Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-02-02
THE LOVE OF AN UNKNOWN SOL
DER. New York: John Lane Com


THE LOVE OF AN UNKNOWN SOL
~, DER. New York; John Lane Com
| paDy.
| This volume elnbodies a bundle Of
| love letters. written by--no one
! knows whom. Equally no one knows,
, either. to whom they are addressed.
| The. story runs that the letters were
| found in one of the dus-outs of an
| abandoned. gun position. According
to the man, finding the letters the
! position had been badly knocked
iered untenable. In a hell of a
ness," the man said. Supposing the
! hidden letters to be military infor-
nation. the finder secured them. They
! turned out to s7be. bundle of love
! letters wherein the most manly
| young soldier Imaginable giSes his
| heart degree of easement by setting
| town hts admiration andt love for an
American sirl who, over in France,
s working for the relief Of French
| children. Sometimes he sends off
| letters to her. Now and then he re-
elves one from her. But those are
i lot the real letters to him. The real
etter.s are those found after the gun
/ position occupied by him was made no
! 'onger tenable Where is that soldier?
| Probably dead. Where is the girl?
| Certainly alive and, one hopes.
stricken with a deadly loss. The
| letters. you see enlist one SO COM
nieteiy with their simplicity and ten
dserness and hope that one makes a
condition when reading them the
only condition that will satisfy him
and that is that the girl will find
and be heartbroken over his loss
All this. supposing the story to be
true one. and not merely a device.
In the latter event, however, the
quality of the letters remains to, give
one the enjoyment Of their beauty
COMMON CAUSE; A Novel Of the War
In America. BY Samuel Hopkins
Adams, author of Little Miss
Crouch" etc. illustrated. Boston:
Houghton Miffin COMPANY.
This story is developed out of the
west, in a section where the popula-
is story Of war time. 1t is story
of war-of the war that was 'waged
in this country against the forces Of
German propaganda. The great war
brought to light the little Germanys
with which the west and northwest
! of this country were peppered. Select
| ing one of these miniature Teutonic
empires so suugly ensconced within
| the borders of the United States, this
author. makes II the background of "a
/ romantic adventure whose outstand-
/ wide Americanisnf. The hero of this
| war against alien propaganda is a
! young newspaper man who. with not
more than a handful of adherents.
makes slow but exciting headway
against the unpatriotism of his sur
roundings. A love story of the right
sort-since the girl is also of pure
stripe American and fighter at tina {
gives pleasing social turn to the
otherwise hard lines of this fight
dentally, some Of the Interesting fea-
lures of the morality Of the press
and something Of its immortality
Obviously the writer knows the news
paper back and front. inside and out.
He writes not at all like a literary
artist. but rather like hustling
| wide-awake reporter. He has made
a rafting good story upon this
| basis. a story that is packed with the
! realism of, obstruction to the war
realism. also, of the sturdy American
| ism to which these hostile manifesto
tions gave abundant rise.
THE Young DIANA: An E1perimen,
of the Future. BY Marie CoreIIi
| author of The Life Everlasting.
| etc, New York: George H. Doran
Company.
The experiment to which the title
here refers is true to the corelli type
of theme. To, thr9w invention around
one or another Of the unknowable
things Of life, around one or another
vaguely sensed possibilities of the
future, such is the literary. delight
of this writer. This curious intel
lectual and literary turn appears 10
be based. In part at least, upon a
cynicisrn 50 ireraihed and. pervasfve
that it's possessor~fn mis- no field of in
vention at all in the actual present.
with which she is in complete dis
illusionment. So TO. the distant and
the unreal she betakes herself for
the bulk of her story stuff. The ex-
| pertinent that directs the course of
This novel is Of the pseudo scientific
type-anG experiment by means eof
which fanatfcal visionary studies
and dreams and enyisages electrical
and light motion as thesinstrufoen by
which .the process of aging may not
only be stopped, but reversed as well
so, that in an evergy of back action
with forces of creative regeneration
1t stays age recreates youth, begets
beauty, immortalizes it's object, Miss
Diana May. spinster of forty. is the
subject Oh tH1s experiment. In q ma re
of TODD. involving many interesting
people and places. the miracle werks
out to the de-humanizing OF Diana
MAY. Who. having seized perpetual
youth, has become an element of ma
ture. like light, like motion. like
energy in other forms. The story
gives the author opportunity, also
for a perfect riot of the cynicism that
commands her forces. In this instance
il is directed In the main toward men
"a poor bunch, Just lit to stick pins
into. or TO belabor with other small
prosecutions.
ONCE ON THE SUMMER RANGE. B,
Francis Hill New York: The Mac
milan Company
For half its length this is an I'M
commonly we'll told story of a young
ranchmans life on a sheep range il
Montana. Within this stretch of in