Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-10-31

Mackenzie. author of Poor Re-
lations." etc. New York: Harper
& Bros.
THIS is the best. yet. Yes, we
did say that Poor Relations"
was the best. And SO it was
then. The art that has gone.
with steadily increasing power and
finish. into all of Mr.. MackenZie's
work takes on in this novel an extra
bloom. ripe fullncss. Human ma
ture embodied in groups of very
much alive people is this authors
quarry. Moreover. he takes humans
as they are. Therefore, his novels
are strongly tincturcd with the prod
ucts and by-products of thorough
disillusionment. In this book. how
ever ne has reached a ,alf-amused.
indulgent state of mind that softcns
the sardonic cast of his usual por
trayals. The theme here is the trans
fer of a music hall favoritc to the
ancestral home of her titled husband
This achievement marks the course
of action set down here. Back of it
is the English setting, with whose
himself SO Systematically familiar.
This setting fans out here to include
the country life of the titled Eng
liShman, that of the suburban dweller
and that of the London stage world
as well. 1t is the people here that
charm and fidelity of the various
settings. Dorothy Lonsdale, beauti
full chorus girl. who by her own in
dustry becomes. finally. Countess of
Clarehaven, is a triumph. With an
art that is delightful because it is
fY111 ho 10 nd ira I'M
so faithful to it's own eyes and it's
unerring sense of values, the author
embodies in the attractive bit of hu-
the very singleness of pur-
pose. the exact excluSiveness of be-
havior, that animates certain ami
beaver, the ant, the bee.
the coral polyp, and SO on. To build
herself more splendid mansions is
the instinct of this chorus girl.
Achievement is but the logical Sc
quence of instructive selections and
tainly not a biological study. 1t is,
on the contrary, rich and fasci-
mating story of very real human
beings whose lines are cast in Lon
don and thereabout.
THE PEDDLER; A Novel. By Henry
G. Rowland. author of "Filling His
Own Shoes" etc. illustrated. New
York: Harper & Bros.
The charm of this story is of piece
with that which William ]. Locke i'm
parts to his whimsical and lovable
characters. that with which Otis Skin
ner endows his beautifully simple
stage folks. The peddler, rafting
and roaring and grinding through the
on his secondhand army
truck, stocked with household wares
Of every sort, is a close brother to
Locke's beloved vaga bond. to Skin
ner's hurdy-gurdy man. To be sure,
store is but blind to cover the ped
dler's pursuit of a band of criminals,
members of the exclusive society
But criminals. respec-
table members OF the colony. the So
cial doings that serve to pass the
for the performance of the clever de-
tective, and the altogether beguiling
with his absurd outfit. A
delightful play of fancy here, coupled
with a very substantial power of
LETTERS OF TRAVEL. By Rudyard
Kipling. New York: Doubleday,
Page & Co.
These letters by Mr.. Kipling go
back twenty years. coming forward
but of the early nineties up to
year before the world war. They are
records of travel in the old world
ada. along the Pacific coast, a touch
n China and Japan, a pause in Egypt
and the near east. 1mpresSions-not
the medium of these
letters. And these impressions have.
invariably. man as the center of the
or that one. offers to the multiform
needs of man. how this one responds
10 mans inner call for beauty and
harmony. for what the other one
stands, or may stand. in the course
IF mans advance-this is the out
ook from which these informal and
robust letters are written. sometimes
10 the folks at home. and sometimes
TO a less intimate set of readers. 1t
Is interesting to see that, in all of
Them, Mr.. kipling goes back to India
Tor his standards of mere beauty
and for the meanings of the land
scape to the eye and the heart of the
onlooker. This fact is, in reality. the
link between this volume
and those other books that are so
of the life-blood of the
great author.
THE SHADOW SHOW BY J. H..
Curle. New York: George H. Do
ran Company.
A breathless experience stands in
wait for the reader of this book of
personal travel and adventure. To
be whisked with no other ceremony
than the turning of a page from one
other side. from the equator to the
poles. from continent to continent,
from country to country-this is. in
Iced, an adventure into scenes of
beauty and strangeness and
charm. When one stops at all it is to
i ~ H.
spaces and interests could have been
by any single individual.
However. these pauses are rare. for
the writer has the gift of absorbing
the reader in the actual shiftings
from place to place. in the actual par
takings OF remote and alien doings,
in the actual contemplation of great
natural beauty and the beauty of art
as well. disciple of old Omar. the
writer presents himself as Snowman
to point out to us-puppets all-the
wisdom and the folly, the beauty and
a bit of the ugliness. the reason and
the unreason. the tragic humor. the
laughing tragedy. of this incompara-
bly, lovely stage of the world upon
which we ourselves are, for the mo-
ment. the phantom figures that come
and CO." A book that goes to the head
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE GREAT
WAR. By William L. Mcpherson,
author of THE Strategy of the
Great War" New York: c. P.
Putnam's Sons.
Voluminous writing on the subject
is a natural immediate aftermath of
the great war. And these volumes
of recorded fact are of inestimable
value to certain classes of readers
That, however. which the average
reader stands most in need of Just
now is a compact outline study of
the war. Such a study comes to hand
in this work by Mr.. Mcpherson, who,
during the war period. studied the
war at close range and made COM