Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-13
BOOK REVIEWS.

reaIest individual boy in ths
world is, at the same time. ar
equally true universal boy. Inc
clements of his making are sc
chosen and compounded and environeo
that we. moving along with him on the
stretch of way that lies between boyhood
and mans estate. soon grow mindful OIL
ne fact that all the other boys In the
world abreast of him In growth, are
leeping us glad company. Bound up In
he bodies of this youthful throng are
sensations and emotions, millions or them
:umbIing over one another in an unseen
y scramble for supremacy and prece-
5ence Here is a riot of high hopes:
-eveI of courage and self-confidence; a
spendthrift's trust in kind, in the JOY
Of life and faith in the future. giori-
ous company,-Peter, their incarnation
When We first come across this partlcu-
ar boy Peter, he, friendless and for
orn. stands before a reckoning Boy
Wanted looking out from the dirt-frost-
I'd window of dingy old book shop.
Fate has Peter I'm hand so, no doubt, ne
las been led directly to this place and
the fine old man waiting Within he
that as il may he darts inslde-Peter
always darts; they all do-Where ne Is
promptly set to work which he carries
after, this world of discarded, musty
hooks becomes the medium OF Peter
progress. With the keen nose OF Ter
ret he burrows among them. He WORKS
and reads and dreams-all In frenzy.
Then he drivels rhymes-seized 10 De
the peer of the best book maker IN the
place. lie sees visions; he Stays dragons,
ne rescueS virtue endangered tie tdiks'
in orotund tones and with dogmatlc
fuaIity of phrase, of womanly innocence.
of the sacreduess of the home, the duties
IF parenthood. Egoism-fagrant, oren-
sive-are here, faulty, vanity, TOO. Ihex
need to he here. Delicious Peter-ano all
the other boys. Peter suffers so. too-as
do the rest of them. His disappoint-
ments are final agonies: his rebuffs, cim-
merriam tragedies. One recalls with acute
sympathy that specially awful DAY:
wherein some soulless judge returned
TO him a poem on which an idle hand
had scrawled Poor sloppy devil. Oh,
we all remember the bitterness of that
Judgment day. Women, too. make Peter
suffer-him and all the other boys. That
first little girl whom he surely would
nave wed but for the great disparity OF
sears. He was nine, she fourteen And
that other little girl, dancing on the
street to the music grinders measure
Oh the Joy OF her and the promise. And
The next little girl. and the next, and the
bigger girl, and then that glorious
woman, an actress, beautfful-and wise
and kind. Each in her turn, SO
u.
feet, so satisfying, Dear Peter. Dear. all
the other boys, This boy is made with
an inspired mind. So close and true Is
he, one feels sort of pity that he, and
the rest of them, are let to go about
their business-such urgent. compelling
business-with the inside OF them turned
outward. as it were. like a stripped glove,
Just for the pleasuring and regeneration
we come away. softly and little shame
facedly. lest We be able to accuse our
selves of an encroachment upon the In
alenable right of every one-even Peter
and the rest of the boys-to the seclusion
of his own soul
THE wIvING OF LANCE CLEAVER-
AGE. BY Alice MACEDONIAN. author
of Judith of the Cumberlands."
etc. Illustrations by Robert Ed
wards. New York: G. p. Putnam's
Sons.
IL in the beginning Adam and Eve had
ceased their foolish pickering as to who
did and who did not, to take up and
settle the supreme matter of the two liv-
ing together In accord, under bond. then,
In this sensible event. the chief subse-
uuent difficulty of life would have been
shut out A futile pair that. in many re-
spects. So up to this very day two d.
verse people, all over the world, are
straIning TO think and feel and act as
age and his Callista. Lance Cleaverage,
the most exaSperating poet that ever
dreamed under the trees OF the mountain
side and, to the whining call Of an old
banjo. invited his vagrant soul 70 loai
and play with him: Lance. the masterful
and improvident, who with careless but
very confident hand reaches out and gath
ers in the sweetest, fairest, proudeSt girl
of the whole south mountainside to wife
Callista With the sincerity Of beggar
and the ample mien of a young god he
carries her straight to his meager cabin.
set high and bare. Then, under an older
spell than that of Callista's weaving, he
takes the cuddling banjo and fares him
forth again to where his soft dreams
beckon. quite forgetting the scant wood
pile dwindling away at the back OF the
little cabin. Now. Callista, despite her
spiritual and Madonna-like mold, Is a
materialist, to whom the woodpile is a
matter of account. There they are again.
these two, trying to make II all out as
one. Then follows a long procession OF
bitter experiences. starting with childish
vexaton, but coming toward the end near
TO human wreckaee. These two are re-
deemed at the last Dy a miracle-the mir
acle called love-after unspeakable suf-
fering in reaching the heart of II, and
more than human wisdom In Seizing the
worth of il. 1t is an old story, but all
real stories are old. Lance and Callista
are fresh and new. each In the radiance
OF their own compelling personality. The
little settlement among the southern
mountains. too, is new. The artist in It's
making stands close beside her picture.
eye and hand and heart all comprehend
ingly true. The isolation Of the place.
with It's narrow view and short reach, IS
Were: the poverty. the easy content, the
plaintive meagerness OF life, the rough
l,..n4or the rude goOdfellowship are all
there and through this coarse fabric.
woven in ard out. a beautiful, silvery,
idyllic thread CLEANS.
MADAME DU BARRY. BY II. Noel Will
liams. author of Madame Recamier
and Her Friends etc. New York
Charles Scribner's Sons. Washing
ton: Brentanos.
Think of the difficulties waiting on the
doorstep of this undertaking Imagine
the maze of material gathered: material.
old and new. both sound and spurious.
some of substance, much of slight ac-
count. all piled together. Then. selection.
rejection, arrangement, for force and
harmony and consistency. Think OF the
fine sense OF historic truth and value re-
uuired for this. the unbias. the discretion
me composure. the sympathy, the power
OF word the temperament. Then the test
ing and proving and rounding up in the
corrective light OF century-lOng per-
spective. Finally, all accomplished in
the readers hand. From the swift-mov-
ing housekeeping. brilliant action OF II
there energies wildly, not the complete
monstrosity accepted by half-truth and
woman for whom there are many things
TO be said. Not a woman alone. either,
but country. a time. a certain condition
of society a special mode of thought a