, since de-
ceased Mr. Stacpool overd0es the thing;
moreover, as already said, his story is
out of date so far as it's aim is con-
cerned. for whatever may have been the
truth about the tragedies of the rubber
forests at the time this book was writ
ten. and there have been two opinions
on this point almost from the first. con-
ditions there are different now, The
story accompanying the attack is of
big game hunting expedition into the In
terror which comes to grief one night
when a herd of elephants stampedes the
Congo company, has his skull fractured,