John Glynn. By Arthur Paterson. (Macmillan and CO. 68.) — It was
probably never anticipated when the Charity Organisation Society was formed that it would become the foundation of a romance. Mr. Paterson, however, has seen what capital material the "C.O.S." would furnish for a story of social work, and makes it, under a transparent alias, the foundation of his novel, John Glynn. Like many stories with a purpose, John. Glynn would be very much better without the love interest which Mr. Paterson has thought it necessary to introduce, and perhaps it would be truer to life but for a certain melodramatic tendency which he has not been able to keep out of its pages. Percival Nyne, the villain of the piece, is really too villainous, and it is rather difficult to believe either in the good faith of Joe Cramp, the victim of Nyne's plots, or in Tom Symes, the milkman prize-fighter. There is, however, plenty of good " common-sense about the story, and any one who wishes to study the Society's methods of working in a more entertaining ferns than that of a Report may be recommended to read the book. At the same time, the lover of adventurous melodrama will not find that these social problems interfere with his enjoyment, for John Glynn, the hero, and Evelyn Grey, the heroine, who is secretary of the Society, have as many hair's-breadth escapes as if they were cast away on an island peopled with savages. The good people are too white and the bad people are too black in the story, but no one can deny that this is the way to produce a highly sensational picture, or that the grey of ordinary human character is utterly useless for the purposes of melodrama.
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