davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1919-12-27
Stuff O. Dreams

STUFF o. DREAMS. and Other Plays BY
Rex Hunter. T. S. Denison & Co, Chi
caso.
Followed by a shimmyfest, Mr.. Hunt
er's little excursions in dialogue should
provide material for our amateur barn
stormers. The plays are slight. unorig-
inal trifies, constructed with a vague
feeling for the theatrical, and the audi
ence is pretty certain to greet them
with: wasn't Dotty cute when Henry
kissed herr" and Didn't Edgar look
like Jack Barrymore in that funny little
mustache ?"
The author seems to have read
Yeats and Lawrence Hope. and possibly
Shakespeare, for his offerings are re
splendent in quotations. There are
plenty of opportunities for sister
EthePs Irish dialect and cousin Emmy
LOUIS gypsy costumes from the league
of nations party; in fact the young ac-
tors will find Mr. Hunters dramlets
altogether satisfying. But theate1
audience will find "such stuff as
dreams are made on appropriately
rounded by sleep" R. A. S.
New-York tribune., 1919-12-27
Tinkle of Old Teacups
Heard in New Book

MID..vICTORIAN MEMORIES. BY Ma
tilda Bethanl Edwards. With a. personal
sketch by Mrs. Sarah Grand. The Mac
milan Company, New York. 50.
If we can keep the memory of stale
cakes and very good tea in our minds,
as we read Miss Edwards's book we
are able to enjoy it, The personal
sketch by Mrs. Grand gives a pleasant
flavor to the book as we'll as a charm
ing picture of the authoress. The
atmosphere that the sketch creates
enables us to finish the book with a
little enthusiasm, for while we like
the people that are written about, we
will never be able to appreciate them
as does the writer.
Coventry Patmore, Frederic Harri-
son and George Lewes will always
interest US, and it is our own mis-
fortune that we did not know them a.
did Miss Edwards. Out of her wealth
of friendliness she has been able tc
write personal sketches that will be
revelation Of those personalities
whom We of later day are unfortunate
enough to know merely from literary
opuxsaa and histoxn
New-York tribune., 1919-12-27

perimentation, which sometimes caused
time to be spent on the perfection Of
new inventions when the exigencies of
the moment admitted Of little delay.
The praise in the book far outweighs
the blame, however and the author is
almost> rhapsodic in his enthusiasm
over the floods of troops which America
poured into Europe Immediately after
the threat of the German offensive in
March, 1918. characterized by lrcidity
and charm, the work is an excellent
record Of our organization for conflict
by an intelligent and sympathetic critic.
Professor Usher's history of the war
falls below the standard of his we'll
known earlier work, "Pan-Germanism.
The book suggests series of essays
rather than a carefully worked out and
coherent history. About some of the
chapters there is tone of haste and
superfciality that can scarcely be par
doned even in work of popular char
acter. The author is occasionally inac-
curate, as when ne says that "Trotzky
lived long time in New York, where
he published a Socialist paper" In
general, the chapters on Russia and
Eastern Europe are least satisfactory,
while the author is perhaps most sue
cessful in describing the causes Of the
war and the character of modern war
fare.
WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN.
New-York tribune., 1919-12-27
The Moods Of Merrick
The Man Who Understood Women" Shows
That Author Can Even Burlesque Himself

in which Merrick tells it. Then. too.
aithough Merrick's inventive faculty
,a'is now and then, he manages to keep
ms style free from ups and downs of
fortune. Nor can we speak very highly
OF the substance Of 1.-The Child in the
Warden which is written around the
theory that woman who says she
never wants to marry is merely a per-
son who has never felt the grasp of
TWO strong arms about her waist.
On the other hand, consider
Young man who writes play and has
IL accepted by a charming young
actress with whom he promptly falls
IN love. She manages eventually to
have the play produced. but the play
wright has drawn the hero Of the piece
so cleverly and has endowed his play
with such deft and convincing love
scenes that the actress falls in love
with the leading man and marries him.
This Is plot which is nothing like
so preposterous as the tale told in
The Laurels and the Lady" 1t also
has just as much right to sentimental
few deft twists Merrick has made the
story burlesque, and very merry
one.
Personally. we like Merrick much
better in his playful moods than
when he is trying to Stir the heart. In
fact, in his light comedy there lie a
sentimental appeal and background
of true tenderness which we find en-
tirely missing in all those stories in
which he attempts to carry the heart
by direct bombardment
The Man Who Understood Women"
is a pleasant and skilfully written
volume of short stories, which on the
whole are not very distinguished In
our opinion, it is by no means as enter
tanning as "While Paris Laughed"
New-York tribune., 1919-12-27

has only the vaguest conception Of the
proper remedies for the evils which he
denounces with such passionate energy.
re sees world reeling to destruction
with sickness and insanity. but he ha .
no sovereign potion FOR it's ills. In
the fundamental spiritual sense of the
word, ne is an anarchist. Alike in stvle
ana thought he bears considerable re-
semblance to Andreyev, the Russian
author who in 1906 wanted "to DESTROY
everything, the old houses, the univer-
sities, science, the old literature, the
ola art" SO that the earth and thought
might be freed and a new, great. un-
known world might be opened. And
Inls same Andreyev recently died of a
broken heart, his last words fierce
denunciation Of the Bolshevism which
ms own writings had certainly done
much to inspire.
1t would be a grave injustice to con-
denim Light" as an absolute failure.
IT has the merit and value that are as
soclated with every honest piece of
sei1 s revelation. Here. as in "Under
rlre, the author pours out an ex-
uoerant Hood of thoughts, Impressions
ana fantasies inspired by his close con-
IacI WIN death and suffering in the
war. Blended with the noise and fury
which the author employs somewhat
too recklessly there are Incidents of
greas and touching beauty. M. Bar
busse lays aside partisan bias when he
describes the soldiers with whom he
fought IN the trenches; the sergeant
who died shouting II believe onIv in
the glory of France" is depicted as
sympathetically as the convinced anti
mllitarist who entered the army onlv
from a sense of duty and sacrifice.
But M. Barbusse cannot overcome the
most immutable law of @sthetics-that t
propaganda and literature NAV not be
reconciled. "A man cannot simultane-
ously be an artist, disinterested OBJ
server and recorder of the timeless
passion of humanity and an ardent.
tanatlcal advocate Of a special and
temporary issue. This law receives
emphatic confirmation from the great
bulk of our war novels" and war
poetry"
The novel form is inadmissible for
a book that is primarily not study of
human relations, but plea for pacifism
and internationalism. Despite the
authors efforts to create a vivid and
realistic background he cannot make of
his hero anything more thar lay
figure, passive medium for the ex-
preston of his own ideas. NJ. Barbusse
may be q great novelist. He is un-
questionably an eloquent exponent of
the radical viewpoint on political and
economic questions. But he cannot
combine these functions at the same
time, and Light" is the expression of
his inevitable failure. W. II. C.
New-York tribune., 1919-12-27
Joan at Halfway
Fine Qualities in
Promising First Novel

Leoa Rogers Published b BY the George s
H. Doran Company.
Joan at Halfway" is first novel
that bears the mark of distinguished
storytelling gift. 1t is difficult to
catalogue its quality. 1t is soft
toned and delicate and has lovely
simplicity. IT is local and intensely
colloquial, with, however, dash Of
very props of melodrama are in the
plot-a gypsy grandmother, lost will,
family curse. These are the bookish
parts of the book, beautifully faded
down to blend into the character Of
the pastoral Nova Scotian settlement,
which Grace Mcleod Rogers presents
with such rare freshness and charm.
The story tells slow and rambling
tale of little girls return to the
kinsfolk who have dsowned her run
away mother and how by her freshness
and eagerness she cuts through the
tangle OF romance and superstitions,
the heritage Of stiff-necked pride and
stubborn will which have split the
clan of them into dim, shadowy feuds.
1t is a curious background that Mrs.
Rogers gives her story--a life half
manorial, half of the frontier in char
acter The people are vivid with lido
syncrasies. Whether they be lightly
or sharply etched, they are whole and
intensely individual portraits The
old Squire, with his immense AFRO
gance and pride; Phoebe, the poor kins-
woman with surprising gift Of plain
speech; Pelig, the stable youth. who
is jealous of his rights as kinsman
"a whole line Of people, pungent and
real and yet romantic-move through
the book.
Perhaps the most extraordinary
thing is the quality of the speech in
which it is rendered-a plain rustic
speech that yet is favored with the
Old Testament and with Chaucer
The form of the tale is sloose and
sprawling. This is compensated for
largely by the charm of the pictures
it presents But when Mrs. Rogers
has mastered the economy of her ex-
preston she is likely to give us novels
of fine individual quality. R. d.
New-York tribune., 1919-12-27
Among Those Present
Fiction

Fiction
ASHES TO ASHES BY Isabel Ostrander
Published by Robert NJ. Mcbride & Co,
New York
A mystery story based upon the
efforts of man who has committed
murder almost without intention to
escape detection
RONALD O. THE MOORS. BY Gladys
Edison Locke. Published by the Four
Seas Company, Boston.
A romance whose scene is laid in the
wilds of Dartmoor at time when many
men were hiding there, outlawed for
their adherence to the cause Of James
Stuart.
Rutgers Remsen Coles. Published by
the Stratford Company. Boston.
A collection of sonnets and narrative
poems, together with translation of q
Greek poem in heXameter.
THE HEART OF A GIRL. BY Lucille c.
Company. Boston
A collection Of verse, dealing with
the moods and written with the skill of
adolescence.
Drama
THE LAMP OF HEAVEN. BY Mrs. L.
Worthrgton Smith. Published by the
-Four Seas Company. Boston.
A one-act Chinese play, suffused with
Oriental atmosphere.
Religion
BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER. By
John Faville. Published by the STRAIT.
ford Company Boston.
An attempt to prove that God should
be regarded as a parent, rather than
as q sovereign or master.
New-York tribune., 1919-12-27
The Outbound Road
Genre Picture of Dutch
Community in Middle West

Mulder. Published By Houghton Nit
fin Company. New York and Boston
It is refreshing to find story that
proceeds under it's own steam as does
"The Outbound Road" by Arnold
Mulder. 1t derives from no literary
fashion. 1t copies nothing It is
curious section of American life, origi-
nally seen and set down with SIM
plicity and humor.
Arnold Mulder has made a genre
picture of one Of those quaint foreign
communities that lie in out-of- the-way
pockets Of the country like bits broken
off Europe. This little Dutch commu-
nifty, ringed so securely from the
pagan American influence in its own
customs and ideals, is a curiously vivid
and charming bit of our varied Middle
Old Foppe Spykhoven and Tante
Sarah, his wife. are austerely Calvin
istic figures. but there is something
warm and alive in their homeliness.
The incorruptibly orthodox elders and
the younger generation which half
fearfully has strayed into loose Amer
lean ways. the Christian college which
suspiciously prepares them for Amer
ican life, the whole life of De Stad,
ItSOiFeS ltSel INTO thoroughly lOE-
egn and yet typically American conf
munity. The people of the story are
an old professor, who. fearing to chal-
lenge the narrow opinion of De Stad,
has lost the woman he loved. Polish
actress. He brings her son back with
him to the little Dutch community,
and here among these narrow, unim-
aginative peasants there grows up
vivid child, boy with all his mothers
vividness and aptitude for life. The
scandal which thrusts him out of De
Stad, the vision he follows around the
world, only to find that ali the world
is sublimated De Stad. and his final
realization of himself as a writer Of
great gifts, are the main currents of
a charming story. Mulder has created
his people with Imagination the little
girl Esther, whose ostracism from De
Stad has steeled her for success; the
kindly peddler Klaas QUAINT, the old
professor, are real and moving people.
The first half of the book. which
concerns itself with the growing up
of Teuns, is by far the best part of
the book. The latter half suffers from
the handicap OF needing TO present a
genius in the making. That is reef
on which better men than Mulier have
been wrecked. II does not finally sue
ceed in being the picture of d genius
but it does succeed in being a sim
cere and always interesting and imagi-
native story. Z. d.
New-York tribune., 1919-12-27
BY Haywood Broun

The quality in the work Of Leonard
.Merrick which puzzles us most is his
smhidexterity. He writes sentime nta]
romance with great facility, but he
6uds it just as easy to write burlesques
~ sentimental romance. Moreover. he
ssn moralize or immoralize as the
sr;rit moves him. Anybody who reads
aEonrad in Quest of His Youth" and
then "The Actor Manager" cannot fail
~ notice the radical difference in the
roint of view of the two books. 1t
ksrdly seems possible that they could
have been written by the same author
IN aConrad" Merrick proceeds calmly,
Int none the less gaily and delight
.ully. along the theory that mans bust
psss in the world is the pursuit OF
nIeasure. Indeed, he assumes that
his is so automatic that he need not
sven stop to argue the point. "The
Actor Manager on the contrary, is
filed with conscience and duty and
many other sterner virtues. Inciden-
tsllv. "Conrad" is much the better book.
.ithoush we are not attempting to
reneralize upon this fact.
"The Man Who Understood Women
a short story collection published by
button, affords everybody an oppor-
unity to see both Merricks in one
volume. Nobody could very we'll write
a more sentimental tale than "The
Iaurels and the Lady" This is a
story about a woman who imperson-
ates famous actress in order to play
= trick upon blind young man who
IS stage struck. Then because she
finds that he cannot possibly bear to
he undeceived. she continues the de-
ception throughout the life of the
Young man, who is afflicted with tu-
berculosis The story would be pre-
poscerous and utter trash if it we're
rot for the amazingly skillful manner
New-York tribune., 1919-12-27
Pioneer Days
Lincoln Leading Figure
in Mr.. Bachelor s Tale.

A MAN FOR THE AGES. BY Irving
Bacheller. Bobbs Merrill Company In
danapolis.
Abraham Lincoln is the dominating
figure in this story of the thirties and
forties of the last century, when Chi,
cago was a village Of four thousand
inhabitants and Illinois could still be
out with a description of the journey
of the pioneer, Samson Traylor, from
his native Vermont to the West, the
author introduces Lincoln early in the
course Of the narrative. His picture
Of the future Martyr President is skill
fully compounded of fact, fiction and
traditional anecdotes that lie some
where between the two categories
Mr.. Bacheller interprets the charac-
ter Of the young railsplitter with re-
markable fidelity and sympathy. He
body, crude but powerful of mind
Throughout the story "Abe" is always
quick to resent injustice and to sym
pathlze with suffering; but his shrewd-
ness and commonsense save him from
quiXotic sentimentalism.
The book has much to recommend it
besides its splendid picture of Lincoln.
The author reCreates a vanished era
of American life, the pioneer age, when
ctiOHS, dONcntulOuS men were cutting
down huge trees and blowing untitled
soil for the first time and laying the
rough foundations for the civilization
that was to follow. The book gives an
excellent description Of these pioneers
uncouth in speech and manners, and
somewhat too much given to drinking
and fighting, but made of good, stall
wart stuff nevertheless. Mr. Bacheller
shows how the feeling against slavery
was gradually rising among thoughtful
men in the North at that time; and
the story are based upon the workings
OF the underground railway" which
helped fugitive slaves to escape to
Canada.
The historical implications of the
novel do not make it dry or pedantic;
there is plenty of action in the plot;
and a good love story, with final
happy climax after several reverses,
adds further interest to the book The
author has evidently studied the house
keeping arrangements Of pioneer days
closely; and he describes several allur-
ing feasts, in which venison, pheasants
and wild turkeys are important items.
Lincoln Is peculiarly appropriate
figure in Mr. Bachelors simple pio-
neer setting. For aside from the great
gifts Of heart and mind that make him
truly "a man for the ages" he was
at once a product and an embodiment
of the best qualities of our pioneer
era, its kindly, practical commonscnse,
ts capacity for hard work and deep
thinking. In Lincoln the moral ear
nestness Of the Puritan was tempered
and mellowed by the shrewd, tolerant,
humorous viewpoint of the expanding
West. His character lends itself easily
to fctional representation; and Mr..
Bacheller has succeeded in writing an
man in American history
New-York tribune., 1919-12-27
Yes, Well Inquire At Once

Please. sir: You said. in your review
of "Abraham Lincoln" moreover, we
found none of the rampant Anglicisms 5
in the play which we had expected.
They must be few. We noticed none :
read-I think in the same old Tribune
last Sunday-as how John Drinkwater r
said that he hadn't tried to make Lin
coin talk like an American, that he
had written the play as an Englishman.
And why, oh why. don't all English
writer's do that?
OF course. you don't notice Anglicisms
then-it's only when the dear English
try to draw American characters that
you notice 'em.
I've just finished reading Sonia"
And oh, dear! First there was the
nice David talking like Stephen Nc
Kenna's idea of an American. The
first time he opened his mouth he said,
Il reckon" 81 guess" and "a bully
time all in one breath. 1t prejudiced
me against him frightfully at the start.
Then there was Mr.. Morris, introduc-
ing himself with q MAYBE you're Mr..
George Oakleigh? ?" saying gee
II guess" and so forth, in his first five
minutes.
Pm an American-worse than that,
I'm New Englander. l say team
when I mean wagon" and have been
known to call certain flower a
'piney." My mother talks about "ele-
CANT" pies, and complains about
modern apartments, because there
isn't room enough to swing a cat"
But I think I've managed to write this
letter without guessing or reckoning
a single thing
After I'd finished Sonia I looked
over some American short stories,
written by Americans, for "guesses'
and "reckons" and didn't find them.
So why can't the English writer's
either write exclusively about English
men or profit by John Drinkwater's ex-
ample in permitting their Americans
to talk like Englishmen and be con-
vincing, for once, 70 their American
readers?
Won't you ask them for me?
PHYLLIS DUGYANNE.
New-York tribune., 1919-12-27
M. Barbusse Repeats I Himself
Like Under Fire. 'Lisht" Reveals Authors
War Reactions Clothed in Fictional Form

LIGHT: BY Henri Barbusse e. p Dut-
ton & Co.. New York.
1t is given TO few men to write more
than one masterpiece. In "Under Fire"
Henri Barbusse wrote an epic of the
trenches that deserves a place among
the classics Of the worlds literature bv
virtue of its superb realism, it's dra
matte power, its passionate, throbbine
humanity. Light suggests a new ed;,
tion of "Under Fire." more hysterical
and melodramatic in some places. heay-
Ter and more prosy in others At it's
best 1T merely repeats and echoes the
message of the earlier work.
The plot of the novel is decidedly
thin. A young Frenchman, living a
conventional life in provincial town.
leaves his wife and joins his regiment
at the outbreak Of hostiltes in 1914.
he experiences the fatigues and hor-
rors OF trench warfare; he is wounded
IN battle and finally invalided home.
iHIs ms suffering changes his outlook on
life; he becomes hater Of kings and
priests and wars and capitalists: he
rebels against all conventional authori-
ty; and the latter part of the book is
devoted to his fierce indictments Of the
social order that makes war possible.
Here there is nothing new; M. Bar
busse has said all these things. and
SAID them more frankly, speaking in
ms own name, in "Under Fire" And
this fundamental inadequacy Of theme,
this repetition of the authors own re-
actions to the war through a colorless
mouthplece, accentuates certain defects
IN NJ. Barbusse's style which are for
gotten in the thrilling, pulsating sweep
OF under Fire" One tires of the con-
tlnued grandiloquence, the fart fetched
poetic metaphors, the constantly ex-
ploslve phraseology. In common with
Aola and other extreme realists M.
Barbusse cherishes the illusion that
tragic spiritual effects can be achieved
by the simple process of piling up
physical horrors of every description.
He dwells with morbid emotional in
tenslty upon the most nauseating as
unrecognlzable fragments by high ex-
ploslvc shells, piles of corpses in the
last stages Of decomposition, grim rows
of skeletons hanging and rotting on
wire entanglements.
Somehow these gruesome images fail
to strike the note of deepest pathos.
The Hebrew poet who told the simple
story of David's lament for Absalom
possessed truer instinct for tragedy
than M. Barbusse, with all his pages
and chapters of unspeakable horrors
Many passages in Light" suggest the
fallacy of the musical composer who
attempts to make up in sound and VOL
ume what he lacks in harmonic effect.
Barbusse's protest against the pre-
vailing systems and ideas is perhaps
the more shrill and piercing because he