Evening star., 1925-01-13
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
FROM A SENATOR'S
WIFE. Frances Parkinson Keyes.
D. Appleton & Co


d. Appleton & Co.
THE SPIRIT OF THE HOUSE. Anna
Dorsey Williams. d. Appleton &
Co.
On the north side of / street but
few steps away from Thirteenth
there stood only year or so ago
house whose face. lined and wrinkled
and faded, once bore for me the ap-
peal of distinctly human personality.
used to walk by that house with
lettering steps, for I had been re-
liably assured that some years be-
fore the author of Little Lord Faun-
tleroy" had lived there. This the fact
that so stirred my feelings toward
the house on I street. Neither the
wit nor the skill had ], and certainly
not the will, TO pass any judgment
upon this author. Enough for me
that a writer of stories-a woman
writer-had come so close to me
through the vicarious touch of that
empty and falling house. For never
once had ] actually set eyes upon
genius, upon any considerable talent
even. Never before had / come so
near to a place known to have shell
tered success. Weedsport had had no
cele to be sure, the Erie
Canal, whose mile of frontage upon
chantment of my childhood, whose
noble traffic had stood to me as the
shining emprise of a wide and wonder
full world. But even the Erie Canal
lacks, a little, the warmth of appeal
that human greatness excites. And
to be suddenly transported to place
where a famous person had come
and gone daily-that was one of the
many thrills of those first Washing
ton years.
Provocative indeed, have been these
intervening Washington years where
in have blossomed many fields of art
under the creative urge of beauty.
The city itseif-its lovely face, It's
gracious setting of river and hill and
embracing greenery, its rich en-
broidery of official life, It's leisured
existence-this has clearly been the
source and inspiration out of which
an art peculiar to the conditions of
its origin is SO conspicuously de-
veloping. Novels and other literary
forms, painting and other pictorial
agencies, landscape building, archi-
tecture-all bearing something of the
stamp of this inspiring individual
locale-are contributing definitely TO
the larger and more general currents
coming back to the point in mind-the
woman writer of Washington no
longer walks alone, or at best in
Struggling twos and threes. Indeed,
were one so privileged and were all
conditions favoring, one might for
months on end give weekly recog-
milton to the pen women of this city.
Only a week or so ago two histories
of the Capital came this way. Both
written by Washington women. Both
of definite and substantial purpose.
Each consistently and competently de-
veloped in pursuance of its own OBJ
jective. Books of uncommon merit,
both. Merely a case in point, this.
Two more books. These, too, writ
ten by Washington women about
Washington. These offer studies of
the social life of the Capital. In a
series of letters Frances Parkinson
Keyes, from the standpoint of a Sen
ator's wife, portrays not only the
general features of Washington So
ciety, but gives in effect, also, the OBJ
| legations and contributions Of the
senatorial group to the official social
| whole of the Capital City. In the
| freer latitude Of novel Anna Dorsey
Williams here pictures the near past
and the remoter past of social Wash
| ington.
BY way OF popular serial publi-
cation the Letters of a Senator's
| Wife," are so well and so widely
known that comment upon them looks
| like nothing more than a superfiuous
gesture. Only a bit of self-indul-
gence then, maybe, this wish to speak
| of the satisfying union here OF con-
| tent and form, whereby the intimacy
of the friendly letter is made to carry
nothing more weighty than passing
| sketches of this and that in the
| washington life "a social event
| touched off lightly, winning person
| ality here, an appealing episode there,
a near view of this celebrity, an in
| innate moment with that parsonage
all light and bright and gay, as let
ters should be. Obviously this Senator's
| wife is not of the dour clan that spills
| its black moments out in ink for the
further darkening of a friends al
ready beclouded mood. Cheerful let
| ters-oh, no, not incorrigibly cheer
| full, Rather the letters of an optimist,
wholesome letters from one who pos
| sesses the gift of ready friendship
and the good genius of spontaneous
| enjoyment. Much of information on
| innumerable topics goes along here,
| and something of instruction. What
to do upon this occasion or that, and
| how to do 1t. A CLINT of humor at
| this point does away with the pom
| derous effect of instruction, as such,
| even while it recognizes the impor-
| tance of being familiar with the
! ritual of official social life at the
| seat of government. Upon the whole
| these letters serve the double role of
| revealing official Washington in its
Af vala of i,1er
the genial and receptive personality
of the writer herself.
~ X
There is an historic flavor to "The
| Spirit of the House." For this the
| story goes back to an old George
| town mansion, where, from colonial
| days on up to the near present,
Southern line of gentlemen had
| lived in the exclusions and reticencies
peculiar to the flower of Southern
| chivalry. But fallen fortunes had
| come upon this house. So, when the
story opens. it is owned and occupied
| by United States Senator from the
new West-a bluff, full-blooded, vul-
gar man-clearly "a man of the peo-
! ple' A common and foolish wife,
beautiful daughter of ieft-hand
mothering-token of the Senator's
| youthful errancy-complete the house
hold. A generous man this rough
! Senator, since he proves to be fairy
! godfather to the children Of the
| Southern family who had for so many
years owned the old mansion. The
| son marries his daughter, the beau
| tiful and clever girl of the new order.
| The daughter of the old house lives
on there with the Senator's family.
| This is the starting point of the
story, and this the situation that
throughout is maintained, as a basis
| for the sum of contrasts by which