FICTION. .
A NEW AMERICAN SATIRIST.* Mn. FREEMAN Tunas: is declared in the publishers' announcement on the wrapper to be the greatest living master of satire in America. This is a large and somewhat invidious proposition which the pre- sent reviewer is not prepared to uphold, or inclined to discuss beyond pointing out that it dismisses the claims of, amongst others, such writers as Mrs. Wharton and Mr. Stephen Leacock. But we are quite ready to admit that Mr. Freeman Tilden wields a mordant pen, and shows great ingenuity in the -construction and working out of his plots. America is a country of extremes, and as an antidote to excessive complacency of the spread-eagle type his stories, no doubt, serve a useful purpose ; but we are bound to say that the persistently pessimistic note which they strike beeomes rather monotonous. The only instance in which he condescends to a happy ending is in the story which gives its title to the book, and the episode is so fantastical as to leave one cold when sentiment is suddenly invoked to neutralize caprice. But there is no denying the power of his satire at the expense of the cold-blooded cult of eugenics, or of the fashionable pseudo-philanthropist. Most striking of all, however, is the study of the unfortunate young man, immured by his callous relatives in an institution for " defectives," merely to save themselves trouble, who proved to be not really " wanting," and was released on the representations of an energetic doctor. He rejoins his family to find that as he cannot play bridge, or simulate an interest in advanced Feminism, or stand the excite- ment of aviation, the only way out for him is to return to the institution. In the satire on sham philanthropy, mentioned above, a fashionable lady, attracted by the appearance of a handsome young base-ball player, undertakes to have him educated and furnished with regular work. She wearies of her task at the very outset, and on leaving New York for Europe passes him on to other friends of the same type, until he is finally entrusted to a band of social workers, with the result that he loses his gift as a " pitcher "- his one -accomplishment—and proves himself unemployable as a worker. Then we have the sardonic tale of a man who served in the Philippine Campaign, was inaccurately reported dead, and had a monument erected in his honour in his native town. He returns penniless to find that the leading people who subscribed to his monument are embarrassed by the resurrection, and that if he publishes the fact he will forfeit his title to renown. Accordingly he decides that, rather than subsist on charity, he had better remain dead, and quite his native town for ever. Here, and not here alone one feels that probability is violated to score a dramatic point. The tragedy is not inevitable ; it is dependent on the exigencies of the plot. In lighter vein is the amusing fantasy on the dangers that beset " good old-fashioned New Englanders " who cultivate the artistic temperament. As the narrator puts it, "when a New Englander gets mixed up with the artistic temperament it's like entering an automobile truck for the James Gordon Bennett Cup. It can't win, and somebody's likely to get hurt." And we have two clever modern instances of the " biter bit " in the tales of the " hard- headed business men " who invariably succumb to the wiles of the wild-cat company promoter, and the thimble-rigger who was bilked of his prize at a church bazaar. Mr. Freeman Tilden is more on the look-out for the heartlessness of supercivilized society than for the charities of the average man and woman. In virtue of this limitation of aim, coupled with a certain metallic quality of sentiment, we can hardly regard him as one who " sees life steadily and sees it whole." There is, however, one moving figure in his pages, that of " The Optimist "—an old man unembittered by failure and not unhinged by a transient gleam of prosperity who, at the nadir of his fortunes, signalizes his entrance into an almshouse with the words : ""Well, anyway, the view from here is grand."
• not =Vied, and other Satins. By Freeman Tilden. London: Methuen and Co. net.1
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