The Washington herald., 1913-05-11

quired wealth are shattered. and the
awful possibilities, the hardships, and the
perils of their position bear down upon
them. To both the great city applies the
acid test.
Projecting the spotlight Of truth and
reality into the shadows behind the
fscenes, where tinsel is just tinsel and the
}rouge an Intellectual mask, revealing the
life Of stageland folk, Mr.. Davis gives q
voracious study Of life back of the foot
lights when parts are lived" mot read.
With fidelity, humor realism, and ro-
nance. he paints Gotham and the Great
White Way, the Gotham Of the stage
door and the wings, the cafes, and the
actors clearinghouse. He pictures the
necessities the temptations, the tragedies.
the shams, the social standards. the
morale Of the stage in a manner that Is
as frank as 1t il fearless. Not once. how
tells love story that carries a warning
with 1t.
THE JOY BRINGER: By Grace MacGowan Cooke
New York-Doubleday. Page & Co.
There is song of the painted desert.
Of the Hopi Indians, in which occur the
words, Remain with us, oh, joy-bring-
ers.'' The title of Mrs. Cookies novel,
taken from this line Is well chosen, for
the greater part of the action Of the
! story takes place in the desert of our
Southwest, in "a village that was old
when Columbus discovered America. Here
In the bosom of her own land was the
heart of Egypt. Such as one of these
was the house-top from which Bathsheba
looked upon conquering and conquered
David" The author whose words we
have Just quoted knows this strange land
with the intimacy of one who had dwelt
in II and loved 1t. Yet, despite her wealth
Of material, she is compelled, in order to
create a dramatic prelude, to strain
reality as we see it in life around us and
to ask us to accept scene that is, to say
the least, hardly believable.
A young woman, merely a girl stu
dent at a girls school in Kentucky. o.
dark. rainy night Is taken in a covereu
carriage to a clergyman, who marries her
TO a man she has met only as friend.
She discovers too late that she has mar
ried the wrong man, the brother OF the
one she intended to marry. This violent
captor, a product Of the untamed desert
country, has lived his life among the
Hopi and Navajos, and fails to compre-
bend the demands Of convention as recog-
nized in civilized communities. The girl
goes away with him into the painted
desert, determined on keeping him at
arms length. From the time the two
reach Oraibi. desert town. the story
assumes depth, conviction, and resultant
power
The description of the desert sunrise
and sunset and the coming of pestilence
are wrought with skill above the plane
of the average novelist.
WAR. OR WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ONE
LOVES ONES ENEMY. By John Luther
Long Illustrated. Indianapolis-The Bobbs-
Merrill Company.
The author of Madame Butterfly has
given US in this new story sort of ideal
of the American civil war. Fantasy, SEN
timent, and quaint humor clothe this
tale of the tourmoil and tragedy Of the
days OF our nations great crisis. The
joys, loves, patriotism, the daring. the
doubts and distrusts of the people of a
Maryland village in those days of strife
are recounted by the kindly old German,
Stephen Vonnor. with q quaint simplicity
that stirs the sympathies. War" he
says. makes funny things to happen"
All Of war is not-what the remark says.
Mr.. Long has felt the poetry of war.
Companies of young men, In their
bright Zouave uniforms. under gay flags.
and with band playing The Girl l Left
Behind Me-" marching away to Father
Abraham, lis an historic picture of war,
and grim. But Mr.. Longs story is full