Evening star., 1924-05-18
HALF GODS. BY Lynn Montross. CO.
author Of Town and Gown. New
York: Ceorre H Doran Company.


And such tumult of living as Is Sc,
down here. Everybody goes to bed a.
night, and we are in at the undress-
ing. Everybody gets up In the morn
ing, we still in attendance. At ofeak-
fast we are delighted, or grfeved, &C
cording as to whether one eats MS
egg with neatness or smears II I'M
partially upon his frontispiece Then
everybody to work. we going along;
These excitements are exchanged
weekly for church dissipatfons-sup-
pers, Sunday school entertainments
or for occasional secular lapses into
social extravagances. OF course. there
are courtings and marrying and gos-
sipings-and all the other hullabaloo
of living. The assumption resting In
this title is that these folks are, IN
reality, questing the great gods OF
life. but, not finding them, they take
up with the half gods of small affairs
and dreary routine. Nothing like
that. They are small and average. to
start with-so their gods have to be
of that kidney. Oh, very realistic.
Just as natural as life. That Main
Street man has deal to answer for.
wilfranc Hubbard New York:
The Macmillan Company.
Refreshing to be able to set aside:
lOT uIlc Otlt6s liC 6ioy SA
midwestern realism and the photo
graphic squalor Of an east side under
world. This, something quite apart
from the quality of that which at the
moment offers US refreshment. Here
we are taken out and away over to
Italy, where, with a companionable
group of compatriots and natives, We
come and 20 about the streets of Rome
as IL it were not a sacred city steeped
In the implications Of a long and glori-
Gus past. Much of this atmosphere sur
rounds us, appreciably. as 1t is intended
to do, by way Of the artistic and COM
municable spirit of the author himself.
Mr.. Hubbard takes us outside of Rome
itself, out from the social to-do that he
has set up within the old city, into the
surrounding country. Here we have
contacts with the country folks round
about And hsEs we come come ilss upon - pic I's
a vivid conception Of the lovely and
impressive setting of the Eternal City
itself. There is an art OF words mani
tested in this Italian idylr" that en-
bodies beauty and delivers it over to
the reader in simple perfection that
gives one great satisfaction and JOY.
MoLESKIN JOE. BY Patrick MacGill,
author of "The Rat-Pit," etc. New
York: Harper & Brothers.
A story that grows close to the
ground. as the romances OF PaDck
NacGiIl have a way of doing. Rough
men fill this ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ing. hard-drnking. fighting. swear
ing lawless men. The story gets
ahead by way of the particular ad-
ventures of Moleskin Joe hlmseif.
who, at the moment, is a victim OF
Injustice at the hands of the law. I'm
prisoned, but guiltless this once at
least, Joe makes his escape and takes
refuge in a remote camp OF laborers
who are as lawless and reckless as
himself. The romance, made up or
daily risks and daring, opens up in
this camp And every day is filed
with exciting action. Finally wom-
an and a little boy make their ap-
pearance. And Joe turns out to be
hero of the knight-errant type, with
out the trimmings of the latter. Lots
of people can be heroes, and are,
when self-interest spurs them to he
roism But to step down and out
from the chief desire of the heart for
the sake of a beloved woman-that S
quite another story. That's what
hopes, because Patrick MacGill leaves
a ray of hope for Joe-just as he
should have done. Good, rough, hard,
fine stuff-worth a good deal.
EASY. BY Nina Wilcox Putnam. New
York: Harper & Brothers.
The foreign invasion of the United
States stands here not only as back
ground for this romance, but as its
inspiring source as well. The theme,
stripped, is the menace of the i'm
migrant. The action is set in a New
England village, with a side line
running to New York-both places
and startlingly illustrative of
the encroachments of the alien. In
it's fiavors the adventure is as old as
as new as bootlegging.
a brew of intrigue several hundred
years before he was born, leads the
action into strange and devious
ways. He himself functions not only
rs captain of a quite desperate gang
on the New England shore, but, when
ne is IN New York as gallant th and
woman Of the story. A Yankee girl.
this, studying art in the big city
She and Easy" a young federal Of
ficer and her lifelong friend, prove
finally to be about all there is to the
other side of this narrative of the
overflowing foreigner in that section
Of the Atlantic coast. But the two,
once combined in action, turn out to
be enough for the discontinue of
the marauders. A fortnight romance
Of clear Yankee grit and straight
invention based on one Of the real
of this country at the
present time.
By Robert Keable,
author of Simon Called Peter"
etc. New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons.
"Recompense" is, so it's author an
nounces, sequel to Simon Called
Peter" Now Mr.. Keable had had no
much discussed romance. Nor did he
wish later to do this. But people were
shocked at the earlier story. That Is,
some people were shocked. They saw
no reason why even the foreshorten-
cleric in the position of the one fgur-
ing in Simon" And there was so
much to-do over the matter that Mr..
Keable here devotes his talent for
story telling to the business Of CIV
ing the young priest a character, or,
to a more generally accepted pattern.
So this is the story Of Peter Graham
back in South Africa. The war is
over and the young priest, with
awards for gallantry and recollec-
tions of Julie-but with little else
Is back again to make his way in the
bigness and loneliness Of a remote
place in this region. What the coun-
try itself does to him in the way of
new work and new health and new
vision and a new deter1nination-this s
is the business Of the story in hand.
A wonderful unfolding Of this coun-
try in its vastness, in its loneliness,
in its magic-such is the prime in
terest OF the story. For here at least
the author is free, and it is in this
revelation that the story in hand
takes on its character of a genuine
and impressive beauty.
BORN RICH. BY Hughes Cornell.
Philadelphia: George w. Jacobs
Company.
AS the title implies, this is a story
Of those unfortunate folks who are
born into a situation that not only
does not exact effort but that on the