The sun., 1919-08-03
A First Novel
Full of Business

he other DAY surgeon READ us MS
l. first poem and all we could find to
say was that it showed great love Of the
woods. Mr.. Henry G.. Aikman's first
novel, The Groper, shows great love of
business and does not, as do most business
novels, confne itself to one line. Dry
goods, real estate, automobiles and a smat-
tering of advertising and speculation go
to make it one of the most completely
commercial novels of recent years. Lee
Hillquit is the hero's name, and fine
name it is for the purpos,. H. is young
visionary about to start for the city when
the story opens, and although the balance
of our attention is held toward the bust
ness end, there is enough human interest
to save Mr.. Altman from ruin in his
earliest fctional endeavor.
Lee is not made to bite the dust He has
a small allowance from his mother, which
saves him from clinging to bakery win
dows and falling into the bread line, but
he does come near enough to actual want
to show how little earnest effort and up
right character, ideals and latent ability
help in tight places. His friends desert
him. College mates refuse him help when
he needs to be helped and lead him astray
when he doesn't need that; his love affair
comes to a tragic end and his mother, of
course, dies. There are not more than two
or three cases on record where the mother
of hero in a business novel lives beyond
the middle of the book Luck seems to be
against Lee until he meets wealthy young
widow who inserts him as link in her
chain of lovers and sets him up in her dry
goods establishment, where he is able to
work off some of the enthusiasm which
has been frustrated by lack of oppor-
tunity.
Hereafter follows long mixture Of
business and society. Lee ploughs ahead
until there has grown up gigantic for
tune on the foundation of his distasteful
affair with his benefactress. The fruits of
success are both sweet and sour. Friends
who once cut him publicly cringe at his
slightest word. He begins making ad-
dresses to young men ON ''How to Sue
coed" and establishes an automobile COM
pany which he insists upon having named
after himself. This was at the time of
the tremendous automobile boom in De-
troit, when, as Mr.. Aikman says, "the
uld-have-put-money Ford COM
pany individuals waxed as prevalent as
Mayflower ancestors" On the day when
the first Hillquit touring car was finished
Lee decided upon a triumphal tour of the
city, and at a hoarse blast from the fac
tory whistle prepared to make his start:
at was purely incidental that Lee could
not, for TIE life of him, make the ear
bulge. The newspapers were induced to
make no mention of the fact and the NOV
ing picture photographers obligingly
Killed their film from the point where Lee,
at the conclusion of the preliminary cere-
monies, resumed his top hat and clambered
into the refractory automobile"
Rather a nice bit of satire, and useful
as indicating the direction of the wind.
The automobile company failed provi--
dentially and Lee was new man, having
had the big, SOLDERING smashup which every
man needs. The widow had already been
disposed of, and he selected a running
mate fit for the job, and, having finished
cropping, prepared to do battle with life in
clear eyed earnest.
THE GROPER. BY HENRY G. AIKMAN.
Roni &, Tlivnrioht