The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-10-09

N II against the wickedness Of Wall
Street that Owen johnson feels called
upon to preach In Making Money
Frederick A. Stokes Company. His
hero has a soul above his fathers
business. With three classmates he
discusses, soon after graduation. their
real ambitions; three Of them wish
Tor power ana aim to obtain money
quickly. The hero enters a brokers'
sffioe. where under the protection Of
. great speculator he first gains and
then loses. bringing disaster on his
friends. This reforms him: he takes
the approved cure Of starting all over
again as a laborer In a machine shop.
He also ang his affairs of the
heart by transferring his affections
from the SPECTATORS worldly daugh-
ter to her younger and more impul-
sive sister. Then there il a panic
IN which the Spectator is ruined
through his wife's selfshly refusing
" uIu iiltI Will tUC U1outy bt ItS
settled on her. and the hero decides
to enter his fathers factory. as he
should hav one at the start. In
spite Of the ~commonplaces against the
methods of Wall Street and the mis-
deeds Of capitalists. many not very
interesting financial operations and
various impressionistic descriptions Of
New York life. the tone and construc-
ton recall Mr.. Johnson's carly school
tales. 1t is a marked falling of from
sThe Salamander."
The first part Of Bertha Runkle's
"Straight Down the Crooked Lane"
(The Century Company. with the
sincere and impulsive child. her
worldly mother. her amiable step
father and the mystery is very prom
lsing. We care less for the young
woman when she ROW up and mar
ries suddenly. II rather resent being
dragged 70 the Philippines. There her
domestic troubles seem pretty arti-
fetal and her husbands jealousy
wholly u~nwarranted. He subsequently
acts like a lunatic. which nay TT in
with the Philippine setting hut Is
puzzling to readers unaccustomed TO
army manners. To set matters right
the scene is transit .red to Japan,
where the conduct Of the heroine he
comes still more incoherent. though
the author arbitrarily explains every
thing. The story is readable and sew
eral of the people interesting: IL is
n pity that instead of developing them
and holding to her plot the author
should have made room for her i'm
pressions Of travel.
An amusing idea is worked ont IN
tertainingly. wholly apart from the
moral it in Grace Livingston
Hill Lutz's THE Obsess!on of Victoria
Gracen" 81. II. Lippincott Company.
A wealthy middle aged spinster in a
Quiet Pennsylvania town decides 10
take into her home her nephew. a
pretty rough sixteen-year-old boy
brought up in the streets Of Chicago.
She sees at once that she can do notn-
ing with him unless she enters into
his life and that of the companions he
makes. who are the boys Of the worst
reputation in town. So she joins IN
their amusements and takes up their
ways, TO the scandal of her inquisitiNe
neighbors, but she reaches the better
instincts of the boys M straightens
them out. The heroine is charming
and her sharp tongued friend is anus
ing, but the boys are painfully angelic
and virtue triumphs ostentatiously,
The Mexican muddle IL bad enough
rs It Is without being complicated by
Notion. and 1t detracts from the inter
est of Rex Beach's Heart Of the Sun
-, ~..k v>t,o Nya0i,aaS xnhn ~,
pear in the ale are N old friends the
greasers, boastful. ~trcacherous and
sanguinary. but unable to cope with
the Intelligence and Drawn OF the noble
xringo. Chief among them Is "A comic
opera bandit who makes love, murders
snd rohs with equal facility and who
IL fciled al last. The heroine ~ u
decidedly obstinate young woman with
q. mania for getting into dangerous
situations from which she must he
rescued, whose domestic life is made
unhappy by "a husband who deteri"-
rates rapidly. The energetic hero is
Ioubled bv the dread of hereditary
Insanity. In the end everything m
out right with some violence. The
author SO, nis to have exaggerated no.
tions ahou, lercdity and Ia find So
cicty on the TcSas border unattrac-
tive.
There is nothing hut trouble and
unplcasantness in Florence Morse
Kingsley Tho Heart of rhilura"
GDodd, Mend and Company. which
will hc regretted lay those who have
liked the heroine ana her friends. only
tho level headed d~reSsmakcr comes
ont unspoilcd and human. philura
after marriage is troubled Ivy jealousy
% her husbands first wife and by n
morbid craving for n baby. why the
author does not give her ono in the
natural way We cannot make ont. her
dcpriving her of tho one she manages
tn obtain is wantun cruelty. when
the reader Is not occupied with 'hc
sordid tragedy of the strange family
in the farmhouse II" must dread that
q simple girl may 60 wrong and for
relief listen In tho unusually III ma
cured gossip Of the village women.
Something seems to have soured the
author and made her rend her handi-
work.
An abnormally imaginative and de-
cided little girl makes all her elders
what h wishes in Emily Calvin
Rlake's "Suzanna Stirs the Fire" "a. !
r. McClurg and Company. C~hicago). !
She has a little sister and brother.
-. 90 ,atl ALltl... .-.I-. |