Evening star., 1924-11-09

anOtuer one Where the people were
in need of some single thing. He did
venture upon this. But-and this is
| the story-it is SO much easier to
drift on d smooth and shining cur
rent than 1t is to buffet high waves
and fight fierce storms. So he took
the goods that fortune offered him
rich wife. a high place, honors.
adulation. What more could man
want? Admirably developed, this
story, and with but a slight change
to cover another type of individual
in his own field it might be the story
of a great majority-for everybody
loves the easy way and the soft
bedding.
THE DEyONSHERS. BY Honore
Willsie Morrow. author Of The
Enchanted Canyon" etc. New
York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.
A great deal of background to this
romance. First, the wild and beau
| tiful State of Montana made, so it
appears, for the sudden entrance and
exit Of all sorts of daring adven-
! turers. Then, there is the historic
background reaching into the period
| of the Hudson Bay Company with it's
shrewd traders encroaching ever
| upon the resistant and deter
mined pioneers Of the States. In
| that past were two specially hostile
elements, neither of them remarkable
| for either honesty or fair dealing.
These were Sir John Colbaith on the
| one hand, Carter Devonsher on the
other. The story itself slips down
into war time. Maj. Colbaith is
buying horses for the British army.
Eve Devonsher is fighting the profit
eers Of her own town. That is the
situation. Out of it come horse
thieving and, finally, murder, with
Eve Devonsher on trial as the GRIM
inal A large part of the story goes
into this trial which, as a trial, is
either clear invention or sample of
Western methods of legal procedure
that must have been outworn before
the time represented here How
ever, the trial gets the story along
with energy and entertainment, even
if it fails to come up to ones esti-
mate of it as a real trial in a court
of law. This writer's feeling for
place and the atmospheres of the
West is perhaps. rather stronger
| than her all-around skill in portray
ing the actions and reactions of
character.
PEACOCK FEATHERS. BY Temple
Bailey, author of The Dim Lam
Phillips. Philadelphia: The Penn
Publishing Co.
A realist would have made the
| drabbest sort of story out of this
struggle for domestic happiness on
| the part of the young couple here in
| volved. And it is, without doubt, a
! situation that seems to have little
use for romance. No joke for a rich
| girl to marry a poor young fellow
and to find herself whisked off to
some impossible ranch there to set
| up any kind of presentable household
gods. That is the sum and substance
of this story. But Temple Bailey is
an incorrigible romantic. She be-
lieves, indubitably. that in the world
there is a girl. a rich girl, who would
| roll up her sleeves and go at that
| ranch-house in laughing defiance
| of establishment, and sagging love,
and tired bones. Believing this, she
| promptly turns her belief to the
uses of romantic fiction. And here
| we have another engaging Bailey ro-
nance founded on the eternal verify
of a love able to resist every in
clemency of weather or fortune,
every inroad of spiritual fire, flood,
drouth or disease.
HUMDRUM HOUSE. BY Maximilian
Foster. author of 1.-The Trap" etc.
New York: D. Appleton G. Company.
The deadly boredom Of peace and
Massachusetts was upon Jerry Blan-
don, ex-service man. 1t came to him
to hunt up his old war buddy. Norry
Colquitt, not so much in the hope
that something might happen-how
could it in etts?-as for the
relief of long colloguins with Norry
oh nd a
Mans Land and all the rest of the
great life. What, except for the
talks with Norry, could ''Humdrum
| House do for fellow! That's what
you will find out IL you go along
with Jerry. A holdup to start off
with and after that a regular kaleid-
oscope of quick shift calculated to
make even the war shade off bit
of it's adventure. Murder and near
murder, robbery, sinister signs and
menacing appearances, with thugs
and cutthroats, set off in sharp con-
trast to the Suave company of
"Humdrum House" itself. How it is
all going to come out-goodnes ess
knows. For it keeps you wondering
I'D to about the last minute regard
less of the consistencies and plausi-
bilities that the plain novelist now
and then does pay some sort of at
tention to. ConsistencieS are dull
things. So they are not given a
look-in upon this exciting tale.
THE BELLEHELEN NINE. BY B. NJ.
Bowers author of Good Indian"
etc. Frontispiece by Frank Tenney
Johnson. Boston: Little. Brown &
Co.
This, in sum, is the story OF the
individual against the corporation.
Its special appeal to sympathy and
interest is that in this case the 0-
dividual is a woman. Helen Strong,
come back into the West to reani-
mate the silver mine that her father
in his discouragement years before
had left to its own destruction while
he went back into the East, where he
belonged. That was years ago, and
Jim Strong is dead. Well, you know
the story. The wicked corporation,
on the one hand; defenseless woman
on the other. A strenuous matter,
though, for the girl is resolute;
doesn't at all know when she is
licked, and firmly believes that with
the aid of an old half-breed, who
handful of other fellows, who are not
afraid OF the corporation, she can
bring the Bellehelen back to the
point of giving up it's treasure. The
special villainy Of this adventure is
carried forward throughout on a
very well concealed strain of sheer
hypocrisy. 1t is a one-man corpora
ton. And a very devil of a fellow
this man. 1t would be fine to be able
to say that the girl is able to buck
up against both the man and the
corporation. She isn't. Indeed, If it
weren't for the men who finally en-
list on her side she'd cut a small
figure. She talks too much. Oh. you
knew that? Well, she does, always