The San Francisco Call and Post du lieu suivant : San Francisco, California • Page 11

The San Francisco Sunday CaU Lucy Baker Jerome COAST OF CHANCE." a I novel of San Francisco life I by two San Francisco girls, Esther and Lucia Chamberlain, whose serial publication begins in The Sunday Call, is an unusual book. This is true not alone for being one of the rare novels which deal with the social life of the free city of the west, or for its delicate flaying of the foibles of the social nature, or for its delightful charm and felicity of expression, but for the fact that the authors have chosen to depict a phase of San Francisco life seldom recognized. This phase is the ease with which the caeual visitor to our shores Is enabled, often without credentials or other passports than that which he may present in the form of a pleasing personality, or the possession of surface good breeding, to enter the Innermost circles of San Francisco society and maintain his footing there without fear of a too close Inquiry into his previous record. "The Coast of Chance" deals with the entrance of such a character Into San Francisco society circles, and et the time the story opens this character, Harry Cressy, has been made at the homes of the city's maids and matrons, and has become engaged to a charming young society girl. Flora Gllsey, herself co new to the life of San Francisco that when Bhe meets Cressy she regards him as practically an old resident, while knowing no more of his previous life than the few items which he chooses to tell her.

The plot of the book turns upon the theft of a famous jewel, known as the Crew Idol, the possession of the elder brother of an Englishman who had married a pretty American girl belonging to these same San Francisco circles, and taken her abroad, where she had died. Her personal belongings are returned to San Francisco and placed under the hammer at an auction sale. The day before the takes place a private view is heVl in the maple room of- the old aotel, jrhen, to the surprise and of every one' present. the famous Chatworth ring disappears from under the very eyes of the beholders, who are almost ready to swear that they saw it in its case not five minutes before Its disappearance was noted. Detectives are called and intense excitement ensues.

The all of- them well known to each other, are carefully searched, but. not a trace of the ring Is found. Cressy is the center of the hubbub, his clean, vigorous personality and his keen brain making him an effectual and valuable aid. but after discussing the mystery at the club he hurries to his fiancee's home, where he is -to dine. He finds Flora and- her chaperon, Clara Britton, full of -curiosity and wonder at the news which they have heard, and he tells them "all he knows." 1 ending with the fact that there -Is so far absolutely no clew to the thief.

The second chapter introduces the most Interesting and sharply "drawn character in the Kerr, an Englishman whom Flora' meets at an exhibition of pictures given at- the Bohemian club. This Is the description of the extraordinary gave her a start, that toss of black hair; that long, irregular, pale face whose scintlllant, sardonic smile was mercilessly upon the poor, inadequate picture face confronting him. His stoop above the rail was so abrupt that his long, lean back was almost horizontal; yet, even thus, there was something elegant in the swing of him in the careless twist of his head around to speak to woman behind I him. The light above struck blind on the glass in one eye, but the other danced with a genial, a mad scintillation. The light It caught like contagion and touched the merest glancer at him with the spark of its warm, ironic mirth." Another passage shows the vivid fantasy of the author's imagination: "Yet all.

the wax down, the great white stair, the 'corridors the white owl glared his wisdom on the passings and passings, she was haunted witH the thought that Harry had seen the extraordinary Kerr before; not shaken hands with him, perhaps perhaps not even heard his' name; but somewhere, across some distance, had once glimpsed him and had never, quite shaken the memory from his mind: For- was something marked, notable, unforg-e table in that lean dlstinctiveness. -Against the sleek form of the men they met and shook hands with, he flashed seemed In contrast fairly electric. She saw him just ahead' of her where the crowd was thickening in the door of the supper room, making 'way for Clara, through the press with that exasperating solicitude of bis that was half ironic I And the large broadside offered' by her elegant Harry, matter of factly. towing Ella -by the elbow, herself conscious of a curl or two awry, and Judge Buller tramping heavily at her side, all took on to herj the -aspect? of a well chosen, peep' show. Kerr officiating Even the smooth' and -pallid who usually coerced by, sheer-; correctness, failed to dominate this fantastic image; rather, she on, as she -was handed into the supper' room, the aspect of his chief The ring has been shipped fromSnjr-, land the belongings of the Ameri-, can girl by.

and the 'wires are' kept hdt about- it, until is made known.s. Talk. in" San Francisco the- theftturns on the" conceded been a- professional thief to have made off with the ring qo 1 cleverly, 4 but as none but those who were well known socially had bee.n- admitted! to a subject for accusation is A San Francisco Novel By Two San Francisco Girls lacking. Cressy FJora to the Chinese quarter one afternoon and buys her a magnificent' sapphire at a little goldsmith's shop, and afterward she finds it to be- part of the Crew, IdoL Her terror: and efforts to retain it in her possession, that neither Harry to whom she Is strongly attracted, though uncertain how: toiregard him, can be suspected, and the complications. which follow to the final clearing' up of 'the (plot are.

uniquely while and fresh resource, fill the pages, which; lncrease The conflicting struggles In the minds of the different, involved i so cleverly and ingeniously r. worked out, the finale Jso satisfactorily unraveled and the 'dialogue so subtle and rich in discernment as to 'evoke -'the admiration. The denouement entirely 4 unsuspected, and the j. handling of dissimilar "characters' reveals some of the cleverest and keenest work thathastappeared.V'.v "As regards the style of 'the'" writers, comparison with Henry -James: Is inevitable. -The same analysis of the same probing of motives; same dissection 'of action, speech; Is noted; "but allUhls 13 out ftiwayf that brings i keen entire absence of triteness of stereotyped How the great story, "TheCoastof Chance," which is to appear serially on this was written by Misses Esther and Lucia Chamberlain in their home on Russian Hill phrases is noticeable in the book; the mind stakes in -felicity 'of the phraseology with: a sense of delight; it is a plot a new setting; with fresh -light cast upon it, and new maze of conjecture ln which "to lose one's self.

review of the novel fromfthe Sydney Bulletin shows i how the book was received -In Australia: "In I 'The Coast of Chance," and Lucia Chamberlain, we come to the end of the quest for the real: American noveL' This Is a "subtle thing, a strange gem exquisitely wrought, the paradox-of a rather with" charaoterl analysis than with Incident. Yet it is "supremely exciting. V. But the method the story is and character; studies 'I we vmeet real people subtly and -intimately drawn. The style is lucid the manner the literary craft of the i inevitable Henry James.

The so v'admlrably written, without an i padding, the characters 1 are' so ye 'i and real, hinted at i with phrase ratherithan described.Uhatthe'flndlng of this emininer i subtle thing is unexpected discovery among i the' raucous horde of the best AnT Interview; granted Miss Chamberlain to the writer lessened the difficult of i perceiving -how al young; girl could have written so powerful a book. If the book is unusual its author is not less so. -y Miss Chamberlain, in conjunction with -her sister, has all sorts of poems, short since she was a child; not, as she says, from any; overwhelming desire but rather for the sake of; the diversion. When Esther Chamberlain "was and her- sister Luciai" they used to I give plays for the. benefit' of a convulsed audience.

recalled whenv a- poem conned andl committed to memory. and the parents, aunts and attend lts recitation." "I can see my uncle shaking now," declares Lucia- 'i Chamberlain; aunt's shoulders i heaving -with 'Stifled mirth. Looking back itj I course, excruciatingly funny It must have been," but then iwe broken heartecLrf my uncle received such a reprimand from wife that he.never dared' even to again our "The Coast of is 7 the second novel that has come 'from" the pen of these writers: With" intention 'of ever -'publishing anything theyj might write tin they -were if by Bliss -pure "merit of. 1 the work whlch'happened-to'come under his eye, advised them strongly to. place their first ventures.

The Century and Scribner's took them willingly. These were followed by. a number of short stories, all of which found a ready market with Alnslee's. The Cosmopolitan. Everybody's, and the Century, and then came the first book, "Mrs.

Esslngton," which was remark; ably well received. Its was marked all through the southern and eastern states, though. strangely enough, there was but little demand for it In California. The reception of "Mrs. Esslngton" caused the production of "The Coast of Chance," considered by many, readers the best of the three books thus far Issued.

The death of Esther Chamberlain occurred last year. Miss Lucia Chamberlain has since produced a "book entitled 'The Other Side of Door." Miss Chamberlain's description i- of the manner of collaboration is interesting. "My sister would assume one character," she says, "and I another. Whichever conceived a good character was given the right to act his part; though occasionally tions would come from the other side. In this, way we kept the persons in the book well apart, and the of monotony, nearly always present when all the characters are conceived in one brain; averted." Miss Chamberlain's home one of the prettiest spots in San Francisco, on i the very crest of Russian hill, the Just below the housa cliff drops sharply away, leaving I an runobstructed view, of Mhe islanded i -waters sweeping out toward the.

ocean. San Franciscans- know glor-' i iou3 prospect and love it. -But It Is not i in the house, -however: suited to her i work, that Miss Chamberlain spends her writing" hours. little farther down 'the path "appears a tangle of ivy running riot 'over walls and a sloping I 1I 1 roof; rand peering over a low half: door 1 one discovers the writer's retreat. It is a large square room, looking upon the same splendid vista, and it 13 known Miss friends as the I for it was" her playhouse as a child, and now that she has grown up, evidences of, Its former use are visible.

Around the: board, walls is frieze iof colored paper. the of the queen in the garden. Little Jack Homer and others of the fairy book land. On the small table In the midst of papers, ink and scribbled sheets of manuscript, sit. stand or recline a few toys favored by children and grownups alike.

There is Marcelllne, the clown, who stands upright on his white ladder without the aid of a sustaining hand, if you can get him adjusted to a nicety of balance that makes you shudder to think of; Frederic of the red mill climbs gayly up his red tower if you place tha proper weight on his budding aspirations in the shape of a tin bell, helmet shaped, which fits his tin head exactly; Romeo, the flannel elephant, stands with all four feet hunched together on the top of a small and very uncertain barrel, and Joey can ''make a bow unrivaled for grace and ease if you work with him -long and- patiently enough. All these were presented to the writer by Miss Chamberlain, and appreciated to the full. In one of the pictures Miss Chamberlain is teen coaxing the wooden images like refractory children to do their best. The habit which the Chamberlain sisters formed in childhood of collaboration In their work made Itself felt In later years in an unconscious growth into each other's ways. Collaboration, it is well Known, is extremely difficult as a rule, because of the inability of one to conform the other's point of but these two seem to have accomplished this to a surprisingly harmonious extent.

For Instance, in "The Coast of Chance," one sentence might have been written, by one, sister, a second by. the other; there instances where Miss Chamberlain declares she can tell half a sentence' was hers though the other half was finished by her sister. Kvery word In the book can 'be placed by Miss Chamberlain, who declares that It would be hard to believe that, such combination work could be done without obvious signs of cleavage. But this is just what has been done. are no perceptible changes of style or.

breaks in the continuity of thought Had the book been the work of 'a single hand Instead two, the story could hardly; have Cowed more smoothly. The book has been dramatized and will be: produced in Washington on October 16 of this" year. Miss Chamberlain has made trips to the east, returning "each time -with a definite feeling that cere lies the material. she can use. The Coast of is the first novel attempting picture San Francisco society life as ft seems to, her.

Should her next work deal the same subject, one can but hope that all. the fine and virile qualities displayed in 7 'The Coast at may be. reproduced. in a work which shall proba even deeper Into the social depths to place before the world novel of San Francisco life which shall picture the- city; in "all Tftal Henry James could have done itvit is not Impo33lble'that Miss Cham, berlala.can. "THE GUST OF CHANCE" BEGINS THIS PAGE NEXT SUM.