New-York tribune., 1919-10-15

ince, we cannot resist asking, merely
for the sake of information, if this Is
by any chance the grand and glorious
feeling concerning which We hear from
time to time from Mr.. Briggs?
In Philip Littell's Books and Things"
a volume of essays published by Har
court, Brace & Howe. We find an in
teresting comment on the literary stvie
of three of our American Presidents
"All observers would agree, | suppose"
writes Mr.. Littel, IF they were asked
to go over the list of Presidents since
Lincoln, and to pick out the three who
had put into action as President the
strongest wills, in choosing Cleveland.
Roosevelt and Wilson. Yet YOU canSot
say that the style of any of the three
is strong mans style None is rich
in rugged maxims hewn from life.
President Roosevelt wrote and spoke like
strong man now and again IN spots
but in the mass his style is too word,
too proliX, too desperately emphatic to
W SAiohS- ne .pnHQ oppression ~ l0NtU
too easy as President Cleveland found
it impossible. Something said of another
writer by Mr.. Charles Whibley is true
of President Roosevelt-he seldom used
sentence if page would do as well
President Wilson is a conscious artist.
in words-which, of course, President
Roosevelt and President Cleveland were
not-but strength is not one Of the
marks at which his art aims. His stvlc
is too gracefully conscious of his au-
dience for strength, too sunnily persua-
sive, too nicely fabricated, too suooth.r -
Except for some fine chapters aboui
the night march OF n battery up 10
the front We found Coningsby Dawson
new novel, "The Test of Scarlet" John
Lane, backneyed and dull. and vet +.
marks return to earth upon the pan,
of Mr.. Dawson. During the war Nr.
Dawson played Pollyanna. We are mo-
disposed to deny that there may have
been excellent purpose and efficient frs.
aid to morale in the books in which h.
found a spiritual significance IN every
phase of warfare, but II does seem to
US a little odd that he should now talr
upon himself the task OF brushing away
the sentimental conception of fights and
lighters in Che building Of which he Ger
tainly played part. Moreover. IT seems
particularly odd since NJ Dawson
preston that he is the first man since
1914 who has had the courage to sav
that modern war is not a pretty husi-
ness. He pictures in "The Test Of Scar
let" great procession of 1.-THE dead of
the war, and adds, yet, despite th.
tremendous thought Of such procos
sion, the actual pathos Of one mar
smashed in battle is more appalling
Developing the theme, he continues:
"Comparativefy few people have seen
that sight If they had. the war would
end tomorrow. The generals who plan
our battles rarely see it; they are too
tar back. The war correspondents who
describe our battles do not sec it. they
at canteens, dressing stations and army
headquarters. Our civilians ONLY read
the correspondents descriptions. So II
goes-the more hands through which
the news passes and the further back
1t travels the more the vieness of the
happening becomes misted over with lies
and transmitted into something mag
nificent. Each informant, in the pro
portion that he is removed from the ter
ror, is the more anxious to pose as an
heroic eyewitness. The only eve-wlt
nesses are the men who do the diving.
and they do not feel themselves to ho
heroes. They are under fire on accourt
of the accidents of medical fitness. youth
and properly developed sense Of duty
They are people of inferior rank aud
of no social or military consequence.
They are not literary, oratorical. articu-
late. Because they die, the world never
learns what war is like. Even though
they bear charmed lives and survive.
they are muzzled by army orders and tho
vigilance of the censor. Not a whisnar
OF the truth escapes. In hospital or on
leave they are eager to forget: more
over. they quickly learn that tie Sir
Galahad misconceptions OF civilians
make their facts sound like the whm-
perings Of towards. SO they strike the
attitude which is required OF them. pre-
tending that there's sporting fascina-
ton about blowing and being blown into
atoms"
For our own part wc did not 500
enough of the war to know whether or
not Mr.. Dawson has drawn true pic.
ure. but we do know that while Audreas
Latzko, the Austrian, was writing "Mon
IN War;" and Henri Barbusse. tho
Frenchman, was writing Under Fire"
Coningsby Dawson was writing "The
Glory of the Trenches And if "no
whisper of the truth escapes We Won
der what Mr.. Dawson was writing about
while the war was on.
We referred the other day to "4Thc
Book of a Naturalist, by ". F. Had
son." Nevertheless, the author still re-
/ a q II