Evening star., 1922-02-05


Can Be Told" etc. New York:
Harper & Bros.
<rTHAT is the chance Of youth.
standing now at the open
door, wondering what
there is to do and which
way to take to meet the future. God!
If I had youth again I should like
that good adventure and take the
chance" In these words Philip Gibbs
closes this great message TO youth.
And what is the good adventure? IT
is the grand emprise of building peace
into the structure of the world-a
peace so inclusive. SO stably founded,
so buttressed in every part. and a
peace SO righteous, withal. that it
stands an invulnerable thing around
the happy and progressive life Of man.
And why to youth alone is this mes
sage sent? For ore thing. 1t is the
youth who do the dying in war. SO,
logically, they should decide against
war or for it. Vision and courage be-
long to youth. Therefore any great
change III the scheme OF human eX-
istence must be wrought by the fieNi-
billty and accommodation OF youth.
War has been the worlds habit. The
elders are set in this habit. They are
cautious and reluctant in the face Of
overturnings. This book, clearly de-
signed for young men. is one of vision
and inspiration. In its course Mr..
GIbbS presents certain outstanding
aspects and conditions that the war
has left for unavoidab BILE considera-
tion. clear appraisals of certain Of the
fruits Of victory" He shows in a
n -1.r NJ ytvl fnrfl
what France is paying for victory,
what England. what the United States
are paying. On the other hand. he
figures the cost of defeat to Ger
maryland they look much alike, this
victory and this defeat. He stresses
most of all the need for recapturing
the flaming spirit that possessed the
youth of the world at the close of the
war. a spirit whose clear subsistence
must be checked at any cost. since to
the quality of that spirit the future
of the world is in bond. This is not
a war book-anything but that. 1t is
human story-authorftative as a.
record, but alive and electrifying as
no record ever was nor ever can be.
A book that will last long beyond the
event with which it deals as a point
of departure for its real mission.
THE MARITIME HISTORY OF MAS
uel Eliot Morrison. illustrated. Bos-
ton: Houghton Mifflin Company
Landward. the history Of New Eng
land is without lure, despite the
tribute which it pays to the human
virtues of courage and piety. Seaward,
however. it is another story, one that
wings itself around the world and
back again into the kindled imagina-
ton of readers. The land side of the
chronicle is an old one. But this sea
tale of the Massachusetts coast is a
new and gorgeous accounting of far
Sailings, of perils, OF losses. of gains.
of strange soft merchandise from
of fluid stuffs from the West Indies
all the direct issue of the great
fisheries that. for so many years. made
the New England coast famous in
commerce and brought to it a period
of great prosperity. Mr.. Morrison tells
this story with the fine flair of the
true adventurer. A communica BILE
story-teller. this, able to make one,
in fancy. sail the "Flying Cloud" that
magic ship Of the clipper era. In the
brilliance of this sea business staid
old Massachusetts towns-Newbury-
port. Gloucester, Salem, Marblehead--
take on oriental colors and sun them
selves in ways that. certainly. are not
OF puritanic stripe. A Captivating e
story that one reads in the thrill of
brakes historic doings and accepts
in sheer Joy at the easing up of the
austerity that marks the landward
view of New England. a brilliant
work of absorbing interest
AN OFF-ISLANDER; A Story Of
WesQuo by the Sea. BY Florence
Mary Bennett. Boston: The STRAIT
ford Company.
Story writer's. too many Of them. re-
recOYniZp n -Hi
the COW puncher OF the plains and the
Kentucky colonel as relics rather than
realities. These are still at the business
of turning out unintelligible talk and
wild-west performances. This
writer, however, has written, in plain
English, the story of an interesting
Yankee etown-Nantucket. A short time
ago Robert Duffus did the same thing
in ''Roads Going South" A good sign
that even two new writers are willing
to throw off the over-worn tradition of
local idosyncrasy. This Is true story
of excellent workmanship. Nantucket
is an interesting quarter, dyed in the
colors Of an old-time commerce with
the wide world, set picturesquely, its in
dividality clearly its exclusive own. To
this setting the writer does full justice.
without eXaggeration or Unbalance. The
people of the town are much like small
communities everywhere. And so they
appear here. with no more than their
own rightful tinge of particular per-
sonality to identify them. The story
itself develops evenly in this setting-a
love story. wherein a most lovable man
the "off- ff-islander"-and a genuine
human being. enlists ones friendship
and keeps 1t, too. 1t is an Indian sum-
mer romance for the woman, surviv-
ing a former marriage on the part of
the man. 1t may be this long waiting
that has turned the woman into a
somewhat Irritating individual to the
reader. Fussy over little things. seeing
things that are not there, and would
not count il they were. building up too
many "ifs'' along the way Of her do
mestic life. 1t probably is hard for a
capable New England woman to have a
lovable Pagan for q husband. More
over, it turns out better than the aver
age of close situations. An interesting
and substantial novel that holds a
promise of more.
HARBoRs OF MEMORY. BY William
McFee, author of "Casuals of the
Sea" etc. New York: Doubleday,
Page & Co.
BY way of this group Of sketches
one finds himself in closer relations
with the man. McFee, than he has
been before. Natural, too, since in
the story, the invention, the man
hides behind the author. One meets
him here a dozen times, or more, each
time presenting a new mood. fresh
outlook, an intensifying OF charac-
teristic attitude He turns out to be
a friend. not a vague and impersonal
writer. Whether he is looking down
from a balcony on the streets of
Smyrna, or over in Malta is consider
ing thoughtfully the knightly ardors
Of three men to befriend deSolate
woman who. by the way. is totally
oil, nF - ,r,1,a he