The Washington herald., 1913-07-06
BY A. d. JACOBSON.

HAGAR REvELLY: By Daniel Carson Goodman
New York-Mitchen kennerley.
'Hagar Revelly'' is very significant
piece of work. 1t deals with very serious
realities which our too careless tndif'
ference toward certain startling mora
and social questions have left menacins
to the community. In America sucf
questions are chiefly treated in statistics
in Europe they are the substance. be.
cause they are important facts In life
itself, of art Mr.. Goodman sees the
naked truth of things, the things thai
lie. as all things lie, close to Ignorance
and misery and unintentional sin In hu-
man nature.
''Hagar Revelly" is study, Of the Ques-
ton of wage versus virtue. What makes
II so profoundly moving Is that there
can be hardly one reader Of the book
who has not known or heard OF in actual
life some girl who has gone through the
same experience for the most part that
this innocent and beautiful Hagar.
Thousands of young girls go forth every
year into the world to earn their living,
ignorant and pure. Their ignorance is
the cause of what an Uncharitable work
calls their sins, and their purity is a lure
for men to fill them with misery Mr..
Goodman does not make the portrayal
of his character a study OF sexual ex-
perience; sex instinct is at the basis,
of humanity knows, of human relation
ship between man and woman; his func-
ton has a deeper motive, gives it a
wider significance by making IL a social
problem.
Mr.. Goodman writes with great feeling
The Revelly family is depicted with
familiarity. They are real people. The
old music professor and his disillusioned
wife, their separation at the beginning Of
ha a daughter.
the consequent circumstances, until We
become absorbed in the misfortunes Of
Hagar, innocent and confiding, and the
prey of two men, one unscrupulous, and
the other weak, is told with remarkable
skill and simplicity. 1t is a pathetic
figure that Hagar makes.
She is the American Tess. Only in the
end Mr. Goodman makes her truer to
herself than Hardy makes his heroine.
And this end to Hagar's history leaves
a more hopeful and satisfying outlook
upon the ways of life. lis 1t within our
province to analyze and dissect the
comedy OF fate and circumstances-to
approach life with lens and forceps, as
though 1t were a magnified Proteus, and
when il suits our fancy, to pinch off an
inquisitive pseudopodia from the proto-
zoan bulk. 10 hold aloft for the apprecia-
lion of fellow students?'
RAMBLES IN CENTRAL AMERICA: BY
George Palmer Putnam. New York-G. p. Put
mans Sons.
An entertaining account of land only
second door from ours in this record Of
travel and adventure by the author and
his wife. The book takes the reader
rom Panama northward to Guatemala
over a region which for some years Of
the last century constituted the confed-
ars~ 81,
t.nues to bear that name, although the
general government no longer exists, and
the several states have resumed their
original sovereignty.
The author speaks of Panama as being
the gateway to this region. and he
anticipates that the opening Of the
canal will bring these republics into
much closer relations to our own people.
No doubt trade relations will be i'm
proved, but Americans are likely to be
rare visitors and even rarer sojourners
in that land until social and political
conditions there are improved. The Ills
from which these lands suffer today are
the same as those which they have en-
dured for a century. They are to be
studied easily in Mexico.
Most of the distance travelled by the
tourists was made by water. Their
journey northward was made from port
TO port by steamer They crossed to
Costa Rica by rail from the Pacific to
the Caribbean Sea, making short stay
at the capital, San Jose. This railway
across the mountains is due largely to
the enterprise of an American fruit
company, which has built up a prof. |
table trade at Limon. Returning to the |
Pacific they sailed next to Corinto. in |
Nicaragua, where they stayed short |
dor Here they visited the interior of |
the country, and saw more of scenery |
and of life.
OF all the lands visited. Costa Rica
and San Salvador seemed to have pleased
these tourists best. Making their next
trip up the coast to San Jose of |
Guatemala they landed and made
journey by rail to the capital and thence
on horseback across the mountains to
Puerto Barrios on the bay of Honduras.
This took them past ruined cities of
the Moyas, and their observations upon
these ruins are among the most inter-
esting sketches of the book. Returning
as they had come Ghere is but one
trail over the mountains). the travellers
sailed home via San Francisco.
The volume is fully illustrated by about
a hundred Photographic views of scenery
and of natives pursuing their ordinary
employments. One has only to supply
in ina gination the temperature of the
tropics to realize what is the daily life
Of these neighbors of ours in the
Southland of North America"
RECLAINfING THE OLD HOUSE: ITS MODERN
PROBLEMS AND THEIR SOLUTIONS: By
Charles Edward Hooper. New York-McBroe.
Mast Co.
To a very large number Of persons the
planning of a new .or the remodeling OF
an old house is one of the most absorb
ng occupations. and to all such these
wo volumes will come in the nature Of
boon. With all the wealth of detail
hat even the most ardent house fiend"
,ould desire, they are replete with in
ormation valuable to the prospective
Lmateur architect and entertaining to
hose who do not SO much dream of
The author traces the origin
md development of the old Dutch colo
lial house in America and has many
uggestions for its adaptation to present.
lay needs.
The retaining of an old house should
e made easy by a study of Mr.. Hooper's
contribution to the literature on this sub
ect. which is packed full of the most
aluable kind of tips
HE MILL on THE CREEK: By Frederick
Thomas New Yurk-Broadway Publishing Com
pany. Price. SIS
This story deals with an old water
Mill in a period subsequent to the Revo-
war. The owner of the mill
discovers that many bags Of -four have