Evening star., 1912-09-07

victory" etc. New York: John
Lane Company.
n RIVER Pactolus flowing over
~ sands OF pure gold down around
~ the Patagonian end of South
America, seaman of piratfcal
front cIutching the secret of its
exact whereabouts, a general 'Yo.-Ho.-
Ho,-and-a bottle f-rum'' favor-these. at
the first-off of this adventure. make the
reader sit up prickly keen for good
old buccaneering tale with. perchance.
a tang like that of Treasure Island"
about il. But, alas and alack for any
such anticipation, After a deal of get
ting ready to begin. the quest stales right
in the home harbor. while the reader.
reluctant. is led off TO bore into the do
mestic coil Of a most ill-asSorted house
hold and ncighborhood And what prom
ises to he tale Of long Sea-goings and
maraudings settles almost at once into
a study of the garden variety of human
affairs. When. finally. the voyage does
materiaiZe ii serves little purpose other
than that OF permitting a woman to fol-
low her lover TO the worlds end. only
to be sent back to her rightful lord by
the knightly scrupulosity of the lover
himself Apart from this loose iointed
building and a certain lack of balance
growing out of the authors personal
outlook the novel stands as serious
and realistic study Of a group of people
set In situations of lifelike and compell-
ing quality In character, the men and
women separate here as goats from
sheep. All. good and bad alike. are ad-
mirable in drawing. The women are in
the best modern pattern. he men are
poor stuff Among those worthwhile
women of vision and purpose are doc
tor. an artist. musician. One of the
men, on the other hand, is selfishness and
egotism embodied. Another is duplicity
of the Don Juan stripe. One Is a mere
man of Zeroesque attributes. And an
other. the best of the lot, is an indeter
inmate person of quixotic mold. In fact,
there are no such clean divisions of hu-
man traits into male and female as the
author sets herself the task of making
here At this point the story loses its
balance However II is, as a whole far
and away beyond the average modern
romance
THE GATE or HORN. BY Beulah
Marie Dix. author of ..Blount of
Breckenhow," ETC. New York: Duff
field & Co.
Beulah Marie Dix gives herself up in
this story TO the irresistible notion of re-
Incarnation. a theme that. from a time
when the memory of man runneth not
back. has possessed poet and romancer
and lover. Whatever thread she may
pursue, Miss Dix is captivating as mar
rator of picturesque events. A back
ground of history, a keen sense of the
dramatic In situations and an instinct
toward those larger relations of life called
mystic for a name, make the essentials
of her power. And in this romance she
surpasses herself. That part of 1t having
to do with Sonny Considine. both as
little girl and young woman, is not only
mastery bit of the psychology of these
years of life. but it is also delightful in
aNN <t<v, III
q completely logical foundation for the
subsequent manifestations of rencarna-
tion. Only at the last does one feel that
the author flaws her story by slightly
overriding her part. The recollections of
Sonny Consdine and her mate are too
full and explicit concerning their mutual
love life in other times and other where's.
One feels that Miss Dix dulls her logic
lie with a wedding show. Right here. one
recalls Kipling's amazing story on this
subject-''the finest story in the world"
kipling wrote ii in the full knowledge
that the lords of life and death shut tight
the doors after each of our successive
births. So 1t is an astonishing series Of
flashlights. of half-dreams, of lightning
glimpses and fleeing shades, tantalizing.
haunting piece of pure art.
PLAYS BY AUGUST STRINDBERG,
Miss Julia; the Stronger. Translat-
ed from the Swedish. with an in
trOQuct1On Dy EDWIN bJOfkIndn
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
Washington: Brentano's.
In the introduction to Miss Julia"
Strindberg like Bernard Shaw. goes to
great pains and some length of explana-
tion and discussion. Here he sets out
the motive Of the play. explains its psy
chology, delivers its message and defends
its form. Moreover. he creates the audi
ences that best meet the educative mis-
sion of the drama. But. all said and
done in its behalf one visualizes Miss
Julia" on the stage, where every play
belongs. with an average audience bored
TO extinction before 1t. Much water will
run away before commor playgoers will
accept the drama as schooling or the
theater as an academy. An exclusive
few, TO be sure. will absorb and enjoy
tho naturalism of this particular dra-
matte insurgent, but the majority still
demand the show first and the truth
next.
THE HERALDS OF THE DAWN; =
Play In Eight scenes. BY William
Watson. author of Poems" New
York: John Lane Company.
Now. this is a play for the stage 1t
is a pageant. II has poetic imagery. a
musical sound Of large volume 1T has
movement growth, Consummation. More
over, in step with today. il prefisures the
iime when war shall cease, and i'm it's
stead shall prevail peace and good viii
and world wide amlty. This drama is.
moreover. "A fine sweeping poem out of
the hand of true poet
MAY IyERSON TACKLES LIFE. BY
Elizabeth Jordan. author of May
Iverson-IIer Book etc. New York:
Harper and Brothers
There is something sadly awry with any
girl from the age OF ten to, say that OF
seventy, who docs not enjoy this delicious
book Original sympathetic. fun-loving,
shrewd-seeing. il laughs along from page
70 page with tho day-bv-day adventures
Of a set OF wide-a wake school girls. The
story is as free from goody ygoodiness as
II is from condeScension and the other
malades that commonly affiict books OF