Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-09

uncle! whose existence he had forgotten.
dtes In the west, leaving him seven times
What amount on condition that a year from
Date the nephew should be penniless. The
Question Is whether It is better to take the
million and remain content with 1t, or to
spend 1t in year and then take the seven
millions. The uncle's purpose Is to pre-
the ydung mans grandfather. whom the
uncle hated cordially He surrounds his be-
quest With restrictions governing the man
ner ins1which the nephew shall spend his
means The young man accepts the chal-
lenge and proceeds to dispose of his million
In year. 1t is q nerve-racking, body
wasting task. The story of how he does it
is intensely interesting from beginning to
end. The authors statistics must be ac-
cepted as based upon some semblance to
fact, but fr-aHy case they suffice to show
that 1t is possible to spend million in a
year If one works hard at the task. even
under restrictions and without actually CIV
ing any cash away. The young prodigal
reduces his spending to system and wins
out by dint of strenuous endeavor. 'Brews-
fers millions is almost tract-like in its
lesson that wealth may be bore as well
as a source of evil.
author of I'm the Midst OF Life" etc. Wash
ington: The Neale Publishing Company.
Mr. Bierce has found time in intervals of
his newspaper work during past years to
write a number Of short stories which are
worthy of wider consideration than has
been heretofore given to them. Unfortu-
nately they trend too uniformly upon the
field of the morbid. the gruesome the gro
tesque. to become generally appreciated.
They deal in ''creeps and shvers. At
times outdoing Edgar Allan Poe in the ex-
quisite completeness of imaginative detail,
they rise to the point of absolute art in the
hfNyr D,,%<
bidding character. Many are dramatic, in
tensely tragic, perhaps, but natural in
theme and treatment. In the present vol
ume the concept of the collection is that
of the mysterious element which wells the
higher forces playing upon the careers of
men. Mr.. Bierce's services in the federal
army during the civil war gave him fund
of materials for use in his fiction. in addi-
ton to majority and record for gal
lantry and efficiency. Several of the sto-
ries reproduced in this collection deal with
war subjects, with the intimacy of par
tcipant. The volume is notable in contain
ing what is believed to be Mr.. Bierce's
only distinctly humorous story, under the
title THE Majors Tale.
THE WARD OF KING cANUTE; a Romance of
the Danish Conquest. By ottilie A LiIjen-
krantz. author of The Thrall of Lief the
Lucky" Illustrated by Troy and Margaret
West Kinney Chicago: A. c. McClurg g. Co.
Miss Liljenkrantzs former novel of the
ANcI SelHtll Iefedleu UNUSUAL powers Oh ara
matte narration and the results of close
study of history and folk lore. Her present
work treats of another phase and period of
that same rough, formative life, when Ca
mute the Dane was striving for mastery
over England against Edmund. The novel
is we'll planned and save for a slight con-
fusion in the statement here and there
due to the authors absorption in her theme
and her own familiarity with the subject,
it is admirably written. 1t is difficult now
and then to retain hold of the thread on
account of this disposition to require the
reader to interpret the almost cryptic ut
terances of characters In dialogue. The
pictures which the text affords of the gor-
geous trappings of the Danish and English
warriors and mobiles, the moving incidents
of the battlefield and the dramatic scenes
in the council chambers are all unusually
well drawn. The pictures of Mr.. and Mrs
Kinney in illustration of the story are more
successful than We're those which they
contributed to 1.-THE Thrall of Lief the
Lucky They are striking in their action,
true in drawing and artistically colored
Each chapter is started with initial let
ter which contains an illustrative drawing
in the quaint style of the period.
MIILINER TO A MOUSE. Capital Chat By
William b. Hopkins. New York: The Kncker-
booker Press.
Mr. Hopkins. who is well known resi-
sketch of Washington, in the form of a
novelette, based upon an international ro-
nance. Comments on affairs at the capt
tai in which the characters engage as they
lounge about the familiar meeting places of
society" are true to life and indicate that
Mr.. Hopkins has correctly interpreted the
factors which contribute to that renarka-
BILE essence, the Washington atmosphere
THE GREY CLOAK, By Harold MacGrath, author
of 1.-The Puppet Crown" Illustrated by Thomas
Mitchell Pierce. Indianapolis: The Bookseller
rill Company.
Mr.. MacGrath has left the land of vision
airy kingdoms. which he exploited so adj
mirably in THE Puppet Crown" and has
woven his recent romance around people
bearing direct relationship to a tangible
episode in history, the career of Cardinal
Mazarin virtual ruler of France and the
settlement of New France. He has assem-
bled an entertaining company of gallants,
poets. rogues, priests. Indians and faithful
Wallets and a group of fascinating womep
and has wound about them the mesheS of
an intrigue which seems ineXtricable. The
scene is laid partly in the old world and
partly IN the new, affording the contrasts
WI, which are Just now in demand in fiction.
The reader is held by the unfolding of the
theme. while he is pleased by the fluency
and grace of the authors style. The Grey
Cloak will probably prove one of the sum-
mer's most striking novels.
THE BLOW FROM BEHIND; or Some Features
Of the Anti-Imperiaiist Movement Attending the
War with Spain. BY Fred C. Chamberin
LIB. Boston: Lee g. Shepard.
The author of this work delivered an adj
dress last Memorial day before a G. A. R.
post at Burlington Vermont embracing in
the main the substance of the book he now
presents. 1t was so cordially received that
he was impelled to extend and to publish
it as a book, In direct REPUTATION of the
ISLANDERS leveled at the American admins
hation and pacification of the Philippines.
He purposely delayed publis ning the book
until after the congressional car ion, az