The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-09-29
Lands End"
Notable Short Stories
By DOROTHY SCARBOROUGH.

and women and the Sea-wlth 4 ghost or
two for good measure-wiil be pleased
with Wilbur Daniel Steeles new book,
Lands End.
Mr.. Steele is young man, scarcely
past 30, and this is his first volume Of
stories, though he has published one novel,
Storm. But these stories, all of which
have appeared previously in magazines,
are admirable, both in substance and in
form.
From Denver to Paris.
Mr.. Steele has had varied training
and experience that should be valuable
TO n writer He was born in North Carolina
and was educated at the University
of Denver, since which time he has
studied art in Paris. He now makes his
home in Provincetown, Mass, though he
is at present in England, and is making
a special study of the Cape Cod fisher
folk. He devotes his undivided time to
the writing of stories, not working at
another profession on the side as many
do, yet he is content to publish only a
few stories a wear.
The stories in tins collection have to dc
with different and sometimes widely vary
ing groups of characters. yet there is
unity TO The book in that the, background
is always the sea- The sea is always
realized, always TO be reckoped with. not
merely as setting, but as a presence, an
:nilEence. 1t las a sinister personality,
as in some of Norman Dunean's tales of
= Newfoundland and Labrador fishermen.
or as in Synse's Riders to the Sea. Thus
Lands End is an appropriate title for
the book as whole as well as for the
initial story.
The Stories in Detail.
. The Wemdn at Seren Brothers is the
best story in the collection. 1t is an ex-
cellent example of the combination of the
supernatural and of insanity as motifs for
fiction. Poe did that sort of thing re-
peatedly, of course. as did de Maupassant.
The ghost here is unusual in that it is
the ghost of mad woman. and her COM
ing drives the man insane as well. The
apparition has another distinction "a
showing a diabolic access of magnetism
and personality over the woman she was
In life The incidents related give even
a practised ghost student a new thrill.
The atmospheric values are good-the
lonely lighthouse with its imprisoned in
mates, one of them mad, being memorable.
The lellor Cat is another uncanny
study. The story is told as a dramatic
monologue by man who boarded a de-
serted vessel at sea.
"She sailed under four lowers across rs
due and glltterlng sea as | have ever
known. and there was not point in her
sailing that one could lay a finger upon
as wrong. And yet, passing that schooner
at two miles, one knew somehow that there
was no hand upon the wheel. Sometimes
L can imagine vessel stricken like that.
moving over the empty spaces of the sea,
carrying IT off quite well we're it not for
that lndefinable suggestion of a stagger:
and l can think of all those ocean gods
In whom no landsman ever will believe,
looking at one another and tapping their
foreheads with just the shadow of a smile.
Il wonder If they all scream-those
ships that have lost their souls? Mine
screamed. We heard her voice like moth
ing | have ever heard before. l remem-
Der II made me shiver, there in the full
blaze of the sun, TO hear her going on
50. railing and screaming in that stark
fashion. And I remember, too, how our
footsteps pattering through the vacant in
tervals in search of that haggard utter
ance made me think of the footsteps of
hurryIng warders aroused in the night"
Horses of the Sea King.
White Horse Winter is a picture of
ghostly sea and an uncanny horse. A
child's recollections of memorable
storm are rehearsed.
Il could see the outer bar only as
white distorted line athwart the gray but