The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1914-05-10
u,vhat WIN People suy,,

BY Rupert hughes. Harper & Broth.
ers.
Written In the tempo of tho turkey
rot and tango. Rupert HuChes's new
novel. What VIII People say" sup
piles The most highly color"d ana sen
hational offering OF the immediate sea-
sons fiction. because, OF its color-not
merely it's local color. but It's flush, as
II wcrc--auo its sensational quality
II will doubtless prove TO be one Of
the hest-sellers of the day.
But II is moro than mere best-scller
10y though its pictures are almost bac-
chanalIan. many of them. they are
not purely imaginative, indeed are not
oVerdTdwn. True. the Colorinc is high,
and the lines are broad and bold so
that the details stand out conspicu-
ously. but they. the details. arc none the
less accurately painted In.
1t is an ingenious plan that the au-
thor has evolved, too. in order 10 max
his pictures catch and hold the eve Of
the reader. for he has painted them
a. they appeared to the eye of man
who sees them in all their rarish
lights suddenly. without any warning
or notice. without having watched their
progress from charcoal outline to paint
ed whole.
He brings 10 New York an army off,
Ger, who has spent years in the Philip
pines. and launches him suddenly into
the very centre OF the city's cocktail
drinking. tanTo-mad. brass band" sec
ton OF society. Naturally, il all takes
his breath away, sweeps him off his
!eet, and IL IS in the description of his
as'2n'shment. bow ilGerment, ana even
onbarra ssment. and OF the scenes and
manner Of living that arouse these emo
lions, that Mr. Hughes is at his some
what unrestrained best
Forbes. a lieutenant, living only on
his pay. arrives in New York and goes
out TO see the sights. And they are
there 10 be seen: the costumes OF the
women shock him. ITO Forbes there
was an empowering tieshlincss i'm til.
display. 1t seemed 10 him maj
the women OF other places than New
York must have dressed as bcnuti-
fully, but in an innocontcr way Here
the women looked not so much fem
lhihe as female. lie had dwolt
for years among half-clad Igorrotcs:
but these women looked nakeder than
those. The more Studiously they We're
rooed. the less they had on" This, the
author reminds us, was Just before the
dresses oi women began to assume tho
appearance OF shop counters in dis
array.
Among the crowds OF women that he
sees on his lonely walk along Fifth
avenue. one figure stamps itself upon
his memory; II is that OF n young am
ei!e that stops near him, awaiting the
clearing OF the traffic.
That night. in the effort to dlspel
the loneliness that has begun to Green
over him. Forbes Soes to theatre.
where he runs across Ten Eyck. n man
whom he had once helped out OF n
ught place in the Philippines. Ten
Eycls Is delighted TO see him and in :
PRODUCES him To the members of his
party, among whom is the girl in
the automobile. Persis Cabot, beautiful
supposedly ~ least WELDON, and ex-
tremely smart" When the play is
over ono OF the men suggests that
the party 20 somewhere and sc, n
regular supper" but Persis says. NO
I'm going TO have trot and "A tango
II | have TO hunt the town over"
Then Forbes has his second series
or shocks They are unable to enter
two packed restaurants. but at last
ind ono in which a table is available
after the head waiter has been cX-
travagantly subsidized by Enslec. the
riches; man in the party. and the
dancing begins.
AT first Forbes was disgusted; tho
one epithet he could think of was OBJ
scene AS he watched the melee he
felt that lie was witnessing n tribe
OF savagos. lie had seen the
Moros. the Igorrotcs, the Samoans, and
thc Nautch girls OF Chicago, ana the
meaning OF this turmoil was the same.