Evening star., 1923-12-08
The Library. Table
BY THE BOOKLOvER

ispers say. 1t is doubtless a love
story, but 1 wonder If its author,
Hall Caine. agrees with that first
of ALL" 1t has seemed to me, as
read it. first of all an impa ASSIGNED
plea against war, and only sec
ondarily story. In the form of
novel. of course, Hall Caine's dem
onstration of the futility. the irony
and the tragedy of war will reach a
far larger public than 1t would have
reached in almost any other form.
PROBABLY great part of the reading
public are today either bored with
all war literature or are SO hopeless
over the effectiveness of anything
that can be written against war, that
such such book as THE Woman of
thought oh. yes, all true, but what's
the use?" The most fatalistic person
cannot fail to be impressed, however,
with the poignancy of Hall Gaines
story.
"Knockaloe is a large farm on the
west Of the Isle of Man. little to
the south of the fishing town of Peel"
1t is the habitation. on long lease, Of
old Robert Craine, his son Robbie
and his daughter Mona-the woman
of Knockaloe. "Knockaloe has a few
fields under cultivation q see some
acres of oats and wheat), but it is
most of the milk for the people Of
Peel. At six in the morning the
maids milk the cows. and at seven
Mona drives the milk into town in
a shandry that is full Of tall milk
cans" Then comes the war and the
peaceful life at knockaloe is dis
organized along with the. rest of
England. Bobbie Joins up" is soon
ie N,
Then some government officials come
TO hnockaloe; before they have left
the dazed old farmer and the lndig-
nant Mona have learned that nearly
all of the large farm is to be turned
into an internment camp for Ger
man civilians in England, and that
they must remain and keep tine raS-
ture land that lies on the hillside
in order to provide the fresh milk
that viii be required for the camp"
They submit to war orders and soon
the camp is an established fact. Wo-
men are not desirable about the
camp. though one woman who knows
how to run the dairy is necessary,
so all the maids are replaced by men
and Mona is now the only woman
on the land"
Then the daily life of the camp
and the news from outside both give
reason in every event for Mona's al
most nightly cry--"Oh, God, my God,
why do men make wars?" A young
German in the camp dies and his
mother sends from Germany a wreath
of artificial flowers which Mona is
asked TO put on his grave. "He was
the only son of his mother. too, and
she is a widow" Mona receives the
silver lever watch of her brother
/ II T. So h.
of his death has reached Knockaloe
The watch has been sent by a Ger
man soldier in Mannheim, who. a
wounded prisoner, had lain for hours
| beside Robbie in the British trench
where Robbie had died. while the
British advance left him behind. Mona
tosses about all that night and thinks
bitterly. "If those two brave boys
lying out there in that deserted dug
out could be friends at the last, was
il the devil that had made them so?"
The prisoners in the knockaloe camp
have a Christmas morning service and
Mona hears them singing Elm feste
Burg list unser Gott," the same hymn
To the same tune that she has so
with the English words. "A sure
stronghold our God is STILL She
thinks. The same hymn. the same re-
ligion, the same God, the same Savior,
x j; x
When the armistice has been signed
and the war is over, still the bitter
ness and hatred remain. The com
mandant OF the Knockaloe camp sums
it all up: It's pity, but it has al
ways been my experience that the
first years of peace are worse than
the last years of n war" Mona
speaking of the race hatred caused by
J the war, says to her German lover,
Oskar: THAT means another war
some day, doesn't it?" He replies,
'It does. and when that day comes
God help the poor old world and
everything in it,
Two new volumes of essays by two
! of our most delightful American es-
sayists come just in time to be Christ
mas gifts for any friends who have
the taste to appreciate a really lit
( erary flavor. The Cheerful Giver,"
/ by Samuel McChord Crothers, in
, cludes, in addition to the title essay,
! Some Alleviations of Our RESPONSE
! bilities," suggestions for the Estab-
/ lishment of a Constitutional Govern
| ment in Ones own Mind" "Our
! Mother Tongue" History for the
! Aging" THE Laboratory Methods in
| Morals" and THE Leisurable Hours
! of John Wesley" Common sense,
gentle moralizing. quaint fancies,
/ subtle humor and delicacy of style
! are all combined in Crothers' essays.
/ Bliss Perry's volume Is entitled THE
! Praise of Folly" and lakes its key
! note from the classic of Erasmus
! His style is that of the literary critic,
1 with humor. a sense of proportion
- Tx. vfr-S1 4 .s~sZ fnT .,
| "Uncanny Stories" by May Sinclair,
are full of apparitions, visions and other
psychic phenomena. Distraught ghosts
| haunt the scenes of their earthly sins
| and tried in vain TO escape the
/ ghostly companions of those sins.
A wife who dies in doubt of her hus-
bands love hovers about as a phan-
| tasm until she is convinced. One es-
capped spirit watches the preparation
| of her own body for burial. A woman
with psychic healing powers finds
herself on the verge of the insanity
! from which she has delivered
! friend The ghost of first wife.
comes back to separate her husband
from the second wife who is occupy
| ing her bedroom. There are many
other hair-raising situations, some
detailed, some only limited Alto
gether, the collection of stories is
| well named The individual titles
are: "Where Their Fire Is Not
| Quenched," THE Token "Thes Flaw
in the Crystal" "The Nature of the
| Evidence IF the Dead Knew" The
/ Victim" and 1.-THE Finding of the Alb
solute.'
| From Pinafores to Politics" is the
|
mans book of "reminiscences. Half
4 nipafnraS ona tho