Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-08
ALICE-FOR-SHORT. BY William De
Morgan, author of Joseph Vance
New York: Henry Holt & Co.


one-that is open to the attraction of the
| expression of a rare and distinct personal
| ity this new romance will be an event.
| The style of Alice for Short like that
| of its predecessor, Joseph Vance, Will
| inevitably suggest comparison with the
| pleasant RESPONSIVENESS, the infusion of the
authors personality, which in the hands OF
Thackeray, and even of Du Maurier, was
| able to produce with all its apparent
| aimlessness, Incompatible artistic sue
| cess. The matter of the book is a story OF
English life, ranging from the lowest, rum
| driven halfbeast to the complacent MEM
| bers of the upper middle class. In run
| ming this appalling gamut Mr.. De Morgan
| brings to bear an unslumbering realism
| with which he has known how to reconcile
| both tenderness and optimism.
| "Alice-for- Short is a little London waif
| whom chance or providence, the author
| strongly intimates, throws in the way
| of gallant, patriotic young artist, Mr..
| Charley The manner in which Alices
! fortunes are bound up with those of the
| large and vigorous clan of the prosperous
| Heaths, and the way in which the COM
| pleXities of her own family history are
| revealed, are developed by the authors
| very clever plot There is also a thread
| of mysticism, of the occult, the apparitions
| of which do not shrink from manfesting
| themselves in the searching light of day-or
| SO much of light the London fog allows
| to penetrate the stairs. ''aireys' and studios.
| Too much can hardly be said of the clever
ness with which Mr.. De Morgan develops
his ingenious plot. Glimpse by glimpse.
| hint by hint, the most unlikely characters
| introduced in the apparently fortuitous
| manner of everyday life, contributing each
| one his link to the chain, so the story is
! h,1i1t IL
| piece of artfully artless construction.
| AS for the persons of Alice-for- Shorts
world, they are a pleasant lot whom the
reader, is glad to have known. Whether
| they be normal unimaginative. kindly,
| eccentric. or moral derelict., they have been
| viewed with an intuitive sympathy, a quaint
| mixture of humorous appreciation and the
! most tender pity that reproduces them
each one as human being. Alice herself
| with her delcately distinct personality, Is
a rare creation, which goes far to indicate
the possibilities of womanhood; while
| Charley Heath, whimsical, chivalrous. halt
| ing In achievement, but adamant in his
| hold upon the fundamental virtues of An
| glo-SaXon manhood. is a hero whom no one
| but a man could have created, but whom
| every woman is bound to love.
! 1t might be said In passing that it is to
| be hoped that romance of the sort of
| "Alice-for- Short which rises, by reason of
its loving workmanship, its dignity of con-
| ception and mellow warmth Of feeling
! above the mass of crude, machine-made
books of the day, shall find its way to
every man to whom real romance Is still
a pleasure. 1t demands leisure, culture,
appreciation Of the fine flavor of style.
JERRY JUNIOR. BY Jean Webster, au-
| thor of when Patty Went to Col
lege." Illustrated. New York: The
| Century Company
| Is nice, likable American lad with
genius for 'blufting;" and Constance is as
| how OF RI
fluffy white gowns. They are evidently
destined for each other from the first; but
there is battle royal of wits and wiles be-
| fore the curtain goes down on their clasped
| hands.
1t is altogether as merry and mrth-pro-
vOking bit of nonsense as has been written
| in many a day; and the fun of both pic
| tures-there are fourteen, full-page, by
| Orson Lowell-and text is contagious.
THE MINISTRY OF BEAUTY By STAN
| ton Davis Kirkham author Of Where
Dwells the Soul Serene etc. New
York: Paul Elder & Co.
Beauty is a soul-perception. 1t is nearest
akin to the speech Of angels. 1t is the
| archangel of expression, the trump of whose
harmonies shall waken the deadened soul
In the name of beauty-for only to lowell
ness Of soul is loneliness fair" The quota
ton of the title page is the creed Of the
volume.
BY all the laws of heredity Mr. Kirkham
should be in the jungles of Mindanao chas-
Using the unruy Moros, instead Of calmly
devotng his days to psychological research
and nature worship. Both his father and
grandfather were famous Indian fighters
during the stirring days when the history
| of the west was hot in the making; and on
| his mothers side there was Maria Cooper
| of revolutionary fame, who was given away
at her marriage by the Marquis de La
| fayette, acting for George Washington. Mr..
Kirkham's first recollections were of from
| tier life in the far west. Ore of his earliest
| impressions was that of a six weeks trip
across the desert to Camp Mcdowell, Ari-
IONA, in an army wagon, without springs,
drawn by unbroken mules, his father then
serving as captain of the Sth Cavalry, U. s.
A. His mother and nurse were the only
women in camp. They were stationed there
more than a year constantly surrounded by
hostile Apaches, and the camp was the
scene of continuous skirmishing. His
grandfather, Gen. r. w. Kirkham, at one
time quartermaster general, Department OF
the Pacific, was graduated from West Point
with the famous class of AZ, of which Gen.
Longstreet, who died last year, was the last
survivor He entered the City of Mexico
with Scott; he built Fort 'rejon California,
in 1854, and from that time on was asso-
cated with military operations and com
mercial enterprises on the Pacific coast. He
was a great traveller in his day and went
out to China and India with William n
Seward He was, moreover, very much OF
a philosopher and his last years were spent
in retirement. His was one OF the hnest
libraries in California, and the old house
was considered a wonder in early days as
so much of it-all the interior woodwork. In
fact-was brought around the Horn. 1t was
there that the young lad was brought up,
under his grandfathers care, both father
and mother having died at an early age;
From his grandfather he doubtless inherited
philosophic tendencies and also the love OF
travelling Before he was eighteen he twice
crossed the Sierra Nevada alone and on
foot On each occasion he was several
months in the mountains, travelling from
one mining camp to another. in the days
when the camps were still t1ourshlnS ana
much as Bret Harte knew them. Subse-
uuently he came east and studied geology Mt
the Boston Technology, and then on 10
Europe where he spent much time, fire.
uuently making long pedestrian tours IN one
country or another. He has always bcen
interested in the study of nature and has
practically devoted the last ten wears to
philosophical and psychological labors.
THE YELLED LADY. and Other Men and
Women BY F. Hopkinson Smith. IL