Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-12

fAAHS3 The Dream Play3 The L1mk3 The
Dance Of Death. BY August Strind-
berg. Translated by Edwin Bjork-
! man. New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons. Washington: Brentano's.
The vision is that of a man poking in
dark and moldy corners. from which he
extracts wet, sinking rags-and-tatters of
human nature These he hangs out upon
the common. where they dance in the
wind, now and then taking on a faint
similitude to men and women moving
fitfully to and fro. but in the main ap-
pearing to be just what they are-soiled
shreds and patches Of life. Strindberg
calls this exhibition drama. And another
drama from the same source is only
more of the same sort-another harlot
added here, an adulterous wife there, in
this place another triumphant lover, In
that a betrayed husband, sniveling or
cursing. II the ignorance of the whole
world, expressing itself in the mistakes
and suffering of men and women. could
be crowded into some half acre OF the
earth it might look like one Of Strind-
berg's plays. but not otherwise. II to be
hopeless of self, distrustful Of all others.
vindict1ve In spirit and action, fadthless
toward the word of life, be genius; If
an unbroken mounting of the mean. the
suspicious. the common, with movement
always downward and never an instant
of soaring. be great realistic art-why.
then. August Strindberg is one of the
greatest geniuses that ever lived.
The drama, whether its mission be to
amuse. to divert, to teach, to inspire.
must first of all bear some relation to
truth as truth is distributed, not as some
single side of 1t is herded and exploited.
And this is our grievance with Strind-
berg. His persistent half-truths are
equivalent to no truth. or. rather, do
they act like some imperfect lens. dis
torting to hideousness the objects within
its range. One leaves these plays and
MAJ RI he mo
speedily, remembering the other pittfully.
By way of contrast, a reaSsuring con-
trast, turn to Henrik Ibsen for some of
the big meanings of life as 1t is gathered
up in the great art of dramatic realism.
A MANS WORLD. BY Albert Edwards.
New York: The Macmillan Company.
Mr.. Edwards declares himself to have
felt many times the practical need of
reading more about ordinary people and
less about heroes and extraordinary folks.
This is a feeling that the most Of us
claim. and SO We welcome his own book,
for which he makes no larger promise
than that it is to be the story of his
life. telling how. In the face of the
be decent" And Robinson Crusoe him
self was never more painstakinF and
plainly circumstantial about the facts OF
has day-by-day island life than Is this
auLQOr IN the account OIL MS experiment
of living. Full avowal. intimate and
open demeanor are the marks of this re-
markable book. One closes It keenly i'm
pressed with the accidental character of
the happenings that project the sum Of
this life. 1t Is clearly an uncharted
voyage, a drifting. now in sight Of land.
now in deep waters or In shoal. but al
ways uncompassed, undirected by what
In expansive phrase Is called "a guiding
principle Of life" And it is by just this
%olxo <t4% Hv,A <hA ~ 70 hA IN,
large part. our own. as we believe it. to
be also that of half the world and more.
How can one, from the strange ports of
birth and early years. set out full
course upon this alien sea. How can
one plumb the depths Of that upon whose
surface even his little craft sails. q tim
orous stranger to its mysterious tides
So in all-in religion. in vocation. in
love, in fiendship-one feels the press
of bountiful circumstance rather than
the gertrude of an ordered plan. This
is life. This is our way, too. This Is the
richness of the book to us. There are
here amazing revelations Of day-by- day
usefulness and happiness. Here are in
gars, unlicensed lovers, hungry and un-
sheltered folks whose urgencies of ma
ture and environment cause them to re-
act differently away from the rule. but
exactly In the line OF their own light.
Among these people Of various sorts one
chooses for long remembrance Ann and
Nina A big and stirring record, orfgi-
nal, as perfect honesty is likely to be.
STUDIES MILITARY AND DIPLO-
Matte, 1775-1S6S. By Charles
Francis Adams. New York: The
Macmillan Company.
One judges these studies to hold deep
meaning and interest to that class of men
who stand in bond to engage-at periodic
intervals, and in the spirit Of professional
dispassion-in the gentle art Of killing on
a part of our surplus population. in the
genial name Of honorable warfare. The
immediate appeal of these military
studies to this class lies in their technic
and their soldierly flavor. They stand,
moreover. as models of logic and state
ment. To the general reader, also, these
are absorbing bits of true history drawn
from first-hand sources of information.
The most Of them are shaped to try the
colors of that vainglorious frame OF
mind with which limited text book max
ers have fitted us out in the elusive
name of patriotism.
Commemorative occasions, OF one sort
or another, served perhaps their best
purpose in starting these inquiries that
probed finally to the truth of certain
parts Of our military history. Under this
investigation. the battle of Bunker Hill.
even-event-storied and sung to our child
hood-becomes an example of the ON
impotence of luck in matters Of war;"
while the battle of Long Island stands
stark as scanty victory. solely through
the "dilatoriness and stupidity of the
enemy" according to Gen. Charles Lee