Evening star., 1922-09-17

the story 10 more subtle, more real In
portrayal. more truthful In essence than
most vitally concerned. The strain Of
| ostracisnn, the drain upon each other IN
enforced seclurjon, the falling away of
professional and business successes, the
loss of old social securities. the heroisn
Of mutual concealments, the silent men,
: ace to very true love-here the author
I does a surprising bit of work without
stepping aside from the natural course
! Of most interesting set of events
| Other characters are OF equal complete
ness and finish-Hector Brunton. the
| husband. is one OF them Julia Caven-
dish. the young mans mother. is an
| other And the story itself Is dramatic
and striking picture Of society in its
trelation to the divorce laws and regula-
tions of England. The prime interest,
enlist both admiration and a good deal
Of pity. A big and distinguished pieca
of work.
FLOWING GOLD. BY Rex Beach. au
thor of The Silver Horde" ETC.
New York: Harper & Bros.
! Rex Beach's latest novel is as new
Its inner content Is as old as mans
instinct for revenge. Under this dou-
BILE urge of business competition and
, personal feud the story fairly hurls
itself upon the reader in clamor of
| intensive activity. The background
is spread by the Texas oil fields.
wherein men under the sole dominion
of cupidity struggle with one another
by AN manner of mean and devious
ways. This is situation taken out
ing realism. Dominating and shaping
the action in this field are the two
! whose feud is a leftover Of the great
war-one of the innumerable cases Of
injustice and jealousy which that
event left for later settlement. One
the really great figure of the story.
Only now and then does a real man
get into a book. one with faults and
virtues apportioned much as they are
in life. and with personality. besides.
toc link him up with folks outside of
stories. Calvin Gray Ia one of these.
Hutchinson's Mark Sabre is another.
Just at the moment one does not re-
call another from recent fiction. Gray
has plenty of faults, so many that fire.
quently the reader has an instant OF
fear lest these are to swamp the cap
tivatingly fine fellow that Is left over
from these. He has the courage and
the ability to do things that every
body likes. 1t is he who keeps this
matter a top speed all the time. And,
Instead he feels more like picking a
quarrel with Rex Beach. since no one
could possibly pity Calvin Gray. How
ever. Beach has done the unusual
thing of letting the story and the peo-
pie in 1T take care of themselves out
of the situation set and the characters
involved. In other words, the out
come here is the only logical one. Any
other would have tackled a fatry-tale
ending to a story of modern competi-
tion in business complicated by very
primitive combat between two hu-
man beings There are soft and de-
lightful spots in this romance OF in
dustrial and personal warfare, but not
many of them. Fine story for robust
readers
THE BREATH OF SCANDAL. By Ed
win Balmer, author of "Resurrec-
ton Book etc. Frontispiece by
Ralph Coleman. Boston: Little.
Brown 4 Co.
II all took place in Chicago and
thereabout The story itself appears
In the raw. now and then, from news
paper accounts of some prominent
man who. for years right in his own
town. has supported two establish
ments without suspicion or the breath
of scandal. Then. some one inevita-
hle day. the thing walks into the
open. with several kinds of disaster
in its train. Such in essence is the
story in hand. In this case an acci-
dent brings discovery to the only
daughter of this man. Her intelli-
gent and energetic motive is to con-
ceal the matter both from her mother
and from the world at large With
the mother in Europe and so safe
for the time being. the girl is free to
leave home. which she does. entering
upon the unaccustomed business of
taking care of herself: In a tense
realism of fact and in a consistent
line of incident the story moves on,
and out. to as fair an issue as the
theme can be made to yield. Not a
very fair issue at that. Certain inn
portant facts stand clear in this very