The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-06-06
SOME NEW FICTION.

whether the credit is due to the house
painter who wrote down his thoughts
or to the editor who put the manuscript
into shape. The Ragged Trousered
Phllanthropists.' by Robert Tressall
CFrederck \. Stokes Company, is as
remarkable piece of realism as any
Russian has drawn. vivid photograph
Of the oppressed workingman and the
conditions that are crushing him. The
author relates what happens TO n group
Of house painters while they are carry
ing on one job of work: what they do
and say and think; how they live: how
they are exploited by their foremen and
their employers. One OF them is a
thinker, but when he explains to them
the evils of their conditions and sug-
gests the remedies he Is not understood
and incurs their hostility. 1t is a set
Of portraits taken from life that will
act on the reader like nightmare. The
author makes no argument-he has as
much contempt for socialism as for po-
lltical parties. He presents the facts he
Knows regarding one set OF workingmen
who are helpless against their fate
That there are plenty OF workingmen in
England and in other countries who are
more fortunate than these does not
anect the demonstration that evils such
as are described here exist and are
common.
The contrast between the real thing
and the literary imitation may be seen
clearly by reading the Tressall book in
connection with Edwin Pughs Punch
and Judy" (The Bobbs- Merrill Com
pany, lndanapolls). This is picture
OF Stun in Soho, view OF the lower
~ On Of \ l.l, A..
very effective If not overburdened with
oleverness and epigram and with occa-
sional outbreaks OF fine writing. The
INDECENT composer is only an intruder
In the company; his presence Is to be
accounted for by the morbid craving for
bohemlanlsm that Is supposed to go with
the artistic temperament. His bonn
bastic journalistic friend with his out
bursts of paradoXical philosophic talk Is
merely a visitor. The slum people are
sketched vigorously and are amusing at
first, but the author, after having Gre
ated them, apparently does not know
what 10 do with them and makes them
repeat their performances over and over
again. The episodes he devises and the
morals he draws are as conventional as
the most philistine taste could ask for.
The puppets are fine, but the Snowman
cannot work them. The book is enter
tanning all the same.
Even Frank Harris has turned TO SIM
plicity in Great Days" (Mtchell Ken
nerley, New York;, a romance on the
approved lines of smuggling ana prlva-
teering when England was in fear Of
Bonaparte's invasion. The author vYases
fuently and carries his reader with him.
His hero Is "A British youth Of uncom-
mon openness OF mind, who Is enabled
through his Illegal intercourse with the
French TO form fairer opinion Of that
nation than his countrymen have vet
acquired. His adventures and love af-
fairs are interesting. Incidentally Mr.
Harris discusses at considerable length
the NeNed question Of Napoleon's great
ness, adm!res the efficiency OF the Amer
lean navy before the war of 1872 and
expresses some novel opinions about
naval power.
In The Intervening Lady" (The
Bobbs- Merrill Company. Edgar Jepson
returns 10 his old standbys, Lady Noggs
and the admirable Tinker In sixteen
episodes the imperturbable and infallible
young person carries out her plans with
a" the skin with which the author has
endowed her. The episodes are all in
terestlng; those depicting her as a child
are amusing; those In which she APP
pears as young lady, and is at times
aided by Tinker, are ingenious but now
ana then verge ON the disagreeable.
MT, Jepson has invented type. whether
In girl or boy form. as entertaining as
Sherlock Holmes, and readers will feel
grateful to him whenever he chooses 10
revive 1t and put 1t in action as he does
IN this collection OF stories.
There is remarkably little about the
process of obtaining homestead or of
WORKING on II in the Letters Of a Woman
fio'hest"ader," by Gilmore Pruitt Stew
hrt 'tioushton MifFin Company. On
me other hand, there are enthusias site
inscriptions OF nature and OF adventures
Al the open' pleasant accounts Of inter-