New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-04-01
THE RVDDER.

rr,r rr-pprn A No,,l with several Hsroes
Hs May Watts. i2mo. ~. i''' Inc "i"'
mll-L Company.
A now novel by Mrs. Watts ia always
the event OF the month in which IL
appcars. She has won secure place
I'm the minds Of serious students OF the
nro0ress OF American fiction because
she always has something 70 say tnat
is worth knowing and weighing. AS a
fenictcr and Interpreter of the lie OF
The nation during the last half century
NJ its DEVELOPMENT she is Illuminating,
SUGGESTIVE and sane. Taking her ma
ferial from the Middle West. she gives
II wider significance. In essence she
is not sectional. She has keen sense
Of humor.
In this new story of hers, az is her
wont. she gives ia glimpse OF three
generations. but she is seriously con-
cerned only with the last two OF them
with the fathers that laid the foun-
dations and built upon them hrmly'
and with their successors. the young
men and women now growing 70 ma
turitv. There is Loring One, the Ice
King Of the growing Ohio town IN
which the scene is laid-a son or the
soil. forceful. square in his dealings, a
man Of Silas Lapham's type. And there
is Nike Dewitt, the Irish peasant lmmi,,
grant who has risen from PICK ana
shovel to successful contracting
concern Of his own:
SIR. Loring. who was plain
man, and Mike Dewitt, who was
another plain man, were talking
together as equals without once
referring to or even remembering
the difference between their bank
accounts or in their manners and
language and social condition,
which, indeed, If brought to their
notice. would have been instantly
dismissed as non-existent or Of no
importance.
Then there are Loring Second, the
huikng college athlete. and Timothy
Dewitt. the son of the immigrant, who
has renamed himself l. Chauncey
Dewitt. Aud in this second generation
class CONSCIOUSNESS begins. Young
Lorirgs contempt for Chauncey is IN
stiuctIve rather than consciously So
cial. and 10 is we'll bestowed. Chaun-
cey's hatred OF him Is mean. since UNI
DERIVING ID there - the mean admira-
tion of mean things. 1t IS as mean as
is his shame of his honest. hard work
ing, simple parents. For through that
one generation of giant building, OF
the matter-of-fact social equality OF
self-made men busy in the making.
social tradition has weakly survived
in that mid-W estern town from the
period before the war. IL is represent
ed by Mrs. Grace, pretty and graceful
and gracious at seventy. She had taken
her millionaire granddaughter 10 Eu-
rome az fifteen, but had brought her
back five years later. "Oh, yes. it Is
all very finished and charming" she
explained. very nice in some WdYs.
but / prefer a country whore the aver
age unmarried man is rather afraid of
rich grill"
And there are the widowed Mrs
Miranda and her two stepdaughters.
one of them the victim Of her soft SELF
ishness masking behind an air OF self
sacrifice; the other, the heroine OF this
story. There ia, perhaps. a little too
much OF Mrs. Miranda. clinging weakly
TO the old social tradition; but then,
Il is upon her that our heroine prac-
tees and perfects her gift OF deadly,
seemingly unconscious repartee. IL is
her only training for matrimony ard
independent life. No wonder that she
makes TWO mistakes marriage with
Lorng Second. and her subsequent brief
intaiuatlon with the windbag Chauncey.
turned labor leader-of the kind that
has never done a days labor, and never
intends 10 do one. lie il pupil of o
ward politician and blackmailer OF
employers. No wonder that the heroine
feels moment OF returning admiration
when her gigantic husband exposes
Chauncey, covers him with ridicule,
and by sheer overwhelming male
rage drives him and his crew Of
strikers away from the EGGPLANT
which they had come TO wreck.
Through Mrs Maranda's degenerate
drunaari brother. her secret cross and
humiliation and her caustic stepdaugh-
ter's favorite topic of honeyed attack.
wo reach the Sums. For already there
are slums iu that humming, prosperous.
progressive mId-Westcrn town. And,
finally. there is Marshall Cook. the
realistic novelist, suave, interested, OBJ
servant. always seeking material and
never failing to find II, least OF all
IN the house of Mrs. Miranda, whose
stcpdaughters are his nieces. This,
Mrs. Watts states on her title-page, is
"a novel Of many heroes" One is puz-
Aled 10 name them, unless II be the
elder Loring and old Dewitt. The book
might as well have been called novel
without a hero.
But there are many rudders in the
story the rudder Of integrity. hard
work and perseverance OF the two older
men. Chauncey's rudder OF sef-seekinC
whatever the means. Mrs. Maranda's
soft. absorbing sehshness. the self
anfrfhee of har older sf.pdanCb,ar - a,
thorough bred quality of the younger To-
the heroine. And there is the novel
n lists fear of Miss Grace's wealth. There
are many more rudderless vessels
IN the book. drifting aimlessly down