Evening star., 1916-12-03
Reviews of New Books

rather than of those that rum Though
reminiscent of youth, here and there,
they are SO for the purpose of illumi-
mating the harvest time of life. Tagore
stepped in the legends of the east.
Each of these poems is spark of spir-
itual fire or a fame of human divina-
tion cleaning through the rich image
ry of Hindoo legend or through some
one of natures orderly and beautiful
sequences. All have about them the
quiet melancholy of accomplishment.
Bid and I shall gather my fruits To bring
them in full baskets into your courtyard.
though some are lost and some not ripe.
For the season grows heavy with its fullness.
and there is plaintive shepherds pipe
in the shade.
A perfect cadence swings the reader
into these deep thoughts on the mean
ing of mans life, timing his own feel
ings and hopes to the wisdom of the
great poet.
THE PAINTED sCENEI And Other
Stories of the Theater. By Henry
Kitchel Webster. author of The
by Arthur William Brown and Her
man Pfeifer. Indianapolis: The
Bobbs- Merrill Company.
Mr. Webster is a waywise theater
man. He takes US right in at the stage
or circumspectly introduces US TO
dressing rooms where miracles of
makeup are being performed and un-
dressed human nature disports itself
In an abandon of free speech In the
course of these stories. ten of them IN
ali. W. become pretty familiar with
tho exits and entrances of the Globe
Theater, whose capacity of 16s dollar
seats is the basis of all of its adven-
theater people. from the boy in the box
office to the player on the stage. lose
their mythical character and turn out
to be just the same 3 other folks. after
all And We like them: We like them.
not merely because they are, in the
main, honest and hard-working and
good-natured but because they keep
right on playing whether off or on the
stage, and this gives a Joyous quality
to what looks like a really dreary ex-
one draws out of these stage folks, and
IL seems to be something that has a
working value out on the street as
well as in the theater. AT any rate.
that Is the lift of these stories that put
us so In touch with little Jane Gray
and Hazel Dering, and w. Ransome
Lord, the owner of the show and
Freddy Boldt, the stage manager, and
the new wardrobe mistress, adora BILE
old keziah Strong. from East Weston,
Mass. Both sides of the curtain will.
assuredly. set up rivalry in praise of
Mr. Webster for these intuitively keen
appreciations for these altogether en-
tertaining stories of the play life.
THE TRUFFLERs. A Story. By Sam
uel Merwin, author Of THE Honey
Bee" etc. Illustrations by Frank
Snapp. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-
Merrill Company.
"The Truffiers" is a thin and some
what loose-jointed story whose back
ground Is one of those quarters of New
York toward which artists, play
wrights. newspapermen, actors and
other unattached individuals of certain
kidney gravitate in their pursuit of
the free life. Its characters form a
coterie familiar to Bohemia. a group
with which really productive work is
as short as talk and ideas are long A
girl is the center of this group, an
emancipated college girl, bent on the
Independent life. One of the men Is a
playmaker who occasionally writes his
plays. but more frequently steals them,
The Truffier" Is one OF his own plays,
one in which he holds up the mirror to
free-minded young women to show
them their selhshness in not promptly
resigninR themselves to their manifest
destiny of taking a husband and pro-
ducing children 1t Is aimed. obviously,
at the young woman around whom the
interest here converges. The play
wright did not realize any more than
the girl herself realized that there are
many ways Of choosing a mate. declar-
ing ones self immune from the tender
passion and embarking upon a oelibate
career of social service being not the
least Of these. After q good deal Of In