Evening star., 1922-01-29
ner of Cities. By Charles Moore.
illustrated. Boston: Houghton
Miff1in COMPANY

ence. with table and
other proper library furnish
ings to go with them," we said
much too big to read, so
we shall merely look bit and skim
a little" That was in the morning.
At night we came out of these books
for the first time-refreShed and out
looking All day we had been IN
touch with a group of great builders
and artists. After Daniel Burnham
himself were Charles McKim, Saint
Stanford White, Frank MIL
let and another and another. Besides
that, we were part of the event that
started the movement of city build-
ing in this country. 1t was |e
Worlds Columbian Exposition at Chi
cago in 1893 that set the pattern Tor
this making of cities. And these
great men and artists made that pat
tern. They found out what could
be done Then they did it. In Chi
cago, in San Francisco, over in Ma
Mia. here in Washington and other-
where that movement is being 1ulllii-
ed-a park here, beautiful building
there. an avenue stretching yonder,
d driveway ribboning away in the
distance. Each is step in the com
plete plan. This book is the story
of that movement in its inception and
growth. The author. Charles Moore,
is himself an artist and builder, as
the book, or books. abundantly proves
Architecture sounds rigid. Not at
all: that is, not here 1t turns OUT
here to be the most fluid, the noblest
F,,1 nf a
You should hear these men talk about
it. You should feel their pagan soy
in it, YOU should go with them to
Europe in quest of pure examples or
the art. Then. if you are here in
Washington, you should go to the
Union station or the Lincoln Me-
mortal. just to find yourself even a
charm and inspiration. This is a
rare achievements highly useful
book that is altogether beautiful.
Not SO much book, this. either, to
the reader as it is splendid ex-
perience.
THE INEVITABLE. BY Louis Coup
erus. author of Small Souls etc.
Translated by Alexander TeiXeira
de Mattos New York: Dodd. Mead
& Co.
"The Inevitable" stands in concrete
denial Of William Ernest Henley $
famous lyric assertion that, man is
master of his fate: that he is captain
of his soul. Rather is this social
drama calculated to prove that one
is the tool of circumstances-of casual
and seemingly negligible circum-
stance, which. nevertheless. domi-
mates ones acts and comes finally to
be the law of his existence. The
background of this story is Rome,
lra hn af
curate detail that marks the entire
body of this writer's work. The story
is that of a young Dutch baroness
who. having shaken off the marriage
bond, has come to Italy to be free. TO
live her own life" This she achieves
by falling in love with an artist.
There is. however. a discarded hus-
band to be taken into account. Fol-
lowing her to Rome, he re-establishes
the bond-the bond of convention. of
ha bit. of a thousand elusive threads
of attachment that in effect render
mere absence of love no reason at all
why she should not return to safe
and sane domesticity. Realism is
here. both in the psychological acu-
men and in its plain and painstakinS
Recommendation. Therefore, these are
human beings: this is d chapter of
life itself. This is novel for eX-
acting and thoughtful readers. Louis
Couperus is too serious and too great
an artist to furnish novels for any but
a discriminating public.
MARIA CHAPDELAINE; A Tale of
the Lake st. John Country. BY
Louis Hemon. Translated by w.
II. Blake. New York: The Mac
milan Company.
This beautiful story is STEPPED in
in the loneliness of the
pioneer family. With words as SIM
pie as the flowing of wayside
stream or the singing of some shy
and hidden bird. the author sketches
innumerable little pictures. each
turning toward one a new face of
human isolation from which stretch
mile upon mile of unbroken wood
land. A single family set down in
this waste of unfriendly nature
serves to intensity the feeling in
which these pictures lie saturate A
daughter of the family comes to a
choice. finally. between this remote
life and one where people come and
go in the tremendous busy-ness of
crowded populations. The simple
story ends as simply as it runs on
the quality of this choice. To this
wild, back country of Quebec the
author has applied nothing more
than his own secure handling of the
II III SeelHS. d very
ty Of truth in expression. The effect
is one of austere and poetic beauty.
1 HAVE ONLY MYSELF TO BLAME.
BY Elizabeth Bibesco. New York
George H. Doran Company
Each of these sixteen intimacies
opens the door for the reader upon
experience between this man and this
woman-any man and any woman
who together are stumbling about
through the emotion that is called
love. Love used to be looked upon
that Is. lawful love used to be looked
upon as an institution. sacrosanct in
nature, made of the stuff Of self-sac-
rifice. Nowadays it is reckoned as
an emotion. and thereby has become
a vagrant of sorts, an elusive, self
deceptive thing, seeking it's own at
any cost along its way. 1t is with
this modern frankness about the most
deceptive of all emotions that Prin-
cess Bibesco concerns herself. Keen
ly observant and honest withal. she
sketches in, brilliantly, a few of the
multitudinous vagaries of the pas
sion which. through fear and self
pity. men and women-particularly
women-have conspired to lie about
since time began. Oh. no. these little
stories will not please you! Quite true,
nevertheless, and amazingly well turn
ed out.
JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES;
1Sj3-1821. BY Payson ]. Treat.
Boston: Houghton Miffiin Com
pany.
The character of this study fits it
for an extensive and immediate use
fulness. By way of it the author
provides the general reader with a
clean-cut summary of Japan and the
United States in relation since, about
seventy years ago, Commodore Perry
opened up a way of intercourse be-
tween the two nations. The book is
in harmony with the practical out
look of the present. 1t is fair-mind-
ed. 1t is plain speaking. 1t deals