Evening star., 1918-08-04

its in strange contacts, Of those GU
rious and universal separations that
exist between one and another. no
matter how intimate their external
development Is carried by the sea.
man. The others remain az setting
and audience. II 10 . story within .
story-not commonly satisfying lit.
erary expedient. since 1t removes the
reader ono degree away from the events
the common misfortune Of a second
hand telling. It moves into undivided
interest, however, when at times one
Is able to forget the Immediate mar
rator and moves into the sailors own
account Of his seafarings. Here the
romance steps up to the level OF the
first novels spirited and realistic sea
experiences. The stage business. the
means by which the sailor gets to his
audience. does not run smoothly. It
lacks finish. The scenes hitch. There
are noises behind the curtain sugges.
tive Of disillusioning shiftings. When
the sailor once gets started the reader
occasion for forgetting at the hapo
Of the writer Of "Casuals Of the Sea-"
As stories go. this Is above the aver
age. That Is not enough. however.
from this source.
KHAKIs How Tredick Got Into the
War. BY Freeman Tilden. New
York: The Macmillan Company.
Tredick is q town Of vague location.
It might be any town-Weedsport.
for instance. or any other one Of the
countless places In the United States
that stood around chewing their cuds.
as II were. in . calm complacency
over the fact that this was not our
war. anyway. This is the story Of
tho waking up Of that sleepy. pacifist.
mind-our-own.business corner Of the
True In the writer's method Of get
ting the place dressed up in its
khaki uniform. of stirring patriotism
IN its watery arteries, Of rousing 1t
to the fact that It was, after all q
saving the world: that 1t was. after
all, a part Of its business to die. II
need be, for the tmperiled righteous
ness of life. The story centers
around the hesitations Of big. hand
was a coward-that is. he admitted
that he was q coward. So Tom was
q perfect propagating nest for every
sort OF pacifst germ that was af1oat
in the air Of Tredick. In lifelike
and believable fashion the story
moves forward to the time when Tre-
dick began to sit up and take notice
Of the fact that it was, quite to its
own surprise, in che world Of warfare.
Ana in this advance 1t discovers Tom
Gilstar to himself. Very good work.
too. this. that reveals the young fell
low finally as a man, rather than as
the thing that disturbed us so much
at the beginning Of the story. The
writer puts US right into this situa-
tion from the beginning. One has an
actual regret, a definite dropping of
the spirit, in his early acquaintance
with Tom Gilstar. And, gradually,
between hope and fear, he watches
for the signs Of manhood and Ameri-
canism to come out in the fellow
whom he wants so much to like and
accept. That Is good work. 1t is a
good theme, too, for Tredick exists;
but Tredfck, even. Is waking up, so
the subject Is well worth our interest
and attention.
THE EMMA GEES. BY Herbert W.
Mcbride. illustrated. Indianapo-
lis: The Bobbs Merrill Company.
An Emma Gee" is a machine gun
ner. He is an NJ. G. In all methods Of
signaling-by flags. lamps or hello
graph-accuracy is the prime es-