Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-21

of a town where everybody knows every
body else, and all the countryside Is agog
with the latest gossip over the purchase
of a new buggy the Haunting of a new
gown Willie Calker is as nearly the hero
of the stories as any one parsonage can be
In such a case. He figures frequently, and
always to the end of entertaining the
reader and keeping the other denizens of
Six Stars perpetually guessing. He did
some guessing, indeed, on his own ac
count in the episode which opens the vol
ume, putting completely out OF business the
ancients who had for years been ''esty-
mating on the weight of hogs and cattle
on the eve of their death to the end that
man may live. Just how Willie man
aged to be expert in his own "esty-
mating" Mr.. Lloyd does not disclose He
merely manages to make everybody who
reads these stories roar with laughter.
a SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY. By
Ernest F. Henderson. New York: The
Macmillan Company. Washington:
Brentano's.
The author has produced an exhaustive
work upon the history of Germany from
the times of the lake jewellers to the pres
ent day. With painstaking detail he has
worked out the relations of all the petty
princes to the final organization of the pres
ent government. On German soil all the
great international struggles have been
fought, the thirty years war, the early
campaigns of the Spanish succession war
the seven years war and the gigantic war
against Napoleon. The author points out
that the two prime factors of the whole
medieval period are the papacy and the
empire. The empire is German from the
ninth to the nineteenth century and inter-
fered with the affairs OF the papacy even
to a greater extent than did France. Some
of the most interesting chapters in the
book deal with the relations between
church and state. the age of chivalry, the
church councils, Martin Luther and En-
peror Charles V, the emperors war with
the Protestant princes, the Roman Cath
Ollie reaction and the beginning of the thr-
" years war
MORE STORIES OF MARRIED LIFE.
BY Mary Stewart Cutting. New York :
Mcclure, Phillips & Co. Washington:
Woodward & Lothrop.
Mrs. Cutting has secured a formula for
a short story which is stamped with the
seal Of realism, without being either
shocking or DULY conventional She in
vests the most apparently commonplace
situations with a charm OF truth and ro-
nance. Her themes are often trivial
enough. For instance, take her tale of
the failure OF a suburban husband to order
ton of coal one winter morning 1t does
not depart very far, If at all, from the
line of actually. Such a story might be
u
outlying settlements. But II calls for the
touch Of a true artist TO invest it with the
quality that makes for conviction, for CON
tinuOUs interest. The yearnings of trav-
cling man for permanent visit with his
family, as told in The i ermnal,p Is just
such a tale as might be told of or by a
thousand commercial travellers. But Mrs
Stewart succeeds where others would be
merely ordinary in narration In giving the
rendition the touch of sentiment that car
ries It permanently into the memory. There
are innumerable houses which answer to
the description given in at the Sign of
the Rubber Plant" yet this author pos
sesses that indeiinable quality Of humor
and tenderness which enables her to tell
the tale artistcally. And the best part of
these little matrimonial comedies and
minor tragedies is that they always leave
a something behind which is wholesome,
often corrective, often curative of real do
nestle Ills. II Is impossible to read this
volume of collected stories without feeling
that the misfortune Of misunderstanding
between husband and wife Is usually use
less and ayoidable. Indeed, Mrs. Stewart
is a veritable missionary of happiness.
THE CASTLE or LIES. BY Arthur
Hensy Vesey. author OF THE Clock
and the Key" New York: d. Apple
ton & Co
Mr. Vesey tells a somewhat more plaus-
ible tale this time than he did when he set
forth the search for a fortune by group
OF people In Venice who fooled about q
OF with an ancient timepiece for clues.
His theme now is the complicated intrigue
OF the Balkan revolutlonists TO preeipitate
a war between Bulgaria and Turkey for
the freedom of Macedonia and the counter
intrigue OF a group 20 involve England In
the brawl. A young American with means
who introduces himself in the first chapter
as a peculiarly unpleasant sort of cow
ard gets into the thick of the snarl be-
cause of his striking resemblance to the
British minister at Sofia. That minister dies
a natural death at a most inopportune
time for the plotters who are trying to en-
gage England in the quarrel. SO Mr.. Had
don Is perforee virtually kidnapped and hus-
tied of to a mountain chateau, the prop
erty of a beautiful woman who is seeming
ly the leader of the conspirators. But there
is another vino Is striving. apparently with
her, but actually against her. to the end Of
precipitating a lovely row in the Balkans,
and between plot and counter plot Mr. Had
don has a merry time before he disentan-
giles himself. clears his own name of the
Stain Of cowardlce and the name of the late
British minister OF the charge of dshonor,
and thus secures the hand Of the ineeita-
bly, beautiful sister of that late lamented