The New York Times/1904/8/27/The Mysteries of the People

by John Hossack

New York Times Book Review:

The interesting discussion on "The Pilgrim's Shell" now going on in The Book Review seems to furnish conclusive evidence that Eugene Sue's great masterpiece "The Mysteries of the People," of which "The Pilgrim's Shell" is one of the gems, is not generally known to English-speaking readers, Mr. Peter Cadley to the contrary notwithstanding.

About five years ago I read "The Silver Cross," another of the social dramas taken from the same source. I liked it so well that I sought for more of the work. Few among booksellers and librarians know of it in English. One librarian looked up a biographical sketch of Sue in an effort to convince me that the work I wanted was the same author's "Mysteries of Paris." The New York Labor News Company's "Pilgrim's Shell" is the first I have found of Sue's great work since reading "The Silver Cross."

Mr. Cadley calls the present volume a catchpenny affair. Catchpenny means inferior, showy, gotten up to attract and fool buyers. I can assure you this stricture does not apply to "The Pilgim's Shell." As your reviewer showed, the purpose of the translator and publishers is to help along the labor movement by furnishing a lesson from the past to enlighten the movement of to-day.

Besides being a well-made book, its translator, Daniel De Leon, is not only thoroughly conversant with the French language, but is himself an authority on the industrial and social development of the race, a phase of which the book treats. The translator is a graduate of Leyden University and is master of most modern languages, besides being a Greek and Latin scholar. He made a deep study of history, philosophy, and mathematics. When he returned to this continent De Leon became interested in Cuban liberation, and later came to the United States. He was graduated from Columbia Law School with honors, and was Lecturer on International Law at Columbia for six years. he became interested in the labor movement which ran Henry George for Mayor in this city. This led to a severance of his connection with Columbia. De Leon next studied the theories of Karl Marx and soon became their leading proponent in this country. He is at present in Amsterdam, Holland, as a delegate to the International Socialist Congress.

JOHN HOSSACK

Jersey City, N. J., Aug. 23, 1904.