Evening star., 1918-05-19
A MINSTREL IN FRANCE. BY Harry
Lauder. New York: Hearst's In
ternational Library Company.

- - ERE is a book that cannot fail
of a wide reading. People will
flock to it, first. by virtue of
the fact that Harry Lauder
is everybody's personal friend.
And this is direct message to
that same everybody. Once in the book.
to hear what the Writer has to say to
ones own private ear, the reader is
bound to stay there for the big sub
stance Of the story itself This book
embodies Harry LADDERS Bit in the
war. Here is the gift Of his boy-Capt.
John Lauder-lying safe-one hopes
in the kindly French soil. Here are
laughter and song for the soldier boys
Of France, to ease the war strain that
is upon them and to bind them anew in
the bonds Of love for England and the
right. Here is yeoman service in re-
cruiting all over England till 1900 men
are Harry LADDERS credit toward an
English army. One loves that recruiting
adventure. Harry Lauder fitted out
bands of Scottish MISUNDERSTANDING
pipes, killed legs, Scotch bonnets. and
the rest of it. These bands were sent to
different parts of England On some
village green the pipes would begin to
call and skirl. and the crowd would be-
gin to gather. And still the pipers played
on. When. by a canny Scotch calcula-
ton, the whole community was drawn
around the music the pipes would send
out new melody and the pipers. with
swinging kits. would begin TO march.
Behind them. and around. came the
town. falling into the swirl of the mo-
tion and the sound And then the willy
minstrels would march the whole village
of men and boys and on-hanging women
straight to a recruiting station. Great
work. You will read this straight and
unpretentious story. with the Scotci,
words dropped along its open road. in
a tumult of tears and laughter. and
friendly heartache for the brave and
stricken man. And you must read IT,
for il tells about the new kind Of hero
that this great war has made. This is
the hero that works. and laughs. and
prays and fights. and weeps, and fights
some more-and does all this as part
of every days plain work
DRIFTING with BrOwney. BY Byers
Fletcher. Illustrated. New York:
Dodd Mead & Co.
this is Shad's story. And this is
the way be came to tell il. Shad was
in hospital war wreck. Shell
shock and dozen fragments Of
shrapnel with Shads name on each
of them had pretty nearly done for
the fellow. And all the fine hospital
solicitations failed TO make Shad take
hold of life with any kind of gump-
ton II was Jimmy. Shads little
black terrier. laughing and crying on
the bed beside him and making the
sick fellow cry, too. that made Shad
first take notice. And beside him.
one morning. lay clean white pad
of paper and a newly sharpened PEN
Gil Then Shad commenced to re-
member and reIive those days with
Browne-good old Browne and gall
liant Browne, too. And so. after
Jimmy had paid his visit and gone.
Shad commenced TO drift with
Browne" in this story OF going
through the hell fire of war. The
story of the Somme speaks out
thrillinSly here. and then Shad goes
back 10000 years. to the time be-
fore the war, when there was peace
and happiness and the joy of life,
with Aunt LORNA and Helen, his sis
ter. and Browne. and Jimmy, and the
rest. And Shad finds measure of
forgetfulness and a dawning strength
in recalling those old days. So, in
the hospital bed. his hest medicine
turns out TO he a little dog and the re-
living of happy days through the me-
dunn of pencil and paper. And read
ers get the pleasure of this half
humorous story that the fellow pulls
out of the past because the story
closest at hand is one that is too aw-
full to remember and to tell In a
whimsical sincerity of affection the
storycis-dedicated to Jimmy, the lit.