Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-03
BOOK REVIEWS.

- CIENTlST, aoventurer, poet. MI
Mills is all of these. The first !!
a rigorous man, keen only fol
~ facts in their bare exactitude. Al
risk of life and limb, the adven.
turer pursues these facts, inspired by the
quest, 1t would appear, to scale the ram
parts Of heaven itself by way of Rocky
mountain sleeps. The poets task, to oper
visions that enmesh the spirit of both mar
of learning and man of action in the
wonders of this high kingdom and thu
ClorieS of it, The first, the exact and
studious economist, wrote THE Wealth
of the Woods remarkably clear and
pointed summary of our manifold debt
to the forest. He, too, enlarged the tribe
of Pinchot in an. admirable study of the
beaver colonists as Little Conservation
lists" One bent on learning things about
the life Of nature finds the most of these
chapters shaped definitely for his use.
However. the pure adventurer opens this
volume In Racing an Avalanche" The
odds here are about a thousand to one in
favor of the avaIanche-but the man wins
and the reality of special providence
scores another proof. This adventurer
plays a winning. If not leading part,
also, with a blizzard and landslide. The
visions and dreams dreams These, in
figure and phrase, he sets out to stir the
feel ngs of the reader over this titanic
panorama. This is robust, muscular
company of stories with clean Greek
countour of parts about them.
THE JOYOUS wAYFARER. BY Hum
frey Jordan. New York: G. p. Put
MANS Sons.
Though the plot here is by no means in
significant. 1t is not the plot that stamps
this book as one of an exclusive few. Nor
Is 1t the problem Of character reacting
upon life, though this, too. makes hne
and appreciable part of this uncommon
story. Rather does its peculiar essence
spring from the mastery of that indie
Unable quality which, for want of a bet
ter name, is known as atmosphere. This
is the medium through which the spirit
of adventure Of every sort either lives or
dies. With this, adventure scars. buoy
ant. Without II, adventure dies stodgily
on the way. This story darts. and swings,
and reels. awning. 1t is the story of a
youth who,- bent to the barrister's trade,
springs like arrow from bow straight into
the artists life, for which he was clearly
cast long before fathers of worldly pat
tern were invented. Read the book for
yourself One must read it to catch the
wit and wisdom of it. the fine spirit, the
open heart, the gay. ,inconsequent sophis-
tries. the alternate but delightful theo-
ries about art solely for its own sake
and the devil take the world, making
what he can of it with mans clear con-
nivance. With gregarious instinct, one
hunts to find neighbors for this beloved
book and man. 1.-The Broad Highway"
and young Jeffrey Farnol live straight
across the road from them And up and
across the fields bit are The open
Read and its two of kin, with Maurice
Hewlett as householder.
ADVENTURES IN LIFE AND LET
TIERS. BY Michael Monahan, author
of Palms of Papyrus, etc. New
3 York: Mitchell Kennerley.
When an Irishman really has some-
thing to say he appears to have more to
say it with than one of any other race.
Mr.. Monahan in these adventures is a
case in point. Much reading, individual
thinking, most independent views in mat
tiers of, life and letters and, above all. a
way quite his own, set this writer off
pretty much by himself. He is a vagrant
reader, every now and then turning his
back on the broad highway OF literature
to loiter along the primrose paths with
such as Claude Tillier and Guy de
Maupassant, George Moore and Oscar
Wilde. Loose and Indifferent as to
whether we accept or reject. he comes
back bringing sheaf OF original and
with whom he. has been foregathering.
Putting aside the dead language of the
professional critic, he moves out into a
zone of straight appraisal based on the
horizon by means of literary art. Balzac
stands here the high exempiar,
brought in at many a time and place to
prove the pattern of genius. beautiful
and poetic reverie on Charles Dickens
and a true heart-fling toward Lamb
stand high among these sketches. as
does also a fine tribute to Thackeray.
Readers of Maupassant will seize Mr.
Monahan's estimate of this master OF
the short story Human being will be
glad Of his homage to the genius Of
Oscar Wilde. Many will SILVER when he
drives most of the modern novels into a
pen and damns their authors He likes
to prick bubbles, to sweep away cobwebS,
to jostle hobbies and to make our dolls
cry Then, when 1t Is all done, he grows
kind and tells some tender and lovely
story about Mary or Bill or an
other.
WHERE HALF THE WORLD IS
WAKING UP. By Clarence Poe, au-
thor of "A Southerner in Europe"
etc. New York: Doubleday, Page &
co. Washington: Woodward &
Lothrop.
One reads this graphic account with a
zest and enthusiasm equal to that Of its
author In making II. The volume is a
series Of photographs of Japan. Korea,
Manchuria, China, India and the Phil
ippines as they appear today That which
sets it off from the hundred other recent
studies of the orient is the authors atti-
Iude toward this subject Counting in
dustrialism as the dominant world force
and the great unifying factor of the
present, he casts the study in this atmos-
phere, examining these peoples in the stir
of this modern energfzing impulse. Hun
dreds of snapshots of daily life ana con-
dition, innumerable sidelights on charac-
ter and custom. here and there page o1
history or tradition now and then a para
son drawn off for our own pondering, all
these focus upon the character of this
great transformation and outline, broad
ly, Its widespread effects. An offhand
sparkling manner of the electric type
adds to the readers pleasure In this I'M
commonly arresting study of the east.
An ARMY OFFICER On LEAVE In
JAPAN. BY l.. Mervin Maus col
onel, United States Army. Illus
trated Chicago. 4. c. McClurg 4
Co.
Out OF his leave In Japan Col. Maus
has made an admirably complete and
practical guide for the traveller in these
parts. He has, moreover, sketched bal.
anced and spirited picture of Japan. For
mosa and the Philippines for the reader
at home Setting out from Manila. the
author went to Japan by way OF F'ormosa
Around important centers, such as Maya