Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-06-27

John Lane Company.
~ ROWLING O. nights about the
chief of European cities-Vienna,
Munich, Berlin. London. Paris
these waywise and discerning OBJ
=. servers undertake to put to booh
the fugitive night spirit that. with the
coming OF the dark seizes upon each OF
these. From any amount of brilliant ana
entertaining stuff about this matter one
gathers. In sum. that these cities. one
and all. have lost their innocence to the
mammon of the American dollar Win
weather eye open to the showers of gold
that the man from the west may, II
rightly managed. be counted upon to
shed. each of these has gone into I'M
natural posturings and painful contor-
tons in order to live up to the man S
fearful imaginings about its hidden pleas
nres and particular charms. In this
strain to seem other than 1t is-more for
biddenly other than 1t is-ir is losing the
virtue Of Its native intent and coming
into the permanent role of wanton, and
harlequin and clown. At least. this Is
what the brilliant group of night providers
would have us believe about Europe after
Sis. And every now and then along
the way of these clever. disillusioning
sketches there is an evocation Of the real
Paris. the real London. the real every
one Of them, that is etched against the
night sky in an exquisite Whistlerian
beauty. The decorations are quite OF
piece with the text in style and spirit.
The whole is delight of keen and bril-
Liant writing.
STORM. By Wilbur Daniel Steele. New
York: Harper & Bros.
The familiar Cape Cod stories, all hing
ing as = rule upon the doings and say
ings of some homely Cape Cod skipper
and philosopher. are of a sameness to
make this brand-new fishing story of the
coast as fresh as if it were risen bodily,
new-washed from the ocean itself. In
this tale the ripe old skipper does not ap-
pear. In his place is a young giant,
growing slowly to the measure of master
of a fishing craft. Joe Mania. this hero.
is now and then vaguely reminiscent
of some one of the brood of young pagan
gods. and now and then he stands as the
embodied strength and blind force of the
sea itself. The tale as a whole is one
of rugged adventure wherein the it
self takes a frequent hand, to insure the
matter against any child's play with the
tide of human affairs. Mr.. Steele has
used modern fishing village, modern
but an isolate and unmolested village, for
the purposes OF novel whose feeling
and action go back to any period where
the life of the people stands face to face
with the forces Of nature. The adven-
lures. lures are r rob robust and man size The ro-
not grow by subtlety. The plain SIM
plicity of the story. the writer's manner
or writing, gives it the quality of
Lorna Doone.'' though in theme these
Two romances bear no resemblance. A
Splendid novel, well worth the attention
Of those who are looking for stories of
height and girth and substance.
THE HOUR OF CONFLICT. BY Hamil-
ton Gibbs. New York: George H
Doran Company.
In telling the touching story of Toinette.
lovely daughter Of Monsieur Hippolyte
Guerchard. humble keeper Of a little sea-
side cafe in the north of France, Mr.. Gibbs
holly divests himself of himself, as it
were. Having quite completely slipped
out Of hfs usual self, he for the sake of
seeing this idyllic romance true. has
taken on. in a curiously perfect way, the
qualities OF the simple people with whom
this story has to do Joyous. buoyant
and gracious is this little group of French
men and women The beauty the real
and perfect beauty of this story lies Just
here. in the writer's oneness with the
essence OF the people with the atmos-
phere Of the place AS a story it is a
sad and poignant one. having to do with
,he pitiful love Of Toinette for the smart
and idle young Englishman, Everard For
tesque Leyden. And critics will assail
Mr. Gibbs for tampering., at the last,
with the logic Of events which he him.
1eif set to come out a long way from
where they do come out. They will say
that drowned girl is a drowned girl
and that to bring her to life long after
any reasonable person would have been
content to remain dead is act of in
excusable violence. both in fact and in
literature. They will say. too, that high
class young Englishmen do not in nature,
nor should they. marry with peasant
daughters OF humble innkeepers. But
despite these charges, plausible charges.
too. the story in its grace and perfect
sympathy remains a very beautiful one.
WHAT MAN WANTS. BY Charles
Marriott. author of The Wondrous
Wife" etc. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-
Merrill Company.
This is an important story, a serious
and interesting one. whose clear object Is
10 embody in a social drama the restless.
questing. experimenting spirit of the
present day Writers and artists, a girl
OF social place and conservative strain,
and a young woman of open mind and
adventurous heart serve here, by their
different natures and diverse aims as
the means by which these modern drifts
and tendencies are brought to definition
and Interpretation. Under the larger
movement of events romance plays a
part that. by its outcome and implica-
lions, leaves women far to the rear of
the best of the men, held back by their
immemorial birthright of cruder stand
ards. more personal motives. greater def
erence to convention. What a Man
Wants completes the trilogy of which
'.The Catfish" and THE Wondrous Wife"
are the other two parts. Together. they
make a compromising survey of some
O, the uppermost facts of our social life.
while at the same time they stand as su-
perior and absorbing stories.
FIVE YEARS TO FIND OUT. By l. A.
r. Wylie. author of THE Daughter
Of Brahma." etc Frontispiece by
Franklin Booth. Indiana polls: The
Bobbs-Merrill Company.
This novel IL further evidence that as
often q story wins out or loses from the
manner Of its telling as it does from
the matters with which it has to do.
This. at bottom. is modern fairy tale.
But II Is plausible one, and very read
able.x A rich South African uncle has
the role of fairy. Up in London his
nephew, Heathcote St. John. and his
wife Cecilia are pensioners upon him to
the tune of many thousand pounds a
year. Their ive-year-old son. very much
IN the background. and with whom
neither is at all acquainted. ID designed
TO figure in the climax of this story. For
when Uncle Jeremy makes believe that
his money Is gone. utterly gone, the ST.
Johns are nut up to the bare question of