New-York tribune., 1919-07-19
rom ather to Son
Mary S. Watts Dissects
Life of Amuent America

FROM FATHER TO SON. By Mary s
Watts Published b. the Macmillan
Company.
Shall ia I leave my money to my chill
THE American Magazine, for Anonst
The question has come up before and
the majority of uneasy inouirers come
10 the same conclusion reached bv this
wrlter-namely, that inherited wealth
stagnates a boys ambition. blunts his
energy and ruins his opportunity for
individual success.
Mrs. Watts, in her most recent
novel, again stirs up the inheritance
problem, but this time the question
hinges not on the disposal but upon
1he source of the family income. The
fudd Chemical Company, of which the
present heads are Lawson Rudd and
ms ms brother Elihu, has swung down
INTO an important place in business
annals from rather questionable
start as Rudds Specific and later
Rudd's Metaderma.
When young Steven Rudd. son Of
Lawson, discovers that grandfather
David swlndled the government and
caused the death of several innocent
people by manufacturing patent medi-
cines containing fake qunine, he up-
bralds the present heads of the con-
Germ for handling tainted money, ducks
from under the family roof and goes
TO New York to earn a living as
writer.
Fortunately, the war intervenes and
he and his father affect a last.minute e
reconciliation, and the book ends with
his sailing. How Steven eventually
solves the matter of retribution for
Grandfather David's sins we are left
to puzzle out for ourselves. Obviously
the dead cannot be brought to life, nor
IS there any way of determining just
how much money was made through
the sale of the false quinne. All Of
which Lawson Rudd quietly and sem
slbly points out to his son.
If our interest in Mrs. Wattss novel
depended upon this meagre apology
for a plot we should lay the book
for war novel we should again be
doomed to disappointment, for not
until page 208 does the year 1914
appear, and not until page 24O do we
read that "into the midst of this
bright, careless summer life dropped
the news of the war"
1t Is rather the writer's unusual
ability for accurately and realistically
plcturlng the intimate and normal de-
tails of a certain class of people in
their everyday living that gives her
oooSs their interest. In From Father
to Son" We feel, perhaps, that Mrs
Watts optimistically sees business
methods and standards improving
from one generation to another We
are glad to see she feels this way:
but we merely politely acquiesce in
the details she points to make the
matter obvious. What we do become
enthusiastic over is her ability to
make us not only see but feel the
things that an affluent American
family are feeling from 1910 to the
spring of 1918.
With mcticulous regard for small
details that never tend to tedious
reading, Mrs. Watts describes the
fashionable wedding OF two daughters
in the Rudd family, the conscience
stlrrings of young Steven, life at
fashionable Journeys End and in
earnestly profe ssonal New York. The
skill with which the rather large num-
Der of characters are individualized
IN the book is amazing. If there can
be said to be heroine, it is lean,
coldly efficient Ethel Rudd whose
executive genius is never more ad-
mirably pictured than in her handling
OF her separation from a German hus-
band. That we persisted in suspect
ing this husband of being a German
secret agent was perhaps more our
own fault than Mrs. Wattss. Intro
duced to him as an officer in the Ger
man army, at work in Washington, we
were quite unprepared to see him drop
into the background as a mere moral
rotter.
Mrs. Lawson Rudd and her shallow
daughter Hester are we'll drawn types
of pretty, unintelligent society women
of the kind whose "cardinal principle
was never to be anything but softly
appealing acquicscent and opinionless
IN the company of man, even hus-
band, even a father-and to go their
own way aftcrward, was their golden
rule"
The most interesting character in
the book is Lawson Rudd, disappointed
N his sons break from the old family
business, scrupulously honest himself,
sane, sensible and peculiarly SYM
pathetic. Eugene Rudd, lovable
waster with more good in him than
bad, is close second in winning the
lik ng of the reader.
The book has little plot 1t is Il
long and leisurely written characteri-
zation of the members of a typical
American family of means, and the
authors careful analysis of everything
from tea to a war wedding leave the
the reader we'll acquainted with the
people of her novel. N. M.