Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-10-15
PONCE De LEON ENDS
QUEST in NOVEL OF
BUBBLING YOUTH
Sinclair Lewis "Trail of the
Hawk" Goes on the Shelf
With the Classics of
Boyhood
A NEW HUMPHREY WARD

YOUNG ideaity suffuses every page OF
Sinclair Lewis THE Trail OF the Hawk"
Harper a Bros. clever press agent, who
originates the epigrams for the jackets
Of their publications. does not trespass
beyond the bourne OF reasonable
crying out OF his wares when he says:
youth bubbles In every line" The book
is sure to make recollection fonder and
vividar TO elderly Ponce de Icons, whose
only fountain Is a siphon and whose
Fioridian shores are sighted from club
window. II will cause to fade away, for
the time, the gentle melancholy OF early
middle age, whose ship Of life has crossed
the meridian OF 40. IL will reduce the
ratio OF bitter to sweet In their phtloso-
ply. Chiid-heart. boy-haart. 1t interprets
them. but without sophistication. The
initial picturing and exploit Of Carl
Peterson, second generation Norwegian,
IA Of a piece with Mark Twain. thus one
pays tribute TO the authentic youthful-
ness of Mr.. Lewis creation by COM
parison with the perennial master. OF
the wisdom OF a man and the heart OF
a boy. The development Of the novel Is
IN key. II goes on a shelf with copies
OF Harvey O'Higgins' "Don o. Dreams;
wilbur Nesblt's THE Gentleman Rag
man" the classics OF Hughes, Aldrich
and Warner. the perdurable pages de-
voted to Huck and Tom. Yet 1t Is not
n
novel, for It considers a quite typical
American evolution, through transitions
OF emotion and character. to a satisfy
ing climax. IL would be easy to review
The Trail OF the Hawk" by the handy
method OF tabloid paraphrase, but this
70 not q review; rather the reactions OF
Q worthwhile piece of fiction. all boy
heart and mRn-size, on a reviewer.
Society Gin the limited sense) in Amer
lea 10 not given to ostracising its mem
bera for moral freedom in their private
conduct 90 long as their financial free
dom is unimpaired. Consequently the un-
happy situation in "Eltham House." by
Mrs Humphrey Ward CHearst Interna-
tional Library Company New York;, in
which mans career and a woman's
happiness are completely wrecked by the
refusal OF society to acknowledge the pro-
priety of their marriage. leaves an Amer
lean reader immeasurably impressed by
the great contrast between the aristoc-
racies OF the two countries.
Mrs. Wards analysis OF the unyielding
attitude of the intellectual social world
of England toward a woman who is be-
lieved to have deserted her husband and
children for a lover is drawn with an
accusing hand. The break
Ing of the proud spirit of Caroline Wing,
with its attendant agonies of body and
upon whose merit the book might stand
alone as a worthy achievement were
there other elements lacking. Realistic
glinnpses into the fascinating mingling of
high politics with high society give the
story brilliance and color.
II Gouverneur Morris had made his
most recent novel to order for a romantic
young niece at boarding school he could
flying than when My Ship Comes In"
(Charles Scribner's Sons, New York;. The
plot Is strung on plagiarism; the hero
ts a playwright; the villain is genius
In plot-stealing and histrionlcs. And
there is an admirable second couple to
play Juvenile and soubrette for the COM
pletion of trite tableaux.
The hero strikes it rich; the sub-hero
Is already rich, and obliges the reader
bv withdrawing his broken heart from
the wrong girl and laying It smilngly
into the willing hands of the right one;
the heroine makes a tremendous hit in
her lovers play, and the villain gets his
plagiarizing face punched. Every we'll
laid surprise occurs at Just the precise
moment when you knew It would.
when My Ship Comes In" never dis
appoints you, especially If you are IS and
devoted to chocolate caramels. II you
are not. you remember a triie indignant
ly the tremendous promise Of some Of
Gouverneur Morris earlier stories.
An author who seems to have tired of
the problem story after a brief expedi-
tion into that uninvlting field Is Rex
Beach, who In his lates. book, Heart
of the Sunset" Harper & Brothers, New
York;, reverts to the scenes and types
OF his early suceesses-people of the out
doors. While the transition is most
pleasing Theoretically one fails to find in
Mr.. Beacks newest work the true tang
oI the open that was so manifest in
The Spoilers and "The Barrier"
al