New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-12
VIEWS AND REVIEWS
OF CURRENT FICTION
A Realistic Study of the Dutch Farmers in Michigan
A Creepy Tale of Mystery-An English Novel
with Victorian Flavor-Other Reviews
BRAN OF THE FIVE CORNERS.

BRAN OF THE FIVE CORNERS.
BRAN or THE FIVE CORNERS. b. Am9h
Muldsr. l2mo. pp. 366. Chicago a I. NC
Clurg q Co.
Mr. Mulder is the latest accession TO
the ranks of fiction writers who depict
for US the life of our immigrants on
the road toward assimilation. JUST
now Montague Glass leads them. sue
cessor to Myra Kelly, who first discoV-
cred the humor and the sentiment oil
our Jewish East Side. There IS no
humor in Mr.. Mulder's book, little SEN
timent, and no picturesqueness OF
dialect He is tremendously in earnest
and we'll he may be, for the picture
which he draws Of the reactionary, Cd
scurantist ideas that rule the Dutcn
farmers in their settlements IN Mlch-
igan startles one with the magnitude OF
the task of Americanizing even de-
sirable" immigrant group. In their
attitude toward modern life these
Dutch farmers belong to the PERIOD OF
the Synod of Dordt. To them cleft
palate, clubfoot, epilepsy and idiocy
are evidences Of the omnpotence OF
the Deity; all efforts to make LIE pet
ter and happier, impious challenges
of that divine attribute. they are
dour. intolerant Calvinists, whose ter
rible doctrines the modern spirit mas
not touched. "Evolootion" is the enemy,
"humanisme" an abomination. Iheir
daily lives are ruled by the consistory
of their church, which has the power
of minor communication. ana the
extreme fanatics among them dream OF
the establishment in this country OF
theocracy on the model of Calvin's
Geneva. II is an appalling picture
which Mr.. Mulder draws of the blind
ness and bitter opposition to progress
of these people among US, who give the
law no trouble, who are frugal, hard
working. honest. economically de-
sirable."
They are passing, these transplanted
followers of the Dutch theocratlc dem
agogue. Dr. Abraham kuyper. Ihelr
children and their children's children
will fall in line with the mighty up
ward movement OF modern America
but there they are, belated by forty
wears, stubbornly continuing the long
lost battle of ignorant piety against
science. Mr.. Mulder deserves credit
for the courage of his realism.
His hero is a Dutch farmers SON.
studying for the ministry. destined to
occupy the Calvinist chancel ii the
Michigan village of his birth. While
still a student he becomes engaged to
the daughter of neighboring farmer.
! The man is a defective; the girl herself
is weak minded to a certain degree. Sne
| is. the author tells US, high grade
"moron." Her mental development
stopped when she was sixteen years
old. The young man learns to doubt
/ his Calvinistic upbringing at college;
he sees the light of the sclentihc mean
ing of the visitation of the sins OF the
: fathers upon their children; ne De-
comes a euoenist, and breaks his en-
cagement alter an inner struggle OF
poignant intensity. 1t means break
with all his early associations win
his mother even, and the closing OF ms
career in the Church, for the SYNOD OF
. MlddelDufg QeCECNu III iVoi N'
breaking of an engagement IS SIN
against the Seventh Commandment. II
is incredible in this year 1915. but we
must take MIR. Mulder's word for IT,
. And so his hero becomes a journalist
and breaches daily to alert thousands
instead of once a week to a few nun
dred living in darkness and refusing TO
be led TO the light.
Mr.. Mulder writes we'll. He might
have chosen the easier path of the
humor and the romance of immigra-
ton and perhaps have gained an easy
popularity. One doubts if his eX-
ample will find followers; 1t does
not pay. The quality Of his work. so
much superior to that of his first book
leads one to hope that, like his hero
he will leave the Dutch farming settle
ments in Michigan behind him and turn
to the depletion of American life. he
is a courageous realist.