Evening star., 1925-02-15

Doubleday. Page & Co.
" HERE is no more absorbing
subject to one with an eye
open to the real things go
ing on around him than that
of money. of great wealth,
in it's effect upon it's possessor. NO
more important matter either since
In this modern day the growing part
uership between natural resources
and applied science is so greatly in
creaSing the fluid wealth of the world
and enormously multiplying man
opportunities for its acquisition. The
Glory Hole" is a study of the effect
of $12,00O,000 upon the family
father, mother and only son-sud-
denly come into its possession. A
small Western city provides the
background for this drama. Fred
Kirby is IA breezy, promising, young
business man, absorbed in con-
structiVc program for expanding
trade in an article, or articles, of
general use The wife is a busy
woman, busy with clubs and move
ments and culture and the rest of it.
Later, very busy with the new baby
in the thousand-and-on modern
meas for producing the perfect
child. Then, the money falls upon
them. Fred Kirby is compelled to
abandon his growing plan in order
to safeguard the tremendous fortune
in his hands SThe wife becomes the
perfect squirrel in perfect cage go
ing round and round, in the conven-
tional whirl of living up to the great
fortune. The little boy grows to
the bigger boy in size, but not in
any other respect. since there is moth
ing for him to grow with--no effort,
no incentive, no urge. The point of
this truly big story is, of course,
the outcome And this outcome is,
in turn. implicit in the nature of each
of the grown folks of this family.
AS for the boy, there is no help. 1t
is too hopeless, since he never in his
life had a chance at himself The
others did have many years of free
dom from the great fortune. From
the outset the movement of Fred
Kirby was straight-ahead move
ment, a getting forward. That of
his wife was movement, any amount
of il. but always round and round,
never forward When the story-big
in its scope, deep III its insight. free
and true in its progress-reaches the
day of reckoning, it, for the time
being at least, finds only Fred Kirby
looking hopefully ahead into the
shining spaces of promise-the prom
Use of his own life devoted to work,
actual work. productive and heneti-
cent a STUDY OIL tne
average man and woman-working
out, or going under, through the
almost fatal handicap Of mere money.
SEEING CANADA. BY John T Faris.
author of Seeing the Middle
West" etc. Illustrated. Phila-
delphia: J. 3. Lippincott Co.
Seeing Canada" is big book
packed with print and pictures And
n needs he This in IN
cover country SO widespread as is
Canada and one so varied in its phySi-
cal features and natural resources and
historic backgrounds. One so rich.
too, in its promise of an industrial
and economic future of grand pro-
portions. In the company of John
Faris we enter Canada at it's eastern
door, on the Atlantic side, moving
westward in orderly advance clear
across the continent to its western
exit. on the Pacific side. Mr.. Faris
has travel habit of his own, one
that we specially like. 1t is, first.
leisurely habit. Lots of time. No
rush. No racing about in a maze of
blind bewilderment trying to do" the !
country in a frenzy of haste. Next. !
this travel habit is that of gathering |
up a place or a locality in its all
ness-with the history of that place |
held as its setting out of which its |
several appearances take on both |
definite meaning and the charm of a |
reasoned completeness. 1t is the union |
of historic back ground and physical
appearance and future outlook that
gives so rounded and satisfying and
stable an effect to the Faris travel
books. Mountains of work must go
into these books. knowledge so com
plete, so detailed, Yet so simple and
comprehensive in presentation be-
LIS 1nt nn1y
exceeding skill as we'll in selections
and arrangements of so easy and
natural an effect. Under the lamp
nght in Winter, or under a tree in
Summer. I'd rather range the earth
up and down in the company of a
John Faris travel book than to under
go the actual travel itself That is
/ think | would. Yet if ever [ should
take to the roads in person I'd go
amazingly well prepared to follow
one or another of the Faris trails in
competence and enjoyment from hav-
Ing pored over the Faris books Anv-
body would be so prepared from such
reading of such books
THE LANTERN ON THE PLOw. By
George Agnew Chamberlain. au-
thor of Lip Malvy's Wife" etc.
New York: Harper & Bro.
The dominant figure of this romance
is barren New Jersey farm, which
for well toward 200 years had fed
upon the Sherborne family. seven
generations of them. The common
fiction ran, to be sure, that it was
the other way about-that all of these
Sherbornes had fed upon the meager
farm, instead of having been de-
Noured by it. The real fatality of the
matter lay, however, not in the fact
of having been eaten and done for
but in the far more sinister fact that
this farm, Sherborne- -glutted. reached
up and spread out like an octopus to
fnfold, past Self-deliverance each sue
ceeding generation as it came along
Technically. the farm serves here as
background for the struggles of
Warren Sherborne and his family
wife and two children Actually, it
is the Unsuitable land itself that, like
some brooding doom, animates the
action and directs it. The story opens
with court scene, Warren Sherborne
waiting judgment for the misdemean-
or of having kept his children out of
school in clear violation of the law.
Are you the man that plows by lam
tern light?" asked the judge. Yes"
Sentence suspended for investiga-
ton. Court adjourned" 1t is the in
vestigation" by fine Judge Alder that
opens out this tragedy of an unescap-
able heritage. Cast in the terms of
modern life, plain and realistic
tale, it contains all the elements and
all the effects of Greek tragedy it
self A novel that not only, page by
page, but all together as well, gives
to the reader the solid returns of an
l. x3a ral nod