Evening star., 1920-05-23

Gibbs. New York: Harper & Bros.
TINE regular war work of Philip
Gibbs stands out with a
distinctive quality of inter-
est and Importance. The
Mr. Gibbs work-more intimate
work. franker avowals. a clearer
placing of events. freer statement
of conditions. In way, 1T is an ex-
tremely personal book. For instance.
the writer says exactly what he be-
lieves to be true on many subjects
on the fitness of certain commanders
to command, on the character OF mis-
takes that were made at the front
and behind it. Yet. the story Is In no
Of war. 1t is. on the contrary. an in
tepsely human book of broad and un-
Outstanding spirit. 1t is big book,
too-bfg in outlook. big in under
standing. While it is clearly matter
of-fact study. it comes to one as
deeply poetic seizure of the glcries
and barbarities OF the war. A great
book that is calculated to live on in
the memory Of the reader. as both
picture of the war and as an inter-
probation OF it.
FRANCE AND OURsELvEs; Inter
pretative Studies. 18l7-191e. BY
Herbert Adams Gibbons. author OF
Paris REBORN, etc. SNcW 1oi n.
The Century Company.
Comparisons are odious-most truly
odious in respect to what this nation.
or that one, gave and suffered in the
great war There is no one, however.
who Is going to deny to France the
full tribute of sympathy and PRIDE In
her sacrifice. So, when Herbert Adams
Gibbons says what he does say here
about France. every reader opens his
mind and heart to the words and the
spirit of the writer. One is fortunate
to find these interpretative studies
this or that outstanding figure Of
France in wartime. For Mr.. Gibbons
himself stood face to face with the
facts from which these studies are
drawn-with Clemenceau, with the
Alsace-Lorraine question, with the
dustrial awakening Of France. with
the reconstruction of its wrecked
fields and towns, with the attitude
Of the country toward peace. In all
of these studies. besides. he fronts
sympathy of Americans. upon their
instructive desire to give both sub
stantially and spiritually to the sue
cor Of this glorious nation. Rich in
training and experience and feeling.
Mr.. Gibbons puts the best of these
into these Illuminating studies.
FNOM SSHbAA IO JUUOSLAtlA. by
Gordon Gordon Smith. New York:
G.. p. Putnam's Sons.
This is the military history of Ser
bia from the attack of the central
powers in 1914 to the mergence Of
Jugoslavia as an issue of the peace
Of 1918. The story covers. in its first
part, the battle of the Morava. the fall
Of Nish, the retreat of the Serbians.
their stand for an offensive. their ulti-
hA NJ Sv1 NJ
Albania. The second part takes into
account the Serbian army. reorgan-
ized as q part Of the allied forces Of
the Saloniki front. Through this dis
astrous campaign the writer traces
the military work of the Serbians. To
are confusingly mechanical. therefore
improbable. The admirable organ
ization of Gordon-Smith's history.
however. does completely away with
this difficulty. He is experienced in
war movements. To this experience
dramatically. to cut out non-essen-
tial details, to embody a vision in
vital words. BY virtue of these pow
ers the book stands not only as an
authoritative history of the Serbians
at war, but as a vivid and sympathetic
account, also, of the tragic chapter in
the development of Jugoslavia.
HARVEST. BY Mrs Humphry Ward.
author of Robert Elsmere." etc.
Frontispiece by Allan Gilbert. New
York: Dodd, Mead 4 Co.
aspects Of the new modernism produced.
or forecast. by the war. The story is
placed in a lovely corner of southern
England. to which this writer does rich
justice. Its chief person is q farmer
ette. Coming. a stranger. into the
~ AIeh iHyA o
woman has taken a farm which she car
ries on with a business efficiency ana
technical skill that make her something
of a wonder to the siower-going male
farmers roundabout; This is one Of the
, new turns in life that Mrs. Ward pre-
sents here very picturesquely and be-
| lievably. Across the fields from the
farm is forestry camp devoted to the
| immediate service Of war. At its head
! is a young man who serves as the sec
| ond necessary element in this romance
And the romance comes along, as a
matter of course. The young woman. it
turns out, has past. The young man
has none. Another reversal Of custom
Most astonishing innovation of all is
that the lover sets aside this erstwhile
damning fact as altogether negligible,
with his love supreme as the arbiter of
decision. But even Mrs. Ward-for-
ward looking as she fs-could not
bring her mind to accept the logical
outcome of the lovers attitude, so she
makes a sudden tragedy take the girl
out Of future harms way. one judges.
A good story-of course-despite its
turning tail at the close.
ORDER. BY Claude c. Washburn, au-
thor of "Garald Northrop," etc.
New York: Duffield & Co.
Certain individuals. even certain
neighborhoods and towns. take pride
in being looked upon as unconvention-
|al. They call it being liberal and
broad minded. The proof that they
are not, in reality, unconventional
comes when some truly lawless per-
son breaks in to put substance and ex-
pansion under their harmless indis-
cretions. Such. broadly. is the pur-
port of this story. Upon rich, well
managed village. outlying big west
ern city, there descends one day by
way of a dramatic railway smash-up.
a young Englishman who had COM
ported himself like hero among the
injured of the wrecked train. Him
self wounded in the work of rescue,
he becomes Immediately the center
of attention among the villagers.
Charmed with the place and the peo-
ple, he stays with them for a third
Of q year, leasing a handsome estate
and becoming for the moment a
townsman. He is the marauder. it
turns out, who flches their spurious
conventionality, putting in its place
real disregard of custom and accepted
outlook. Certainly for four months
that little community is keyed to q
mitch undreamed of before. The NOV
..;.,t chic fascinating creature