New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-06-20
ORNATE PROPERTY.

PRIVATE PROPERTY.
CLARKs FIELD. By Robert HerrIck.
12mo. DID. AIS. The Houghton, Stifiin
Company.
Few will dispute the statement that
Robert Herrick Is to-day the most sig
nifcant Of our novelists. He is always
sincere, and he is always worth our
while, with an extra-literary interest
that is apt TO distract our attention
from the sterling quality Of his work
manship. To him fiction Is indeed
criticism Of life-of the American lie
Of to-day. We may not always agree
with him, but we always profit by
reading him. He helps US to see our
selves more clearly, to understand bet
ter the conditions which we have ere
ated and in which we live; and TO this
extent-it reaches far-hs Is American
in the full, the national sense OF the
word. The local habiatlons OF his
characters matter little; their concerns.
their problems and perDlexities, their
ways Of doing and experiencing. are
our own, East and West and North and
South.
"Clark's Field" Is packed with mean
ing; it deals with more than one of the
great questions OF the hour. which to-
morrow may settle, and indeed, must
settle, for better or woIse-with labor,
mostly in alien hands; with the hap
hazard ways in which our plutocracies
are created, or create Themselves; with
their lack Of responsibilities such as
link the masters Of the Old World to
the soil and the peoph; with the In
creasing materialism q our evolution
and the corresponding dwindling OF
esthetic and intellectual culture; with
the deeper and higher meanings Of life
smothered in luxury o. starved by the
struggle for sustenanc, and the resent
ment Of inequalities " fortune; with
the American woman Of course-but,
most of all. with property and the UNI
earned increment, with what one has
that may prevent ORB from truly be-
coming and being.
This. then, is the sorry Of farmers
field, bearing fruit al first, then, as the
city overtakes il, allowed to lie fallow
as unimproved real estate-the barren
property of two generations, bringing
riches in rents from tenements 10 the
third. 1t is properly with "clouded'
title-co-heirs have disappeared I'm the
West of the middl, Of the last century
and it is properly held In trust for
lonely, neglected little girl with APP
parentiy not a relative on earth TO care
for her. And so trust company be-
comes her guardian, thanks TO con-
scientious judge who saves her from
being robbed She is sent by this inn
personal guardian TO fashionable
school, where she is snubbed until her
wealth buys consideration; where she
learns to waste it, but not TO use Il
proftably. Marriage teaches her moth
ing; rather does il spoil weak man In
the making, but in the end, through
tragedy and the discovery Of the de-
scendants OF the missing co-heirs, she
is brought face to face with that abb
surd code Of inheritance and property
rights tina. the Anglo-Saxon peoples
have preserved from their ancient
tribal days in the gloomy forests OF the
lower Rhne-the holy institution OF
private property"
A traditional and typical subject OF
Anglo Saxon fiction. indeed. which sug
gests anlilluminating retrospect. One
thinks q "Ten Thousand Year" OF
Jarndyce rs, Jarndyce-of a whole
library sf novels dealing with this sub
ject Of private property, and then turns
to Mr. Herrick to. realize how far we
have travelled since then, not as yet I'm
the laws that govern it, perhaps, but
in the new ideas concerning II that are
abroad He offers no solution; no
merely presents his case. And in the
preserament one realizes how fine an
artist he is. In his vigorous hands,
through his thoughtful, observant mind
this piece OF land assumes its true sig
niflcahce as the decisive influence pri-
yate property has been through history
and 5 to-day in the shaping OF human
lives and human life. II has living
quality of its own. II, too, is ward OF
the law, possessing, under that laws
careful provisions, its possessor far
morn than she possesses It. but also
awakening in her sense OF RESPONSE
biliiy that reaches from the past
through the present into the future:
Ctark's Field, that nifty acres of lean.
level land. with its crop OF bricks ana
mortar. its heavy burden OF human
lives, the sacrhcial altar OF our eco
nomic system and our race preJudices~.
ClarI's Field. We pass II night ana
morning OF all the days Of our lives. but
rarely see it--see IL, thar Is. more than
its brick and, mortar and empty faces
"THE WOLF OF GUsBlo.'
A German translation OF Josephine
Preston Peabody's poetic play OF ST.
Francis, The Wolf Of Gubbio." is in