New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-12-19
PELLEs APPRENTICESHIP.

PELLE THE CONQUEROR. Vol. II: APP
premiership BY Martin Andersen NeNo'
Translated by Bernard Mall. 12mo. pp.
$50. Henry Holt & Co.
A year has PASSED since the publica-
ton of the first volume of "Pelle the
Condueror" brought to the attention OF
American readers Danish novelist OF
the first rank. The impression ere
ated by its picture of rural poverty IN
Denmark some forty years ago is now
heightened by the sequel, in when
Nexo draws with the same unrelenting
realism the life of the disinherited IN
a small town Of the kingdom. The per-
spective of time is of the utmost i'm
portance in this second story, espe-
cially to Americans, since they have
never known the fatalistic attitude OF
the poor of Europe toward their pow
erty and those placed above them.
II was the greatest Of all the obstacles
in the path of the early leaders who
would help the poor upward and for
ward to a juster share Of the good
things Of life. This pathetic and at the
same time exasperating belief OF the
European working classes in preor-
dained order of society Of which they
were destined to be the victims was
the subject, also, of another autobio-
graphical novel written in England at
the same time by a journeyman car
penter. Robert Tressell's "The Ragged
Trousered Philanthropists," which was
not published until early this year, a
find discovered in manuscripts in the
hands Of maid servant, its authors
daughter.
Nex0's novel, too, is confessedly
photographed. His career, like that
of his young hero, began on Danish
farm; like Pelle, he migrated to the
town and became a cobbler's appren-
tice. Whether, like him, the boy will
turn TO teaching in the third volume of
the story that is still TO come is
question on which no light has been
shed as yet by translator or publisher.
But Nexo is far greater artist than
tie English workingman just quotel.
Is realism is that Of Zola, the indie
fatigable piling of detail upon detail
until the book becomes an impressive
prose epic Of poverty without hope of
betterment. That hope was already
dawning, however. in the centres of in
dustrialism, in England, France and
Germany Its faint glow visible in lit
tie Denmark frightened the workers
and merely confirmed their skepticism
of the coming of better day. The word
social democracy" was as much anath-
ema 10 them as TO the middle class
which exploited their helplessness. The
I l.. 81 Nha old Guide NTH
their masters, journeymen and appren
tees, were going down in misery; the
Z new indus rialism, competing with
them from abroad, found them unpre-
pared. unable TO survive.
IL is the great merit of Nexo's two
novels that their young hero never
steps out Of his place in his environ
ment Of misery, bewilderment and ruin.
We see his poverty. his perplexities, his
vague hopes and cropping ambitions, his
defeats and despair, but they are made
an integral part OF the greater drama
around him. He founders because his
employer is going under in the vain
competition with machine-made goods
from abroad; his misery is no greater
than that Of the poor whose footgear
he cobbles, or Of the woman who, starv-
ing herself, yet gives him food. And
out in the country his father, having
realized his life's ambition, a leasehold
Of his own, must, through poverty, yield
IL 10 a richer man, and with it the
fructifying resultsof two years back
breaking labor
II IL, indeed, in another figure than
bis hero's that Nexo sums up the con-
ditions of period which repeated
themselves, few years earlier here, a
lew later there. over all the Old World.
This figure is that Of "The Great
Power" stone cutter Of brains as well
AZ Of gigantic physical strength. This
man would risv In the world: he Sc
cures a contract for harbor improve
ments. and then the whole town turns
upon him, not only the eontrne'o orr
boureeoisie OF the town-the mayor,