The sun., 1916-11-12
By HENRY ROOD.

IRON the time Irving wrote his
immortal 'knickcrbocker" an
L. endless stream OF histories of
Nsv York. have poured forth from an
almost endless company of authors.
The great city has been treated as q
whole, its multitudinous activities.
social. political. financial and other.
have been recorded in detail, until the
average man long ago had the impress
sion that there was left uncovered no
phase in the life and progress Of this
greatest Of American municipalities.
Yet. now comes a new n %origina.
volume by Arthur Bartlett Maurice,
editor OF the Bookmdn. who lays be-
fore the public a fascinating study
entitled 1.-THE New York bf the
Novelists." From the tip end of the
Battery to the upper boundary of Man
haitian, and far beyond he follows m
writer Of fiction after another, locating
neighborhood after neiGhborhood where
scenes OF stories are laid. pointing out
street corners. park benches. individual
residences. cafes. theatres. saloons,
apartment houses and identifying them
with this character or that in wei.
known novels. setting down many IN
interesting anecdote concerning the
authors themselves.
In former times. the days when
Irving. Cooper. Poe. Pauldiug. iIalleck.
Drake and the mad poet McDoaald
Clarke were writing, the entire city
a. then comprised served as the
familiar territory of each so IA" as each
wished To preempt the whole. But
the newer generation Of authors, MIR.
Maurice points out, the men and
women whose trails are the subject of
this rambling book seem in many
instances to have 'staked claims" 10
certain streets or ne.ghborhoods.
Yet there is one striking exception.
"one conqueror of Aladdinlike proper
tons" and he the Hte Sydney Porter,
who wrote under Tho pen name q.
Henry. From enc end of New York to
the other he wandered, like a modern
Haroun al Raschid,' and like other
conquerors in other affairs lie re-
christered the city TO suit his own
taste. He calls 1t Little Old Bagdad
on the Subway: again 1t is Noisy
willie on the Hudson" or THE city OF
Chameleon Changes
Bunner. OF Blessed story and verse
and Of thrice blessed memory To all
who knew him. inherited New York
from his father. his grandfather, his
Sreat-grandfather. 1t was COM
paratively late in life when q. Henry
+. discovered II. came here to reside
ana TO die. making it his " and
loving its Kaleidoscope phases as have
rev not born to the atmosphere. lie
lived here but a few brief years. vet
during those years turned out work
81 q quality and of a quantity little
lSes than astonishing. and while living
In bed a few minutes before the end
came. surrounded by a few ~ those
VINO cared deeply. he w~hispe,cd:
Pull up the sha'"s-I don't wan,
to go home Ii. :hc dark"
he longed with all his heart for one
last glimpse of the big city he loved
20 truly. II his wish WAS gratiiied.
or course the very picturesuuenes.
OF the various foreign quarters of thi.
cosmopolitan town has ATTRACTED
dozens and scores of writing folk
whose eye kindled at the color ant
life and movements and quaint aspect of
every street. of every corner, almos,
Of every window of countless tere.
ments and shops. For example. Nor.
man Duncan. whose untimely dealt
q Just been recorded. made TN.
syrian quarter his own years ago
that interesting region in WASHINGTON
street, far down on the lower wes'
side OF Manhattan Island. where III,
Syrian colony has held its own FOL
above a decade past.
He became intimate with LEADING
men OF the colony. formed friendship!
among them, and often disputes wer,
referred TO him for settlement. on
OF the favoritc corners he describe.
and around which he has laid scene.
or his syrian stories has long beei
occupied as n Syrian and American
restaurant, as the public Is INFORMED
by a sign painted on the wall
The number of writer's is Legion
. who have ~cndeavored to lay scenes q
stories as well as of moves 1,
the Wall Street district: but of then
all n stands out proeminent-E Edwin
lie Fevre. perhaps the only author. %
modern times. at least. whose knowl
edge Of finance is comprehensive an,
accurate. Others have tried to la,
E of fiction there. including eve
ouch writer's as Mrs, Wharton, II. W
Chambers and David Graham Phillips
but. says Mr.. Maurice, their in
vasions Of the Street have been a
best vague"
Not so with the imaginative l.
Fevre. the one man Of them all VIII
knows the financial district from tn
inside. lie made his first strikin,