The sun., 1919-08-03

fates There is real humor here, both OF
character and of situation, where one
would not expect it, for the homely
Beulah, so penurious of speech, and the
weeping widower, and the ELUSIVE agent
of seanees do not on the surface appear
comic, nor would one look forward to be-
ing amused by the efforts of bereaved
husband to call up his wife's ghost.
Lack, by Wilbur Daniel Steele expresses
dramatically the tyranny of chance in
human destiny. The Bor-StaH, by Mary
Heaton Worse, reveals an aspect of war
psychology, the effect of German prison
life on the normal Englishman- theme
brought out almost simultaneously with
this in Phyllis Bottome's 4 Servant Of
Realty, in the Century. The comphcating
element of luck is discussed in RepdratiOn,
by ]. D. Beresford, leisurely account
covering fourteen years and various con-
tinents. At least, the reader is left to
choose between luck and an assiduously
haunting ghost who will have his way.
The Century contains a moving story by
Anzia Yezierska, The Fat of the Land,
which illustrates the conflict between in
migrant parents and American born chill
dren. As one son puts it, "The trouble
with US is that the ghetto of the middle
ages and the children of the twentieth CEN
fury have to live under one roof" Both
physical and spiritual hunger are realisti-
cally dealt with by this new Russian
writer, who has herself known privation
and hardship and hence can bring a sense
of actuality as well as intense feeling to
her creation.
Scribner's seems a trife an@mic this
month. The fiction is, as always, carefully
written and technically correct, but it
leaves one rather unmoved. The liveliest
story is Being Nan, by Edna Mary
Booth, briskly convincing combination
of two love stories. The Field Of Shadows,
by Fred C. Smale, is a pallid ghost story
of the problematic type, which fails to
produce any spinal chills in this hot
weather. The SWALLOW, By Mary Raymond
Shipman Andrews, has certain freshness
gained from the fact that the inevitable
hero in this war story is Huron Indian.
But it is to be questioned whether an
Indian soldier would break into sobs in the
presence of other men.
On With the Race, by William Almon
Wolff, in Golfers, deals with the emotions
Of the young aviator returned to civil life
Iand his inability to adjust himself at first.
1t seems fundamentally sound.
Golfers has another story with the
logicality Of life, in Sisters, by Oscar
Graeve, the ironic sadness Of which dis
appoints the reader but forces him to
reflection.
The Metropolitan, which, by the way,
promises eight stories month instead of
four hereafter, has well told piece of fc-
ton by d. H. Lawrence, The Eleventh
Commandment This realistic account Of
the rough employees of an English tram
line, of the methods used by a group of
working women to test and punish light
maker of love, has novelty and force.
Harpers BG=ar, publishes The Little
Beggdr, by Algernon Blackwood, q wistful
story of child who might have been, told
with delicate suggestiveness and the
charm which Blackwood knows well how
to impart to the supernatural, The July
number of the Bdzdr contained two ad-
mirable stories, The Sponge, by Temple
Bailey, a new writer from the South who
is doing work of considerable originality,
and The Lining Ghost, by Burton Kline.
This latter has both dramatic tensity and
psychological acumen, dealing with subtle
states of mind, of deep buried emotions
and the impulses that arise from them