Evening star., 1918-01-20

more, reaffirmation of the charge con-
tanned in the earlier book. With the
diplomatic correspondence of the Eu-
ropean powers at hand, the writer takes
up one by one the denials made by
one or another Prussian writer to the
charges brought by him against their
government. With this official mate
rial he proceeds to do away with both
the form and the substance OF the
Prussian position. This fearless and
positive exposure revives the activi-
ties of the summer months of 1914, re-
viewing the situation once more and
adding new light here and there from
some official document not hitherto Co
ordinated properly with the main body
of that memorable summer of events.
The thoroughness of this work of refu-
tation and reaffirmation brings together
in available form an authentic sum-
mary that remains. otherwise. scatter
ed and practically inaccessible, and
presents through this assemblage of
testimony complete argument in sup
port of the authors claim.
AT THE SIGN OF THE OLDEST
HOUSE. BY Juliet Wilbor Tomp-
kins. author of Pleasures and Pal
aces" etc. Illustrated by Edward
L. Chase. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-
Merrill Company.
A modern romance of most engaging
pattern with tart and juicy freshness
as it's distinctive flavor. Since all love
has to depend for novelty upon some
newness of externals. Here, it is the
place-at "the sign of the oldest house"
that gives the touch of newness to
the most ancient of themes. And the
house-the setting for this romance-is
worked out with a painstaking and an
artistic care that moves the reader
bodily over into the old house OF relics
-curios. antiques. paintings-where
| monial of description to groups of
passing visitors The romance. how
ever, gets a start only with the advent
of granddaughter. Pansy. and the
proximity of Angus Macdonald, VINO
| as restorer of antiques, collaborates, so
| to speak, with Granny. Pansy and
| Angus, face to face, the romance moves
along at the uneven pace tnat mas
marked romanceS since the World De
gan 1t is all of a piece, hoWever-the
| romance, the house and the good air
| that surrounds everything. A clear and
charming little story of simple design
| and happy, open progress
| THE MESSIAH OF THE CYLINDER.
BY Victor Rousseau. illustrations
by Joseph Clement Coll. Chicago:
| A. c. McClurg & Co.
| Pure inyention-rather original tnven.
ton, too. We all have wished, many a
time, to be here a hundred years from
now, just to see the amazing world which
] by that time will have been achieved. This
F., is the story Of case in point. A partner
ship Of science and villainy condemns 9
young man to pass a century in a state
OF suspended animation big cylinder
, scientifically fitted to permit that form oi
existence shutting him off both from per
sonal disintegration and from any con
sciousness of external affairs At the enc
of the time set he emerges into new
world, one whose political organization i.
calculated to jar the dreams of those wht
believe that a world directed by the peo
pie as whole will be very beneficen
| world, indeed. 1t is this kind Of worlt
| upon which the young man awakes. So
cialism OF a sort appears to be the mode
of direction and control. And what ont
| gets out of the fanciful tale is tha
despotism is as likely to exist in collec
tive man as in the Individual For herr
Is collective tyranny that outdoes com
pletely in oppression any autocracy tha
the world ever endured. The story dip
down into the fundamental fact that hu
Imam nature In tho nass. does not shst