Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-11-03
WHAT THE WAR DOES TO
DIFFERENT KINDS OF PEOPLE
1t Proves That Some Of Them Are Pure Gold and
Others Only Dross-Mrs. Wards Novel
Exhibits the Situation

II can never get over my wonder at
the mysteries of the chemistry of nature"
Doctor McFabre remarked after a while.
nat causes the color in those blazes?
Why do they flare up for a moment and
then lift themselves from the coal, hest
tate, with a tiny point resting on the solid
substance. and then fly up the chimney?
I was in a goldsmith's shop today when
a man came in with a chain which he
wanted valued. I wondered what the
goldsmith would do. He did not hesitate,
but took the chain at once and rubbed
it on piece of stone, looked at the streak
of color that It made and then said that
there were about ten parts of alloy In 1t.
After weighing 1t he told the man what
1t was worth. I asked the goldsmith
how he knew. He smiled tolerantly ant
explained that the stone-he called 1t a
touchstone-was a piece of flinty Jasper.
When a piece of gold Is rubbed on It
an expert can tell by the color of the
mark how much copper has been used as
an alloy. If 1t is very reddish Their is a
large amount of alloy. Lighter shades Of
red means less alloy"
~ am glad to know what a touchstone
really is" said Miss Ames. II have heard
the word used metaphorically. but never
before knew just what It meant"
"Nor l." said Doctor McFabre.
Have any Of you heard the war called
a touchstone?" l asked.
They all said they had not, but Owen
admitted that he had read that It was
putting men and women TO the test. This,
of course, was an indirect way of COM
pairing It to the goldsmiths stone.
Mrs. Humphry Ward has written
novel in which she uses the war as
touchstone," said 1, but she does not
use the word. She exhibits the result
of bringing different men and women in
contact with the war and shows us how
much pure gold there is in their compo-
sition."
'She can do that sort OF thing very
we'll" said The Lady. for she is a great
novelist"
II don't like her" MISS Ames con-
fessed. Whenever think Of her I recall
the remark of her uncle, Matthew Arnold.
You know he said when he heard she had
written novel, that If there were to
have been a novelist in the Arnold fam.
lily it would have been he"
THAT old gibe is famous" I remarked,
but Mrs Ward long since proved that
1t was only gibe. Her fame is secure.
More people read her books than ever
read those of her distinguished uncle or
than ever will read them. She is one of
the few novelists writing in English
whose books deserve serious attention
They are more than mere stories. They
are studies of life, undertaken with pur-
pose to help the rest of us understand it,"
II am glad to hear you say that" The
Lady remarked with . gently approving
smile
Her new. book" l went on, "is Incl
dentaly a beautiful love story, beginning
with the honeymoon of a young woman
and her soldier husband who has mar.
ried her while on furIougn recovering
from a wound. A week after the story
opens he goes back to the front, and in
about three weeks more he is reported
missing. The bride is n beautiful, de-
pendent, clinging creature, with a hard,
unsentmental, masterful sister. The sis
ter takes no interest in the war. They
started it without asking her about it,
she says, and she does not intend to allow
her life to be interrupted by it. When
the news comes that her brother.in-law
Is missing, she sets herself the agreeable
task of encouraging the attentions to the
young bride of a wealthy bachelor,
who was attracted by her beauty
when he first saw her. He has turned
over his great country house in the Lake
district OF England to the Red Cross for
a hospital, and he spends his money TO
equip 1t with the best possible appliances.
He cannot fight because he has stiff
knee, SO he is doing what he can. Mrs.
Ward evidently intends the sister to be
a type of that small class of persons
who, when brought in contact with the
great touchstone Of war, prove to be
twenty-three parts alloy, with only a
small residuum of pure gold. She is
selfish She will not turn her hand to
help a suffering creature, and. In spite
of the evident grief of the bride at her
inability to learn anything about her
missing husband. this scheming woman
conceals the information when she learns