The sun., 1918-11-24
"John O'May"
Some Short Stories
NEAXWEiL STRUTHERS BURTS

OWay, Is unusually interesting IN certain
respects and disappointing in others. Mr..
Burt shows considerable art in the han
ding of his material and in his general
style, and the book is free for the most
part from slovcnly workmanship. There
is much dramatic interest in the situations,
and the working out of plots shows skill
and ingenuity. Yet there is ingenuity ut
the cost of naturainess and simplicity.
The situations are Too carefully studied,
too thoroughly planned, and the char-
acters are too sophisticated on the one
hand and two unframed on the other to
seem credible. The reader has an i'm
preston Of having looked Mt a stage rather
than life itself
Mr. Rurt's stories mike q better i'm
preston when they ore read sing4y In
magazines than when they are brought
together in volume; for they show
trife too much sameness of construction
and motif to be appreciated in bulk. The
author evinces, for instance, too much
fondness for striking contrasts in the
matter of character and of setting. He
likes 10 have group of faultlessiy
groomed persons about a New York or
London dinner table or In a club discuss
ing unconventional characters in elemental
conditions.
But Mr.. Burt has had opportunity Of
knowing the various aspects of life he
describes, since his own experiences have
extended from Merton College, Oxford, to
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he owns
q cattle ranch. He is at present, we are
informed, in the Signal Corps, Aviation
Section, OF the United States Army, where
he will doubtless find material for future
stories
Mr.. Burt avoids the trite expression.
The reader will remember a number OF
his expressions that hit off character His
character study is perhaps the best fca-
ture Of the volume. You remember, for
instance, young Burnaby, who liked his
life with thrust to it, whether the thrust
came from the city or the trail. Young
Burnaby is rather significant of the mate
rial that appeals to Mr. Burt. There is
also Sir John Masters, with his hooked
nose and lyric eyes, who impresses Mrs.
Malcolm as being like a sensitive python
that uncoils beautifully. Lady Masters
was like mist. She had San extraordl-
nary way of advancing with timid rush,
rs it were, into the foreground and then
receding again, melting back into the
shadows"
The reader is interested in Murray, the
artist, who is like u cold, sweet wind, in
whose character there is a faunlike quail
ity of which people complain; who, Eloise
Foster says, seems to her "like man
dying standing up, inch by inch" There
is Hardy, who gives the observer a shock
of color in world where most persons
are gray; and Alice Carston. who is like
sunset across corn fields, and her husband,
with his tragic blindness, of which an un-
natural mystery Is made. The actions Of
these persons are not always consistent
with their natures, but they have usually
the quality Of life. John O'May, the
leading character in the little story, is
original and well worth studying, with
his seemingly inexplicable contrasts of
character that are explained by single
sentence ut the close.
Mr.. Burt rather likes to begin a story
with a generalization that the narrative
goes on to explain or to contradict, which
Is effective if not OverdODe. For example,
the opening sentence Of John O,MGy is,
adventure, mental or physical, is met
with unexpectedly" Wings Of the Morn
ing starts:
zone suspects an omniscient ironicism
or else a very great tenderness God ap-
parently doesn't ike us to become too
matter of fact. At all events, no sooner
have We settled down to the comfortable
assurance that at last we have really
grown up, that at last we have really
achieved common sense, when through the