Evening star., 1925-03-01


ststant chief. Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress. Illustrated.
Boston: Houghton, Miff1in Com
pany.
~%LEARLY, we arc in q most hur-
ried transit from back there to
over yonder. And much OF this
~ haste goes into the getting of
food and cover, into running
round and round after ourselves.
And in this breathless rush after
cakes and ale we miss many wonder
full things--the sky. the rain, drift
ing clouds, burgeoning spring; we
miss our own personal freedom, the
bounty of our country, the quail
ity of its foundations, the reasons
that laid these, the methods that
fulfilled them, the personalities that
went into the corner stones of
our blessed national freedom. To
be sure, every proper American prldes
himself upon knowing his coun-
try's history-the Revolution, the
Constitution, the Government--all
more or less wooden stuff to him, aft
er all. from having been shut up
these many years In the hard bark of
words-like a dryad in tree Once
in awhile, nowadays-and happily
these whiles are edging a little clos
er together-there comes along some
one who resolutely, and knowingly,
frees these vital things of our COM
mon national life from their incrust-
ing words, setting them out beside
as in their own bodies of flesh and
blood, terminating them with the
spirit of their own birth, linking them
up with the present in the bonds of
mutual obligation. A great service,
this kind of work, in the cause of
that common general understanding
which the genius of our Government
imposes upon every degree of its citi-
Zenry. THE Spirit OF the Revolution"
is one of these liberating books, its
purpose that of setting upon their
feet before US live men who, in the
Revolutionary period. contributed of
their gifts of mind and heart much OF
that which we today extol as the bed
rock of our great country. From the
Library of Congress, treasury of
priceless manuscripts, DR.. Fitzpatrick
has drawn the substance of this VOL
ume. The design here is not to set
down events in sequence. Rather is
the book q f1ashlight thrown here and
there-now piercing a poignant mo-
ment Of history, now playing over in
cidentS calculated to humanize that
past which 1t is our duty to hold.
fluid and warm as the life current OF
our national existence. Here We are
inal draft of the Declaration OF Inde-
pendence in effect an arraignment of
the English King and the manuscript
from which Thomas Jefferson wrote
the Declaration itself. We travel with
this document, seeking sanctuary,
through seven states. We go to the
headquarters of Washington at VAL
ley Forge, where we see the uni
formed regiments and hear the bands
nA inta
wake to the fact of Liberty loan"
IN those days as we'll as in our own.
Indeed, many of the incidents of that
war for our own inde pendence take
on fresh life here out of our personal
partakiugs in another great war for
freedom. This is one of the inspired
points Of THE Spirit of the Revolu-
tion"-that it has come when we are
most open to an understanding of
its purpose. to an active sympathy for
it's hardships and sacrifices. If this
vital book only gets where 1t belongs,
then its value will be clear and solid.
And it belongs, of course, where,
through live teachers, IL can get to
school children before they have be-
come stupefied over the deadwood OF
the average school history.
THE INVISIBLE WOMAN. By Her
bert Quick, author of "Vande-
marks Folly" etc. Indianapolis:
The Bobbs- Merrill Company.
THE Invisible Woman" is a grand
daughter of 'Nandenlark' Folly" These
two novels, with THE Hawkeye" in be-
tween, provide an illuminating moving
picture of life in Iowa-life in the whole
Middle West as well-from pioneer be-
ginnings pretty well up toward the pres
ent. The story takes its title from the
part, the generally silent part. which
women are accredited with playing In
public affairs and in the personal achieve
Inents of individual men. The time set
for this romance falls in with that of
TWO new and deeply important appear
ances in the common life of that day.
One OF these is the emergence of girls
into business other than that of matri-
lnony or school teaching. The stenog-
rapher, the typist, the office girl, is now
just stepping out into the open. We do
not yet realize the many-sided signifi-
canoe of this departure from woman's
traditional vocation. The other of these
two appearances is the transference of
Office holding and politics into the field
of commerce and trade. where barter
and sale take the place of free choice
based upon sturdy loyalty to political
Righteousness. These two vital elements
control the novel in hand. By way of
her intelligence and good sense, by way
OF ler OeVOIlOn ana pOSlLlON OF auVall-
tage in the office of young lawyer, the
girl is able to promote his political in
terests, to circumvent the most menac-
ing of the political intrigues against him
all in the invisible role of a modest
and very capable confidential secretary.
Old characters that figured in the two
earlier novels of this series appear here
again. Situations set in those stories of
the West bear their natural fruitage
Sfor l1Sslrt fNYs at1o6 10
of the romantic glamour of the others
particularly of "Vandemark's Folly
this may be set down to the Elusive at
fractions of distance rather than to any
lack of either good substance or dram
attic treatment in its projection. Certain
ly the three novels furnish a highly in
teresting pattern of realism applied to
the development OF a great Common
wealth from pioneer days up to the near
present
THE THIRTIETH PIECE OF Sill
YER. BY Lillian Hayes. New
York: The Macmillan Company.
Back of this curious tale lies a
vivid and ambitious ina agination, one
that calls for a line of action, thin
and straight, running through the
years that lie between the betrayal
of Jesus and a point still few years
ahead of the present time. The story
goes that Judas. Mortified at his
crime of betrayal. rushed into the
presence of the Sanhedrin, cast his
purchase money upon the floor, and
fed, crying aloud out of the depths
of his contrition. Gathering up the
scattered silver, the elders failed to
find that thirtieth piece, which, for
the moment hidden away, finally
escaped out into the world. This,
the groundwork of the strange story,
.inI. l. In off 4ri