The sun. [volume], March 03, 1918, Section 6 Books and the Book World, Page 10, Image 80

About The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920

Image provided by: The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation

                
THE SU.V. SUNDAY. MARCH
1918.
Burke's New Novel of the Little Dancer
10
TIIF.KK is always a tlinll, ominiiens
uralilc with the danger of disap
pointment, in taking up the second book
of an author uliose first work lias made
a deep impression on the reader's mind.
Particularly when, as in the case of
Thomas ISurke. author of Limehouse
Sights, the writer has proved himself
inasler of the short story form, and now
comes to hid for favor with a tale of novel
length.
Yet Mr. "Burke's new book, Ttcinlle
tots, will bring no disappointment. It is
upon the same subject as Limthouxe
Sights, London's Chinatown and the ad
adjoining docks, where East and West
meet, where an Occidental atmosphere of
toil and poverty has an Oriental glamour
to redeem it. With the two books Mr.
Burke has made the subject so completely
his own that should he never write an
other line he would remain the distin
puislied painter of an unholy and color
ful region, of beauty, squalor and veiled
vice.
The Same Thrill.
Readers who do not know Limehouse
Sights will have the same thrill from
Tuinl-'-loc$ that others bad from the first
book. 1 eaders of the. short stories will
find with pleasure that Burke is thor
oughly at home in the technique of novel
writing. They will also find in the second
book a calmer point of view, a more
objective handling of the subject.
Again-t the background of Poplar, the
docks and Chinatown, cheap lairs un
worthy the names of homes and homes
that are no better than dens; against a
background of low music halls and evil
smelling streets, amid blasphemy and
nameleis vices, moves a girl, a child still,
a white tlower of innocence and a spirif-of
light and beauty. And yet little Twinkle
toes, Monica Minasi rightly, is just the
daughter of a poor sign painter, wlw wins
a short semblance of prospcrity by coun
terfeiting. She is the star of a troupe of
little girl dancers, the Quayside Kids,
appearing in a cheap hall in a dirty side
street.
The Child Called Twinkletoes.
After a tiny glimpse of her earlier
childhood, when Twinkletoes, Dad and
Mum lied in one room, but a room that
Mum's liomemaking talent transformed
into a ''snuggery" rather than the pig
gery such a dwelling often i, we follow
Twinkletoes's life during the two short
years of her triumphs, from 14 to 1G, un
til tragedy unspeakable overwhelmed her.
The innocence of the child, her keen joy
of Jiving that vitalizes every inch of the
lithe little ljdy, the grace and beauty of
her immaturity, are painted for us with
an earnestness and a beauty of phrasing
that carry utter conviction.
c Her language was nest door to blas
phemy: she began the day with cigarettes
:uid a break fust of ale, her comrades were
girls of all sorts and men who were
among London's smarter low irradc crimi
nal, and yet you absolutely believe in
Twinkletoes and you believe tlil she re
mained a gle.iui of pure light ni an evil
place until her destruction. Her fate
came not as a result of her life and her
surroundings but only because of hap
penings that seared her mastering emo
tion, love and faith in her "old Dad."
There has !een nothing in recent fie-
Old New York.
HKNKY COLLINS I5K0W.V, who
knows New York and whose skill
in conveying his knowledge is of the
finest, not only tells in an entertaining
fashion about the New York of the old
days, but includes general information of
value to the visitor.
Till: 'ITV OF NKW YORK-Bv Henkt
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CHILDREN
OF PASSAGE
By Frederick'Watson
.rir Ynrl Tribunr as "Wr arc not surr
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with WiAnctT io fiction nitrpclarl dflnil
tiujrr ronfcii-ittly individual. jnos lhirtMi?ti!j
tital with tuiTuto fcjuipathv a:id lntot
than th(se or hair wr often. nit rott
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lion so appealing as the affection between
tie bimple little man who took to crimi
nal ways to give his motherless girl 'er
chance" and his daughter. And to
Twinkletoes there is no one in all the uni
verse like her Dad.
For his sake, not because she is doubt
ful of herself under any circumstances,
but just because "my Dad's the finest,
straightest man in the world," she refuses
to accompany her fellow dancers to
"jags" after the show.
"I don't say I wouldn't like to come.
I would. I've often got all feathered up,
like I'd give anything to go on the bat
for a bit with you and your gang," she
says to one of the girls, "but some'ow
when I think of my dad I just can't. You
see, 'e's clean all through. 'E don't un
derstand these jag games and if I batted
I'd feel like I couldn't never go near 'im
again."
Predestined Tragedy.
The tragedy at the last is Greek and
inevitable. lecause of their over-
great love for one another, Twinkletoes
and Dad both go helpless and reckless to
their doom. Each is forced to lose faith
in the other by just he same cruel com
binalwB of happenings and malicious
talk. Had they not loved each other with
this surpassing love both would have with
stood the bludgeonings of chance more
firmly.
For TmnUetoes, Mr. Burke has drawn
on incidents in the longest story in Lime
house Sights, the one called Gina of the
Chinatotcn. Which story came first in his
mind and underlay the other we do not
know. But Gina was first presented to
the reader.
Now, Gina was the weakest story in the
first book. It was less tense and concen
trated in construction than its compan
ions; it was neither a well made short
story nor a novel. And it was the one
story in which the writer's own intense
feeling for his subject defeated his artis
tic purpose. He was iike a painter, mo
mentarily overcome by his subject so that
his hand shakes.
But in Twinkletoes the infirmity has
been overcome. The hand Li steady and
writes with full and conscious skill. We
see Twinkletoes as her creator wants us to
see her; the high lights and shadows are
right and the portrait is in perspective.
It is in literature as on the stage. The
actor who actually weeps, disillusions his
audience; the narrator who laughs when
telling a funny story spoils bis effect.
When telling us of Gina Mr. Burke
seemed actually to weep. In telling us of
Twinkletoes he has himself well in hand,
with power a hundredfold enhanced by
discretion.
Burke's Book of Poems.
A slim book of poems over Mr. Burke's
signature, printed 'in a limited edition
only, shows him to be as happy in the
lyric forms as in prose. London Lamps
is the title given the small collection -but
not at all of London. Iiclgravia is lightly
mentioned in a few lines us the home of
"thin-lipped ladies and padded men and
and pale," while Piccadilly, the "Queen
of all streets," has a poem to herself.
But Liuicbouse, Shad well, the West
India Dock Itoad, the homes of toil and
poverty, simple joys and sorrows, brutal
ity and vice, mostly inspire the poet.
Some of this verse would attract atten
tion even had we not come to know Burke
as a prose writer. There is swing to it,
there are fine rhythms, easy rhyming and
and a keen sense of scenes and emotions
best suited for lyric treatment. Tliey
seem to have come easily, these verses, and
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yet their smooth workmanship probably
took both care and conscience on the
writer's part. One longer lyric bears the
title Elise Craven, Dancing and has as its
refrain the line, "Little Twinkletoes."
Was Elise Craven the original of Twinkletoes?
TWINKLETOES Br Thomas Byrncr.
(Robert M. McBride Co.) 1.3..
LONDON' LAMPS Br Thomas Burke.
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