The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-06-28

/ OF his enemies was his deadlier
friends" apologists.
The Last. Soaring Thoughts Of the
baroness Won suttuer.
AT seventeen" so begins the famous
Nobel peace novel Ground Arms" or
Lay Down Your Arms" as the original
Die Warren Nieder" was variousy
translated for readers In English, "at
seventeen ] was thoroughly over
wrought creature" II was in 1860 that
the hand which penned that sentence
was seventeen years old the hand
whose last literary work has just been
made public. when Thoughts WiH Soar,
"a romance OF tho immediate future"
by the Baroness BERTHA Won SUrrNER,
translated, with so much fidelity to the
vivacious original that some traces Of
the German grammar survive the over
setting, by NATHAN HASKELL DOLE
! (Houghton Mifiiln). Tho "overwrought
| creature OF II. daughter OF an Austrian
Field Marshal. niece OF Generals and
descendant OF the patriot poet Theodor
koerner. had by no means developed
into a dull or stupid woman when at
/ Nh' ago u 'SICdD ~ size WTOte the
present novel-essay in feminism. The
girl Is mother Of the woman.
The baroness has written a novel Of
feminism; more message" than incl
dent, although the story is good enough
TO swamp tho message now and again,
just as the message is strong enough
10 give the story occasional halt. The
simple plot is developed with expertise
( in psychology and with plenty of that
peculiarly sweet and sticky sentiment
talism which enters SO oddly into the
| formula OF the stolid. practical Teutonic
! temperament: and there is spice OF
Slavic fierceness. There is also In the
! chemistry Of the book something OF the
photographer; II not OF authentic
fact, OF still more authentic charac-
/ teristic thought, and certainly in the
suggestion for which the names are
vehicle. a Trinz Viktor .idolph is in
! the tale: his author was in girlhood be-
trothed to an Adolph Prince Won Witt
! genstein. The Prince Adolph OF real life
died before the day set for the wedding:
Adolph OF the story just quietly drops
out of 1t. The poet Chlodwig Helmer
| may have some Koerner in him, but the
! fire of "Leier ind Schwerdt" he burns
upon the altar of peace: 1t is indicated
that his epic. "Schwingen," left almost
| nothing for the poets Of modernity to
do. II was an altltudinous, a giddy
| poem; despite the alleged out OF date
| ness of its form. supposed by some to
| have been done TO death carrying the
weight OF Miltonic theology. "Schwin-
| gen" was acclaimed by the most ad-
venced and soaring minds. Also there
figure in the story some notabilities
| in whose personalities certain great ones
| Of to-day may be thought to be dis
cernible under thin yelling; statesmen,
poets, inventors.
The immediate future Is to be a time
, OF soaring, physically in the air. and
morally in the proper, still less sub
stantial medium. Aspiration for the
heights il shown in the story leavening
several minds. which 1t is the task Of
the narrator to bring into conjunction
and cooperation. There Is Franka Gar
| lett, suddenly orphaned. with funds the
most exiguous, but a wealth OF high
thought and an inexhaustible endow-
ment OF woman virtue" Assalled
with subtle ingenuity and persistence 1t
stands unmoved as Gibraltar. and is
rewarded by the appearance of fairy
godfather. who is also a nicely ma
terial grandfather seized OF rich estates.
ready to receive into his superlatively
comfortable home the daughter Of his
own runaway daughter. There were
some stern old aunts who made every
body else's business their own and did
all that gentlewomen might to keep
Franka IN hot water, and her head
submerged. They found in her possess
sion books. indicate books that did
not shy at even the physical facts OF
reproduction. Socialism and feminism
and paclfism were in the young lady's
| library, and a horrid "Liebesleben'
which disgusted an aunt with its ac-
count of "how herrings break the Sixth
Commandment" Brought to trial be-
fore the grandfather. himself stand
pat old timer. she found in him a
gracious and noble readiness to recog-
nlze. even though he could not possibly
ndorse. the new ideals of the new gem
Grafton. The aunts were baftied, and
their confusion was terribly worse con-
founded when the old gentleman quietly
died and made Franka his universal
legatee," mistress OF Sielenburg and its
substantial subsidiary estates.
So far the story element Is pleas
ingly predominant; now the volcano OF
modernism begins to seethe in the
bowels Of the book. 1t begins with
Helmer the poet, secretary to the baron
BY a series of letters to the heiress
which frankly seem to have derived
tho persuasive power assigned TO them
in the story rather more from an as
sumable peculiar susceptibility in the
| mind ~ no ,b,
them than from any solid merit in tn,
argument. he prevailed upon Franks
to put her fine fortune to missionary
use, to train herself for the job OF
field marshal in feminine crusade
Of conquest" She was not to Join tn,
militants under the votes banner, bu