Evening star., 1919-11-30

all-dramatic things to all-dramatlc
| men. Brander Matthews gives here a
delightfully."- varied and thoroughly in
teresting outlook upon the drama in
| its facts and also in its drifts and
| implications.
MRS. MARDEN. BY Robert Hichens
author of The Garden of Allah.
etc. New York: George II. Doran
! Company.
| An only son killed on the battle
| field of France. The widowed mother s
| search for wherewithal to go on liv
| ing. An adventure into spiritualis1n
| that betrayed her. A fatal seizure out
of whose pure physical pain the
! mother came. finally. into self
| possession of her own soul. This is
| the outline of Mr.. Hicbens new novel
! AS a whole. the story is unappealins-
| distinctly unconvincins. 1t reaches its
| highest point-a rather low point at
| that-in the exposure of the char1a =
F.. tanism of good old Peter Orwyn. me-
! dunn and fal<ir. who is. with it all.
i very touchingly human. The conven-
| tional climax of the invention. the
| point at which the stricken mother
! comes out into consciousness of
impressed. London. like many an
other city. is at the present full
harvest field of personal grief looking
| for grief's assuagement. And this is
| Mr.. Hchens' theme-a powerful
| theme. whose true potentiality this
| author appears to have missed com :
pletely. Nor does he retrieve himself
by any special artistry of form to
cover a clear mediocrity of invention.
THE GREEN-PEA PIRATES. By
Peter 3. kyne. author of "Cappy
;ol,x cd Nv
don Grant. New York: Doubleday.
Page & Co.
A trio of laughably disreputable
cronies begin their three-ply adven-
lures on a rickety old freighter Of
green peas and string beans to the
San Francisco market. Scraggs, cap
tain of the Maggie, "ornery.' rat
faced and furtive, is diseased with
prideful vanity because of his own
ership Of the steamer-an incident en-
tirely ignored by Adelbert =. Gibney,
first mate-there is no other-who.
by right of an embarrassed imagina-
ton and real gift for leadership,
assumes control of the ship and all
therein. Bert McGuffey. a wastrel of
the Gibney type, but slower-Witted.
reigns supreme over the scaly oid
boiler-and there is a solemn Swede,
represents the crew.
Naturally, there is wreck fol-
lowed by surprising consequences,
born of the Gibney imagination and
in which the men, bound together by
curious affection. reap fortunes tna'
A cargo of black coral and sea pearls
taken from a cannibal island entails
the thrill of being almost-but not
quite-dished for native banquets;
and there is a marooning on another
island. with no food advantages by
the crew that sailed away with the
loot Happily the rescues keep UP
with the dangers until-toward the
last page-Scraggs, wearying OF blue
water. proceeds to lose every cent ne
gained by the Gibney imaginauon-
via a chicken ranch-and the three
others sail away under pleasant cir
cumstance to make fortunes in a
regular way.
THE DISTURBING CHARM. BY
Berta Ruck, author of I'm Another
Girls Shoes" etc. illustrated by
Edward c. Caswell. New York:
Dodd, Mead & Co.
This piquant little love tangie
demonstrates the psychological value
of a Joke. A famous old scientist, who
is studying nature at a French resort
"in the pines" near the Bay of Bis
cay, receives from an anonymous
source a "love germ" powder, which
will attract to the Wearer the love OF
the opposite sex. Naturally, the old
gentleman puts the package and let
ter aside as a humorous fake forget
ting that Olwen, his young niece may
come across it when arranging. his
desk. Olwen does. Furthermore she
divides the "disturbing charm into
four tiny sachets. which. by various
maneuvers she secretes in the blouses
and coats of the four prominent char-
acters in the book-and the plot is
on. The consequences make up zest-
full romance, which keeps the reader
in a maze of guessings and finally
leaves him at the last page still un-
certain whether each happy climax
was due to ordinary love-making
methods or was indebted to the mys-
terious charm.
1t is undoubtedly true that the hotel
Olwen gave her the charm, imnle-
diately achieved a proposal. but the
cynic-if cynics are ever wise enough
to read lightsome love tales-the
cynic might argue that it was the first
time the old maid, with a large nose
and timid eyes," had ever been thrown
with men and that allowance must be
made for her just-acquired value as
rich heiress. Also, that the splendid
ly daring young aviator became Wild
ly infatuated with the mature widow
who nursed him after his crash" for
the world-old reason that young
chap invariably falls victim to a
woman older than himself before he
realizes the true meaning of love.
Capt Ross. Canadian officer who lost
an arm on the Somme. and is at the
resort for shell shock is the hero. of