The New York herald., 1922-04-30

the air is filled with bursting
stars we come upon three figures
very inconsequential to the progress
OF the story. Each of them is seen
for only a brief moment, and then
disappears forever from the scene.
One is an "old gentleman" who is
merely caught sight of turning
quiet corner of this town ''persis-
tently claiming $1,000 inhabitants"
He is a stranger to Miss Florence
Atwaters; but his appearance of age
(probaly at least forty or sixty or
something) gives him an interest in
her eyes in connection with thoughts
at the moment in her mind. Flor
ence is 'barely thirteen
Another of these figures is Mrs.
Balche. next door neighbor to Flor
ence's Aunt Julia. Mrs. Balche is
"a retired widow. without children,
and too timid to like dogs; but after
suitable interval, following the loss
of her husband, she accepted from
friend the gift of a white kitten and
named it Violet" 1t may be said that
Mrs. Balche lived for Violet"
The third is Violet He had noble
Henry the Eighth head" And when
standing there was little space be-
tween him anywhere and the floor"
In his youth. after having shown
sufficient spirit to lose an eye dur
ing sporting absence of three
nights and days, Violet was not
again permitted enough freedom
of action TO repeat this disloyalty;
though now, in his advanced mid
die age. he had fed to such a state
that he seldom cared to move other
than by slow, sneering wavement
of the tail when friendly words
were addressed to him; and conse-
auently. as he seemed beyond all
capacity or desire to run away, or
to run at all, Mrs. Balche allowed
him complete liberty of action.
One would like to know more of
all these-persons, so to say. In a
twinkling they pass from our view;
but we realize that each of them
somewhere has had a past, and
somewhere will have a future. Even
after having been audience for
season to the glory of Julia and the
awful drama in the heart OF Mr..
Noble Dill. we do not forget this
unknown old gentleman tottsring to-
ward the tomb. the devoted Mrs.
Balche. and the sensual Violet. They
are Pickwickian.
Indeed. this volume. so amusingly
named Gentle julia" is throughout
sort of thoroughly Tarkingtonian
"Pickwick." Among Mr.. Tarking-
toms books it is in character most
closely related to Seventeen" Like
that book. it is as I heard the author
describe ii before / saw the volume,
short stories connected" Or rather.
it is not SC much sequence Of short
stories. either. as a succession of re-
lated episodes. American family
life,' taken on the lighter side" was
the authors Interpretation of it:
affairs of grownish people as in
terfered with by the children in the
family-instead of affairs interfered
with by plot-author's plot" He
concluded his comment with "Of
course, it isn't intended to be a novel
in the sense that Alice Adams is,
nor indeed to be anything except
what it is most visibly, as you'll see."
H.
What Is ii most visibly? Well, the
outstanding thing. as has been inti-
mated above. is that if we had never
before heard of Mr.. Harrington il
would be abundant proof that he has
the peculiar power of creating peo-
pie, elderly. middle aged and youth
ful. white and "colored," cats, dogs
and boys. The book is populous. In
deed. just the circle of Julia's suitors,
ranging in age from nineteen to
sixty" makes pretty numerous
company.
The setting is again, as one might
say. the familiar Harrington coun-
GENTEE JULIA BY Booth Tarking-
ton Doubleday, Page & Co.