The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-08-13
WYE THREE"


 By Gouvernor Morris. Illustrated by
 Henry Hut. D. Appleton & Co.,, pub
 fishers, New York.
 Gouvenor Morris in his wonderfully attractive story, "We Three" presents the eternal triangle-the husband, the wife and the other man. They are of the smart set" and although their story is the everlasting triangular af- fair with one side open-it is wholly without sin.
 Suppose you are a very busy man, married to the one woman in the world you consider worth while and you suddenly discover that your wife has fallen in love with your old school fellow, and announces that she can no longer live with you as your wife. What will you do? This is the situation that confronts John Full ton on his return to Aiken, where he had left his family a few weeks before when business crisis had suddenly called him north. Mainwaring, the third in the triangle, an idle butterfly, the only son of wealthy parents has, by his attentions, completely infatu- ated Lucy Fulton. She is overwhelm- ingly in love with Mainwaring and feeling sure her husband will immedi- ately divorce her she frankly admits her love and asks for her freedom Generous to a fault, big, strong and thoroughly understanding the situa- tion, John Fulton, though suffering in- tensely through his great love for his wife, agrees, but with a proviso. And upon this proviso hangs the secret of the tale. The story pictures that part of society that takes the cocktail-tan- go pace as it's own and sounds a con- vincing warning against the selfish ness and discomfort which are the strongest factors in many of the di- vorces today.
 MT. Morris writes Society fiction we'll. He does not overdo the glitter and the luxury, the manners, whether good or bad. And he handles his prob lem competently, with slightly cyn- ical worldly wisdom. The book has no hero or heroine. The women is mere ly unstable as water; the man fol- lows the line of least resistence until he Is stopped. It is not the author who takes tho situation seriously, but these two, and by allowing the man to tell the story from their point of view but with his own comment and that of the bystanders, he attains just that objectivity, that detachment, which gives this exposure of the insufficient emotional cause.-the monetary self- deception-of, so many divorces, the realism and the novelty that makes it worth while. We have had enough heroics on the subject; it was time for little common sense
 STRAIGHT AMERICA"
 GA CALL TO NATIONAL SERvICE) By Frances A. Kellor. The Macmillan
 Co.,, publishers, New York.
 Miss Kellor's little book, which is a new issue in Macmillan's timely and Interesting national problems series, is practical. candid, and most earnest. It gets down to the first principals of American needs and discusses them with honesty, ability, and a straight from-the-shoulder forcefulness that ought to prove inspiring and infectious.
 Americans have the reputation of being . boastful people. But, whatever the visage of pride with which they face the rest of the world, there is surely no other country, which, at home, does as much berating of itself as does the United States. Constantly are we stricken to the heart with conviction of sin upon almost every subject concerned with our national life The custom makes for na- tional vigor and health, even if we do sometimes have to wait for an alien observer to waken us to the fact that some features of American life we have been busy assailing is really in fine, healthful and beneficient conditions. Perhaps we make a mistake in our savage self-criticisms, in not oftener and more freely recognizing the good in our endeavors as, a people.
 Straight America" is book which seeks to show how America may se- cure a more united nationalism. It deals incisively with subjects which are much discussed today-Americanism: What it is. America-made citizens, national unity: The factors which make for it, the na- tive American, the popular vote-these are some of them. What Is the matter with American" Miss Kellor asks. She answers the question as one who has studied carefully our great needs as country, and she answers it, further more. constructivey, building up a de- finite programme of action. The little volume sounds call to national service which, because of it's forcefulness and it's logic, cannot be ignored.
 WHEN PAN PIES"
 Ry Mary Taylor Thornton. George H.
 i>oran. Co.,, publishers, New York.
 Mary Taylor Thornton, the author of ''When Pan Pipes" has much of shorter fiction to her credit. In this she intro- duces an element, new and peculiarly her own-a sort of magic, an atmosphere of fairyland. quiet, home-loving per sonality, whose history is much like that of the "happiest nations
 In "When Pan Pipes" the author has written story of the fascinating 3Os. rich in interest and incident, In pictur- esque and striking and lovable charac-