Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-28

was as careful to avoid the personal note
in his works an old-school actor was to
eliminate his individuality from all his
stage creations Here is a frank explana-
ton of how a man of vague middle age,
probably In the thirties, struck town with
eight dollars in his pocket, engaged lodg-
ings at first-class boarding house, ex-
hausted his resources in the first payment
in advance and Immediately started out to
demonstrate the theory that life is good if
1t is honestly maintained whatever the in
come or the margin over and above ex-
penses. There is a wholesome note in the
book, the note OF contentment with mod
crate share of good fortune. Fate decreed
that Mr.. Henry should be burned out Of his
home in the woods the fire destroying all
he had saved: He returned in borrowed
clothes and started afresh his theory in no
degree shaken by his experience
Incidentally the reader gains an impress
sion of the wonderful variety of metropoG-
tan life. the many interesting phases that
yield copy to the discerning reporter or
fiction writer. In the course of his narra-
tive, which leads to no particular point,
Mr. Henry relates some of his reportorial
experiences in the awakening of public in
terest in reform movements. The book is
breezy and frank and bears a cheering
message to all who may finish it.
GOLF FAULTS ILLUSTRATED. BY C.
w. Beldam and ]. II. Taylor. New
York: Imported by Charles Scribners
Sons.
Golf has progressed to the point where
technique is the great desire of every player
of any ambition whatever The mere duffer,
who is content to knock a ball hard, or tries
to do So or who plays for points regardless
of the style of his game. may care little or
nothing for the artistic touch that differ
entiates the true golfer from all others,
but the duffer is in a diminishing
minority, and It is for that reason
that such books as that in hand profit
able publications, finding an eager public
awaiting their issue. In this collaboration
Messrs Beldam and Taylor describe the
good and bad features of golf play and IL
lustrate their points with carefully taken
photographs, which explain more indeed
than do many of the paragraphs. The lit
tie niceties of the grip, the stance, the
swing, the drive. etc, are clearly set forth
by means of contrasting pictures, the
faults well as the virtues being depicted
by the camera. An amusing and fitting tall
piece is in the form of an accidental pic
ture resulting from a double exposure of
the same plate, showing the two authors In
a somewhat ghostly interference. one with
a golf club. the other in cricket costume.
IN THE LAND OF THE STRENUOUS
LIFE. BY Able Felix Klein of the
Catholic University of Paris Author S
Translation. Illustrated. Chicago: A.
G. McClurg Co.
Able Klein's work in the original French,
under the title "Au Pays de la Vie In
tense" has within a few months passed
into its seventh edition. The authors trans
lation into English puts 1t before American
readers In a highly satisfactory form and
makes available one of the most entertain
ing foreign comments upon the western
civilization that has ever appeared The
author visited this country in the interest
of his church, and naturally his ohserya-
tons were to large degree confined to
matters connected with that organization
But he had wide-open eyes for other than
religious topics, and his free. chatty style
of narration gives the work an entertaining
quality wholly apart from its denomina-
tional appeal
the book offers panoramic view of the
authors journeyings back and forth across
the country as he visited this and that point
OF special interest to Catholic. His hui
morouS nature finds much to express in
terms of pleasantly. He slyiy pokes dig
nified fun from time to time at American
institutions but he finds more to praise
than to criticise. He deplores what Inn
presses him as the lack of broadly ma
tional desire for spiritual elevation. say
ing:
"Will this state Of things continue? VIII
| 1t even grow worse? 1t Is difficult now "a
answer these questions; but no one car
doubt their Importance to the moral and
to the present the people have lived, and
| for time viii continue to live, on the re-
mains of the old religion. all their educa-
ton. books. customs and institutions being
permeated with the Christian spirit of thei,
ancestors. But, to une In modified form thu