The sun., 1916-11-05
A BOOKMAN EXPLORES "LI7TLE OH
BACDAD ON THE SUBWAY"
Arthur Bartlett Maurices M
Topography Of New York Fiction.

1
| Bartlett Maurice's "The New York OF
the Novelists" editions perennial. \
new edition of this delightful work
has just appeared. Truly a literary
guide book for the great city that o.
Henry whimsicaliy called Little Old
Bagdad on the subway" The author
tells us In his modest introduction
that seventeen years ago he began his
little Journeys around and about the
town. notebook and camera in hand.
not exactly patterning after Martins
Stones Of Paris or Rideings
"Thackeray's London" or Augustus
Hare's invaluable walks In Rome. yet
cumulative OF their labOrs Of love. The
articles appeared serially in the Book
man, of which Mr.. Maurice Is the
editor. The first edition has been long
out OF print and the second was
printed In 1915. Now. with new ma
terial, the third Is before us. and We
hope the editor will not end there. for
the lure of the city IL bringing an
nually fresh eyes and pens to do
Greater New York homage.
Every one with good red blood in
his veins has made in London and
Paris those fascinating pilgrimages to
the fictitious abodes Of the characters
Of Dickens and Thackeray. Balzac and
DE Maupassant. Even the less popu-
lar Flaubcrt has become AN object OF
veneration and the places mentioned
: in his Sentimental Education"-a
vast reconstruction of the Paris Of
'is--or the touch of the real Emma
Bo,ary, are piously visited by ad-
inirers For MIR. Maurice New York
IL shrine worthy Of like worship,
and he has made debtors of all who
believe the same: and their name. We
arc glad to say, II legion. And the
LIST is daily growing. Noisy. dirty.
politics ridden, her mighty tanks
cashed by greed. New York is reborn
daily in the imagination of her lovers.
Walt Whitman has sung her praises.
Charles Dickens has registered years
ago her defects. but there she stands.
Take or leave her. 1t Is all the same
to our Lady Of Towers. Love her as
did -, Henry. to name her latest
0ooer and from that love something
il bound to result Magic, mud. moon
shine. money, misery and multitudes
may lie discovered. as betits the tenn
pcramcnt Of each wooer for her favOrs.
Some men, such as Poe and sydney
Porter found her. as did De Quincy
, oxford street "A strong hearted step
mother" yet contrived to weave from
their defeats a. magic carpet that
transports the reader on the wings of
ina sgination.
MIR. Maurice. who is thorough or
nothing. begins at the beginning. when
the town was young: Washington
Irving. Cooper. Poe and their con-
temporaries. The Battery and Bowl
ing Green and old Wall street. Bun
i-rs New York, are shown, and the
Wall street Of Edwin Lefcvre and
Frank Norris; and in a lesser degree
of Edith Wharton-"The Custom OF
the Country" Wall street. too. vas
visited by Chambers. David Graham
Phillips. George Barr McCutchcon.
Rex Beach. owen Johnson. Samuel
Merwin. Thomas Dixon. 1t IL the most
alluring lane in the wide world. Many
novclists who enter ii emerge without
literary spoils though not always
shorn If their obsession. one painter
"A, least has registered It's golden
glamour: Childc Hassam,
How much fiction there exists in
! which the youthful protagonst sees
the frownng battlementS from the
deck of ferryhoat He may not
shake his fist at the Woolworth Tower
as Rastirnac did when viewing Paris
for the first time. and mutterinG
tme,odramatically like Balzacs sorry
hero: "rhe fights between ue two
now" hut some spirit Of antago-
a al
, bosom of adventuring youth when he
first beholds what may be the home
Of realized ambitions; that is. unless
he takes the Hudson Tubes. as he is
likely To do nowadays: 50 the old
ferry boat j. no longer stage for the
noble gesture. The author slowly
works his way uptown. not forgetting
the Zig canyons II the Money Grub
hing Tribe Park Row Is not slighted.
that journalistic bohemia Of which
Jesse Lynch Williams, Richard Hard
ing Davis. David Graham Phillips and
, the talented stephen Whitman have
told uS 81 much. And when We reach
the name of Edward ". Townsend We
cNclaim: "Chimmie Fadden'" Chin
mic still lives in the memory ~ his
readers Even II the disreputahle old
Five Points has vanished. Mr. Town
send has added to the local portrait
gallery one more strongly individual
lied type, and an amusing one,
Potash and Pcrlmutter have a def
mite locality, and "Wasserbauer's Cafe"
| Is still in existence. Police Headquar-
ters. which has ever intrigued the fancy
OF young newspaper writer's. and Pom
| tins, wherein knotty legal problems
are discussed across the table. are
here. The search for the mysterious
East Side has usually been a pillar
| of fire by night, but a drab cloud by
day. Julian Ralph. Davis, Rupert
Hughes in his exciting Empty
Pockets"and host of novelists have
xplored this region, and like some pearl
| divers the deeper they dived the more
| precious the treasure they brought
to the surface, In the Ghetto sgd
ney I.uska." otherwise Henry Harland
was the pioneer. "As 1t Was Written"
Mrs. PciNada" and THE Yoke OF the
Torch" have yet to he bettered in the
matter OF local color. Sidney Rosen-
field. Abraham Cahan, James Oppen-
| helm. Rupert Hughes. Bruno Lessins
are names that at once occur TO the
! memory as pearl fishers" In those
dusky waters. Such artists as George
Luks. Jerome Myers, William G.
Glackens, John Sloan, Eugene Higgins
and numerous new men have por-
trayed the East Side with sympathetic