Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-10-18
BOOK REVIEWS.
uxc,E SAM. WONDER WORKER

nv William Anterior DuPuy. IL
Illustrated from Photographs. New
York: Frederick A. Stokes Company
n LII agree that Uncle Sam Is
~ prodigious fellow. To the great
~ general public he bulks biggest
in politics. in office, In getting
new Presidents and forgetting
old ones, in marching his soldiers to and
fro and deploying his sailors up and
down-spectacle and warning combined
and in all sorts of experiments in demo-
cratic government Not many, however,
know Uncle Sam for the wizard he ac-
tually is. And to light up this fact in a
broad fashion. Mr.. DuPuy has written
twenty-five or thirty captivating wonder
tales describing the miracles that Uncle
Sam is working apart from the fam
bouyant and fieeting performances of
pure politics. Taken together. these sto-
ries. illustrative In intent and most
striking In character. freshen up the
somewhat submerged fact that the nine
executive departments of the United
States government are the government,
politics and politician Notwithstanding.
That each of these Is a highly organized
scientific bureau devoted to the service of
the whole ninety millions of us. That all
of them are engaged in Investigations,
experiments. discoveries, for the use OF
the whole people. Broadly, the aim of
Uncle Sam is, through these bureaus, to
create an environment so rich and COM
plant that, rightly administered, 1t makes
reasonable guarantee for the general we'll
being of the American people. And some
of the innumerable things that these eN-
pert men and women are doing to re-
create both land and sea In a larger
promise of bounty make the substance
of this book of marvels. Among the things
of this astonishing program MIR. DuPuy
tells how, for the best OF economic rea-
sons, cotton has been taught to grow on
trees out In Hawaii, and how whole miles
of waving golden grain cover what were
once broad beds of barren rock. He makes
exciting story of the invention of new
animals and the transformation of old
ones: of creating new plants according
to the wish of some scientific miracle
worker; of producing new fruits, of
wheedling the persimmon to give up it's
pucker and to lie sweetly mellow on the
tongue; of persuading the prickly pear to
lay off it's armor and become useful
member of society in these piping times
of peace; of changing the seasons about
pretty much at Will; of impressing fish
to the work of planting pearl buttons; of
growing acres of pearls; of planting
little Washingtons." and of doing any
unbelievable things. In addition to the
quality of its facts, the book has a per-
sonality that Is most attractive and en-
Pertaining. Mr.. DuPuy sees pictures and
writes them. Grown folks will enjoy this
book, and learn from II. Children will
love Ii as they do their fairy tales, and
later. their stories of adventure. A very
unique and picturesque true story, or set
of stories that for strangeness far sur
pass almost any fiction that can be
imagined.
JOAN THURSDAY, A Novel. BY Louis
Joseph Vance. author of ''The
Price," etc. Illustrations by Oscar
Cesare. Boston: Little, Brown &
Co.
This is. by long way. Mr.. vance's
strongest story. While this author as q
rule writes entertainingly, with ease and
individuality, he has never before gone
SO far In for his material. This fact and
the high degree of skill with which he
handles his new field of exploration take
him out of his old class and set him for
ward into the one that is best represented
by David Phillips, Theodore Dresser and
Edith Wharton. Joan Thursday" is an
expert study as well as an unconmonly
good story. For the purpose of this in
vention Mr.. Vance makes, or takes, a
girl of great beauty. He gives her the
glowingfy healthy body of a perfect ami
NAL. To this he adds smart way, even
an elegant way, of wearing her cheap
and Simple CLOTHES. He grants Joan the
courage of her own beauty. shrewd in
stinct In looking out for number one. -
pretty complete disregard of personal
obligation, commonplace mind, no edu-
cation. save that which she so quickly
rubs off from surrounding people and
places. a reckless temper no gift of any
sort save that of beauty and that of look
ing out for joan. When the story opens
Joan has Just lost her job as shop girl
Incident to this she is turned out of a
sodden home by her angry, no-account
father. With so much, and no more, by
way OF capacity and preparation, Joan
sets out TO make stage career for her
self. The story ends with the girl well
along on the way of a SNOWY success
All along the road-and this is the story
she is surrounded and beset by the CON-
mon chances and mischances-nostly OF
the male persuasion-that befall a beauti-
nj girl in such situation. Mr.. Vance,
having chosen here to take "A story out
of real life. stands vigorously by his
choice. Not once does he turn himself
into a special province to swerve the
logic Of situations, or to pretty off the
facts of the human nature with which he
is dealing. What he has done is to seize
bodied in a story of vigorous personality
and uncommon workmanship.
THE PUBLISHER. By Robert Sterling
Yard. Boston: Houghton Miffiir
Company.
The publisher, to such few as give to
this subject a passing thought, is a
house--not a man. Or, If the term does,
by chance. call person up to ones
mind. he is of a very abstract. nebulous
unembodied sort whose automatic bust
ness ii Is to grind out seasonal grists OF
books for general diversion and instruc-
ton. Mr.. Yard, himself a publisher OF
long experience, and now editor of the
Century Magazine, undertakes in this lit
tie volume to correct and clarity our
commonly hazy notions OF the publisher.
In informal but convincing fashion he
gives him a personality. name, local
habitation and n business that is
motived and conducted much as are
other commercial enterprises. Except