Evening star., 1909-09-04

1here are many characters who come
and go IN the story, Sam Bosom, the
bodtman, who helps the children TO es-
cape from the orphanage-p prison; Mortl-
mer, the itinerant and impecunIouS ac-
tor, and his wife, Mr.. HuckS, owner of
boats and collector of musical instru-
ments as hostage for rents unpaid, Glas-
son, the clerical monster of inlqulty, who
has charge of the orphanage; an Ameri-
can artist or vagrant imagination and
inspiration, who helps the children OH
an important stage of their journey to
the Island OF Holmness; Miss Sally, who
rides to hounds and who al the criti-
cal moment, proves the goddess in the
machine by her direct methods of deal
ing and her adroit strategy; and finally
Arthur Miles own father, who is found
as result OF Tilda's unremitting efforts.
The last chapter is mistake. The
story should have been left at the mo-
ment of the reunion the Island of
HOLINESS, when the rescuing party
bursts upon the two children. with Tilda
reading from her book of social hints by
which she hopes to climb to be a verita-
Bile lady 1t was unnecessary to show
the actual work of social evolution which
produced the Tilda of the last pages.
THE MEASURE OF OUR YOUTH. BY
Alice Herbert. New York John
Lane Company.
The erotic imaginings of a youth-in
this case. an English youth biased in the
making by an East Indian low-caste
grandmother-make a poor story theme
for the purposes of either art or utility
That consideration of a single stage or
phase of development, however dominant
in passing this may be, which separates
II from'associate lines of growth and sets
IT up apart from its natural antecedents
and effects must, from the. exclusive
nature of this treatment, produce a re-
suit, distorted and unbalanced, one re-
Jected by truth and its sequence, art.
That the imaginings of this boy are
through the offices of provident nature
and indulgent circumstance, reduced to
reality without one insprational glow
from a record of self-conquest takes the
book quite out of the field of individual
or social usefulness.
External cleverness stamps the book
This is due, in part, to the epigrammatic
crispness with which the writer turns her
thoughts. Now and then 1t rests upon
the vigor of the thought itself, sometimes
IT comes from a facile and apt use of
EDUCATIONAL phrases. but it is chiefly due
to the morbidly admirng attitude of the
public toward a writer who takes his
stand-always an advanced and fearless
standin his accounting-makes his bow and
says tnlngs' frequently, as in the present
case, things that serve neither literary nor
social uses and which on this account
could profitably be barred the great re-
publican privilege of free and untrammel-
ed speech.
THE MAN OF DESTINY. BY Thomas
Gold Frost. With illustrations by S
Nemtzoff. New York: The Gramer.y
Publishing Company.
The author of this story takes pains
to set forth that in utilizing the career
OF Ulysses S. Grant as the basis of his
romance he necessarily departs from time
to time from the soldiers personal record
in order to environ him as chief charac-
far xx,{t1
conceives TO be necessary in a novel, 1t
is to be doubted whether any advantage
is TO be gained from any point of view
by thus supplying fictitious incidents.
Gen. Grants career is thoroughly well
known by all students of history and
needs no embellishment of fiction to rem
der 1t interesting. Nor does 1t lend itself
well 10 the novel writer as a foundation
The result of the unfortunate combination
effected by Mr.. Frost is a book without
any qualities of appeal to the reader of
romance or the reader of history.
HISTORY AND COMPREHENSIVE DE-
SiRnpT sIRlpTioN OF LouDoUN COUNTY.
HlHGiNiA. BY James w. Head.
Washington: Park View Press.
Mr., Head is native OF Loudoun coun-
ty. his parents having themselves oeen
born in that subdivision. of the Old Do
minion, and he has spent the greater part
OF MS lie amid her acres of unmatched
grain, her Arcadian pastures and brows-
ing herds. her sun-kissed hills and silvery,
serpentlne streams. He is well qualified
for the task Of county historian and has
performed his self-appointed duty with
zeal and great devotion. He has carried
TO his task the love of the soil, and the
result is work which is replete in all
particulars and setting forth not only the
history but the resources and physical
characteristics of Loudoun. He treats his
subject topicaly. considering il first from
the descriptive point, second statistically
and third historically. In the last chap
from the organization of the county, in
1851. from part OF old Fairfax county,
which was organized fifteen years pre-
viously. The county was named after
Lord Loudoun, representative peer of
Scotland. one-time governor-in-chief of
the province of Virginia and commander
fn-chief of the British forces in the colo
MES. The early customs habits and dress
OF the original Inhabitants in L.oudoun
are described Mr.. Head derives much
interesting information from the old rec
ords covering the period of the Indian
wars and the revolution John Champs
was Loudouns revolutionary hero his
exploit IN securing information from the
British contributing helpfuliy TO the sue
cess of the colonial cause. Loudoun
furnished soldiers FOR the war OF ISL
and the Mexican war while the civil war
ragged over the county with little inter
mission from the beginning TO the end of
that great struggle. In the course OF
these various campaigns Loudoun men
made their marks upon the national rec
ords, and ii is an honorable history that
Mr. Head has now set forth in this valu-
able volume.
CONFESSIONS OF 4 MACEDONIAN
BANDIT. BY Albert Sonnichsen, au
thor of Ten Months a Captive
Among Filipinos," etc. New York:
Duffield & Co..
Mr.. Sonnichsen has had numerous ex-
periences In the field of adventure, he
having been first brought to the attention
of the reading public by volume de-
scribing his experience as a captive for
ten months among the insurgent Filipinos.
He went to Macedonia as a member of the
COMMITTEES of revolution, having crossed
tne frontier at the end OF February 1906
his experiences were thrilling for he
JOINED cheta or revolutionary hand
which came within a narrow margin of
total annihilation. and had many other
adventures Mr.. Sonnichsen's story Of
his experiences the Balkan hattie
ground throws a light upon the methods
of the sons of liberty" who are inter.
-. III