Evening star., 1914-10-24
BOOK REVIEWS.


FAMOUS WAR CORRESPONDENTS.
By F.. Lauriston Bullard. author OF
Historic Summer Haunts," etc. IL
lustrated. Boston: Little, Brown 6.
Co.
TT is being said that the picturesque
the resourceful, the daring, the
famous war correspondent" is
doomed. 1t is, too. to an extent
being proved that the modern long
range of warfare is playing havoc in
about twelve separate and distinct
ways with the erstwhile glory of this
order. 1t is already forecast that the
war correspondent will become an ex-
tinct species. He is booked as a future
relic, something to be dug up, his
pieces put together, his order deter
mined, his history writ. his place in a
museum assigned. 1t is not. however,
by reason of such prophesied passing
that this book has weight Rather is
it because of the indubitabie fact that
it picks the reader up at the first page
and carries him along, without stop for
food or water, till the last word has
been said by this writer Here every
since the Crimean war stands in the
high light of it's crucial and dramatic
moments alone. And all the great
war writer's from that point to the
Spanish-American war are foregath-
cred here to thrill and capture the
reader, and sweep him along in the
vivid current of their lives. Here is
William Howard Russell. hero by vir-
tue of telling the truth about the hor-
rors in the Crimea. upon whose crypt
in st. Paul's Cathedral one reads. The
First and Greatest of War Correspond
ents." Then there is Archibald Forbes,
wizard as well as writer, who stood
up against a wall to be shot in the
Franco-Prussian war. And Januarlus
Aloysius MacGahan, American-1rish-
man of beloved name and memory,
whose thirty-day ride alone through
the desert of central Asia is one only
of his achievements. And there are
others, a dozen or more, James Creei-
man among them, whose stores are
real hero tales of adventure, whose
work is an inspiration to every young
aspirant for honors in Journalism. The
"war correspondent" may go, or may
not go, but the work of these men VIII
stand as a shining mark, lnVitlng
writer's to it's level in any branch OF
Journalism An absorbing book, that
deals with fine subject in fine man
ner.
Of NV Life In America. BY Edward
A. Steiner professor in Grinneu Col
leee. Iowa Illustrated. New York:
Fleming H. Reven Company.
The Star last week made review OF
Edward Alsworth Ross notable discus
sion of immigration, THE Old World
in the New" a broad, impersonal,
searching investigation of immigra-
ton as it confronts the United States.
By way of From Alien to Citizen
Edward A. Steiner here. turns outward
the other side of the immigration
shield This story is personal. full or
feeling-the immigrants own story,
that concerns itself not at all with the
basic questions of national sociology.
1t is a most human recital. The writer
here admits everybody to the intimate
and poignant experiences of his own
slow and discouraging advance from
alien Immigrant to citizen of the
which Mr.. Steiner progressed to his
present place of college professor,
writer, accredited investigator of I'M
migration from the standpoint OF the
immigrant himself, are the sweatshop,
the mine, the farm, tramping from
point to point of promise. sleeping IN
the open or herding with his chance
fellows in surroundings of unspeakable
degradation. 1t is an astonishing story,
one from whose contagious warmth OF
feeling and natural, unimitative man
ner the reader cannot get away. Sym
pathy is its keynote. The writer ana
the immigrant are one IN feeling- MI
Steiner himself remembers the deadly
homesickness that waits for one in
place where all is strange, where
speech carries no meaning, but sets up
barriers instead; where everybody but
himself is so much at home, SO busy,
so preoccupied, SO unmlndful OF the
stranger The immigrant, having cast
off the old and not having yet become a
part of the new, is literally man
without country. And this writer
knows the slow processes OF adoption, on,
those changes i'll the quality of the
blood itself, changes in the drift OF
feelings, in the bent of thought, In the
direction of movements, in the sum OF
habits In sympathy lhls persohai
story embraces all immigrants. In ef-
feet it is, in part, a plea Tor them. In
other part it is an arraignment of the
United States for the inconsistency
which accepts the alien ana then SUB
jects him to an inferno of Indifference
and neglect. Glints of humor appear in
the surrounding pity of tfls recital
Shades of irony tinge its plain speak
ing. For instance, to cite random but
characteristic description and reflection,
Mr.. Steiner SAYS: Chicago is a marvel
Gus city to me; not because of the cat
tie she kills or the trains she speeds
from her sheds or the piles OF stone
she has set into skeletons of steel, but
because the human soul survives and
men can get away from her without
harm" However much one may hold
out, as many do hold out, for a wiser
and warier policy of immigration;
however urgently he may disagree with
this writer's implied Endorsement of no
restrictions upon this movement, he
cannot read this vivid and poignant
story without deep interest and a more
comprehending impulse toward the i'm
migrant.
THE POET. BY Meredith Nicholson.
author of "A Hoosier Chronicle" etc
Pictures by Franklin Booth. Deco
rations by w. A. Dwiggings- Bos-
ton: Houghton Mif1in Company.
In this kindly little story the poet
entitled here takes upon himself the
beautiful task of making happy two
very miserable people, to say nothing
of giving two others a good running
start along the way to happiness. And,
what is more, he brings his double
task to triumphant issue Right out
of the genial warmth of his own heart
the poet leads his two separated
friends-man and wife-to such state
of mutual reasonableness that their
wrongs, mostly imaginary, dwindle to
the vanishing point, and together they
again set out in the business of home
making. Beside this, the poet takes
tha ~f al