Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-06
BOOK REVIEWS.

DUN MVItWO.
DEMOCRATIC ENGLAND. By Percy
Alden. NJ P. late warden ct Mans
field House university settlement,
author of Unemployment as Ma
tional Question" Introduction by
Charles F. G. Masterman. New
York: The Macmillan Company.
RRR1 HEN, as sometimes happens.
Nv Americans grow vainglori-
NAx Gus over what they call their
wv social service. they may find
good corrective for this ex-
cess of 1nwarranted self-approbation In
this volume. written to show what the
English government does in the way OF
social ameliorative measures. England
is cannier than veto say nothing OF her
being more fntelligently benevolent. To
reduce poverty and disease, to promote
health and efficiency. are matters OF SUM-
cieut importance over there to enlist par
lament. On this side they are left to the
uncertainties of voluntary organization
and personal initiative. The whole list
of problems bristling about the poor
housing, sweating, child labor. old age
ployed and so on and so on are treated
I'm this admirable exposition. Take the
single matter of the unemployed. Eng
land is organized from end to end into
labor exchange. Men are moved up into
the north. into the east. over into wales
wherever workers are needed. Organ1-
zation makes this possible and saves
thousands of poor laborerS from the IN
furious effects OF charity. Right at inns
noint one recalls a visit to the juvenile
court of an American city. A man was
before the judge charged with non-sup-
port of his children. The judge said 10
the man: Before next Saturday you must
get job. On every Saturday Thereafter
YOU must leave with the police sergeant
IN such precinct so many dollars for your
children Now, he might almost as ei-
fectively have told the man to change ms
black skin to white, or to add an extra
toe to each foot, as to have said what ne
did The city was not organized INTO
labor exchange and the chances were that
the man would not be able to get the
work. They do things better over there.
as a careful reading of this most useiu!
volume will teach the majority or sociaI
workers They inject business INTO tne
matter and draw off the bulk of senti-
mentality and loose purpose that marks
much of our own work.
TOMORROW: 4 play in three acts. BY
Matrimony." etc New York: Freder-
lex \. Stokes Company.
Tomorrow abundantly justifies Percy
Mackaye's hardihood in attempting to
make poetic drama out of scientific the
DRY. Eugenics-the conscious building
toward perfect race of mems the con-
trolling unGerthought of the play. Cali
fornia-the Luther-Burbank land of wiz
ardry-is its poetic and appropriate set
ting. Upon its surface the drama moves
along with the familiar three of romance.
in this case two men and girl The
mere playgoer might sit through 1t with
out seeing much more than fascinating
and spirited love story. staged in amaz-
ing beauty and impressiveness- This is
because its author treats his propaganda
with subtlety, holding suggestion, illus
tration. idealiZation, to be better teachers
than dogma Rugged in parts, idylilc IN
parts. human throughout and pre-em-
nently natural and unstrained. every fea-
ture of this play-characters, action. set
tine-points the purpose of the whole
Throughout the author makes his char
acters the perfect instruments of his
theory of selection for the Improvement
of the human breed. In some way not
easily defined. but certainly not by words
alone. the fawlessness of Mana, the
young girl, appears and the clean sound
ness of one of her suitors- The little
blind girl-a heart-breaking child-is as
much a marvel of natural childlikeness
as if she were not case to point the
need of selective intelligence in human
play, a subtle and delicately beautiful
one. With BreuX alone Mr.. Mackaye
stands as a pioneer in making the drama
an educative force on this important
theme
VISTAS OF NEW YORK. BY Brander
Matthews. author Of "Vignettes of
Manhattan" etc. illustrated. New
York: Harper & Brothers
One reads the stories of Mr.. Brander
Matthews with a secure feeling. with
mental surety against being seduced by
any fimsy charms of fancy, by any de-
ceiving flights of poetry. The motive of
Mr. Matthews story never plays hide
and-seek with the reader; instead, it
stands soberly out and above-board- Its
unity never opens 10 welcome dlVert1ng
Intruders. Its method goes Jog-trot, as
a Self-reSpecting method should. Its
symmetry is as exactly bi-lateral as that
of Agassiz's historic fish In sum, his
stories are good mechanics, good real
ISM good lessons, good moral One re-
spects them, but ne does not love them.
Mr.. Matthews seems clear case OF hav-
ing taught school too long to do otner
than didactic and expository writing. such
as his theater studies show. To be the
court of final appeal to be god OF au-
thority-as teachers are-for five hours.
more or less. a day, for five days In
deadly things to ones spontaneities and
fancies and graces. All this to say. that
from one point of view these studies of
New York life make a fine set OF pic
lures. but that from another point they
leave the reader reaching for dozen
less schooled. less openly instructive
writer's than Mr.. Matthews.
THE BRENTONS. By Anna Chaplin
Ray. author of "A Woman With a
Purpose etc. Frontispiece by Will
and Company.
\ more than commonly thoughtful
story, more than commonly well de-
veloped one. The theme, that of mis-
taken calling, makes sure appeal out of
a wide personal application. In this
case. the hero is a clergyman, when he
should have been a scientist. What he
does to make his best out OF a bad job
and how he does il are the lines upon