The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-12-25

the end all his IL thrown overheard.
the action moves with p~hotoplay
rapidity. suspicion liz shifted from one
to the other every moment till h
author chooses to pick out his guilty
man.
|, ny the preface &c "A Thousand
Faces by Florence Seyler Thompson
and George ". Calvin. NJ. ID. Orchard
q. Badgcr. Boston,. and Ivy a circular
enclosed We are invited to believe that
the instances of m%altreatment OF
patie1ts are typical of what happens
IN Massachusetts asylums. tnfortu-
nately they are accompanied by so
melodr1mat.c a tale of medical perfidy
that belief Is difficult and the character
Of the witnesses IL not unimpeachable.
The story reads much like the tales VI
wrongdoing in converts that a GER
tain portion Of the community favored
at one time. No doubt the testimony
of alienists. like that Of handwriting
experts. has sunk in the public esteem
Of late years, chiefly through their WI
fault. but there is as little doubt. We
imagine, that the vast majority Of the
inmates OF insane asylums are not
IN their right minds. ard that bru-
tally against the patients II h ex-
ception and not the rule. What
wrongs there are must he corrected
by the production Of properly anthem
ticated evidence and not by emotional
fiction.
Branding the heroine as an Irish
and Italian mixture. as Mrs. Camp
bell Praed does with Lady Bridget
in the Never-Never Land tBren-
tano's), hardly accounts for her
fckleness and her butterfly character.
The author regards her as charming,
but pictures her as a sort OF society
parasite. She marries hastily a self
made and pretty brutal Australian
pioneer. attracted apparently by the
~infatuatioN Of modern fiction for prim-
eval characteristics. They go to n
desolate station IN tropical North Aus
| tralta. and live through W. years Of
drought: he becomes rough and care
less to her and she misses her social
| environment. and pleasures. They
part after a violer, quarrel. but make
up again after some years. The reader
would probably wish for more descrip-
TORS OF life and in Australia
and less " the heroine's state OF
mind.
A French Canadian girl living near
a famous shrine is taken up by some
theatrical people and trained To be an
| actress In Patience Warren's "Clouded
Amber Orchard q. Badger), She
succeeds in remarkably short time. re-
mains s~ingularly ignorant Of the ways
| Of the world, becomes infatuated with
- Att. -
young man OF wealth and social posi-
ton. The author describes well va
rioes places that interest her in Flu
rope and on this side OF h water,
though they are immaterial tn the
tale: she makes the first sketch of
her characters distinct but does not
make them act in accordance with II.
Her manager IL n very innocuous VII
lain and tho standard II morals for
the actors Is apparently set 10y per
sonal likes and d!slikes. III story
fails to Justify the interest aroused
at the beginning.
Even through translation and the
bitterness Of his later years the Rabe-
la,sian wit OF Anatole France sparkies
brightly. Save in him IL has COM
pletely disappeared from French liter
ature. He needs more room than the
very short stories allow for in
"Crainauebiile. Putos. Riquet and
Others which WHifred Stephens has
trans ated ,John Lane Company, bu,
the first story is a perfect little tragedy
of humble life and the second an
amusing bit Of psychological satire,
Even the scraps Of Anatole France are
better than what the modern deca-
dents offer. h volume forms part
of Frederick Chapman's complete ed;-
ton in English OF the Works Of
Anatole France"