Evening star., 1918-09-29

contribution to the great story of
personal conservation to q new KIND
Of future, which in every corner OF
the world, is. today, thrusting up
A REPORTER AT ARMAGEDDON.
BY VIII Irwin. author OF Men,
Women and War;" etc. New York:
d. Appleton Co.
1t Is through the intimate medium
of the personal letter that Mr.. Irwin
here makes his important and inter-
esting war narrative. The informal
ity Of the story, the picking up or
many of the side-issues of the war,
the gathering in of innumerable incl
dents, all of which contribute to the
lifelike and revealing quality OF the
whole-these are the outstanding
points Of this particular war account
Mr.. Irwin lets one go along with MN
from the start takes him aboard SNIP
letting him get acquainted with the
others who,/xor one reason ana an
other, are crossing. by the time .ne
sense of participation. Then through
Spain and up into France and over to
the front, he reconstructs a famlllar
quarter of the earth, letting the read.
er see and feel 1t with something or
the writer's own intimacy and every
dayness of appeal. 1t Ia upon this In
teresting groundwork that incidents
out of the great war are placed, In
contrast, largely, to the old and peace
full times of former journeyings. Not
so much of the horror of war finds
place here as does the gallantry and
glory of war sketched in through
passing glimpses of heroic fighting
and equally heroic endurance. AL
sace-Lorraine, Switzerland and italy
also come into this graphic and in
spring account of the writer's eXpe-
rience at Armageddon.
INDIA AND THE FUTURE. BY Will
liam Archer, author of God and
Mr.. Wells" etc. illustrated. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf.
This Is eminently readable book.
1t is one, too, whose solid substance
stands at ones elbow, urgent, among
the many pressing matters of the pres
ent. Here Mr.. Archer gives one an out
look over all India for the purpose Of
gathering up its people into funda-
mental race unity, despite the racial di-
yersities that appear upon the surface
of East Indian life. Upon this basis OF
actual racial unity the writer presents
skimming picture of the culture OF India
as this has become embodied In educa-
tion, art and literature. A condensed
chapter outlines the caste system ana
sketches in the influence OF this system
upon the entire national fabric. The
long mental training of the Hindu upon
levels above or apart from the prac-
tical and material side Of life Is summed
here in picture of Hindu spirituality.
These studies are but the authors APP
proach to the real subject of considera-
tow nd a
of India for self government. The book
looks forward, throughout its course, to
the time when India by right of its fit
ness for political independence will take
Its place among the self-goyerning peo-
tions of India to the empire are re-
viewed in this study in a spirit of per-
feet unbias and candor. Traveller. in
many lands, journalist Of distinction
dramatic writer OF power, this writer
discrimination and force upon his study
of India in it's political future.
MISS INGALLS,. BY Gertrude Hall,
author of Aurora the Magnificent"
etc. New York: The Century Com
pany.
Gertrude Halls new story hinges
upon the escape of Its heroine-Miss
Ingalls-from. the octopus envelop-
ment of the big and opulent family
into which she has promised to enter
as the wife of one Of the young sons.
1t is with this family that Miss Hall
does her best work here. Out of ma
terial and situa ton, entirely modern.
she has produced the effect of n feudal
house of the robber chieftain type.
The family is Of overfiowing num-
bers, new-rich, and essentially COM
mon under a great show Of sumptuous
hospitality. That which 1t steals away
from its new members Is spirit and
personality and life. 1t simply en-
velops the new son or the new daugh-
ter and sucks out the juices of his
existence. In this delineation the
author goes back to the old effects in
which she so delights and with which
she Is SO intuitively at one. The hero
inc herself is merely an average mod
ern girl--beautiful and young, and
the rest of 1T. Something of fool
one would think, IL he did not stop to
realize that she Is not so much fool
as inadequately simple for the COM
plex around her. 1t is the aloof and
austere precision Of Miss Halls por-
trayal of this old feudal spirit set
life that gives the novel it's charm
of short stories by this author-"Fai
from Today"--written in poetic and
lofty style several years ago
thA CitN