The New York herald., 1922-07-02
TIE HOUSE OF MOHUN. BY George
Gibbs. d. Appleton & Co.

novel in the frank use of a
number of more or less stock char
acterS, a conventional plot and IA
miliar mechanical devices for the
production of his dramatic climax.
1t needs skill to use such material
and "get away with it" to the result
that the total is by no means con-
ventional and not in any way stale
or Improbable. 1t is a good. sub
stantial piece of work. in some re-
spects- very good. indeed. In the
4. treatment of two. at least. of his
characters. he rises very much
above the ordinary; his pair of ma
ture weddings. the still beautiful,
artificial. cold blooded woman of a
little past 40 (the mother of the
heroine) and her bIdse male counter
part. Chichester. the multi-million-
aire. who has lived a life of pleas
ure. are very subtly conceived and
quite unusually successful bits of
Interest centers. however, in the
group under study rather than in
any one of the various leading peo-
pie. The book is accurately labeled
as the story of "the rise and fall of
an American family of to-day
more of the fall than the rise 1t is
Also a criticism, of roodarr, fapdanoios
of society, of the jazz epoch, fiapper-
ism, material cynicism and all the
rest of that familiar social complex"
But it energies into a certain op-
tinism and if the book has a moral
it is that the young people are e>very
much like the youngsters of an
earlier day and differ from them
chiefly in being afflicted with bad
taste rather than with anything
that can really be called Iooseness
of morals. The youthful Cherry
Mohun. the heroine. lays down the
law to her more mature critic:
I don't want you to believe. she
says because the girls OF to-
day aren't kept in lavender seclu-
sion that they're going to the
devil Some of them may, but
that's because they'd have gone
there any way. The old
people used To run the show and
bring up "A lot of smirking little
hypOcrites who knew a great more
than they pretended to know and
did on the quiet a lot of things
that We girls of to-day do openly.
Cherry herself is an engaging
specimen of her generation. The
story dates in 1920, and she is just
20 years cd. She has driven an
ambulance in France. and most of
her set. boys and girls. have done
their bit" of war service. Now they
are fiagrantly enjoying them
jazzing. in every sense of that bar
barous term. But that's all. and
when they come to tests of real
minded courageous. clean souIed
= youngsters. The demonstration is
on TIE who.e satisfying. and is. OF
course sound in its general thesis.
IL remains. however. just a little
artificial There is still a residuum
Of doubt in the minds of the old folks
something more than merely su-
PerficiaI deterioration. The very
old. very aristo ratio Aunt Mary of
the story sums this up in her final
acceptance of the resenerate Cherry
Won 4 not care to offend your
sensih. ities. my dear child. she
SAYS and 7 hope you'll pardon me
when say that YOUR mother is the
product of this new age which
storms 50 successfully at all bull
warjSs of respecta bility-an age
viii contents itself with the
symbols of happiness without hap
pineSs itself-which defies tradi-
ton and violates precedent: which
. lives O1.y in materiality; which
ignores the existence of the spirit
ual and Is deaf to all appeals except
those Of the body. An age. my
dear. Of restlessness and discon-
tent while the devil finds many
idle hands 70 do his bidding.
You were very badly brought up,
my dear
Cherry herself would hardly con
tradict that last charge. Rather, sh