The farmer and mechanic., 1915-10-12
''k" Finds Growing Demand.

* Finds Growing Demand
The demand for *" Mary Rob |
erls Rinehart's latest novel, shows the |
growing popularity of this always |
popular author. The book is now in |
its ninth printing. Little Miss
Crouch" by Samuel Hopkins Adams,
which Houghton. Miffiin Company
published the 18th of this month, is
already in its second printing
"The Inner Law"
In The Inner Law" just published
by the Harpers. Will n. Harben
touches upon a personal problem of
the gravest sort with the utter sin
cerity, the moral clearness and clean
ness. and the homely humanity which
distinguished this author in all his
work. The story, strong in it's realis-
tic life-drama, is study in the laws
OF happiness. Carter Crofton, the
hero. young Southerner. gifted with
a poetic temperament and fiattered by
general admiration and esteem, has
inherited with his fathers wealth a
moral taint. There is in his blood.
though he scarcely knows it, a devour-
ing passion. In sharp contrast with
the more or less cynical men Of the
world with whom he associates, he
suffers acutely from his first misstep
"a sudden amour" with an innocent
girl Of the so-called "poor white" class
Following bad advice in opposition to
the Oh his unCle-a man
whose inner life has been desolated
by like tragedy-Crofton tries to for
get his sin by leading, in Europe, the
life Of a cultivated gentleman Of leis-
ure and literary 'faneur." But it is
all in vain; he succumbs to kind Of
moral dry-rot. Returning to his old
shome in Atlanta, he finds that his for
mer sweetheart has risen above her
misfortune; she has achieved happi-
ness, but she will have none of him.
Poignantly real are the passages
which tell OF how Crofton found a
certain curious surcease OF pain from
his acquaintance with a youth whom
he met at a summer camp on the Pail
sades Of the Hudson, and Of how his
affection for this young athlete, poet
and philosopher broke up the hard
crust Of his nature. Parental love
and the influence Of a newborn un-
selfishness bring the story to tri-
Nmphant conclusion. AS Straightfor-
ward and unsparing as 1T is sympa-
thetic in spirit, the story, though it Is
doubtless pure fiction, reads like
genuine revelation Of a mans inner
tife-a convincing rediscovery of the
path of happiness.
The Song Of the Lark" is a stor,
OF a great American singer. her child
hood in the Colorado desert, her earl,
Sp uSSlcS III SHICdSO, uCA AOAAaheAS e~0
ventures among the Cliff Dwelle
ruins in Arizona, her splendid tr1
umphs on the operate stage.
There is diverting picture Of musl
cal Chicago in the early years of Theo
dore Thomas's leadership when tn
young Swedish American heroine
Thea Kronborg, not yet appreciatln
the possibilities of her voice, is spend
ing all her money and almost NOR
than all her strength for the sake o
her lessons and the drudgery of choi
work. There are wonderful chapter
on the Cliff Dwellers ruins which frs
awoke in her the historic imaglnatlo
so necessary to a great Wagner1a
singer and where, away from druds
cry for the first time in her life, sh
grew all at once into a powerful an
willful young creature, got her cOui
age. and began to find herself The
kronborg, the Swedes and Mexican
of the little Colorado town where Sh
spent her childhood, the Polish mt
sicians and art-loving German an
Jewish capitalists of Chicago and Ne
fork-these are today as TYPICAL
American as any descendant Of Fl
grim father or southern chevalier.
The authors miliarity with tn