Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-09-16
ACTRESS-SUFFRAGIST
WRITES VIVID NOVEL
OF MARITAL CONFLICT
peatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale
Makes Her Bow as Fiction
Writer in "The Nest
Builder"
OTHER RECENT FICTION

=. a. a pleasure 20 find that Beatrice
..-n.s- robertson Hale is as excellent
--.,.- AZ fiction as she Is suffragist. and
.c,re.s. Her nrst novel. The Nest
,..ua.rr frederick A Stokes Company.
-.,,,srkablv free of the faults 10 COM
- a. the great mass OF modern romance.
@'tc ~ ,he contrary. has several excellencies
@r<,v found in any but the very best.
ctessn Byrd an artist with the typical
@Pohernian temperament" falls IN love with
~ msrrles Mary Elliston. a home lover.
es.fan is captivated and held mainly by
s.-,v's physical beauty. but this does not
-&.. n tie sufficiently strong 20 counter
n nee the spiritual struggle between their
.r,dsly diverse temperaments. -Marys
Z -,sternai and domestic Instincts are entirely
s,-s,~r 10 stefan's love OF a winged life"
Nrs Hale develcpes this conflict splen-
rsi,c,ty Berber, an exotic being who de-
.,rn. gowns and dances when she is not
~, in1v is the influence under whose
sr.ll stefan is kept from Mary. Stefan
"a. IN Felicity the piquancy which he
s,~sss in his more gentle wife. STILL he
a not at all under any delusion as to the
vsiatiye worth of the two women. Later,
through logical movement OF events,
Wary and Stefan are reunited. The author
,n,rht have obtained a more tragic end
~ had she stopped with Part ~.
The suffrage cause Is represented by
remittance Eliot, q truly remarkable per-
vnouthpiece with which to expound her
.vtsvs Of the feminist movement. The
~vonan's viewpoint is everywhere apparent,
A the emphasis laid upon events, In the
sonversation and IN the character building.
.-rners is q mob in every city ready
20 joIn with the strikers and get their
nav in robbery" wrote q well-known
American during the height Of the In
dustrlai upheaval of 1871. which oc-
casioned riot and bloodshed In many OF
the large manufacturing centers, not ex-
Guiding our own normally tranquil Phila-
de!phIa Even this emphatic utterance
apparently gave no clue to the authorship
of a social study" in the form OF novel
which appeared anonymously not long
sfterward as a magazine serial.
when In 1883, the story was published
m book form, the name OF IT'S creator
was still sedulously guarded. Many were
the guesses ventured by literary critics
as 70 responsibility for The Breadwin-
.lners" Years passed before general
agreement was reached that no less
distnguished citizen than John Hay was
the author of this vivid social study"
Mr. Hay never acknowledged that he
wfots -'the Breadwinners," although the
veil of secrecy was virtually lifted long
before his death.
Tho edition Just from the press of
Harper a Bros, New York. II lacking the
piquant favor Of anonymity that marked the
earlier productions, nevertheless has a real
interest by reason OF the fact that for the
nrst time "The Breadwinners" bears upon
Ne title page the name of its distinguished
author. The story. needless to say. has
<et none of the vivacity that made FOR
M popularity more than generation ago.
10 Republication at this time seems par
ticuarly appropos in view of the strain
the country has been under at the prospect
Of a general railroad strike, which for a
time threatened national calamity.
There is an Introduction by Clarence
Leonard Hay, son of the author, who
explains that the story is not directed
against organized labor, but is rather
protest against the diserganization and
demoralization OF labor by INSCRIPTIONS
leaders and politicians. The love rornace
that llghtens the tale is dainty clean and
refreshing as of yore.
There is a "reminiscences. though not a
conscious imitation, of Earnest Pooles
The Harbor". in Oscar Graeve's The Keys
Of the City" (The Century Company, New
York;. The city in both these fictions by
the younger novelists Is Manhattan. This
Is, however, Mr.. Graeve's first noval his
work heretofore having been confined to
the short story. and the magazines. The
Keys OF the City" has the spontaneity and
anjaded vigor which naturally belong to
nrst novel written by man who has some
thing TO say and who has served an ap-
:. premiership at his craft. II has structural
nrmness almost without limitation and II
has story. the story OF boy and girl
who have grown up within sight of New
York and who IN their growth have dreamed
OF what the metropolis holds in store for
Them. The novel tells the heartbreaks. the
bitterness. the disappointments. the COM
plexities Of business: love and life.
Walter A. Dyer has followed his
gracious and sympathetic 'Pierrot; Dog
or Belgium" with a collection Of stories
about dogs. Tho book takes title from the
opening tale. "Gulliver the Great" (The
Century Company. New York;. Sometimes
one dog is the subject OF Mr.. Dyer's story,
sometimes there are several dogs and
occasionally the human element enters. but
not obtrusiveiy or inartistically. Those who
nave loved the canine classics. "Rab and
HIS Friends" Sand onida's "A Dog OF
Flanders." not TO mention Marshall saund-
efss sentimentalized but pretty little novel
about dog. Beautiful joe" win like
MT Dyer's kennel of dog tales.
On almost all the seven seas cruise the
sailors who fisure In the short stories
eohected by James b, Connolly in his new
DOCK, Head Winds" (Charles Scribners
sons, New York;. Mr. Connolly has re-
captured some OF the rapture and sweep
OF the sea found In his "Out OF Gloucester"
In the yarns OF Down River" located on
inc mississippi; "colors." located at Vera
.rnz; and The Trawier." the Golfers
sseVv prize story War correspondents.
movie men and others appear In these
stories, as well as the sailors In whose deeds
ana psychology the author IL 50 expert