The Washington herald., 1912-10-13
LITERARY REVIEW OF LATEST PUBLICATIONS

tsndsd for Fanny's husband and, arous-
- parental ira by balljng It ,hsT nous
tsche; now he fell In love with Birdie,
supplied . new Ausbahd for Fanny n
Mr.. YsiSenbaum and escaped from
foreclosure entangiemsit u all told with
the humor and insight into human ma
ture which have made the Potash and
Perimutter'' stories famouG
A MAN IN THE OPEN: ~ Resr PocoeA. Pub
nshsd b. BobtS Marin Cmpauy. Indianapolis
Mr.. Pocock produces Q novel hero In
Jesse Smith. q man in the open who ap-
pears flrst ION the Labrador as an ad-
venturer and sailor. and who tells his
own story In free and easy dialect Of un-
certain classification. Later. he moves
to the Northwest, where he dabbles In
work, sometimes Q cowboy. sometimes of
Q rancher or farmer: but all the time
Q very bold and garrulous adventurer.
He marries Q woman whom he has to
inciose within q chalk line. which. how
ever. 10 easily crossed. She later does him
the favor or honor. to commit suicide: at
least II looks 20 much like suicide that
he. filed with Joy and other stimulants.
fees to new fields.
On the way he meets another unfor-
tunate, Q woman. a very dne woman, IN
deed, an opera singer. who Is married to
q lunatic. Mr.. Pocock browns the luna
tic and marries the man In the open to
the woman minus the lunatic. and then
the man In the open shows. for the first
time. what a wonderfully good man he
is. Now his wife helps him tell the
story. They write alternate chapters.
she writes English. and strangely enough
the man, too. writes English in his clos
Ing chapters. One wonders how he
learned to do II. and one solution Of the
mystery Is that Mr.. Pocock tired Of
writing an original style and rested
while completing his novel with COM
monplace melodrama-
There are numerous bad men and bad
women in the story. some cattle rust
ling. much shooting Of the rustlers and
other wicked persons and as a climax
comes the sensational revival Of the bad
wife who was supposed to have commit
ted suicide.
RACE IMPRovEMENr-EUGENI BY Larrine
Helen Baker. Published By Dodd. Mead 4 q"
Irice. 81.
els Galton to cover the philosophy. col
lection Of facts. the science. whatever
We can call 1t. which regards race-im-
prOyement as a desirable and practica-
BILE process. Stirpiculture is an older
word for a similar idea. New descrip-
tive or misleading phrases win be invent
ed from time to time, sometimes by
friends. sometimes by enemies Of the
movement. 1t may be well from the
first to clear away some misinterpreta-
tions. Accusations against new ideas
commonly take the form Of attempting
to show that the new and possibly good
idea Is irretrievably committed to some
other idea, generally an older and dis
credited one. 1t is the universal rule
particularly In Angio-Saxon countries. to
mention sex relationships is to outrage
modesty and shock morality.
We have had to overcome this silly
secretiveness. The white-slave traffic.
the lothsome increase of venereal. the
frequent revelations such as the Thaw
case formed on the public. the necessity
for protecting children from outrage. All
these and. other things have made not
only possible. but obviously desirable.
that decency. wisdom. and humanity
should make their voice heard. Eugen-
les primarily is concerned with the nor
NAL sex relationships. which in civilized
lands means the legal monogamic mar
riage. 1t Is perfectly true that there have
been pioneer reformers, TO whom the
world owes much. who have linked their
ideals Of race improvement to an advo-
cacy OF freer sex relationship. Modern
eugenics have no such divided council.
They aim at encouraging the best births
and discourag.ug the worst. and all de-
tails Of their propaganda must be subor-
dinate 20 this great aspiration.
The United States. although often the
despair Of the reformer. offers the most
promising field in the direction of eu-
genics. Comprising many varieties OF
monogamic marriage, she possesses con-
trasts. comparisons, examples. and warn
ing, which will be of infinite use in the
eugenist's laboratory. In comparatively
socialized states like ours. where educa-
ton and a hundred other concerns of
every child are constant care Of repre-
sentative institutions. 1t would be retro
gression II We did not now begin to con-
slider the child as having, from its birth.
public interest II has been suggested
that eugenists are anarchists. tearing UP
the roots OF government. striking at civ
ilized institutions, putting bomb 10
the foundations of church. state. and
family. Let it be said here that eu-
senics Is the antithesis of anarchy. II
means order.