Evening star., 1923-12-09

lord of the admiralty, 1911 to 1915.
New York: Charles Scribners Sons.
'VHESE two war volumes by
Winston Churchill stand i'll
the nature of an official re-
port. They form a part of
the enormous bulk of expert war evil
dence that is coming in from many
high official sources All of it mate
rial-first hand and authentic--for
some future historian to organize
into a new synthesis out of the cor
rectfve perspective of intervening
years. The first of these volumes
deals with the concentration of the
fleet in the face Of oncoming war;
with organizing the blockade; with
gathering the imperial forces from
all over the world; with clearing the
oceans or German cruisers ana COM
meroe destroyers; with the reinforce
ment of the Hect itself by new con
struction: with the Illustration of the
hrst German submarine attacks upon
merchant shipping in 1915. The sec
ond volume deals with the disastrous
year OF 1915, marked by the fateful
Dardanelles campaign and the out
rage upon the Lusitania. In method
the study throughout is one Of docu-
act evidence u manifest spirit of self
defence against bitter general criti-
cism Of Mr.. Churchilrs policies in the
Vltally important post of first lord of
the admiralty. The effect Of the study.
apart from this personal attitude OF
Self-eNtenuation, is that of COM
plete and brilliant handling of infor-
nation lying TO the hand of Mr..
is s,udy of absorbing interest, this
i'll measure by reason OF its val
uable substance and in other measure
because of the vivid writing person
ality Of the author himself.
THE CHANGELING; And other sto-
ries. BY Donn Byrne, author Of
"MeSser Marco Polo etc. New
York: The Century Company.
You read-to be sure--the story of
Messer Marco Polo out of the mouth
of old Malachi of the Long Glen. You
said 1t was one of the simplest and
lGveliest stories that had come to
print in many a long day. And you
read also, The Wind Bloweth" again
deeply satisfied with the beauty that
lies in sheer simplicity. once more
deeply impressed with the truth that
life in its many aspects has but one
=. al theme after all. or at the most
but two. The Changeiing," a hand
ful OF short stories, conts as reaS
suranee that Dom Byrne has no no
tion of wasting his force, ana yours.
over 1CtllG ana DfOSaiC Top layers oi
life. But that as he has begun SO
he will go on, digging down through
all sorts of eXternals to where the
real desires and hopes and dreams of
the human lie. clothing these hopes
and dreams in the iridescent gar
ments Of romance and far-faring ad-
venture. You forget many another
story, most other stories. But to
these the, hand reaches again and
again for the easement of their love-
liness and charm.
SARAH OF THE SAHARA; A Ro-
nance of Nomads Land. By Wal
ter E. Traprock, author of The
Cruise of the Kawa," etc. New
York: G. p. Putnam's Sons.
A man Of grandiose ambition-Wal-
ter TrapIock, explorer. To this in
trepid adventurer nature in her
largest gestures alone holds out in
ducement and lure. Say, one of the
polar points of the earth, or vast and
mysterious desert stretches. or
strange islands scattered in the far
seas. The story in hand depicts DR.
Traprock at grips with the Sahara
and Sarah. Here the whirlwind task
of the great adventurer is to keep
this bewildering woman out Of the