The Washington herald., 1918-08-11

The ammo runner supplies the gunner
walled In by . curtain OF Game"
Appealing to the ear a. well a. to
the Imagination is the bate picture
OF the Fifteenth Battery going Into
action. The meter and form is as per-
feet az Tennyson's own.
The marching song Of the overseas
battalion with its rough realism shows
bits OF dialect and snatches Of popular
song. Unfortunately there are pats
Of Il where Q little more care would
have made the effect more pleasing.
More symbolical Is the poem "on
No Mans Land"
RED death rides with the gale at the
Swiftly and noisiiy gathering speed;
Black death rides when the shadows
are fawning
Ever around her and her bony
steed."
The "Bivouac" is the story Of the
effects of home songs on a group Of
the boys around the campfire at
night.
Through half closed eyes
still they gaze at the skies. the skies,
And each his hallowed picture finds
above,
And oh! the lodging in their hearts!
the love!
Suddenly. as the moon sweeps OF be-
hind cloud
Which hides It from all eyes In an
ample shroud.
Rings out a bugle's throbbing note.
And Taps wells from its siivery
The groups of men break up and melt
away.
Leaving the lone sentries tramping
back and forth where the shad-
ows play
Yet each lad pauses an instant ere
he seeks his bed Of ease
To hearken to the softly-dying mel
ody borne to them on the breeze"
A tribute il paid to the first Amer
lean to die in the great war. Adjutant
Duke, of the Fireign Legion, in the
poem THE First American"
Several poems on those who only
stand and wait are in Mr.. Chunn's
collection.
THE Warriors" Is the best of these.
A colonel leads his troops to battle
protected by the prayers of his aged
mother at home. So close Is she, in
spirit, to him, that intuitively she
sknows when his danger is greatest
and when he Is safe after the battle.
The Road from Yyres," is the
story of a crazed old father who
continually seeks his Jean. who will
never come back from Ypres.
The Painted Christ" is the story
OF a womna victim of the Hun.
"The Heel of Mars" by Culpepper
Chunn. Published by Edwin Day
Sibley. New York.
"The Guded MAN.
The Gilded Man." Gertrude At
herton)-At last we have a relief
from war stories and relentless
realism. Clifford Smyth. long
paper writer, has written not merely
a story of romantic adventure-we
have many laborious or melo-
dramatic attempts of that nature
but one of that high rare quality
that gives 1t the air of a classic in
the days of its youth. Invention is
the common quality Of the yarn"
In no division of fiction is imagina-
ton so rare. Or. If the writer hap
pen to possess that gift and applies
~ ~ NhC bNOl lnc
result is often a wild flight which
has no basis in fact, and fails TO
convince; often to hold the interest.
While the highest order of imagina-
tion is necessary for a first-rate
novel. the author is remorselessly
held down to earth by the facts Of
life and the reality of the situations
among his characters must move !;
but the average. or even the excep-
tional. writer of purely imaginative
fiction is bound by no such rules,
and unless he happen to have an in
tellect and a sound knowledge Of
life. like Stevenson. for instance, he
is more than liable to tangent
flights.
Mr.. Smyth not only has intellect
and a practical experience Of life but
a first-hand knowledge of cne OF
the least known haunts of the au-
thors of romantic adventure the
South American Andes.
1 must confess that took up ":The
Gilded Man" with some reluctance,
for I have a decreasing appetite for
yarns of the remote past, a setting
indicated by the subtitle OF the book,
"A Roma1ce of the Andes" But my
attention was arrested Immediately
by the fact that the book began in
a New England village among people
OF the living present. Mr.. Smyth does
daring thing for the maker of ro-
mantle fiction. He begins his story
with a group of everyday people. and
but for a vague note Of mystery,
deftly sounded at once, one would in
Ter that the author was about to pre-
sent q charming idyl-a type Of fic-
ton always welcome when well done,
but hardly thrilling. Very subtly.
however. the reader Is carried along
through swiftly unfolding scenes, both
In the present and in retrospect, and
always conscious of this uneasy hint
or mystery, to a realizing sense that
great things are coming. By the
time the scene changes to South
America he is absorbed in the
strongly accentuated characters. so
like ourselves, but indubitably de-
stined to adventures that never will
be the good fortune Of one in a mil
lion Of those aspiring souls who must
stay at home and take their adyen-
lures vicariously. This is a stroke
OF art. and not the least of Mr..
Smyth's gifts; another Of these. rare
among writers of tales of adventure,
Is the firm, versimiliant characteri-
zation of the least of the people who
carry forward the rapid action Of this
romance.
The hero. David Meudon. and his