The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1916-02-10
THE REAL ADVENTURE"

In the story, "The Real Adventure"
by Henry Kitchell Webster, author of
1.-THE Butterfly" THE Whispering
Man." and Calumet H." just pub
lished in book form by the Bobbs-
Merrill Company, of Indianapolis, Mr.
| Webster has undertaken vast bust
ness, and has handled it so searching
| ", so clearly, and SO masterfully that,
in speaking of it, it is difficult to sup
press superlatives. Marriage is of
course the Great Adventure, but few
people who embark upon its troubled
waves reach the point of 1.-THE Real
Adventure, that of facing life togeth-
er aftey they have found themselves
and readjusted their ideas as to their
relations with the world, and, what is
more important toward each other, as
do the two central figures of this
story. Out of the great mass of hui
man beings who mate and marry there
|
who do SO just as their forbears
have done for generations, each ac-
cepting his lot from then on as the
common lot of the married. The man
lives his business life entirely apart
from his conjugal interests, the wom-
an bears and rears children and keeps
the home intact, and though she may
be conscious of the fact that
MANS love is of his life thing apart,
Tits wOman's whole existence
she does not worry about it-she is a
married woman with her man, her
children and her home and that is
sufficient for her, and therefore, she
does not trouble her head about it,
lnor, consequently, her husband. But,
on the other hand, there are just as
many, men and women alike, to whom
the problems presented in this book
are real and personal ones, and of
these, the thinking, the Observant and
the intelligent, there is not one to
whom it does not come homeland
come home with a punch.
We are given, as the central figures,
two young people, each Of Astounding
vitality, great strength of character
and keen intelligence, who fall deeply
in love with each other and marry
latter a short, whirlwind sort of court
ship-we are shown the rapturous first
months of their married life-and
then the struggle begins. the effort of
the young wife, unconscious at first,
to merge herself utterly into her hus-
Iband's life. and on bis part. the strug-
lyle to prevent slss absorption Of his
life into hers, We see dawning con-
seriousness within her mind of the be-
lief that the only attraction she has
for her husband is that of sex, that
lOutside of that she has no real part in
his life and her gradual absorption Of
his own theories as to the economic in
dependence of women, their position
as wives, and the physiological diff
ference of the sexes, and finally her
complete conviction that nothing
which has not been paid for by effort,
struggle and even suffering is worth
anything and that their happiness de-
ponds upon her gaining his friendship
and respect through those very medi-
ums. How she sets about to obtain
her desire by leaving him and her
babies and making her own way, first
as a chorus girl in Chicago. then on
the road Ga tragic, heart-breaking, bit
ter record), then as a milliner in a
little Illinois town, and finally, as a
successful designer of theatrical cos
tunes, makes story of absorbing in
terest.