Evening star., 1923-04-01
Reviews of New Books
Fullerton Waldo. illustrated. New
York: The Macmillan Company.

York: The Macmillan Company.
The first point that commends this
travel story is that it has good map
for the reader to follow. A lack In
this respect takes away at least %
per cent of the interest and real use
fulness of the travel book. Another
point Is that this subject has fresh
ness. 1t is, not an overtraveled re-
gion. Again, the author appears to
have handed the adveRture over to
readers much as 1t came to him-no
evidence of fixing ii up for publica-
ton, thereby diluting its natural ef-
feet. A generous author, too, turn
ing the account over often to this or
that one encountered along the way
of this trip down the big river. Sheer
it gives lifelikeness and variety that
no monologue in the world could
achieve. We come into actual con-
tact with the folks by this plan
with the fishermen of the far north.
with the hunters and trappers and
woodsmen and the rest-hearing them
talk and getting something of their
feeling about the country and about
their own lives. And we get a finely
inspiring picture not only of the mag
nincent region itself. but of the
amazing strides that 1t is making in
opening out to industry, to city build
ing, to civilization. Despite the rig
ors OF the climate, this writer in
dorses Stefansson's advocacy of THE
Friendly Arctic" provided, of course,
that it is accepted with intelligence
and plain common sense. Tremen-
dousl- enthusiastic. this traveller of
the north. and quite able to get this
enthusiasm across to any. reader who
realizes that there is no better way
of getting acquainted with the world
save the personal experience that
few are able to have-than by means
of books of this sort. An excellent
and most companionable book.
ENGLISH LITERATURE DURING
THE LAST HALF CENTURY. BY
j. w. Cunliffe, ID. Lit, author of
Poems of the Great War" New
York: The Macmillan Company.
A teacher of both English and Journal
ism would. in the interest. of practical
point and economy, make these two
subjects serve each other In this serv-
ice modern attitude toward Journal
ism, the only attitude possible for this
subject. dictates a use of modern writ
ers as basis for the study of English.
1t dictates. in the main. also a use of
creative writer's rather than of those bent
alone upon the dissemination of knowl-
edge. One takes II that these are rea-
sons why. in this volume, DR.. Cunliffe
has chosen, first, only noVeliStS, and
why also he has permitted himself to
go no farther back than he has for ma
terial. Happily. for students who have
had Chaucer long enough, they will
meet here familiar men-a dozen of
them, all told. from Meredith down to
Arnold Bennett. With each there is
touch of biography to gather the in
ftuences of birth and surroundings that
nave gone into the work of writing
There is a list of achievements and a
critical summary of character and quail
ity-all easy and cultured, quite free
from the pedagogical taint. A chapter
each for the new poets and the new
noVeists brings this modern study up
10 the edge of the moment in a re-
freshment of clear outlook, coupled with
a Knowing and feeling treatment of
each theme. Readers. not students
alone, will find this a confirming book
and suggestive one to have at hand
as they read one and another of the
authors presented here.
ington Kelland. author of Youth
Challenges" etc. New York: Har-
per & Bros.t
Mr., Kelland's new novel is as I'M
to-date as the morning paper. A
boss-ruled town, a bootlegging prof.
ect, young woman owning and
putting out the daily Free Press
these are the altogether modern fea-
lures of the story. A quiet, half
asleep little town gives the setting
me BOSS owns everything-folks
ana all The girl, a stranger. having
mines, just as young woman of the
moment would, not only to manage
her own paper, but to make a going
concern. of 1t as well. That she has
had no training in this work counts
not at all in her scheme. The boss
and the new editor almost imme-
diately range themselves on opposite
sides in the business of directing the
affairs of the village. The under
current, battling the girl as to its
character and movement, is a full
grown bootlegging business, of which
the boss is we'll aware; indeed, in
which he has an interest of substan-
tial size. The girl messes up news
paper business considerably and
would have done so more had it not
been for the old and faithful hands
and a new young fellow whom she,
at first, is inclined to look down
upon from a quite superior height
After any amount of really exciting
and plausible action the girl becomes
a crusader against the wicked do
ings of the little place. The story,
here and there, would read like first
class melodrama, exaggerated out of
all likeness to anything like reality,
were it not for the fact that the actu-
alittes of American life just at this
period make 1t appear like a narra-
tive of restraint and circurA rAspection
"a little under the truth of what
1t might have presented. Good en-
tertainment for an hour here.
A BOOK OF QUAKER SAINTS. BY
L. V. Hodgkin. illustrated by F.
Cayley- Robinson, A. R. f. Lon
don: Macmillan & Co.
A book of hero stories for children,
with new kind of hero as the theme.
To get into their company the author
takes the readers back to England of
the seventeenth century, when many
people were, in one fashion or another,
away from the form of re-