Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-30


produce the author OF power and per-
durance. It closes with an exhortation.
Or at least with urgent advice, to writer's
TO cleave to their own souls. to nourish
Individuality. to resist self-surrender as
the arch enemy of their aspirations. The
last of the three is an encouragement to
authors to seeek freely their affinitieS
among writer's wherever and whenever
these are to be found These kinsmen.
seeing visions the same in kind as their
own though in quality they may differ.
viewing these visions from the same
spiritual standpoint as they do. and
voicing them i'll syllables and combina-
tons that lead their own speech into
music. will. if sought. inevitably deepen
and broaden and quicken the flow of
their own powers as the pursuit of an
alien strain could not do. This in meager
outline points toward the substance of
Mere Literature"
LIFE AND LETTERS OF DOLLY
MADISON. BY Allen C. Clark Wash
ington: w F. Roberts Company.
In Washington. about three years ago,
MIR. Allen C. Clark gave a paper before
the Dolly Madison Chapter of the D. A.
r. on the life of Dolly Madison. That pa
per became. in turn. the nucleus of this
voluminous study of personality which,
to every seeming. remains in the present
as wildly and Strikingly appealing as it
Dolly Madison was the heart and soul of
life at the National Capital. With the
keenest of psychologist and dramatic in
sight Mr.. Clark has. in effect required
Mrs. Madison TO tell her own story by
means of her own letters, his part being
merely to supply a thread of Information
or comment. to sketch a background or
TO bridge some lapse of time or event An
immediate, vital story of autobiographic
appeal is the outcome of this admira bic
n q N nfshir
research hundreds of letters assemble
here. covering what is significant of the
correspondence of Mrs. Madison. And
this correspondence reveals not only the
large features of this charming and pic
turesque personality. but it gives also its
familiar everyday side. More than this.
these letters. through the radiating life
the manifold interests, the expansive
spirit and generous nature which they
portray, reach out and gather in besides
tne essential life of the community So
that by this study. Mr.. Clark has
achieved not only complete and valua-
be life of Dolly Madison but by means
of il ne has also. re-embodied in graphic
detail the social life of Washington of a
EFtury ago to which are added touches
o! political and historic event An ad-
IniTable collection of pictures accom-
Janying the text supplies what NAV be
called Dolly Madison itinerary of his
torlc Washington buildings.
THE POST OFFICE. By Rabindranath
Tagore, author of The Crescent
Moon, etc. New York: The Mac
milan Company
No western man-unless it be Maurice
Maeterlinck-can approach the oriental
In his power to tell the big, haunting
human things by way of the simplest and
homeliest of tales Tagore's drama, THE
Post Office is one of these little-big
adventures n oh hn1 cit
day at his cottage window. looking out
upon the hills, upon the sky and wonder
ing always what lies beyond them.
Hailing every passerby-the Waterman.
the curdTnan. the headman of the town
he asks always for the news. He wants
TO know of each where he is going and
why he is going there, what he is doing
and why he is doing this. Ever and ever
IS he on the quest for news of the out
side. And often old CATER comes and
tells him tales of the doings rounda bout.
lie tells him of the post Office around
which the houses of the little village
huddle. and of the messages from dis
tant people that pass through it, He
tells him, too. stories of the king. And
by and by the little boy plays. as chill
dren do. that some time the king will
send him a letter through the post office.
And the play passes into belief. And the
belief into expectation. And one day the
great King does send the little boy his
nessage-and this Is the end of this
poignant and simple drama. of this
rneaningful drama that expands to the
measure of every mans fate.
THE POSSESSED, Novel in Three
Parts. By Fyolor Dostoeysky, au-
thor of THE Idiot" etc. Translated
from the Russian by Constance
Garnett New York: The Macmillan
Company.
Dostoevsky is hard to read. His plots.
Il plot they may be called. sprawl about
over all Russia He presents a multi
tude Of characters. with unspeakable
Russian names. many Of whom are reti-
cent and obscure. not only about their
relations to one another, but also about
what their own personal business in the
book may be. Then he chooses to write
about the poor. the down-trodden the
sick. the lame, the halt. the blind-a dis
comforting choice. The story in hand. as
a case IN point. Is long and involved
creation through whose course man
possessed of the devil of incipient insan-
ity pursues a tormented way, emerging
at the last fully possessed of this devil.
In proof of which he takes his own life
by the specially revolving method of
hanging. And yet this is great writing.
And to read 1t is a tremendous expe-
rience. Dostoevsky knew vast deal
about what was going in the recesses
of the human heart-particularly If the
HedrI were toTIl ana pieeG1nR- he loved
the broken hearted in a divinely compass
sionate way. And through this love he
culled the pages of thousands of blasted
lives. THE Possessed may not rank
with Dostoevsky's The Brothers Kara
rnazov'' or The idiot" but it is. never
theless, great an amazingly in-seeing
story
PLAYING WITH FIRE. BY Amelia E.
Barr. authorSof "All the Days of NV
Life. etc. Illustrated by Howard
Heath. New York: .. Appleton &
Co.
Mrs Bars new story is that Of Ian
Macrea. a Scotch Presbyterian minister.
Tho. through the reading of modern
philosophy and the practice of scientific
methods Of thinking. comes to find him
elf in a thorough rebellion against the
strons religious convictions of a lifetime
A man fighting himself. ferociousiy at
lacking, one by one. the inherited and
eraditioned strongholds of his existence
presents. by all odds. the most significant
Of the worlds battles. And Mrs Barr
here follows. with intuition and sincerity
with sympathy and understanding Mac
rea's siege of his own soul with the
hosts of doubt.
Shading off from this grim struggle
spreads the softer pattern of Scottish life
from which the more common Scotch
~N1 .&A~- l. 49,