New-York tribune., 1921-10-24
Books Percy Hammond as

The author of "Vera" discovers for
us a new recreation in life. Since in
fancy, perhaps, we have loved our EEL
low man and have been loved by him
IN return. We have borne his infirmi-
ties Of character and appearance with
patience, as he has ours, and even in
our most human aspects we find in one
another some heavenly particles. We
know that to err is habitual, and if our
closest pal performs upon us a nasty.
rattish prank we forgive him for it.,
and turn to him the other cheek, in
ease he has left us another cheek to
be turned
Revenge is the most obsolete of the
arts. The grudge went out with the
duello, and vindictiveness is passe. We
only bite our nails or stamp our feet in
our bitterest moods Of retaliation, and
anger is the fiabbiest of the sinews of
the souls. From lifes rosebed all we
expect and all we get is an aromatic
thorn. Having been taught to count
ten before we lose our temper, we never
lose 1T, and SO existence becomes mo-
notonous dog-trot of complaisance.
However, in "vera," which ia by the
mysterious author of elisabeth and
Her German Garden an outlet is pro-
vided for wholesome and selfish hatred.
In almost every page of the story you
can take Mr.. Wemyss by the throat and
with pleasure choke him to death. He
10 so emphatically the meanest man in
fiction that as you read about him YOU
say to yourself: "We'll get him at the
finish, damn him, and put him out of
business" He is the apotheosis of hu-
man selfshness and egoism, great pa
rade Of all the me-vices. He is a bit
fat, bit middle aged, cruel vulgar. un-
knowing, bestial and self-satisfied.
God, he believes, made him and no one
else. AS he proceeds upon his hostile
and exasperating way you loathe him
and are proud of it. "Where have I
met this fellow or his like before ?" YOU
ask yourself, and you are afraid of the
answer
Weinyss is London broker, who by
the fell operation of circums Instance
becomes married to an ingenious child.
He first encounters her at her fathers
funeral, and capitalizes her grief into
an ingenious affection for him. He has
q voluptuous admiration for her youth.
her bobbed blond hair, her slim figure
and for her feminine determination to
be inferior to him. If she catches a
cold he is infuriate. 1t is an alb
rasion of his rights. How dare she
be i'll when he desires her to be we'll.
IT she happens to be in her dressing
room when, according to his sched- /
uie, she ought to be in the drawing
room he bawls her out. He bawls
every one out, from Miss Entwhistle.
his wife's aunt, to the timorous cook. |
Il am" he seems to be saying, "the !
meancst thing on the meanest of the
planets, as Mr.. Balfour has described
1t, and | it's dominant figure"
AS you read OF him in "vera" Won !
can exercise your moribund hatred /
You can concentrate in Wemyss all
your dormant displeasures with the |
human race. In contemplating your
plans for Furnishing Wemyss you re-
gard Torquemada as a toy-maker and !
you invent new punishments for this
terrible person. The author let's him 90 !
unpenalized. After Wemyss has done
everything to break the ordinances from /
Mount Sinai to the Boy Scouts, he /
finishes in comfort. He gets into bed /
with his little wife and gathers her to
his breast. He has put her faithful amt |
out into the cold night without her hat