Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-05

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"\Hl commences of ten
WI MI der feeling has
w rarely been equaled
IN WI III \ book that viii
ZN make the reader
WA IN see through tears
" w in one page and
shake with laughter in another has
something out of the ordinary about it..
something vital and genuinely human.
This is such book. Jennie Allen is
plain. middle-aged spinster of Providence,
r. l., who writes freely to her good
friend. Miss Musgrove evidently young
woman of social position and charitable
impulses. Miss Allen tells naively and
simply, with a delightful freedom from
the carking requirements of the spelEng
book, the story of her existence. She
glorifies the plain living which circum-
stances have forced upon her and her
family The real beauty of this story
lies in the understanding by the author
of the genuine facts of life. Here Is
household where every pound OF sugar,
every egg and every cubic foot OF gas
must be strictly accounted for to pre-
vent a deficit at the end of the month.
and yet there is as much pleasure and
as much real joy of living as in the house
of luxury. because the inmates work to-
gether in spirit of brotherhood. Tragedy
comes to teach its lesson and there are
great joys. too. If the author of this
attention-compelling story does not soon
have a large following of readers clam
orous for more of her work 1t Will be
out of fashion.
FLORIDA ENCHANTMENTS. By A. w.
and Julian A Dimock. illustrations
from photographs. New York: The
Outing Publishing Company.
Florida is really a new land. viewed
from the sportsman's standpoint. 1t hav-
ing been only within the last few years
that the hunters and anglers of America
have realized its full possibilities for en-
tertainment. The joint authors of this
volume have tested the resources of the
peninsular state and in consequence are
enabled to tell story of genuine en-
chantments which every lover of outdoor
life will thoroughly enjoy. There is ex-
citing sport in the capture of live alli-
gators in the coast rivers and almost
equal entertainment in the work of the
bee hunters of the interior. The Florida
fishes are noted for their game qualities
and whoever casts a line into the waters
there is sure to be rewarded with ad-
venture. The story of this sojourn in
Florida Is told with a brisk touch of
personal participation and numerous IL
Illustrations make the volume of especial
interest.
THE ART OF THE NETHERLAND
Dutch School of Painting, 1llumi-
mated and Demonstrated by Critical
Descriptions of the Great Paintings
in the Many Galleries. BY David c.
Preyer. Illustrated. Boston: L. c.
Page & Co.
Tourists who rush through the foreign
art ga leries are likely to become con-
fused by the unidentified miscellany on
the walls. and also to lose many real
gems Such book as that in hand opens
the door of their opportunity wide to them.
Particularly in the Netherland galleries
is l. necessary to have comprehensive.
discriminating work of this kind in
hand. Although many of the works of
the Dutch masters have been taken out
of Holland to find honored places in
the great galleries of the wOr d. there
remain enough specimens of the highest
type Of Dutch art in the lowlands to
justify student of seventeenth century
painting In spending time there. There
are. for instance. in the Ryks Museum
of Amsterdam 1900 paintings of that
period by over 200 artists. In this work
the text is devoted largely to descrip-
tons an explanations of the most char
acteristic paintings of the various schools
and galleries. together with brief notes
regarding the painters. Nearly fifty full
the value of the work as a guide to
Dutch art, and also as an instructive
commentary for those who are unable
10 visit the galleries themselves
THE QUEENS GATE MYSTERY. By
Capt. Henry Curties, author of "a
Bride on Trust Boston: Dana
Estes & Co.
This detective story has the merit of
a well clouded mystery at the beginning.
but it is marred in the telling by the
failure of the author to provide for the
perfectly obvious methods of detection
which would seem to have occurred to
almost any tyro in the science of GRIM
inai unravelns. The highly dramatic
climax in the narrow escape of con-
dernned man from execution. while his
reprieve is being rushed across Eng and
10 him by motor is spoiled in large meas
ure by the fact that the bearers of the
reprieve do not think TO telegraph that
they are coming. The story relates how
the slayer of a wealthy London merchant
was finally identified after innocent peo-
pie had been accused and one Of them
condemned.
FROM BULL RUN TO APPOMATrOx,
A Boys View. BY L. W. Hopkins of
Gen. ]. E. b. Stuart's Cavalry, 9Th
Virginia Regiment, C.S.A. Baltimore:
Published by the author.
Mr. Hopkins would probably never have
undertaken to tell his story of the civil
war but for the opportunities of his son.
who as a boy manifested a deep inter-
est in his fathers military career, later
persuading him to put 1t In print. He
has conceived the idea Of telling the
story of the civil war from the point of
view Of a Confederate soldier, couched
in such language as to appeal to the
understanding of the youthful reader. The
author was himself q mere boy when he
Joined the ranks. and thus his own eX-
periences were such as 20 enable him
now to write thrilling account of that
great drama in way to entertain and
instruct youngsters.
THE SUPREME TEST. BY Mrs. Baillie
Reynolds, author of Broken on"
New York: Brentano's.
Mrs Reynolds has written several
novels heretofore, but none that strikes
tie high note of insight which dominates
i'll The Supreme Test She prefaces
her novel with quotation from Hans
Christian Andersen's fable of the princess
who required Suitors for her hand to
guess three things that she had thought
of on penalty of death for failure The
princess in this story is a young English
woman of social position and wealth
whose hand has been sought by fortune
hunters and who has undertaken to test
them and herself by trying to see IL she
could live without her successive frances
She burics herself in a remote suburb of
London and there plunges into the strong