Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-01

! writer. as well as murderer. SW in
| dlers of the last century. when the art
had not reached its present spread
| and perfection. take on bodily form
here in the persons of two members
| of parliament, William Roupell and
| John Sadleir. notorious in their day
The downfall of princes and poten-
/ tateS is pointed out in the sad fate OF
/ the tragedy of mad Ludwig of Ba-
vara. and in the mysterious taking
| off of Prince Rudolph of Austria. To
! be sure. Lady Hamilton has a place
/ here. and the bigamous Duchess of
| Kingston. besides. Beau Brummell
! not criminal--a fool instead-moves
| a bit thin, among these other really
! robust sinners. The only one of the
| lot whom plain misfortune pur-
sued relentlessly. without deliberate
wrongdoing on his part, is F'erdi
nand de Lesseps of Panama canal
! fame. Others stand here clothed in
| their own misdeeds. The author does
not project himself into the situation
! with explanations, causes. or excuses.
| On the contrary. he tells the stories
as history has set them down. The y
| 90 furnish. however, interesting
studies in that most vagariouS of
mechanisms-the human mind.
MRS. CRADDOCK. BY w. Somerset
Vaughan. author of The Moon
n .
george II. Doran Company
/ Mr.. Vaughan makes a novel out of
a truth which La Rochefoucauld, with
French precision. did up in a single
neat phrase. This truth runs along to
the effect that in case of love one
of the two does the loving while the
other one submits to being loved.
This is an English story worked out,
knowingly. in the substance and at
mosphere of English rural life. The
lady in the case is the mistress of
Court Legs. In a whirlwind of pas
sion she woos and wins a young ten
ant-farmer of her estate From this
point the story develops through the
storm of her own passion for the
thoroughly good and really stolid
partner of her choice. He has not an
idea in the world of what these ire
mendous ardors are all about, these
reproaches for his coldness, these
lessly good natured Weddings. AS
with the way of all tempests this one
spends itself, drifts into indifference
on the part of the wife, kindles into
dislike. flames into hatred. Hell
hath no fury'-you know-like a
woman in this particular dilemma. So,
at the end of the story one may be
revolted, but he is not surprised at
the behavior of the once-enamored
lady over the sudden death of her
husband. Along the way. through the
ms and outs of this human study, the
work is of decided quality-firm.
smooth, lifelike, cumulative in eff
| feet. rounded to climax that has
it's rise in the situation set at the
beginning of the romance.
AFFINITIES; And Other Stories. BY
Mary Roberts Rinehart, author of
Dangerous Days" etc. New York:
George H. Doran Company.
No one could possibly have better
time than Mrs. Rinehart herself APP
pears to have. romping through these
near-trouble stories of married folks
All of them hinge on the discontents
that spring automatically out of GER
tain marital situations. Each one
wends its way, in a perfect orgy OF
disaster, along the course that Satan
sets for pampered and idle women.
But Mrs. Rinehart is a perfectly nice
woman herself and she has no in
tention of messing up her pages with
unclean domestic problems. So she
plays around the edges of superficial
discontents for the sake of the num-
Der of things she can make happen
( that look dangerous. AS matter of
fact, these are the most innocuous
happenings imaginable. Invariably
Jim. or Bill, or Pete-the lawful
even before the wife has made any
sort of feeble gesture toward err
rancy. Good fun, though. Near-re-
bellions, near-conspiracies, near
elopeme supply the foun-
dations for the uproarious TODD of
; these farcical comments on the mod
ern domestic state.
Beresford, author of THE Jervaise
Comedy" etc. New York: The Mac
milan Company.
When one is bent on having her
own way, and that, usually, particu-
larly destructive way, she commonly
calls it living her own life" loudly
asserting that everybody has a right
is a case in point. To be sure this
mother is woman of rich possibili-
ties. And, to be sure again, she is
set down in a deadly humdrum of
existence-dull husband. stupid little
village uninteresting children except
for the boy who is much of his
mother. Not strange situation
Hardly field for a story here. The
field opens, however, when the mother
takes her life in her own hands, goes
away with the man of her choice
abandons her children with the easy
habit of male animals, sets up her
life in the city where her nature has
room for itself. A secondary romance
develops here by way of the son who
in the course of time hunts out his
mother, not SO much to reform her as
to enjoy her. OF a conventional turn
one reads here expecting at every
page TO have the disasters set in that
are promised wrong doors. On the
surface nothing of this sort happens.
Such shortages of life as do come to
this imperfect mother are within her
own mind and heart-the real short
ages and the only ones that count
Mr.. Beresford is not trying here to
! point moral, nor to bolster up al
! institution. On the contrary, he i.
picturing a situation, not an uncom
! mon one, where by some turn of hel
nature the principal character finds
, herself a human being and as q
! mother hopelessly at odds. Wrong;
Very likely. True? Very often. One
may dislike this theme, but he car
! give only praise for the artistry OF
| its treatment.
THE END OF A DREAM. By A. NJ. n
Jenkin. New York: John Lane
| Company.
A curious story-based on some o.
the effects of shell shock as these eff.
fects are being studied since the wal
produced this new kind of war ca
lamity. The writer takes as his sub.
ject a young Englishman. whose life
| prior to the war, was spent in farm
ing beyond London. In short ex-
| cursion into the life of the city the
| a dancer. Soon after. the war comes
] Almost Immediately there follows tn