Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-20

nent. The city of its action is a real
one. made up Of length and breadth and
depth-particularIy depth. One can walk
about its streets. find definite places.
point out familiar houses, feel the be-
numbing, or exciting. hum OF its multi
tudinous life. Despite the concretenesS
Of it. however. the gripping thought Of
the city is that Of two gigantic ideas.
emerging from this mechanic complexity
and standing stark before us, in challenge
one of the other Wealth and poverty,
capital and abor, employer and employed
master and man. These are the forces,
tbs inclusive spot their proving ground.
The trial to be by wager of battle. On
the one hand the workinGman. habitual
in discomfort, discomfort famed to
continuance and flaming by the profess
Sional agitatOr, devoted to the cauSe-his
cause. On the other hand the overload
of industry and wealth. sagaCious, wary,
often Inscriptions meeting If he must.
evading If he may, the TRACE issues of a
struggle. Between the two the trickster.
the demagogue. the political prestidgita-
tor and BOSOM occasion threatening
both, though in wholly different vein,
pandering 10 the one. cajoling or coercing
the other. Here is a strong story. its
theme so Stably set and broad appli-
cable as to be counted fundamental. Then.
too. il is developed in the strong essence
of types. wherein place, condition, situa-
ton. individual and class are concentrated
in their characteristic qualities to the
limit of consistency and truth. The drama
of a great city is herein rhythmic china X
and subsistence of human emotion and
aCtion-built solidly out of its psychologist.
social and economic conditions. 4 grea:
story. made up of a sociological docu-
ment produced in the spirit of drama tic
art
THE PRICE OF LIS DORIS. BY Maar-
ten Martens. author of God s
Fool" etc. etc. New York: d. Ap-
pleton & Co.
Lis Doris cost too much even for great
artist and n great man, both of which.
out of the agony of life. he grew TO he.
il is extortion to pay so enormously in
body and soul currency for the doubtful
privilege of a brief experience on earth,
where poverty. drudgery. hope deferred.
slow success, followed by final. complete
remuneration and an, early death at the
hand of ignorant revenge make up the
schooling of this D6tch artist boy and
man, Lis Doris. 1t is all such pity, but
such a beautiful story, wherein the art Of
the author, with its distinctive form, is
at its highest mark. In all essentials
conformst the personal stamp of this
writer comes out in his way of putting
things before us-that terse, incisive way.
wherein a little sentence holds the sub
stance of a complete chapter In it's close
grip. In the unfolding of this story there
are hundreds of reflections and comments
on human nature in its application to
daily life done up in these concentrations
of form. If one skip here, ever so little,
he is much more than likely to lose
small, square, compacted chunk OF prac-
teal human philosophy. In substance.
this story is big and natural of concep-
tion-a human being surrounded by all
the common impedimenta of life. movinS
through its perpleXities in laboriOus way
upward to the fine things OF the spirit.
In this particular case a human being
that breaks the heart for love Of what
he is. Then the atmosphere of the artist
life penetrates. saturates the web and
wool OF this form and substance. The
dull Dutch landscape is always seen
through the picture-Inaking, spirttualizing
eyes of the artist. It's cold monotony
grows warm and tender, glowing and
variant; its dreary wastes move into
sweetly melancholy perspectives. The
taln much of ii. and the best of IL, is OF
art. I'm tones of careless unconcern for
the Srosser things about il. 1t is, first of
all. the artists story. then ours and
everybOdys.
THE ROMANCE OF \ FRIAR AND A
NUN; Being the Story of the Ro-
nance of Fra Filippo Lippi. By A.
j. Anderson. illustrated from the
Paintings of the Friar-Artist Him
self. New York: Dodd. Mead & Co.
Washington: Brentano's.
The loves of great men and women
hear the bloom OF perpetual youth toward
whose ideality those heavenly strange
people, two by two. are everywhere for
ever yearning. Dante and Beatrice. Pc
trarch and Laura. Abelard and Heloise,
shine out. And here, another, like Abe
lard in priestly cast, like the other two
in the genius of his art-Fra Filippo
Lippi, "the greatest and most versatile