New-York tribune., 1920-10-31


ations of energy. Over the river fussy
little tugs were trotting to and fro,
low dragging great lines Of barges,
now plotting some gigantic liner to its
appointed place, now patronizingly
shouldering a schooner or barkcntine
to its slip. And there were tendrils
cf vapor in the ali like fleece torn
from clouds by the hurricane, and a
hcoting and rumbling and shrieking
from the whistles of boats. And across
the river, in lower New York, we're
the great buildings where men worked,
like hives of industrious honeybees.
Tl.en, further off, was Fifth Avenue, in
the daytime a broad, dignifed street,
beautiful as q Venetian canal. And
down Fifth Avenue uripped the hand
soonest women in the world, dressed
as smartly as Viennese, and with gilt
tering, hard faces"
Yes, the day of the telephone and the
acioplane came at last.
But this novel is far removed from
| he New York Of the materialist. The
anrest and fever of the big town are
admitted to its chapters only as they
serve as stimulants that actuate GER
tain characters in the coil of the plot.
Dom Byrne Is, in way, a jeremiah.
1t is not difficult TO find in his de-
nunciations sentences that are He
braic, fundamentally Biblical in flavor.
How readily he slips into the phrase,
"she would have accounted 1t to her
self for righteouness," and with what
an intensity Of animosity does he lash
out, in another mood, at wife who
counts silver against fidelity or well
comes divorce
The Bohemian swarm in the little
h'ghways and hyways around Washing
ton Square constitutes for him "a pinch
beck Latin Quarter" and, in a rapidly
moving characterization Of New York
from the days of Hendrick Hudson,
a'ways picturing her as woman, he
brings US at last to portrayal in
words that glare with q vindictivc
anathema that PAGES in speed with the
ferocity Of Ezekiel in his most bitter
moments.
1t was woman, the splendid Annis
Fraser, who saw New York as huge
magnet Of danger. Byrne's thesis in
this novel is based on the immutability
of righteous marital life. Divorce, q
horrid thing to the thought Of the Min
gotts and the Wellands OF 1870, had
become In 191o-an approximate date
( for the opening Of this novel-iust
ar easy sidestcp to other arms and
er erdearments. Tho whole fabric Of the
honored relation Of man to woman Is
csumbling, so Byrne implies, and Now
York is the crazy temple Of the acolytes
Of infidelity. All through his pages he
gives us whiffs Of pure Connecticut
air, apple blooms and scent Of lilacs,
suggesting the inference that the coun-
try is the native soil Of honor and the
sure refuge for the poor soul who
would escape the snare Of the de-
spoier.
The Foolish Matrons is remarkably
clever book. Our phrase hints at per
sonsiity, and the novel has It to q
marked degree. Annis Fraser, retired
actress, happily married to the famous
surgeon, Ian Fraser, whose life is one
L7broken song. draws to herself, mo-
roentarily, Georgia Wayne, Sheila Hop
kns and Sappho Shores.
The three are brought into the color
OF the Fraser drawing room, primarily.
in way Of introduction to the reader.
and, secondarily, that the peace and
contentment Of u real home NAV pro-
Jet their own sordid stories to come
against pure, answering backg round
Georgia Wayne, tickle little woman, al
ways wanted the glitter and the whis-
pers of adulation Of Broadv ay-she
loathcd life in Brooklyn or the wilds
Of Jersey-and ended by losing her
husband and everything but furtive
existence Of the pavements Shcila,
newspaper Sheila, captured a poet, a
real man, broke his heart and killed
him, because she too loved New York
and saw nothing in the lilacs Of New
J Canaan, Conn. And Sappho Shores,
crstwhile Philadelphia cloak model. got
! her millionaire who helped her to f.
, nance a semi-Bolshevist sheet and es-
: tcblish a cheap salon in her home, q
futile gathering Of snivcllng poets and
gap-eyed reformers; all to end in the
) entree Of mountebank Jew and the
. downfall of Sappho.
! The contrast between tho prose OF
a Edith Wharton and that of Dom Byrne
{ is as vivid as that between a smoothly
e flowing, determinate river and rush
n ing, tearing mountain stream. In 8
= way, the two reflect the currents OF
e life Of periods half century apart. L
: is wise to set over against one an
= other the placid, matured style of Sill
d preme artist in words and construction
y and the buoyant, assertive, CHALLENGING
r method in fiction Of a young autho,
5 who is sure to give US big books. Fo,
G there Is no mean skill in the hand tina,
e carved out the men and women OF
f The Foolish Matron.
e Goshen Street
'' 4 REFRAIN from Dom Byrnc'.
~ novel floats over into the pages
Of Wayland Wells Willams's
Goshen Street (Stokes), the scent o,