Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-31

4 rule, to be a one-sded
and sorry theme. But in the
kindly world of this particu-
lar authors devisinF folly is always
more than matched by wisdom, the
good outnumber the bad, love over
balances hate, comprehension and
sympathy open wide avenues of ap-
proach between man and man. And,
so. in this new novel by Hopkinson
Smith, it turns out that the story of
Sir Felix O'Day's runaway wife is not
compound entirely of gloom and de-
preston. For, set off against the mis-
cradle situation of the spoiled and
foolish girls own making, is the album
dainty redeeming quality of Sir Felix
himself Here, again, is the sort OF
man with whom this writer has al
ready many times enriched readers-a
simple man, too big for retaliations.
too kind for another's hurting and yet
all man.
The story is set in New York, over on
the East Side, to which the quest of the
Lady Barbara has brought Sir Felix
ODay. Here, with fortune no better
than that of the rest. Mr. O'Day earns
his living in the shop of old Otto
Killing. secondhand man. winning,
meanwhile, a beautiful devotion from
stanch friendship OF sturdy Kitty
Cleary, the express woman in whose
tiny house he lives. While the bust
ness of this story is the succor of the
Runaway womaG-a business that is
carried out in a finely consistent fash
ion-there are days and hours OF East
Side Hte that fully engage the pene-
tratiye understanding and character
istlc artistry OF this writer. There are
many odd and picturesque corners of
this wide-sourced motley of existence,
over which the writer fingers and from
which he evokes the essence and at
mosphere, just as he drew these from
Kennedy Square" and. better still,
from Dickens London" But it is.
after all. Felix O'Day himself, the fine
man, who carries this story into the
quiet corners OF ones full apprecfa-
tion.
HEARTS KINDRED. By IONA Gale,
author of The Loves of PeIleas and
Etarre, etc. Frontispiece in color
by Clarence Rowe. New York: The
Is Macmillan Company.
This new novel by IONA Gale is dedi-
Gated to those who obey the sixth
commandment While it is first and
foremost a love story. it is by indi-
rection and implication story also of
the winning of man away from the
instructive lust to kill Beginning in
the far west the romance proceeds
eastward by way of the adventures of
a runaway pair. Lory Moor Is running
away from her wedding with Bunchy
.Haight- saloonkeeper, to whom her IA
Their owes more than he can pay save
by way of the girl And the Inger"
Is keeping her company because she is
friendIess and did not know no other
decent man" to whom she could tell
her plan to run away. With the in
consequence Of the babes in the wood
these two fare on to Chicago, and
thence to Washington, where a big
peace jubilee seals and certiiies the
niger in a slowgrowing conviction
that shooting things down is not after
all. the best sort of business for a
grown man. That journey to the east
is a beautiful bit of chivaIry stripped
OF medieval trappings and reduced to
the homeliest terms of loyal devotion
Readers already know what Miss Gale
can 90 IN the way of setting real peo-
pie. and really interesting people, down
bodily in her stories, with delicate
touches of humor and a kindly COM
prehension to help them on. their way
Ihey know. too. what she can do with
the plain face of nature lifting mere
geographical features into feeling
and sentient environment of the char
acters that center it, She has done all
of this in her usual vein of delicate
artistry for the fulfllment Of Hearts
Kindred
THE SONG OF THE LARK. BY villa
Sibert Gather. Boston: Houghton-
aiiffiin Company.
This is the story OF Thea Kronborg.
from her childhood in frontier ham
let Of Colorado to her surprising
triumph in New York as a great sing
err Between these two limits there
stretches an interesting path of situa-
ton. incident, and event, to point the
waymarks OF the girls career. The
Character of Thea Kronborg is obvious
y the chief concern here. And out
. Of this single-minded solicitude a very
real personality emcrEes, so real that
one finds himself smitten with twinge
OF disloyalty when he wishes the girl
other than she is. There is about her
q certain stodginess OF mind, a low
hickering Of the spirit, an inelasticity
of the body, that is wholly opposed to
what one has conceived of the artistic
temperament. And so, in a way, he re-
SCENTS the girl, while on the whole he
likes her and RloTies in her logged
VIII 20 achieve. Ones quarrel such
as 1t is, is certainly with himself here
dlsquietude at having his own no
tons Jared 1t cannot be VIII! the
writer nor with the story. for the one
has shaped the other iato an uncorn-
monty consistent study Of the Swedish
temperament, as il l. embodied in this
girl. acted upon by the peculiar en-
yironment OF poverty in 4 crude Colo
RADIO community. In q quite remark
able manner this author has sensed
pictured the songs imprisoned
Within the secretivc little body strue-
Cling to break through .nto their own
medium. the sunlit air II is here that
che enlists the full sympathy Of the
reader and binds him 70 the fortunes
OF Thea kronbOrg. u IS a fine and
realistic study, much more effective, on
the whole, than the usual fairy story
~ the flights of genius.
THE FOOLISH VIRGIN. BY Thomas
Dixon. author OF The Clansrnau. -
etc. illustrated by Walter TITLE.
New York: D. Appleton & Co.
Folly has no single standard What to
one is lack Of WIZ Is to another the
summit Of wisdom. And yet one is Of
opinion that, were the question put,
there would be general hocking to-
gether In unanimous agreement that
the young woman OF Mr. Dixon's con-
Germ here is OF a foolIshness so utter
as to lift her out OF the class held by
The merely foolish and TO set her down
IN the company of the naturally defec-
tive. Here is a nice southern girl, rear
ed In the prettiness of refinement and
s-esped in the traditions that mark the
social order Of the south. And yet. de-
spite this backing, the girl falls into a