New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-23
NEW YORK RAMBLES
The City's Fiction and Its Local
HabitatiOnS

THE WV YORK or THE NOvUIsrs IS
Arthur Bartlett Maurice. Illustrations. '7o ~
xxi. 500. podo Mead Co
Seventeen years ago Mr. Maurice be
gan his wanderings about New YORK
under the guidance Of It's novelists and
short-story tellers. He gave US New
York in Fiction" long since out Of
print. a book well worth watching Tor
an the auction rooms for many reasons.
For New YORK Is shifting and changing,
expanding and disappearing as RAPIDLY
in It's fiction as in real life; and its
rovelists are being forgotten almost az
readily as are the torn-down landmarks
with which their stories were assocl-
ated. This is, perhaps. but anotner
way Of saying that the city has not YET
found its Dickens or Ihackeray. IT'S
Bslzac or even it, Eugene Sue. but u
also means that these authors, winning
only temporary, and that a brief I'M
mortality. will prove Of enormous ser
vice 20 some future historian OF New
York. And Mr.. MaErice's books. when
that historian comes 20 write that his
tory. will be OF incelculable service 70
him in tracing the material FOR his re-
construction a life that is past.
In this new pilgrimage Of his Mr.
Maurice briefly reviews IN an introduc-
tory chapter the field covered IN his
earlier volume. and chooses Henry
Cuyler Burners stories as his new
point Of departure. Bunner himself,
We discovered with some surprise
few months ago. when the MesSrs.
Scribncr brought cut a new edition oil
his delightful stories. needed an intro
duct:on. and some explanation, 20 a
new generation; and Mr.. Maurice won
ders. and with good reason. 20 how
many Of that new generation even
Cnimmie FadGen is an unknown per
sonage. one is tempted TO compile 2
catechism Of fctional New Workers
from this book: "Who was Catherine
Lsuderdale ." And. by the way. Why
aoes Mr. Maurice. IN his discussion OF
tha, forgotten novelist Of New York,
Edgar Fawcett. omit all reference 10 his
The Evil that Men Do one OF the
first OF our studies Of the Lower East
Side. palpably written under Zola's in
huence. r. was the most successful OF
his books. and the best. He was al ad-
mirable poet and only mediocre nov
elis,. but "a n chronicler OF certa IN
phases Of New York lie al a certain
period his stories have abiding value.
To those whose business Is with
books this volume * necessarily sug-
gcstive. recalling many vanished mem
cries. u brings 10 the fore. also time
and again. the puzzle OF the fortunes OF
the novelist There were the strange
adventures Of Theodore Dreiser's Sis
ter Carrie" for instance, IN It's New
York chapters one Of the greatest con
tributions 10 the fiction of the city ever
written. And why did the city receive
- D. a
Whitmans "Predestined. with an
apathv which the unanimous enthu-
sissrn Of the reviewers could not move
Mr.. Maurice. one OF the oldtmers.
fingers regretfully around the van
ished Washington Square. 50 infinitely
more picturesque, because 10 was spon-
fqneous. than the Greenwich Village o.
the hour with its poses. He remem-
bers the Grand Natel and the IaYerne
Alsacienne. he shares the lingering
fondness Of all OF Us who knew II iof
the region where Janvicr found his
picturesGue material The quarter
waning began with the opening OF the
Black Gait became self-consciously
bohemian. And nowhere, except III
lanes l. Ford. have we ever seen a
reference 20 Billy Mould's in Univer-
si+v Place. as much and as truly DO
bemian centre as the famed EngeFs
further uptown.
But We are lingering in q past that
will never return. o. Henry IS the ne
tionis. Of New York par excellence Tor
,he present moment. Myra Kelly 5
Little Citizens" have graduated INTO
lie cloak and suit trade: Abe and
Tawrusg are having their day and
,beir imitators. And, sign OF me times
the woman at work is beginning 70
forge 10 the front in this newer Ne"
Vorl: Of the novelists with an inMst-
ence unknown in the earlier GAYS,
Then. consciously or not, balEse :
Rastignac defying Paris IRON 'ne
heights Of Pere La Chaise was ~
manv American guises, the protason's'
Of this fiction. ,.co
Seventeen, fifteen. ten years nehSI
Mr. Maurice will have ample ma'eria'
for n third Of those welcome vo!nhles.
let us hope that by that time the gres'
noyolist will have arrived who, u ohis
Cor a Aeeting moment will gather IN
his pages not only the infinite variety
hut also the pondeTOus, crushing. rser-
nanent. ever increasing mass OF ,n,e
yiant city. juggernaut both and Go'd-
en- portal 20 the heights.
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