Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-06-03
Reviews of New Books

gone out to reform the bad woman.
This situation is made to produce two
very interesting young women, eaeh
the perfect fruit of her own soil and
circumstance. Into the futile social
farce Miss Bottome pours her unusual
store of insight, the plain facing OF
truth. a humor that here and there
softens the merciless wit that plays
world good after the pattern of each
special reformer. One of the more OBJ
scure themes that is used here as bit
of perfect workmanship is that Of muir
der. THE Liquer Glass tells. how
Mrs Henry Watkins murdered Henry
Watkins. a little episode that will I'M
auestionably find its echo in the temp
tations that have innumerable, times
leased the imagination of many
harassed wife or husband: Mile.
front. The Syren's Isle" is love
story of Capri. Several of these tales
have their setting in lovely spots along
the Mediterranean. AS mere work these
stories are surprisingly fine. All OF
them are in the artist class.
THE sNoW-BURNER. By Henry oyen.
author of THE Man-TraiL" New
York: George H. Doran Company.
This romance of lumber camp in the
northwest reaches its top point by way
of fight that is calculated to cause the
cate of the soft answer and the turneo
cheek to gurgle with delight. The alb
stract 10y Of battle lies in the size and
weight of the provocation that produces
it. The personal JOY in it hinges one sur
misses. upon the scientific play of bone and
muscle that have been done over into
iron and steel, and become inspired by
the ineradicable lust of the lordly male to
prove himself the better man of the two.
Both provocation and execution are here
eXactlnR
and the fight Is a finely savage AFFAIR.
The everyday work of the lumber camp
develops this crisis. Reivers, the boss OF
the camp and the loser in the great fight.
is curiously complex character OF
smooth cool surfaces under which in
fernal fires always burn red. The heavy
Slovak workmen with whom the camp Is
manned make a gray background OF ma
The story really begins when Toppy. the
college athlete, drifts into camp and
gradually disputes the overlordship OF
Reivers. The silent combat set up In
this fashion eliminates in the fight that
stands as the high point of this adventure.
The second part of the story-Reivers
beaten and taking his way back to the
indian country. where his peculiar powers
had already given him the name OF Snow
Burners less exciting and much less
convincing than the first part. Here Mr..
Oyen is driven to the method of melo-
drama to make any sort OF belieNable
person out of a deposed Reivers and one,
moreover, that has leanings toward a
penitent state of mind. However, the
story is q good one for the reason that
the writer has made a dramatic and alb
sorbing story of the northwest on lines
that include a wholly fresh interest.
SECOND YOUTH. A Novel BY Allan
Updegraff. New York: Harper &
Bros.
ity draws out liberation and excuse.
Mr.. Francis. the hero of this romance.
Is undeniably sentimental. He is. be-
sides. a bachelor. d middle-class bache-
Tor. with the mental and emotional fur
nishings of a prim old maid. to which
Is added in laughably homogeneous eff
feet the lofty bearing Of his occupa-
ton. that of upper clerk in big de:
of Mr.. Francis belated poisoning into
love and into certain other indis-
cretions that as rule conflne them
selves to those receptive years that lie
whooping cough and measles: Like
these juvenile ailments. that become
more affective as the age OF attack in
creases. so it Is with Mr.. Francis under
sion Mr.. Updegraff has achieved
charmingly humorous story out of the
second youth of his hero. who. by the
way, is as lovable as he is foolish and
unWdyWlSe. Inc stOis Is oHC VI SuSH
quaint fiavors as are produced by only
the most artful combinations and
blendings of the simple. the ld-fash-
toned. the gentle. the unsophisticate.
1t is a delightful piece OF work. quite
of a character to lead its author to set
out at once upon his second novel.
JERRY OF THE ISLANDS. By Jack
London, author of The Call Of the
Wild" etc. New York: The Mac
milan Company.
Jerry, an Irish setter. is the hero of
this South sea adventure. There are.
to be sure, certain human beings in
crew of the Arangi, groups
of native islanders and a few plain
white folks. But. in the main, all these
act in the capacity of sub and super
to the fertile-minded and forceful Jer-
ry. These are his stage, SO to speak.
Their collective job appears to be that
of starting things for Jerry to finish.
and this he does, unfailingly, with the