The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-07-07
Worth While Stories
in the July Magazines
By DOROTHY SCARBOROUGH.

Z
reading the average output of magazines
one is reminded of the Struldbrugs, those
unfortunates who could not enjoy read
ing, since they could not remember the
meaning of a sentence from the beginning
to the end. We have many stories now
adays that make agreeable reading, but
that cannot, even with effort, be remem-
bered long.
Yet this is not true of stories which
are genuine contributions to literature.
Could we ever forget W. W. Jacobs The
Monkeys PaU, for instance? Or Arthur
Morrison's On the Stairs, or Poe's Ligeid,
or Balzac's A Passion in the Desert, or dc
Maupassant's The NeckIacef Shall We
forget Limehotlse Nightss
There are few stories in the July mag
azines that will be likely to live in any
ones memory, but one is devoutly CRATE
full for several such.
"Cobbler's Wax"
Cobbler's War, by Achmed Abduliah,
in the Century, is unusual. Achmed Abb
dullah is an Arab though his English is
admirable-fexible and colorful-and he
knows the devious windings of the ORR
entail soul as no white man can hope TO
do. The story has style that is dis
tinctiye, but its chief merit is that it is
real story.
This is the record of the life of Pi
Hsiao, or Cobbler's Wax, whose "clank
ing and spirited Odyssey" before he set
ties in PelI street, in New York's China
town, is only suggested, not told. Yet
the suggestion is subtly managed, so that
we piece together the facts of his career,
though only at the last do We have the
dramatic explanation of it all. The
clews are skilfully handled, the action is
sympathetically motivated and the climax
has tragic power.
The character drawing is admirable.
This Chinaman, creeping about Peil
street, poor, a cripple, with dlsiigured
face, a martyr TO the cruelty of Occldent
and Orient alike, an object of charity
and of ridieule, with his proud, shoulder
ing heart, this Manchu scholar and poet,
who must eat the bread of hateful pity
given by those far his interiors, really
lives for US. He is no character of paper
and of printers ink.
The atmosphere is equally effective. We
see the greasy, packed confusion of China
town. We see the grinning yellow faces
making sport of Cobbler's Wax, who is
"soft, being helpless, and hard, being
proud" We see the drab CRIME of the
streets, the gaudy bridal robes of the
woman, the knife that CLEANS "hke
crescent of evil passions" Here are no
long descriptions, only flashing, polished
phrases.
Man and Brute"
Z. L. Grant Watson, the author Of
Where Bonds Are Loosed and The Nam
land, has a story called Man aud Brute
in the Smart Set This has much of the
elemental power of feeling, much of the
pulsing poetry that characterized Mr..
Watsons first novel. 1t has certain
crudities of technical detail that weaken
the effect of the whole, such as the fire.
quent changes in the angle Of narration,
but the points of merit are so impressive
that one forgets the defects.
Like the novels spoken of, this story has
lis scene in Australia, In the sait-bush
country. The setting is given with i'm
pressionistic description that makes the
place at once actual and dreamlke, at once
a real country and a place of strange
enchantment.
We realize the close relation between
wild nature and human life here. We
feel the secrecies, the porten:s, the SIMS
ter Influences of the night and the lonely
veldt We understand how easy it is for
man To become decivilized, 10 yield HIM
self to primitive impulses of brute fear,