New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-27
WOMEN AT THE FRONT.

FIGHTING FRANCE. From Dunkerque q
Bolfort BY Edith Wharton. Illustrated
limo. pp. cas- Charles scribner's Sons.
A HILLTOP on THE MARINE. Being Let.
te,s Written June 5-september 5, 1914 by
Mildred Aidrlch. lsrno. pp. lss. Houshtor
Miffiin co.
So far as Mrs. Wharton herself u
concerned, this record Of things seen
and felt by her leaves upon the reader
an impression Of fortitude and grin
determination rather than of suffering
and pity. II is the mood of France al
war with which she has become as one
Technically the book is work of art
standing apart, with its inspiration II
all the long row Of this authors beau
tifullv finished volumes. And It is typi-
cally French art in its unerring elm
ination of the unessential, its dextrous
use of the minimum of lines, OF
touches, for the production of the max
imum Of impression. The Book of Paris
wherewith this volume opens is Ike
an etching, infallibly suggesting all
that is not expressed of mood and ct
mosphere and time and place-an etch'
ing, moreover, with remarques OF no
less value. AS, for instance:
remember especially the steady
proved faces Of the women; and d.
also the small but significant fact
that every one of them had remem-
bered TO bring her dog. The big
gest of these amiable companions
had to take their chance Of seeing
what they could through the for
est Of human legs; but every one
that was portable was snugly
lodged In the bend Of an elbow,
and from this safe perch scores and
scores Of small, serious muzzles,
blunt or sharp, smooth or woolly,
brown or gray, or white or black
or brindled, looked out on the scene
with the quiet awereness of the
Paris dog.
Another marginal impression, more
significant one: faces seen In the city's
streets;
Women whose faces look like
memorial medals--idealized images
of what they were in the flesh. And
the masks of some of the men
those queer tormented Gallo
masks, crushed-in and squat and
a little -like-like the bronzes
of the Naples Museum, burnt and
twisted from their baptism of fire.
But none Of these faces reveals
personal preoccupation: they are
looking, one and all, at France
erect on her borders.
The faces Of q martial race at war,
fighting for its own-Mrs. Wharton is
constantly studying them, and, at the
front, finds that it is not too much to
sag that the struggle has given them
beauty. at is q wonderful example Of
the rapidity with which purpose models
the human countenance. Almost all OF
them have the same look of quiet
it is as though all 'ner-
vosity,' business. oddities, WEAKNESSES
and vulgarities had been burnt away
in a great fame Of self-dedication."
All along this front, from Dunkerque
10 the little corner of the Lost Prov
inces that is French again, Mrs. Whar-
ton was struck by the silence, the in
the mystery Of modern war be-
tween battles. She draws a wondrous
picture of the new beauty of Rheims
Cathedral, with its tone values left BY
flame and smoke; she makes US see the
ruin that has been created in town and
country, and the quiet energy that is
already restoring what has been lost.
She visits hospitals, the wounded and
their nurses. She gives us a glimpse
Of the confident affection between Off
GERS and men, and she finds that the
new France that has arisen is but the
old France which has dug down TO the
bedrock Of its national character. A
truly admirable piece of work.
Miss Aldrich saw the romance OF
war, and has made the most of il in
these fascinating, Enthusiastically spon-
taneous letters Of hers. The shadow Of
wars tragedy almost fell upon the six
gables of that little house Of hers;
then the tide turned. The invader was
stopped at her threshold. Her expert
ences with retreating British soldiers
and officers, whom she refreshed with
tea and food and baths--the tribute
paid to Woman in war time by CRATE
full tommy stammering, shy young
man, ell this Is splendid reading. and
must remain a memory vouchsafed TO
but few There were days of anxiety,
of suggestions Of the necessity of i'm
mediate fight-but Miss Aldrich stuck
to her books, most cherished of her
household gods. As Mrs. Wharton
gives us q picture of the capital in the
days of coming war, so does she give US
one Of It's approach in the heart Of the
country. ir a place so small, so quiet
and insignificant that the gazetteers
know Il not, the railroad scorns it, and
probably only the military maps deign
10 take notice Of It's existence. Fer
pictures Of the region and its inhabi-
tants in the untroubled days OF June
of last year are charming. They may
acquire historic value. for we are told
that after this war is over nothing will
be the same again. Still, Mrs. Whar-
ton saw the peasant returning to ms
soil the moment il was cleared or en-
emies; and the persistence OF the peas
antries of Europe in the ways OF iheir