The sun., 1919-04-20

rain, mud, strikes and disappOint-
ment. The strikes and disappoint-
ment are still with Us, but the spring
has come, and even as 1 write the
sun is pouring in through the window.
The man in the picture shop round
the corner has put bowl of daffOdils
onto his shelf near the door, and the
messenger boys are whistlIg on their
bicycles. 1t is strange what little
sun can do; we are this week faced
with what is perhaps the most serious
moment of the Coal and Mine agita-
ton, they are fighting in Paris over
the League of Nations and Kuehlmann
has just said that the Germans will be
ruling France in 1925-ncvcrtheles
you will find the confirmed pessimists
in the club smoothing their bald heads
and prophesying that "our common
sense will save us as it has always
done, you will find the inhabitants
of Mayfair discussing the latest jazz
dances and the flower shops in Picca-
diIly doing such a trade as never was
known-all because of a little sun.
The theatre, too, is looking jup won
derfully. Mr.. Pagan has just scored
success with The School for Scandal,
Abraham lincoln is triumphant at
the Hammersmith (this is a chronicle
play by John Drinkwater, the poet,
and well worth reading if you are un-
able to see it), the premiere Of Con-
RAIDS Victory approaches and CyranO
de Bergerac makes his bow at the Gar
rick next week. Moreover has not
Arnold Bennett written play about
Judith and Holofernes and is not Miss
Lillah Mccarthy going to show it us
in a month s time with dresses de-
signed by RickettsH No, it
will really be possible soon to find
three theatres running at the same
moment plays to which a sef-rcspect-
ing person may take sclf-reSpected
friend.
Pictures, too, are looking up. The
Modern Portrait Show in Bond street
is crowded, twenty-five independents
are striking for themselves as the
Leicester Galleries and Mr.. Wyndham
Lewis has only just ceased to set the
town by the ears over his pictures
that are not Futurist enough for the
FuturiSts, but much too thoroughly so
for the patrons of the Royal Academy.
With all this energy in the sister
arts I am afraid that literature can
not be said to be living up to the
spring. We are now in the middle
of March and should be at the very
crisis of the spring publishing season.
Where then are the books? Mr.. VIII
lam HeinemanD, one Of the most
enterprising of all our publishers, has
not issued new novel this year, Mae
millans only two, Blackwoods none,
Murray none, Constable none. As TO
.DOcITy MI. IcCIlldu > NOluiHC VI
which I spoke a fortnight ago is the
only sign of life. In the immediate
future there is to be, / believe, a new
chunk from the erotic adventures of
Sylvia Scarlet, Mr.. Compton Mae
kenzie's cinematOgraph heroine, but
this does not sound thrilling to every
one. Much more interesting to many
readers will be the prospect Of new
novel by Miss May Sinclair, perhaps
the best Of living English women
novelists.
Then there are the opening chapters
Of Mr.. Wells's paraphrase Of The
Book of job and very good they are.
Professor Saintsbury is to give the
world second volume of his History
of the French Novel and Mr.. Arthur
Waugh promises a volume Of literary
rIo,o I'LL 10 r,oof ,.xy From,