Evening star., 1915-03-14
BOOK REVIEWS.
THE TURMOIL: A Novel. BY Booth
Harrington, author of 'Penrod,
etc. Illustrated by c. E. Chambers.
New York: Harper G. Bros.

THE TURMOIL: Novel. BY Booth
Harrington, author of "Penrod,
etc. Illustrated by c. Z. Chambers.
New York: Harper & Bros.
-HE turmoil that Booth Tar
kington crystallizes here in
novel of current American
life is the turmoil of whole
great country gone into a
prodiSious to-do of money making.
huge undertakings and every sort of
strain and struggle and stress for
mere material bigness. To reduce
general situation to seizable compass.
Mr.. Harrington stages this drama Of
modern life In a midland city, "a dirty
and wonderful city nesting dinghy in
the fog of Its own smoke And out
of the essence of this city-out of its
dirt and smoke, out of its over-rea CHI
ing and bad faith and shady method
he fashions Sheridan, the dominating
personality here. And the story ad-
vances by way of Sheridan's sharp
dealings and his tremendous triumphs,
by way of the ups and downs of his
busy climbing woman folks, by way of
his silent struggle with his boy. Bibbs
Two of Sheridan's boys are after his
own heart, chips from the old block.
But EibbS is he odd one-a dreamer, a
poet. no-account according to the
bookkeeping of his father. The strug
gle rs to crowd the expansive Bibbs
back into the Sheridan groove and to
make him an honor to the Sheridan
plan. And. to quite inexcusabie de-
gree. this end is accomplished one
wonders why the writer permitted it
Did he make an excursion out to the
book stalls for lists of best sellers"
and then hurry home to whip Bibbs
into the conventional rut of popular
story endings' Or. is the end of BibbS
merely way of saying that nothing
neither beauty nor art nor high
ideals nor the sane and simple life
can finally resist the modern Moloch of
noney-making" 1t is a sad end for
Bibbs in either case, as it is disap
pointment to the reader who sets out
to read this story in the glow of what
is really an epic tone of protest from
Mr.. Harrington against the monStrous
and reasonable materialism of the
present day
RED FLEECE. BY VIII Lexington
Comfort author of 'Routledge Rides
Alone etc. New York: George II.
Doran Company
Red Fleece is picture of war set
against a vision of permanent peace.
with America as the herald and mes
senger of universal amity. Mr.. Comfort
knows war at first hand And here he
makes impassioned protest against it
by painting the naked horror and
wickedness and waste of warfare in
the complete realism that comes from
q full mastery of the concrete word.
The story is based upon the Russian
advance into Germany in the conflict
now going on. 1t progresses through
the experiences and hazards of a little
group of revolutionists in whose COM
pany are a couple of war correspond
ents. 1t is a story of hospitals crowded
with manned, unSightly soldiers, of
fields Uttered with wounded and dead.
of firing squads taking summary ven
geance upon mere suspects. 1t is the
story of leaders safe to the rear. while
at the front the ranks push forward
to murder men against whom they
have no quarrel 1t is a story of fear
run into madness. Not anywhere in
this spectacle does banner wave. or
a trumpet blare, or huZZa eXalt
slaughter into patriotism. There are
episodes that Sicken and incidents that
terrify- The story is as transcriptive in
its horrible Indictment as are the Rus
sian war stories of Leonid Andreev.
And IN many respects II recalls the
work of Andrew The love story is Of
flne quality and the vision of brother
hood is of the true comfort spirit But
these are, at this moment, minor and
RED Fleece" stands in the present as
story of war. rather than as mes
sage of peace
Blue BLOOD AND RED. By Geoffrey
Corson- New York: Henry Holt &
Co.
The problem novelist is. as a rule.
content with some one thing to set
tie in each of his romances. But Mr..
Corson proves himself to be of d more
ambitious stripe than the average of
his profession. He welcomes for So
luton. not one problem. but several.
in blue Blood and Red" This is the
love story of Neal Carmichael and Pa
tricia Mccoy. The romance begins
when the two are children, united in a
common worship of Patricia's brother,
Chick Mccoy, base ball idol of the
neiehborhood Neal belongs to a first
family" of Staten Island, and resides
up on the hill with the other aristo-
Gratis. Patricia lives down on the shore
in little house overrun with young
McCoys. The barrier OF money and
birth is. however. negligible. Ever
since the day of King Cophetua and the
beggar maid love has laughed and
leap ped il many and many a time Now
Patricia is good little Catholic, and
has been for a thousand years and
more. Neal. in the common loose up
bringing of Protestant boys. is not
much of anything. One gets A glimpse
of trouble here This is just the. be
a plain religious difference to try the
love of the two, the author permits
Neal to marry a girl of his own class.
Patricia, heart-broken but dauntless.
achieves an education and becomes the
good angel of the slums. devout, sin
cere. beautiful and beloved. On fate
fll day Neal and Patricia meet Months
after that meeting Patricia flies to
place of hiding in the southern noun
tains. Meals experiment in marriage
ends in divorce Setting out after Pa
rncia he finds her and their baby in
their southern retreat. Now If you,
story writer. had tied knot like this.
what would you do? what could you
do. Simply cut II and run That is
Sust what Mr. Corson does. The story
ends with Neal and Patricia declaring
no doubt. at the first inconciusive mo-
naent of their rapture that the world is
well lost. There is more than mere
ingenuity in this development. There
ts fine character work, and excellent
literary quality, and an audacity of
courage.
A RELUCTANT ADAM. BY Sidney will
ltarns. Boston: Houghton Mifiin
Company.
This is study quite as much as 1t
is a story On the surface il is well
constructed account of the life of
Waldo Strong up TO middle life. or
tnereabout Strong, In the manner Of
q good story-teller, sets out with his
boyhood, his going away from the lit
tie home town to try this and that in
the way of business till he decides to
be an architect. He talks of his fair
success in this profession, OF his