Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-11

these before them. Then, in and out and
round about he wove the plot. adjoining
II with circumstance Of person and place
and behold. delightful story made by
grave Judge, whose profession is not so
desperately solemn--to hinl-as he would
commonly make us believe.
THE FRUITFUL VINE. BY Robert
Kitchens. author Of 1.-The Garden of
Allah etc. Frontispiece in color
by Jules Guerin. New York: Fred
erick A. Stokes Company.
Mr. Kitchens like David Belasco. is long
on backgrounds and settings. All of his
romances, most conspicuously THE Gar
den of Allah" prove this. True 1.-The
Belasco atmosphere has expanded to an
institution. meteorologic. like the weather
bureau, a goal which Mr. Hichens will
hardly be able to pass. However. the
Mediterranean region. where this author
loves to linger homes the aura and the
essence, the chief tools of his workman
ship. The present story is backed by
Rome. New Rome against the old-a ka-
leidoscope of modern high life spiashed
glowingly against the rays of the ancient
city: brilliant panorama of social life
the modern Roman holiday-parading in
ghostly glooms. with Latin blood to flame
it and Saxon strain to cool. The theme
here is a simple one-that of a childless
marriage. What this domestic condition.
In the midst of such social environment,
OOtS W Tie utdTLS dLN ilNcS VI luis pan
is the chief concern Of the story. Here
Mr.. Hichens writes length and breadth
and depth into the characters of these
two. The end of the story brings recoil.
the immoral. With others it will stand
as unartfu, unliterary. Even dissenting
one realizes that race. and place. and
woman stressed, direct this author. AS
whole, it is Mr. Hichens' most rounded
work, unless 1t be little booA of his
about which no one talks-a Sicilian story,
The Call of the Blood"-which neverthe-
less as a complete piece of literary art
this author has not excelled until now.
THE BEACON. BY Eden Phillpotts.
author of "Demeter's Daughter"
etc. New York: John Lane Com
pany.
The beacon is hill. Given a tree or a
hill-provided this. the one or the other,
be in Dartmoor-and Eden Phillpotts will
fashion out of 1t man or a woman as,
in the beginning, God made man. Him.
too. he will hedge about in nature and
occupation by his environment. just as
the latest scientist does. But the man
and the woman so built, out Of tree and
hill and Dartmoor air. are human-So
human that people across seas know and
welcome them. This is the story of
woman and two men-an old matter.
There is hint of the big woman in the
both. men-something for the woman to
keep close. and cover with the raiment Of
humility. This she does There is muscle
In these stories Of Dartmoor-tonic
stories for absorption and meditation.
DOWN NORTH ON THE LABRADOR.
BY Wilfred T. Grenfell author Of
THE Harvest Of the Sea-" etc. New
York: Fleming H. Revell Company
Labrador brought farther in by its pa
tron saint. One wonders as he reads the
bitter tales why DIR. Grenfell does it
when he could so much more easily be
warm and dry. Yet throughout time
those frenzied for service have been the
ones to move the world out and along.
Out of the dozen new stories gathered
here-plain convincing tales-one reaps
new notions of life, of an unsheltered,
icebound. hand-to-hand life. These mar
rations do not altogether tickle ones
reading fancy. He rather squirms under
the Photographic fidelity of the matter
When he calls it geography his feelings
ease a bit; but as life 1t is hard. and he
comes out Of II wondering, as he went IN,
that a man should SO immediate himself
Yet is not that the whole matter? Is not
that after all, what life is about?
WHEN NO MAN PURSUETH. BY Mrs.
Belloc Lowndes. author OF "Studies
in Wives" etc. New York: Mitchell
Kennerley.
Mrs. Lowndes is an exceptional literary
architect. Foundation. ground floor. up
per stories. doors, windows and decora-
tons, come out complete and fit for their
intent of both use and beauty. 1t is I'M
luckily true that the exposure is COM
monty north or east-sunless and chill on
the one side, with iron in the wind on the
other. However. she is growingly good
narrator. Pity-it is a pity-that she
should put this fine gift and practice into
the building of a yellow story. True.
there are numberless records Of the fact
that a man may be bigamist; that he
may. for money, poison his second wife
with the help Of his first, and real one,
who stands in the respectable community
as his chaste and attractive sister-but
why in the name of heaven weave this
sinking thing into well-constructed
and painstaking novel. A more point