Evening star., 1919-11-09

THEODORE R00gEvBLTsS LETTERS
TO HIS CHILDREN. Edited by
Joseph Bucklin Bishop. New York
Charles Scribners Sons.
TT is tho revelation Of comradeshiI
with his children and tho essen
tfal homeyness Of his character
that give prime value and charm
to these letters Of Theodore Roosevelt
to his children. They are friends
father and children. The intercourse
fs straight across-friend to friend
without any downward slants Of con-
descending tutorship. Together they
delight in homely services. for In
stance. when Mr.. Roosevelt writes
from Pine Knot Of cooking bacon and
frying chickens for darling mother
Those are delightful and warming
touches from man whose many i'm
portant and exacting interests migh'
easily excuse any participation IN Or
dinary domestic affairs-even those OF
the picnicking brand. One expects q
in these letters-and 1t does. One ex-
poets the soundest kind Of American
ism, the sturdiest stripe OF honest and
fair dealing. And these are here. One
expects the great things to come out
just as they do. One loves the simple
upstanding friendship of the man for
his children. No other Roosevelt book
will reveal Just this side-this beauti-
ful side-of our greatest American.
This makes the book a treasure.
THE TEST OF SCARLET. By Con-
ingsby Dawson. author of 'The
Glory of the Trenches" etc. New
! York: John Lane Company.
''The Test of Scarlet" is reality dis
guised as romance. The disguise.
moreover, Is so thin that one reads
throughout with an acceptance In no
sense different from that accorded to
this authors other war books. One
refuses to take it as invention. In
stead he gives 1t a level place beside
the Garry On Letters" Out to Win, .
Living Bayonets" and the other war
realisms recorded by this writer. To
Elimpsed here, and love emerges at
this point and that-but. even SO, this
fs no fiction. Here are the literal
odore OF trench and transit and bat
tlefield. Here are armies Of gallant
men. Here are stretches Of murdered
land and walls of rotting men. Here
are the same paeans of praise for the
fighting man himself. and the same
scant warmth for the rank that re-
cedes grade by grade from the some
Of danger. and enuggles in the safe
shelter of chateaux or escapes in the
whizzins flight Of the igh-power car.
This 10 real story. q great and gall
liant story. 1t is a we'll Of deep feel
Ing for the men, the horses. the dogs
for every live thing that can suffer
in that torment Of war It 10 flame
Of vision for the things that are to
~ tnRnfpinu n thfn0 OH
SHASTA OF THE WOLVES. By Olaf
Baker. Illustrations by Charles
Livingstone Bull. New York:
Dodd. Mead & Co.
Shasta of the Wolves is strongly re-
mindful of Mowgli Of the Jungle.
Each is a man-cub brought up to boy
hood under the law Of the wolf pack.
Beyond this fact of external likeness
there IL, too, in the story Of Shasta
q good measure of the poetic feeling
and imagery that have set Kipling's
Jungle tales SO securely in the af-
fections of the reader. An Intriguing
theme, this-that of the human. taken
In infancy out of its human environ
ment and set down to live under the
code that animals, no less than man,
have wrought out Of the social econ
0my OF their existence. Shasta Is an
Indian baby. strayed away to the
nnaI shelter of the den Of Nitka: the
Shasta Is that Of the rest Of the pack.
his ways of doing their ways his
mode Of speech theirs. Birds and
beasts are his play-fellowe. Shoomoo.
the he-wolf, under the Establishments
Of Nitka: comes slowly to be the pro
tector of this perplexing man-cub.
Gomposh, the old black bear. wise one
Of the woods, becomes his friend. And
by and by Shasta sings the wolf
chorus and 10 initiated with tremen,
in the wolf pack. And 30 the story
goes on in an absorbing detail Of the
Incidents of wild life. with Shasta as
the center Of its various manifesto
shasta constitutes an instructive
reaching after those lines OF kinship
that exist between man. himself ana
the rest Of the animal world. Great
sympathy OF feeling for this kim
out. The story comes to one ~ poetry.
or rather as highly poetic prose. The
illustrator contributes to this gen
eral effect by way OF a half dozen
pictures that focus .rtfully some
guiling wolf-boy.
LITTLE HOUSES, A Tale q Past
Years. By George Wooden. New
x0IAs -. outIOu oS W.
70 be keenly observant in the gray
and level field Of common events 10 q
rare power. for here there IL % little
to catch the eye, 80 much less to hold
II. II IL out Of such a field, however.
that this writer has gathered his first
novel. I'VE are all nobodies. mother.
very nearly all Of us-nobodies in
little houses" says some one in the
story. Yet. II 10 out of these no
bodies" out Of these little houses"
that Mr.. Wooden has created q win
ming realism of life in a manufactur-
ing town of England. Such action as
there 10 here follows the course Of q
boy in his pursuit of success and hap
piness-as success and happiness were
Allday. however. Is not a central hg-
ure. as the heroes OF stories go.
Rather is he q bit more concentrated,
. bit more emphasized, than. the 9TH
srs. partaking. as he does, Of the mod
est opportunities around him. SIN
this work.. Just as q distinct literary
favor 10 Its conspicuous charm. A
decidedly unpretentious book person
atty merely accents the sincerity and
the artistry OF the story itself.
THE YOUNG RUSSIAN CORPORAL.
BY Corporal Paul Iogolevitch. IL
lustrated. New York: Harper &
Bros.
eran OF the war. tells his own story
here A young Russian Jew, Paul at
the outbreak Of the war was a prom
Using violinist. though but twelve
years Of age. In q spirit Of pure