Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-09

ney, however. is too much occupied with
his feverish financial operations to give
anything to his family but the money that
distorts and warps their natures. Mr..
Phillips book is very like a tract in the
simplicity of its plot and purpose, and
most of the character structure is of the
slightest. But the story is marked by ear
nestness and holds the interest until the
end.
BETTINA. By Eleanor Hoyt Brainerd,
author Of THE Misdemeanors Of
Nancy" etc. Illustrated New York:
Doubleday, Page & Co. Washington:
Woodward & Lothrop.
If you, a good looking and healthy
minded young man, were standing at
ferry slip awaiting a friend with whom
you were to spend the weekend in the
country. and pretty girl should dash
up in hurry, grab you by the arm and
tell you to run, that the boat was leav-
ing; and if when you got on the ferry
you saw that she was a gentlewoman,
and mighty sweet one, evidently hav-
ing mistaken you for an expected guest;
and If circumstances fell cut so that you
could not explain the mistake until you
were SO far involved that retreat was
impossible without humiliating the girl.
what would you do?
Well, this young fellow had to face that
dilemma, and before he got through he
was IN peck of trouble, from which, Of
course, he eventually emerged and won
the girl. But the telling OF it all, in that
pert, saucy and altogether delightful way
OF Eleanor Hoyt Brainerd's makes a tale
that will charm an idle evening The VOL
ume is most attractively printed and il
Illustrated.
HIGHWAYS AND BYwAYs OF THE
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. By Clifton
Johnson. illustrated. New York: The
Oh
Woodward & Lothrop.
While collected in the main from various
outdoor magazines and those devoted to
the home, these papers. which follow up
the father. Of waters from the city behind
the Levee to the headwaters at Itasca, gain
fresh and complete significance only in
book form. From the mosquitoes and alli-
gators OF the mouth to the quiet lakes Of
the head, through all the successive locali-
ties and tropics. such land of rice
and sugar. spring in Mississippi, cotton
kansas and in the Ozarks, the meeting of
the waters, Mark Twan's country van
ished cities, farm life in Iowa, the Mime
sofa prairieS, houseboat life, and new times
and old in Wisconsin, there is constant in
terest, and an American story Is told with
graphic realization of distinctive traits and
humor. Treating mainly of the country life
which the great river feeds, there is moth
senting what has been seen The author
from intimate contact with farm families
and village hotels, gives close and I'M
conventional a picture of conditions that
the value of his work becomes largely his
torical. His delineation of local conditions
is not merely of ephemeral interest, but a
lasting exposition of characteristics of the
time.
TRUTHFUL JANE. By Florence Morse
Kingsley, author of THE Singular
Miss Smith" New York: D. Appleton
& Co.
A story with a conventional plot Of a
sweet girl, the poor dependent in a noble
family, who, after many tribulations
wins a good husband and a legacy, much
to the surprise of the scornful relatives
who had fouted her. The incidental dilem-
mas are amusing, and the playing off of
American against English types affords
opportunity for piquant phrases.
JOHN SHERMAN. BY Theodore E. Bur-
ton Boston: Houghton, Mifflin G. Co.
However ephemeral the fame of any
great man, and Mr.. Burton comedies that
much in the life of Sherman was prosaic,
and that his best efforts were not connect
ed with that glamour which gains the
loudest applause there are few, the author
maintains, for whom more distinguished
record for efficient and patriotic service
can be made than John Sherman. He
will stand in history as a characteristic
American, as a man of untiring industry
and absorbing ambition for the public
good" Mr.. Burton believes that appre-
citation Of his work will constantly in
crease.
The story of his life. of his early strug-
giles, his election to Congress, to the SEN
ate and Of the great part he played in the
reconstruction period. of his influence
upon financial conditions and his Secre-
t9rVShfn
terms in the Senate, Mr. Burton tells with
an authoritative tone. indicating complete
mastership Of his subject. Simply and
directly presented, this latest addition to
the American Statesmen" series is dis
tinct and valuable contribution to political
history.
THE WOMAN'S VICTORY; and Other
Stories By Maarten Martens author
of "Dorothea." New York: D. Apple
ton & Co.
What at first most impresses the reader of
this collection Of short stories by the great
Dutch fiction writer is the extraordinary
range of their interest No two are pitched
in the same key. They are tragic or hu-
morous, lightly cynical or delicately senh-
mental There is great versatility shown
in the choice Of themes; and there is con-
summate skill in structure Each tale de-
velops swiftly its divergent elements of
suspense and conjecture, and as rapidly
bears them to the eliminating point of
sorrow or happiness-which Is invariably
a surprise. The stories are models of tech
meal skill. 1.-The Womans Victory"
which begins the collection. is possibly
most marked by insight, and "A Love
Song most full of tenderness. "a Little
Christian is cleverly melodramatic, and
AN Arrangement full Of half-sad Gym
icism. THE Passport is wonderfully vivid
in its terse condensation. In fact, each
nerSOnalitY.
TWENTY YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC,
1Ss5-190b. By Harry Thurston Peck,
LID. With Frontispiece. New York:
Dodd. Mead & Co. Washington: Bren-
tano's.
No period Of American history probably
is more full of events calculated to trans
form conditions than the latest twenty
years of the republic, and no period has
been SO completely subjected to calcium
light or microscopic investigation. With
the first Inauguration Of President Cleve-
land in 1885 and the ascendancy Of democ-
racy after the long period of republican
rule, came sianif1cant political changes
which in great degree indicated the marked
changes in the social and Intellectual life
of the people. From that period to the end
Of the Mckinley Roosevelt administration
in 19(5 the zeSt with which these chanRes