The New York herald., 1920-01-04
Unusual in Many Ways.

"The Strangers Banquet" (Harpers) is
an unusual novel by Mr.. Dom Byrne, a
writer Of unusual power. IL is unusual IN
many respects apart from the important
one that il is unusually interesting from
beginning TO end. IT is a novel of purpose.
TOO, but the sermon that it breaches is so
interviewer with the action of the story
that it never becomes tiresome. Its theme
is the present labor unrest and its author
shows truthfully the work OF the pro-
fessional labor leaders and agitators in
fomenting discomfort and bringing about
strikes. The novel opens with a descrip-
ton of an old sailor of Hispano-Celtic fea-
lures, long white beard and little gold ear
rings, seated before the fire and talking
reminiscently of the sea as 1t was in his
Younger days, before steam had supplanted
sailing vessels and destroyed the romance
Of that ancient calling. I've sailed many
seas in my time. North and south seas.
east and west ones. From Java Island to
Sandy Hook and from Boston town to San
Francisco" He loves to talk to his daugh-
ter. Derth, of the old clipper ships and
their commanders, OF the Flying Cloud
that made the trip to San Francisco in
eighty-nine days; of the Great Republic,
tho biggest ship of her time; of the Witch
Of the Wave and the Young America, still
remembered by a few who are pot yet
senile.
In his later years Shane Butler Keogh
has given up seafaring to establish great
shipbuiidng plant which will be Inherited
by his daughter and her brother, John.
A most picturesque and interesting char
acter is this old seaman and l almost wept
over his most uptimely taking off at the
age of eighty-seven.
Derith Keogh takes charge of the ship
building yards after her fathers death, for
her brother is an amateur goH champion
with little taste for business. Her faith
full manager Is Angus Campbell and the
experienced reader does not need the
authors statement to scent love afrair
between the two. She enters upon the
work of management with many excellent
idealistic notions about what is due TO
workmen, trying faithfully to carry out
ner fathers injunctions. Indeed. 1t is
rather trying to find an old seaman, the
autocrat of many a quarterback, carry
ing out in later life policy of n most
liberal kind. Trevelyan, n professional
sgitator, educated and bitter at heart,
takes advantage of Derith's idealism to
urge her worlSmen to revolt. Against the
advice OF Campbell she grants one de-
rnand after another. with results that are
Inevitable. Meanwhile, her brother John
has married Il vulgar, ignorant, fortune
hunting young woman, and the two are
living in New York so that she may in
dulge her passion for a gay life Her in
Inmates are moving picture actor of the
hurnblest British origin, whom she be-
lieves to be an Earl in disguise, and a
chauffeur who has become an aviator.
The book is extremely well written and
come of the character drawing excellent,
sough the author etches too deeply and
sharply and the shadows that bring his
Rsonages into bold relief are in many
cases too dark. Johns wife / find over
Drawn and inconsistent. but the movie
picture man. with his habit of register
inC' such qualities as outraged virtue
and restrained virility, is admirable. So un-
usual is the whole story that / regret that
The taking off of two of the most detest-
able of the characters should be accom-
plished through the worn out medium of
IN automobile accident.