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OUR BOOK REVIEWS
THE FIGHTING CHANCE.
By Robt. W. Chambers.
(D. Appleton & Co., Publishers.)
While we may hesitate to say that a 1 ‘great”
novel has just been completed with the appearance
of “The Fighting Chance,” still it is a work which
deals so fully and so thinkingly with some of the
vast problems of our American civilization that the
story must prove a valuable contribution to current
American literature.
Apart fi'om its value as a piece of absorbing fic
tion for which the numberless readers have waited
impatiently from week to week, there is a fine phil
osophy to the story that results in holding the read
er’s attention and which also creates a wholesome
interest in some of the gravest social evils of the
day. The character studies are excellently well
done and the personalities of the various actors in
the story are clearly and strongly impressed on the
reader’s mind. It is seldom that we find a piece of
current fiction dealing with as deep an undercurrent
of moral struggle as does “The Fighting Chance.”
It might almost seem as though its moive twere to
awaken all the old questionings contained in the
time-honored subject of Love versus Mammon, and
of sturdy honesty versus smooth and questionable
diplomacy in business maters.
After a very human struggle Love triumps over
tradition, environment and heredity, while honesty
and loyal friendship bring to their ardent adher
ents a personal peace only to be had from the un
swerving conviction of Right, and a sturdy opposi
tion to Wrong, wherever and whenever encountered.
This may be said to be the motive or the principle
of the story, but so cleverly is the impression made
and so subtly are the facts woven and arranged and
adjusted that the reader never once feels he is
being made a target on which to impress great
moral issues. The Golden Age, however, welcomes
a novel of this sort and is glad to give its readers
the following very brief resume of the plot of “The
Fighting Chance”:
Like several pieces of recent fiction, the scene of
the story is laid among the ultra society set of New
York. A young girl, charming, beautiful, courted
and universally admired has, at the opening of the
®tory, just betrothed herself to the most eligible
young man of her acsuaintance. Her principal ob
ject in doing this is to safely anchor herself by
an early and wise (?) marriage, for she knows the
history of the female members of her family and
that history does not redound to their honor or
credit. Sylvia Landis, therefore, thinks she sees a
safe opportunity to become socially conventional
and morally safe, by a loveless marriage with How
ard Quarrier, a man who is ultimately described
by one of his own feminine relatives as being com
posed of a “tuft of pompadour hair and a pair of
woman’s eyes protruding from the golden dust-heap
his father buried him in.” Sylvia, on the other hand,
has but little money though an unquestioned social
position which she longs to maintain, and for many
months she hopes to be able to tolerate Quarrier,
even after she has met the man she really loves, in
the person of Stewart Siward. In one of the many
stormy scenes between Quarrier and Sylvia the
girl excalims: “Why do you want me to marry
you—you do not care for me?” and Quarrier re
plies, brutally enough: “A man cares for but two
things—his money and his heirs to it!” There is
no further chance of misconception on the part of
the girl as to what her future will be—simply the
figurehead of the Quarrier establishment, which is
being bought by the master for a fixed sum, as it
were! Knowing this she still struggles, but is final
ly mastered by her real and very strong love for
Siward, even though she knows that he is himself
struggling in the grasp of an inherent tendency to
ward periodic dipsomania. His failing being more
psychical than physical he sees in a marriage with
Sylvia his “fighting chance” to overcome The
Enemy, and when she sees it, also, the battle over
Evil is won for them.
Another character in the story who may, indeed,
The Golden Age for December 27, 1906.
be considered the real hero of the book, is Beverly
Plank, a young man of German descent, who craves
a position in New York society which he finds his
vast fortune cannot purchase. He is sponsored,
however, by the Mortimers, friends of Sylvia Lan
dis, and he becomes interested in Siward to the
extent of saving the latter’s small fortune which
has been jeopardized by Quarrier and his associates
in an illegal and illicit “deal.” Plark frustrates
these plans, by masterful business sagacity, succeeds
in being accepted by society and finally marries
Lelia Mortimer, whose husband, Leroy, has been
killed in an automobile accident. Leroy Mortimer
is one of the best drawn characters of the story,
for in him is pictured all the bestial and revolting
characteristics of a man steeped to the lips in self
indulgence, and whose moral sense is as blunted and
deadened by long disuse as his physical body is be
sotted and weakened by excesses. In the death of
Leroy Mortimer, however, the reader experinces
his first and perhaps his only regret in the story
—the man follows his wife into a restaurant,
makes a scene in public and almost strangles him
self in a fit of blind rage. It is to be regretted that
he did not drop dead during this scene or meet with
some other humiliating end as a direct result of his
methods of living rather than just to be killed by
his own reckless and ignorant handling of an auto.
But as his passing helps to completely annihilate
the last of Quarrier’s plans to ruin Siward and as
it also leaves his beautiful young wife free to marry
Plank, whom he loves deeply, perhaps we should
not question the manner in which the end comes to
Mortimer,
There are several minor characters which are ex
ceedingly well drawn, and on the whole we believe
“The Fighting Chance” may safely be said to be
among the foremost pieces of fiction produced
during recent yean.
LISTENING TO GOD.
By Hugh Black.
(Fleming H. Revell Company. Price, net, $1.25.)
In this book the Revell Company has made an
other most valuable contribution to the popular
religious book-shelves. It is presented in the ex
cellent quality and good taste that characterizes the
publications from that house.
The author comes from a successful pastorate
of ten years in Edinburg to the chair of Practical
Theology in Union Seminary.
This book contains a series of sermons of which
the first sets the keynote. The. text is Psalm
49: 4:
“I will incline mine ear to a parable.” The
subject is. “Listening to God.” The development
of the theme call upon us to realize intensely and
practically that God is talking to us. History,
science, providence, revelation and personal ex
perience are all channels of communication by
which the devout soul may hear the voice of God.
The theory of the practical nearness of God to
his people on earth, and the consequent possible
nearness of his people to him, is the golden cord
of truth that runs through all these twenty-seven
discourses.
The language is simple and elegant; the style
is modest and chaste. The perfect composition of
the writer is the chief exhibition that he makes of
his excellent scholarship, and the ease with which
he sets forth the deep things of the Spirit, discloses
the fact that the author spends much of his time in
the presence of the Lord.
The reading of such a book can do nothing but
good. Mav the Lord give it a wide opportunity.
J. L. D. Hillyer.
THE RECKONING.
By Robert W. Chambers.
(Cole Book Co., Atlanta. Price, $1.20.)
The appearance of “The Fighting Chance” re
calls yet another piece of strong fiction by the same
author. We refer to “The Reckoning,” which
deals entirely with the Colonial period and that
surrounding the war of the Revolution. The story
is not remarkable for any special uniqueness of plot
but it is well and skillfully handled and will bear a
eareful reading. Mr. Chambers certainly shows a
versatility of style in dealing with the various phas
es of our national life and if his picture of social
conditions in the past as shown in “The Reckoning”
is as accurate as that og the present as portrayed
in “The Fighting Chance,” then the former volume
must be a distinct contribution to the literature of
the times in which the stirring events transpired.
At Eventide.
By S. Burton Lucas.
Say not goodbye at eventide,
It is the silent hour
Os parting day, when far and wide,
O’er barren crag and bower,
The shadows fall, and aerie tones
The soft air fill with widespread moans.
It is the hour loved faces peep
From out the past;
When woes, that in the daylight sleep
Wake thick and fast;
Hope’s pulse beats slow—
Faith’s light burns low,
And surging waves of memory’s sea
Beat on thought’s shore relentlessly.
So if it be that we must part,
I, left alone,
Must cheek the beating of my heart
With stifled moan.
If thou wouldst stay that heart’s wild cry,
At eventide, say not goodby.
THE YOUTH’S COMPANION CALENDAR FOR
1907.
A Four-Leaf Hanging Calendar, Lithographed in
Twelve Colors and Gold.
The new Youth’s Companion Calendar for 1907
is both useful and ornamenbaT. The Calendar prop
er is in bold, clear type, and is given plenty of
space. On its decorative side it is exceptionally
beautiful. Each of the four panels presents a mas
terly reproduction of an original painting. On the
first leaf will appear “A Venetian Scene,” by
Thomas Moran; on the second, “A Group of Chil
dren,” by Maud Humphrey, on the third, “A Study
in Bird Life.” by Giacomelli; on the fourth, “The
Blacksmith Shop,” by F. Luis Mora. Each is worth
separate framing, and for this purpose the panels
are loosely tied together, so that each may he ex
posed in turn, yet all preserved. The panels are 12
inches high by 7 3-4 inches wide. Thp Calendar is
copyrighted and published by The Youth’s Compan
ion exclusively for those who send $1.75 for The
Companion for 1907.
Contrasts and Consequences.
(Continued from page 2.)
tunity to convince her lover that she did not fear
a future illumined by his love, even if it
deprived her of some of the luxury to which she
had been accustomed. Her reply to John’s story
was eloquent and convincing, and as she spoke the
shackles of temptation seemed to fall from the
young man’s shoulders, and again he felt possessed
of 'the full moral strength of his race and of his
Christian creed, and he listened with grave and
tender acquiescence as Eleanor concluded by say
ing: “John, poverty does not daunt me; it may
mean some trials and some hardships but it never
need mean utter squalor, or even destitution, such
as you have seen today. Lack of money is not,
after all, the poverty to be feared the most, for
the only real poverty is loss of honor and probity
and the attendant poverty of soul. This we need
never have unless we will it so, and all the terrors
of what the worlds calls poverty are exorcised for
ever, dear, by the Magician, Love, when he waves
■the conquering wand of an upright life,”
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