Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-09-27
putes, makes no arguments, but instead
holds to the purely historic attitude OF
preSentment.

putes. makes no arguments. but instead
holds to the purely historic attitude of
presentment.
Ellis Parker Butler. author OF The
Confessions of a Daddy" etc. IL
| Illustrated by Hanson Booth. New
York: The Century Company.
His real name was Peter Lane. He
became the "Jack-knife Man. and ia
nous. only after the Arts-and-Crafts
woman. coming down from the city,
gathered up. in a transport of pure arts
and-crafts delight and carried away with
her the funny cats and dogs that Peter
had whitfield out OF pieces OF smooth
white maple Somehow, these quaint toys
touched just the right spot with the city
Young ones They went like hot cakes.
and Campbell kids and kewpe dolls
Orders for them were forever coming
down, and bundles of wooden cats and
to bank book. Moreover, he was fast
becoming respectable. But even this could
not spoil Peter. When we first knew
Peter Lane he lived in a shanty boat
side of the Mississippi river. The widow
Potter said he was a shiftless coot- And
so he was. She said, too, he was no
better than common loafer and tramp
And he was just about both of these.
But such a lovable coot, and loafer, and
tramp were, surely, never seen before.
One night-one snowy, blowy night-a
heavy something lurched up against the
shanty boat door. When Peter opened
the door a woman fell across its thresh-
old into the little cabin. Following her
was a mite of a boy, with one lame foot
and a mop of yellow curls. The woman
cried a bit. and swore good deal. and
died. And that was the beginning of
Uncle Peter" and Buddy, the boy, and
the tribes of funny cats and dogs. and of
the altogether beautiful doings of Peter
and Buddy together. If there is any
where, either in books or outside of them.
more adorable vagabond than Peter
Lane one would like to find him. The
whole of the story is charming comedy
wherein laughter and gentle melancholy
play enchantingly together. 1t took
fine artist and a great big man to mag
inc and project this story of the Jack
knife Man.
sIEDITATIONs; A Year Book. By
James Allen, author of LAS Man
Thinketh," etc. New York: Thomas
Y. Crowell Company.
The place for this book is beside our
St Augustine, and Marcus Aurelius, and
our Sermon on the Mount. For 1t, just
as these do, takes hold of the great COM
mon stock of daily human living. Like
them it takes account of the plain work
of the world. of its tired body, its sick
spirit, its boundaries and questions and
quests. Like them, too, it distils out OF
every kind Of human experience its one
essential drop Of meaning. a drop so sun
light clear as to mirror every man to
himself, so MONDAY bright as to search
out the undiscovered places of his own
heart.
These meditations are arranged for
every day use, or better, for day-by day
use. One particularly likes this. For
day-any single twenty-four hours, into
whose making the innumerable host OF
days behind it has gone. and which will
itself, in turn, ripple all the countless
days to comets serious and mysterious
thing, often very terrible thing. No
body, or hardly anybody, who thinks at
these unknown days without an almost
ceremonial preparation. The ripe thoughts
of deep experience are the best high
priests for this morning ritual OF getting
ready to go out on each days new ad-
venture calamity. eye Alright, hand open
and outstretched. heart sincerely at one
with every other Of this whole world of
wayfarers.
These are new thought meditations.
New" just as the thoughts of Jesus are
new" and those Of Augustine, and Au-
relius. and Emerson, and Maererllnck, and
all such as see deep. and fare far. and
think long, and feel much.
THE LETTERS OF POST-IMPRES-
SIONIST; Being the Familiar Cor
respOndence Of Vincent Van GOgh.
Boston: Houghton Miflin Company.
The perfect sincerity Of Van Gogh's
letters Ii bound to be a source OF great
usefulness to artists. no matter to what
school Of art they may belong, or to
what dogmas of art they may subscribe.
The habitually intimate and communities
tive mood In which they are written their
freedom from all artiiciality. from any
didactic flavor of art-as-it-is-taught. give
further proof Of their value to the sub
ject Of painting, and to the fundamental
theory Of art itself. Written to his own
brother and to Emile Bernard, his friend,
these letters were composed in the pauses
of work, often did they come fresh from
the tip of the painters brush as this drew
to the surface some special point of the
use of all art, or of one of Its controlling
principles, or Of some feature OF its tech
mic. This correspondence reveals Van
Gogh as serious and gifted student
making searching inquiry as to the pur-
pose aud means and use of painting
1t makes a free RUNNING comment OF the
writer's every mood. and point of view,
and forward-taking step. Even the lay
reader finds 1t an absorbing and stimu-
lating, and informing study. Leading to
| this correspondence is very competent
summary of the life of Van Gogh by his
| translator, Anthony NJ. Ludovici, sum-