OUTCAST FOLK.
A somewhat . unusual story, which is quite as likely to repel as to attract the average reader. Is Charles Fort's " The Outcast Manufacturers,". (B.. W. Dodge & Co., $1.50.) - It is a vivid picture of a sordid and unpleasant phase of life, real-latia ln-the-lt -dgrv though- not con cerned with matters where raH sometimes called Immorality. A few months ih tife career of a mall-order company is shown; its office is in a tenement, and the shiftless life of the crowded district is set forth with a great deal of skill, The characters are developed, by means of dialogue almost exclusively therej re scarcely five pages of description in the book, and these passages are the least satisfactory, being written In a deliberately choppy style which Irritates, while It gives impressionistic pictures of the turroundlngs of the protagonists. . The dialogue is unusually clever It reads like a transcription from Mt and Is permeated with a certain grim humor, Mr. Fort is, evidently, a new writer; he has power and Insight, but, as yet, scarce, ly sufficient artistic balance to give his study of slum life any real value as literature.
Clipped from The New York Times, 08 May 1909, Sat, Page 19