The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-07-09

1T Is with books as with men:
a very small number plays a great
part; the rest are COMPOUNDED with
the titude."-Voltaire
The author of a recent German
book, Herr Otto Autenrieth, has
suddenly found himself generally
frowned upon and assailed by his
countrymen, instead of becoming a
popular hero, his one fault being
that he is the author of a great
politico- military work, Three Flu
ture Wars" In this book, with in
tense German seriousness and
thoroughness, Herr Autenreith
prophesies the causes, personnel
and outcome of the next three
wars, the first to be waged against
Japan by England, France and the
United States, Germany remaining
neutral and growing wealthy and
strong out ofathe necessities OF the
combatants; the second to be
fought against France by England
and Germany, with the certain re-
suit of absolutely destroying
France; and the third war to be-
gin by England attacking America
and ending by the humiliation of
the British empire, with Germany
and the United States holding all
other nations in peaceful "Vassal
age Although the book is dis
tinctly flattering and reassuring to
Germany, and although accompan-
led by maps, charts, military dis
cussions and in the best style Of
the popular General Bernhard, the
new Bernhard finds himself not a
public hero, as he had hoped, but
decidedly unpopular.
'Penrod" has already made for
himself a niche in the place occu-
pied by American boyhood. and
now Alice Adams" Booth Tark-
ington's latest creation in the book
of the same name doubleday,
Page & Co.)-she isn't really a Gre
alton, though, after all, for she has
always been-takes her place
| among American girls. With his
new story which completes triol-
ogy of middle-western life, Mr..
Harrington is still concerned with
| that subject in which he is so in
terested: family life, the current of
American life in which the fami-
| lies struggle as families. AS in the
| Turmoil" and The Magnificent
Ambersons," he has chosen a fam
lily to represent type. Alice being
| the predominating character of the
| family. Always little submerged,
| seeking for the material prosperity
of others about them, the father
and mother ambitious for their
only daughter, Alice longing for
| the social position, gay times, pref
ty clothes, etc, of girls of her age.
the family struggle through to a
spiritual realization of things worth
while. Unlike Penrod, the new
| book is written seriously rather
/ than in a humorous vein. In parts,
! it is distinctly pathetic. But, like
Penrod, Alice is a very real char
acter Time and again one finds
ones heart aching for her, in her
dreams and her heartaches. con-
! doning her small subterfuges.
Sherlock Holmes. the great Eng
| lish detective, and the French de-
tective, LecoQ, have for some time
been the leading Representatives in
| the realm of detective and mys-
i terry fiction. A comparatively new.
but of gaining popularity. detective
wizard is DR.. Lester of the United
States. THE Eye Witness" by
Eric Levison (Bobbs Merrill COM
pany), is the latest DR.. Lester mys-
terry story The plot is clearly con-
ceived and worked out and the
story is entertainingly told In
! volved in the mystery are counter