Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-08-19
BY WILLIAM HAMILTON OSBORNE

newspaper woman whose husband-a
young, brilliant rake whom she had
married for love-was in a madhouse.
The fact that he is in the background
all through the book keeps VI the. sus-
pense. Dawn, the heroine, becomes Sc
riously i'll in New York and is taken
by her sister to Milwaukee. Her adj
ventures in Milwaukee fill the better
part of the book. With some exager-
ration, it may be taken for granted
that Miss Ferber has set off Milwaukee
to a T. Undoubtedly she halls from
there, or at any rate has an intimate
acquaintance with the city.
Dawn O'Hara went there, supposing
1t to be an American city. She finds 1t
Is only a huge slice of Kaiser Williams
principality set down in the West. She
is startled, as is the reader. by a sign
In a shop window: English spoken
here" 1t would seem that nobody
speaks English in Milwaukee. She says
Of Baumbach's great Milwaukee bak-
cry: II have heard Milwaukee drink
ing its afternoon kaffee there" That
she spoke truth is evidenced by the
fact hat Blackie, a newspaper man,
took her there, and made an assault
upon a cup Of coffee himself. He
lifted the heavy cup to his lips" says
the author, land took a le4g gurgling
mouthfuL 'Blackie,. l Missed, II you do
that again | shall refuse to speak to
you
"rDo what?' he demanded, all injured
innocence.
"'Snuf1e up your coffee like that"
"'Why, girl, that's the proper way
to drink coffee here. Listen t every
body else. Any more of your back talk
an I'll drink 1t out of m saucer an
blow on it like the hefty party over
there
There was no back talk. Dawn was
having troubles of her own eating one
of Baumbach's "Bismarck's," an affair
that, as Blackie said, could be eaten
safely only In a bathtub.
Blackie was a cracker-jack news
paper man, clever, up to the minute,
and Dawn liked him. He had a tragic
enc Unexpectedly the maniac husband
turns up-cured-and Dawn's real
sweetheart, the big specialist, Won Ger
hard, helps cure him. Won Gerhard
falls in love with Dawn-it Is hopeless,
so it would seem. What happens, and
the final tragedy that ensues, is for the
reader to find out. The book is I'M
ques+ionably human" 1t sounds very
real. In a wilderness of arti1cialities,
with which we are constantly confront
ed. this is a welcome oasis. The story
sounds truthful enough to be the life
history of the authoress herself. One
criticism to be made of Dawn, the
heroine, Is that she never for one in
slant forgets how patient and heroic
she is. She is a bit too historical.
But there is plenty of heart" inter-
est and lots of sympathy In the story,
and these are things hard to get. It is
to be hoped that Miss Ferber will give
us something more and just as good
but not quite so gushing. a
Go
THE STORYTELLING ART is
probably moi a gift acquired. Undoubt-
eddy 1t Is innate, inborn-an inherit
ance, a gift of nature. The popular
notion of a story-teller-a novelist,
verse maker, playwright-is that he is
an individual very highly intellectual,
unusually educated, much travelled and
with a remarkable vocabulary. Is he
necessarily SO?
A frst-class story-teller is a man
who can tell a flrst-class story. We
can conceive of-and, in fact, the world
knows of-very iliterate men who are
wonderful story-tellers. The world also
knows of many, many very highly edu-