Evening star., 1915-02-14

Plays" etc New York: The Mac
milan Company.
E was no account on earth
Mrs. Martins man. This fact
in and of itself. however. is
not enough out of the COM
mon to attract serious atten-
tion from writer of romances. Despite
the distinction conferred upon him by
the title of this novel. Jim Martin was
no more than a drop-curtain. dinsy,
draSgled drop-curtain, let down be-
hind the figure of Mrs. Martin to bring
out the fine, clean poise of her char
acter. This is homely. lifelike, un-
pretentious north Ireland story. But
in substance it expands beyond this
picturesque locale to include coura-
seous women who are married to the
Jim Martins of Ahe world. Martha was
a Mahaffy of Ballyreagh. And every
body rounda bouts wondered when she
took up with Jim Martin. She Won
dered. too. later, when she had 1ouno
out for herself that the passion of love
and the practices of. Wedlock may De
quite alien to each other After a
while Jim went to sea. And JameSey
was born. Martha set up little shop
whereby she and the ooy could hve-
Then Jim came back. And after MAX
ing Martha'S sister come to live with
away again. Then Aggie was bola.
Not for sixteen years did Jim snow up
again. Then he came as tramp Mar
tina put him into the shop to run the
errands that "Johnnie-iook- -up-at-the-
moon had been running And there
after the story is one of the uncon-
querable wisdom and patience of Mar
tina Martin, in smoothing vile tempers.
and keeping the children in the right
way. and doing the thousand .ninSs
that Hercules himself would have lain
down on long before. And. mind you.
Mrs Martin is no meek woman She
is a strong level-headed. patIent wom-
an, who dictates terms in the quieteSt
of ways and rules her household to its
own well-b being. A finely discerning
story and one of exceptional charm.
THE DY Az CHIEF: And Other Verses.
BY Erwin Clarkson Garrett. author
OF My Bunkie and Other Ballads
New York: Barse & Hopkins.
Ballads of barrack and camp. slap
dash vernacular ballads. go into this
volume. And there are here. besides,
half hundred Impressions in verses
on all manner of subjects. approached
in every manner of mood This mis-
cellaneous contribution ranges from
the songs of the flying machine and
swinging score against "i..e navy
congressman to- lines on Keats and
Bryant and Mark Twain. The most
considerable part of the book. how
W
its name. This is the romance of the
Dyak Chief, a noble head hunter of
central Borneo. The world over. when
the passion of love seiZes the young
male, it drives him to deeds of PROV
ess whose trophies he flies to spread
out before the eyes of the desired fair
These deeds and these trophies vary
with time and cline. but the self
glorifying instinct behind them re-
mains the same. Now it appears that
with the gentle maiden of the head
hunting tribes that wooing swain finus
greatest favor at whose beR line dam
giles one or. more of the heads of rival
tribesmen. Indeed. the measure of this
favor seems to depend on the number
of these heads and the quality of the
rivals thus despoiled. This poem is
recital of the young chiefs quest and
it's CORY fulfillment 1t is, too, the story
of AN awful doom meted out to the
white man who. meanwnIIe, has
brought the maid to be
The sneer of the kampOng
And the jest of the kampong men.
This writer has the gift of words and
rhyme and rhythm. He has Travelled
far and met a multitude of experiences
of a roughly picturesque quality He
makes no cubist Or futurist expert
ments in poetry, but contents
himself, as a rule, with the ballad