Evening star., 1921-06-12


Border" etc. New York. The Mac
milan company.
TINE personality and character
OF Grant are the chief quest
Of Hamlin Garland in this
biography. Since, however,
| character expresses itself largely
through external event, and since
1t takes the whole of ones life to
interpret any stage of it. the author
has. for the purposes of this study.
| literally followed every stage of
| Grants career from his birth to his
death. The result is a great ktory.
| every step of which is substantiated
| by about every conceivable sort of
| acceptable evidence. Out OF the whole
| sympathetic Interpretation two i'm
pressions Of the man supersede all
| others. These are Grant as a great
| most inept of men in the business
| affairs of the world. And with it
! all-with both success and failure
| he is the silent man. And this is
perhaps the most appealing of all
! qualities. this keeping silent what
against 1t. The early failures of the
great warrior make a pathetic story.
| One is glad to get into the tide of
| competency and success that finally
saved the Union and marked one of
the most brilliant chapters in the
military history of any time and any
place. The story goes on with the
| presidency and the public honors
! that succeeded it. Iti closes with the
| heroic and silent suffering Of Grant
deep sympathy with his subject. He
has been painstaking beyond COM
pare in gathering material for this
history: He is by practice a story
teller. These powers correlated and
|Set to work have produced in the
book in hand a remarkable study of
| Grant himself, and. beside this. a
dramatic view of the chief stages Of
the civil war.
Bryce. author of The American
| Commonwealth" etc New York:
The Macmillan Company.
Lord RRce. by way of these two
volumes, offers a study OF democracy
as a working form of modern gov
! ernment. The United States. Canada,
! the Spanish h-American republics. Au-
| France. provide the concrete materia!
| through whose governments. respec-
| lively. the author traces the working
4 out Of the principles Of democracy.
This analysis defines the fundament-
ais upon which these governments
agree. It sets the bedrock OF
democratic purpose. From this COM
mon foundation of agreement the
| author shows the superficial points of
departure that each of the countries
| has made in its government ma
| chinery through the influence of spe-
| cial history environment and char
acter. The analysis extends. finally,
| to a comparison of these various
| forms of democracy for the sake Of
! impressing their essential unity of
| ferences of method. The whole is
| ultimately gathered up for an ap-
| praisal of the benefits to be derived
generally, from this form of govern
| ment. for an estimate. also. OF its
defects and its dangers. This paral-
straight thinking and clear statement
of the author, constitutes most use
full study of modern democratic gov
ernments both from the standpoint
Of accomplished fact and from that
of suggestion for the future. To the
Lord Bryce's American Common
wealth"
WOMEN IN THE LIFE OF BALZAC,
BY Juanita Helm Floyd. New York:
Henry Holt & Co.
Lovers of Balzac will like to sup
Iplement the novels of the great
jFrenchman with this intimate study
tof his friendships with women. Some
lof these women were, obviously
lifted bodily, 30 to speak. into one ol
lanother Of his novels. All Of them
as obviously. contributed to Balazac's
unerring. insight to the idiosyncracfe.
Of the feminine mind and heart Thi:
lis a very crank study. 1t appears to
be a fair one. also. concerned only
with the facts and the influences OF
these numerous and ardent friend, friend,
1emerges, with something Of the snot
lin his makeup. and a touch Of the cad
la great artist withal. who eats the
women up to feed his emotions. his
jmental activity. his bodily comfort. He
must have talked some Of them to deat tn
Ian amazing talker. he-with himself
always the subject. However. one for
gives him for these frailties. since
Largely by virtue of them, he Is the
writer above most others who has truly
to lesser artists the task OF picturine
her as she hopes and plans to appear.
sHADoW-sHAPEs. By Elizabeth
shepley sargeant. author o,
Houghton Mifnin Company. .
This record goes back to the fall OF
1918, following the accident to its
author on one of the battlefields
] which she. in company with friends
| was exploring. The lieutenant guild
ing the visitors warned them that
field had not been Cleaned up
Somebody did touch. something. with
| the result that one LIE was lost and
several people were wounded. This
| writer was among the latter. These
| sketches were made. for the most
i Y1aSf vhfle she vyaa living in hasn't al
Now one does not know whether the
laying aside of her body. SO to speak
| left her mind SO keenlys sensitive and
clear, or whether this mental alert
ness and sympathy are here in hel
! normal state. Certain it is that this Is
clear and sympathetic that one gets
the impression OF pure mind and feel
| ing set free from the obstacles and
inhibitions that the body is forever
setting up against clairvoyance OF
| the spirit These hospital scenes are
feeling. No one can read them with
| eomposure and the impulse is to set
them aside. Ono has read about the
| war. That is the first thought. The
/, next one is that too much cannot be
given to us about the war 1t is to
| heart stirred to it's very bottom. one
| goes on with these amazing pictures
and Interpretations. They stand out
! in strong appeal, even in the midst OF
and even 1t this distance of time.
THE WAYB OF THE CIRCUss Memo
fies ard Adventures Of George
Conklin. Tanner Of Lions. Set down
by Harvey w. Root illustrated
New York: Harper & Bros.
In . foreword to this book Dor
\ - - A~1I