The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-05-15

Mr.. London wipes them and ali ciy,li-
zation out at one blow by means Of
n pcStilence and tells what becomes Of
the remnants Of humanity in Cali
fornia. These revert to barbarity with
great speed The authors Imagination
evolves various brutal scenes Of the
disaster and the subsequent read1ust-
ment.
The imagination of Arthur Train |
contents itself with settling the Eu-
ropean war in The Man who Rocked |
the Earth" doubleday, Page and Com
pany). This, we regret TO say, Is ac- |
complshed by terror, an unknown |
scientific man accomplishing some ex. !
traordinary feats by means which, we
imagine, are as unintelligible to the |
author as he makes them to the
reader He turns after a while from
the ]. Verne and II. G. Wells style TO
the description Of trip through the
wilds OF Labrador. He seems To have
a lamentably poor opinion Of Germans.
1t is vivid piece of heart breaking
realism, a picture of misery with no
relief, that Patrick MacGill offers in
| The Rat-Pit" George II. Doran Com
panD. He describes the AFFECT pow
erty OF Donegal peasants, starved and
| half naked. working fourteen hours
for three cents a day and cheated and
bullied by usurers. The unfortunate
girl whose story he tells drifts with
her companions to Glasgow in search
of work; there she lives in the lowest
of slums. is powerless against violence.
IL driven to the streets and dies in
consequence of "A brutal assault by
thieves. The only mitigation to the
gloom II the kindness of the sufferers
toward each other and the girls gem
tleness. The book is written with ar
tistic skill: II shows the lowest depths
OF wretchedness in the most degraded
part of Great Britain, the misery that
even rcformers cannot hope to help.
In THE Double Traitor" little
Brown and Company Z. Phillips
Oppenheim does his share in stirring
up animosity against Germany. His
real hero is the smooth talking. even
tempered, stout German trldesman.
who has appeared in previous tales and
who. In this case, is the head Of the
spy system in England. He spends
much OF his time in explaining the
German point OF view. He il opposed
| ny Spuhh hlpi'tfitA. WIZ w.
HAYES az no diplomat could. but rather
like the prognathous American college
hero of r. Harding Davis and others.
This young man spends his time in
collecting the information which the
spy kindly drops and trying to trans
init 1t TO British officials. who in
variably refuse to believe him. He
naturally declaims a great deal against
! th..tr 1tyNl ND s.p..
for war In the end he succeeds in
foiiing the German plans when war Is
declared. 1t makes fluent and eX-
citing tale, which may be, as il init
mated on the cover, the best the
author has written.
, Condescenslon is the chief charac-
tei'istic Of the short stories about Can
ada that s. Macnaughtan has entitled
"A Green Englishman" &c. =. Dutton
and Company. Nearly all have to do
with the experiences of Englishmen
IN Canada: these, even when they are
/ rot wholly shftless, are not very
+ adaptable, and II the Canadians treat
, thsm rather. coidly they are perhaps
/ not SO much to blame az the author
. in;lmates they are. TIN. author has
written much more interesting stories.
Z The dog In "Woltine" by y. (Sturgis
and Walton Company Is ny far the
: most intelligent character in the story
! and keeps out OF the mixup the au-
: thor contrives. The heroine Is placed
IN preposterous predicament by the
|, medd,esome Interference Of an over
3 scrurulous lawyer. She gets into a
? worse mess through the authors dis
= Ike Of Tammany politicians end read
+ .ng Of white slave literature. When
V that l. over, however, and the story
- gets back to Maine. IL runs along
{ agreeably and the artificial misunder-
: standing Is cleared up satisfactorily.
u An overdose of humor at the begin
n ming is a handicap 10 the story II now
. an amiabln southern couple settled m
: Colorado IN r.. iiabersham Barnwell's
70 The Gentle Pioneers" Orchard g.
= Badger. Boston,. The author seems
!. much less Interested In describing
Il what happened to The pair than In
= branching on into amusing stories
= ard dissertations about thllEs o. gen
o eral. IL ~ hardly surprising that hs
breaks oil his narrative abruptly IL
. the middle.
" The va" Is the excuse for bringing
J. out again Rene Bazins Les Oberle
= II story of the French frontier in tbs
e war OF 1870 with Prussia, which /,
: jailed In the translation The Children
of Alstce," in The Lotus Library
1Brentano's). This series IL made III
of transla lions OF foreign fiction an,
might well he taken aS a model by
publishers Of English and America
fiction. The volumes are sinai
enn1gh sin into tho nn,>kat. TIN
type IL large and clear, the binding Il
simple; in this form a story is full!
as attractive as in the larger an,
clumsier volumes to which orthodox
taste cllngs,