Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-27

mold At the end of the reading he Is
frankly bewildered-and ashamed. too. at
not being up to the joke. Here. un-
adorned. plain even to dullness-were not
to catch the trick of the thing-is an au-
tobiographic account Of a no-account
man. This man, unacquainted with the
tools Of any kind of labor. drifts from
point to point in feeble effort to keep
himself together, until, At last. he hits
upon the makeShift Of rolling a chair at
q watering place, like the Atlantic City
chair wheelers. This he continues for
about twenty years. gathering here his
dull points of view. That is all. OF
too simple. too level. too much like the rest
Of us. Maybe II is a type OF something
or some set OF things. Maybe It Is a
great and inclusive realism by which the
sence Of this one man. Maybe-but what
is the use. Search the chairman himself.
A CIRCUIT RIDERS WIFE. BY Cora
+ Harris. Illustrations by William II.
Everett. Philadelphia: Henry Alte-
mus Company.
There was a grandeur in Williams
faith that gave him an awful near like
ness TO Immortality even in his flesh. 1
used to wish I could haveea portrait of
him painted by a great artist as he
looked sometimes on a Sabbath day
when he had a baby TO baptize, or when
he'd be bending above an altar full OF
penitents. But Of course we could never
think Of the portrait, so In these letters
I've tried to draw q likeness Of him
Every line and shadow of 1t is as true
as l can make II to what he really was"
That is the wonder Of this delicious
thing, its fidelity. not only TO William
the circuit rider. but also in every line
and shadow to the rough and barren
circuit itself. 1t must be true that ex-
perience lies at the root of this point-by-
point life-likeness. Here is clear part
mind drawing a day-by-day record. an
almanac Of spiritual sun and rain. The
real artistry comes in when the painter
lifts this remote and hOmely thing into
a near region Of idyllic charm. keeping
1t, meanwhile, by the saving grace OF
humor. in honest but tolerant touch with
its own frailty. The author on every
page filings her reflections wide of the
mountain nook in which they grew, 10
cover the spiritual makeshifts of every
beggarly soul on earth A most captivat-
ing thing, made for both laughter and
tears.
THE WAY UP. BY NJ. P. willcocks.
author of "A Man OF Genius" etc.
New York: John Lane Company.
Not commonly does narrative grow with
so little obvious interference on the part
the autnOT. Inc STORY OF NlFHdSi
Strobe corresponds pretty nearly with
ones conception of what creation means
Having conditioned his creatures by tenn
permanent and circumstances OF time and
place, the creator steps aside. his work
done. leaving movement, sequence, enects
to evolve themselves according to inner
ent law. Michael Strobe, by nature re-
former and idealist Of Puritanic auster-
ity, by conviction an evolutionary So
ciaist whose vision encompasses a COM
mon brotherhood and cooperative indus
try, is the center and impelling force OF
this movement. With fanatical thor
oughness STROBE pursues his economic idea
quite beyond Industrial boundaries into
concerns. Elise, the wife, is type, too
a soft and beautiful woman made for JOY
in esthetic things. not for partnership in
quixotic plans or in the smudgy life of
dull working people AZ fiexibly per-
sistent as Michael is rigidly SO, these
two moving In opposite ways grow more
and more intrenched, each behind the
facts of his own nature. And so the
story moves out undeviatingly along
these grooves of separate individuality
A mere story teller, barking to the read
er's plea against emotional discomfort
would now and then have lifted this
matter into sunny stretches. But this
author leaves the story to weave it
self out OF the web and woof Of its own
nature and circumstance. A serious
brilliant, strong book of immediate and
searching appeal.
THE FRUIT OF DESIRE. BY Virginia
Demarest. New York: Harper and
Brothers.
1t Is pity, even in a story. to subject