Evening star., 1918-09-29

by May Wilson Preston. New York:
Dodd. Mead & Co.
N YoT all the aliens in New York
.N are East Siders Of the peas
I'm ant Immigrant stripe. There
are lords and ladies In the
metropolis. disporting them
selves under this or that trade alias,
to cover the telltale do-nothingness
of their former noble existences. For
the purposes of this amusing comedy
'Mr. McCutcheon gathers up bunch
of these aristocrats. erstwhile. and
assigns them certain corner of New
York for their performance. Within
this space they are set to the task of
mixing up matters to the measure of
a book comedy. leaving a page or so
at the last to straighten out affairs
ito the required smoothness of book
endings. The marchioness. a fash
ionable dressmaker; the princess, pre-
siding over a pawnshop; a prince for
an antique dealer and lord for a
.chauffeur-these for the personnel
and the posture of the characters. In
"a complex Of obviously unbelievable
texture and movement. like this one,
the only hope lies in making genuine.
.ly clever people who entertain one in
spite of himself by their originalitU
and wit. MIR. McCutcheon has with
his usual skill thrown out this par
ticular life line to his characters and
they have seized upon 1t, bringing
themselves thereby snugly into the
readers complete approval and en-
joyment.
THE LADY OF ST. LUKE's. BY Mark
Allerton. New York: Dodd, Mead
& Co.
When pair hurries away upon it's
blissful honeymoon there goes with
them. always an invisible companion
And this is that arch-imp Of mischief
who, looking beyond the scant moon
ot honey, contemplates with an un.
holy glee the time when. the honey
eaten, the pair must suit their appe-
tftes to the plain fare of innumeret)e
accommodations the most of which
are either hateful or tiresome. When
the bridegroom is an English vicar,
STEPPED in the staid atmospheres OF
an ordered English life, and the bride
j. an art, student right out. 9f wicked
paris-Why, then; the little imp
moon. noon Tn This " s0ies' is the story1a ste .s ' WeSy
plausible and colorful story--of the
ups and downs of getting acquainted
on the part of this married pair after
the madness of love has settled to the
They are fine people, both sincere and
substantial, with the woman a bit in
the ascendency when 1t comes to per-
sonality and real gray matter. Their
friends are all Of the right sort. There
near-problem comes into the open, but
II resolves itself into very simple and
manageable elements. There is Moth
ing sickly about the story, even
though there is enough of complica-
ton to keep the reader keen to having
things come out as they should. The
troubles are not Of the invalidism of
tine spirit, as so many story troubles
are. Underneath, these folks are of
merely the surface currents of mar
;ried life that are vexed and menacing
GOOD work. of the aired and summed
KIND, that leaves one quite brushed
up with it's reading.
THE VICTIMS RETURN. BY Noelle
Roger. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company.
Three Swiss towns--Schaffhau
Zurich. Geneva--are the neutral points
through which the French on the one
hand and the Germans on the other
are passed back into France and Ger
many, respectively, after having suf-
iereq sorroWful eXpatriation at the
hands of the great war; This little
book makes pictures, successfully, of
these three places, wherein not only
the townspeople themselves, but the
Inhabitants all round about as WELL
become open n-hearted and ee-handed
hosts to the long professions Of de-
spoiled victims who are being return
ed to their devastated homes. The
story here Is merely a plain record
Of the facts Of this pitiful repatria-
fion. The record is as vivid as it Is
simple-on the one hand. the daily
line OF destitute victims, on the other
the Swiss people organized for ef-
feftive service and animated by high
spirit of friendly succor. Added to
the account itself is note by Eugene
pittArd, historical in character, show
Ing the classes of fugitives which the
outbreak and continuance Of the war
created, and giving. besides, the meas
ures that We're instituted in respect
to these. The book presents an as
pect of the situation that has not,
hitherto, been drawn off for special
consideration in compact and ac-
cessible form. The sympathy and un-
dersta nding that support these vivid
scenes, the spirit Of pity that per-
vades 1t, the sense Of sheer human
pride in the Swiss outpouring of
A rO,,pI