New-York tribune., 1916-07-29
THE THIRTEENTH COMMANDMENT


THE THIRTEENTH COMMANDMENT A novel
By Rupert Hughes. Illustrations by James Mont
somery FlAss. limo. pp. 500. Harper Bros
This story is "up TO the minute"
While other American authors have
been busy with tales of the war in
Europe. Mr.. Hughes is on the spot with
the first full-length picture of the war
in America. Here are war babies"
here is a rushing review Of the frantic
business and speculation which were
the first results of the tragedy across
the waters. Big business. this. OF
new. an unexpected kind, on an un-
precedented scale--reckless, feverlsh,
gambling at its widest. 1t is all here,
the empty factories bought for a song
turned into gold mines overnight, the
options, the deals, the tricks, the au-
dacity. the foreign agents lining their
pockets, the shady woman haunting
financiers, the advantage taken OF un-
preparedness, inefficiency and muddle,
the circus of Wall Street with its be-
wildering booms, its sudden fortunes,
its completeness made on a shoe
string" II is a whirling picture OF
frantic period.
But Mr. Hughes starts his story
further back than this, in the two lean
years which preceded the war and
which brought us TO the verge OF a
panic. It was largely psychological
we were told, but its symptoms were
alarmngly real. This was the right
time for keeping the thirteenth com
mandment. which is "Thou shalt not
spend more than thou earnest But
Daphne Kip becomes engaged to
Young man who runs into debt courting
her and who buys the engagement ring
on credit Her father. badgered by her
mother. takes a second mortgage on
the house in order to provide funds
for her trousseau. with the cost OF an
elaborate wedding in prospect to de-
press him still further. There certainly
is a psychological reaction in his case
from the hard times, in which he can
barely keep his head above water.
Daphne and her mother proceed to
New York to buy the outfit. They re-
ceive the expert assistance OF the eX-
travagant Mrs. Kip, jr They rrevel IN
Creation" in gowns, in llngerie Au
Bonheur des Dames"-and then Daphne
revolts. She has taken 1t Tor granted
that her fance can afford the luxuries
with which he already surrounds her;
she learns the truth. She has never
tHOuRnL
worries. But now, suddenly, her eyes
are opened 10 the luxurious parasitism
she sees all around her, and she re-
volts. She breaks eff the match, intent
on making herself economically inde-
nendent. in order that she may meet
the man she will marry on equal terms
in marriage.
This is the main thesis Of the story.
Nr Hughes rushes US through all the
fevers of shopping, through all the
temptations OF feminine raiment,
through all the excitements OF the
New York that lives regardless Of the
thirteenth commandment without
thought OF the morrow. Daphne seeks
a career on the stage, and fails at the
very outset. She addresses envelopes,
she works for a while for one OF those
"de luxe" publishing concerns which
offer for sale "unexpurgated" editions
of European masters who require no
expurgstion. She has the pretty young
woman's usual experiences in seeking
70 earn her livelihood. A rich man
tempts her, then falls in love with her,
then aids her TO establish herself IN
business-there is an indirect trace of
parasitsm in this. after all, since he
would never help a man in the same
circumstances-and in the end Daphne
truly feminine 20 the last, establishes
herself in a little shop, where she sells
all the lures of lingerie and laccs
which, she knows from her own expert
ence, are the chief lure that leads 10
the breaking of the thirteenth com
mandment. She is received TO sell
them at moderate prices, however.
Mr. Hughes has the knsck OF gallop-
ing his readers through his novels al
top speed. Once they begin to read
they rarely stop until the end is
reached. SO with this book. There is
love in it, nd romance, and hard com
mon sense. the froth Of New York and a
glimpse of the sober, serious existence
of the majority Of US as well. The
book is crowded with figures. the mass
of the city is there, and. if the picture
be highly, sensationally colored, in the
retrospect it tones down sufficiently TO
snow the true proportions. And clear
est of all stands out the rapid cinemat-
! ograph OF the whirling war boom
through which the country has just
passed.