New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-03-11

The Macmillan Company
The ANALYTICAL chronicle Of individuai
life. preoccupied with heredity and en-
vironment, with the reaction or cha'-
acter and temperament TO modern CIR
cumstance and with the probing OF so
cial and economic developments ana ten
denotes. is increasingly displacing the
older forms of fiction. 1t Is a new de-
parture. cropping its way toward Tor
mula for the perfect expression OF IN
dividual responsibility for collective fall
ings and faults, social and economic ana
OF the individuals responsibility toward
his higher self. II gropes its way o.
necessity, since in Its cver-Widenins
scopo Il ESSAYS TO deal with world IN
the flux of new transformation ana 10
utilize. for their rapid and vide popular
dissemination. the momentary conclu-
sions and aims Of many sciences ana
many PHILOSOPHERS. themselves IN state
Of many rapid transitions. The business
OF writing serious fiction has become
serious business, indeed, most serious OF
all. perhaps. in its determination to re-
vivify ethical ideals where ever fncreas-
ing material pressure has all but killed
them. Esthetic and intellectual culture
s. needs left for the present in the
keeping Of a minority dwindlng in num-
bers and in influence with the hurrying'
hurried multitudes,
Gustav Frenssens KLAUS H'nrtch
Baas" is the full length portrait of a
German child Of this material world OF
ours Of one Of the conquerors in Its
marts Of trade In essence this man
bears a striking resemblance 10 the mas
tiers Of finance and commerce Of some
Of our own recent fictional studies OF the
type but he is drawn on "A smaller scale,
according TO his smaller opportunities.
The son OF a long line Of stolid North
German peasants. he lacks that daring
business imagination which is essential
10 superlative success in this vast con-
tinent OF ours, with its boundless posi-
bilities. He is a merchant, not IMAM
cer; he is honest. perhaps because no
opportunities for dishonest profit present
themselves to him: more likely, since this
is the authors own suggestion, because
he is innately, stolidly honest. He is a
pygmy beside the figure Of the rail
road builder that forms the enduring
value Of Norriss Octopus and the
operations Of Mr. Whites Certain Rich
Man" dwarf his own into insignificance.
In the final analysis he Is type Of the
energetic, level headed. enterprising
modern Germans who may be found at
the head of large enterprises in all the
mercantile centres OF the world. The
author leaves him IN the end on his way
10 China, member Of a Hamburg
house, 70 take charge Of its interests
there during the war for whose outbreak
he has been hoping and preparing as
profitable business opportunity:
It's little depressing to have you wait
ing for war al the time, said his wife.
There's something SO dreadful about war"
lie looked az her coldly. plainly thinking,
You. a merchants daughter, and talking
like that
Klaus Hinrich Baas's awakening comes
before his departure. but It is vaguely
emotional rather than intellectual or
moral. He, who lacks all educate sees
but dimly what he has missed Of life;
he merely feels II. Still. 1t sufiices TO
quicken in him a desire to lead the life
OF home and wife and children, and of
the mind as we'll as Of the counting
room and the market place--a desire also
to be Of service 10 the city Of his victory.
Then he goes off, intent on gain once
more, driven on by the demands of the
career which he has carved out. The
author leaves his reader face to face
with a question. struggle yet to come
between this awakening and the merci-
less driving power Of that career
strengthened hundredfold by habit.
The story is impassively realistic most
Of the way a method by which the au-
thor leads up all the more potently TO
the moral his hero draws from his own
life ia the end. The influence Of BASS
ancestral inheritance. paternal and ma
tcrnal the two experimenting and not
multiplying each other, is made clear
without overemphasis; the authors ap-
probation of the significance OF carly en-
vironment leads him not too far into de-
scriptions of It for its own sake among
the Holstein farmers and in the slums
and on the waterfront of Hamburg; and
nc indicates tellingly the value Of the
two years military training OF German
youth. Beneath the self-made man he
never loses sight OF the North German
peasant, even as he perceivcs slimpscs
~ "a fsdH
beneath the polish Of the old Hamburg
merchant families. Baass emotional ex-
periencos are few and brief and mean
iugless 70 him. whose temperament is
ruled by his head-his mothers gift to
him. There is but one poetic passage i'm
his earlier l!fe. and its beauty he realizes
only after many years. This glimpse Of
romance is strengthened by the inter-
woven life story OF BASS boy friend.
wcazened. prematurely wise child OF the
Sums, VINO runs away TO sea and makes
man Of himself, rising to the command
Of one Of the steamers OF that merchant
marine of which Germany is so proud.
Mr. Frenssen does not generallze or
morallze; he does not preach. The ifc
story Of his hero is left to impress ito
own moral, which is the same as that Of
the many similar stories written in this
country. The lesson Is no longer new.
bat 1t cannot be too often repeated, for
the ideal of the success that makes life
meaningless and Improbable in its truer.
deeper meaning is still held high. The
author again shows himself the master
~ N The resnNrcne If III, ,,nnthnd