Evening star., 1921-12-25
Reviews of New Books

but. happily, more i'll mass. they point
out the fitness of building to its use,
the originality of design, the setting
of the French village into its land
scape and. innumerable other points
of interest and information. In effect
this is a beautiful picture book of his
tory of whose utility and pleasant
SAVIOR" to any lover of good building
the authors express themselves as
hopeful" True artisty produced TINS
story of France by way of its small
buildings and common architecture.
Delightful. especially so for the ar
tist, and delightful. too. for the gen
eral reader with a bent toward this
form of art
FAMOUS LEADERS OF INDUSTRY.
By Edwin Wildman. author OF 'Re-
constructing America-Our Next
Big job" etc. Illustrated. Boston:
The Page Company.
This is the second series of Mr..
Wildman's Famous Leaders," or the
Life Stories of Boys Who Have Sue
ceeded." There are twenty-eiSht OF
these boys" in this series-among
them Charles A. Comiskey, the grand
old Roman" of base ball: Glenn Cur
tiss. the airplane builder: Louis Lig-
gett. the drug store man: Ellsworth
Statler. hotel builder: William Chllds
of the Childs restaurant; George Goe-
thals, who built the Panama canal;
Herbert Hoover, head of the universal
feeding industry, and many another
who. by keeping eternally at it. has
accomplished grandly that which he
set out to achieve. AS one of these
says here, Success is strictly thing
of energy and hours. Enough energy
and enough hours. and you may shake
hands with success" These stories
are in no s"nse recipes for attaining
AZ
plain stories of just what this one and
that one did with his energy" and
his hours" set up in partnership
over one scheme or another. Each
one starts out like real story, as
it is. For instance. William Childs
he left the parental roof And again,
"A sturdy. hustling, self-reliant boy
was Hoover" and so on. through as
interesting set of stories as may
be found. Infinitely more interesting
than the tale about one Leonidas. or
that one about Horatio holding a
bridge. Nearer home, you see. and
thereby much more gripping. Ad-
mirable work that boys will like just
as they like base ball, and marbles.
and tinkering with machinery, and
boy-scouting. The best Of stuff for
them and not a bit bad for their
elders.
RICH RELATIVES. By Compton
Mackenzie, author of Poor Rela-
tions," etc. New York: Harper &
Bros.
Rich relations. like poor relations.
or any other kind of relation. behave.
in the main, moderately well until
there is demand upon them by
some unfortunate of their own blood.
In these circumstances they do, in
variably. act up. Such is the situation
in which Mr.. Mackenzie places Jas
mine, the principal figure in this
comedy of pure human nature. Or
phaned, Jasmine comes upon her
fathers family in England for sup
port. Half Italian. the girl is out of
step with these English relations
from the start. But. she is mild and
cocile creature that rather invites
being put upon. And put upon she is
in a variety of ways by the five or six
families with which, in turn. Jasmine
takes her chance. The situation gives
Mr.. Mackenzie fair chance for the
good-natured cynicism in which the
comedy is projected. A book of genu-
inc humor and ready laughter. even
though the reader does have a quarrel
with the general limpneSS of the girl
who. instead of enduring sweetly the
insults put upon her. should have
gone out to hustle for herself. In that
case, there would have been no story.
Nr Mackenzie would have had no
chance at the frailties of his kind
and Jasmine might not have had
genuine Cinderella ending of the mat
ter as she did have under the relent-
ing kindness of the author at the last
moment. Along the way, here. the
pages are wonderfully clever in their
diverse and individual treatment of
so many kinds of pure meanness on
the part OF the human.
THE BLACK MOTH; A Romance of
the XVIII Century. By Georgette
Heyer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company.
To the extent that a novelist goes
back into the past for action and
atmosphere to that extent is he COM
PEELED to high-gear his inventive
powers in order that he may deliver
the matter into the full interest of
the average modern reader. This ro-
nance of the eighteenth century is
a case in point. The stage coach is
a slow coach nowadays. A beau in
powdered wig and lace ruffles, taking
snuff. is a joke. a belle, moving
about as the hardly distinguishable
of gewgaws. is a silly spectacle for
the most of us today But, all the
same, this novel of that period gives
an admirably consistent picture of
the time and, what is more, achieves
an adventure that Is alive at every
point. And this is how she does it:
Holding fast to the eNternals of the
time-the sword play and the high
waying. the gambling and the special
form Of lovemaking that goes with
that day-she puts real men and
women within this absurd elabora-
tion of raiment. within this amazing
cerenfcniai of behavior. The "black
moth" himself Is a mana devil of
a man-but true and recognizable.
The real hero. young Jack Car
stares-outcast and ION the road
is as lifelike as a man walking down
Pennsylvania avenue. A lovable hero
and a worthwhile one. OHara is
triumph of genuine Irishry. The
women? No. the women are not quite
so true as the men. but, even so. they
are better than nine-tenths Of the
women who walk through many a
popular novel A book of pains
taking sincerity in every particular
ard a good story as we'll.
By Elisabeth Sanxay
Holding. author of "Rosa1een
Among the Artists" etc. New York:
George H. Doran Company.
Being sincere workman and having
choSen this factory girl, daughter OF a
janitress. as her theme. Mrs. Holding
makes her austerely uncompromising
way through the early career of An
gelica. This is the story Of a deter
mined, ambitious. common little girl
who secures the place of companion to
rich sick woman. Getting this place IS
a bit OF strain to the reader-but, no
matter, she gets it. What she does
with it is the main business of this story.
What life does with her, meanwhile, is
also a part Of this account. This
unframed sort of girl, placed
as Angelica is placed. appears to have