Evening star., 1925-03-03
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
l. C.. nj.
nHE BEAUTY OF THE PURPIic.
William Stearns Davis. The Mac
i1Ian "

William Stearns Davis. The Mac
milan Company.
Easter, and all Christendom afoot
for the festival. BY daybreak the
streets of the city lie cleared and
waiting for the pageant in homage
to a reawakened and risen world
Carpeted with myrtle and laurel and
ivy and box, they stretch long lanes
of living green. From a. thousand
uplifted and lighted urns that senti-
mel their course clouds of incense,
blue and pungent, float and drift and
mingle with the greenery of the way
itself. Behind these guarding censers
the packed populace crowds. In the
near distance music. Heralds appear,
swinging white slaves to hold an open
passageway. Then, to the clamor of
oboes and lutes and dulcimers and
trumpets and cymbals, companies Of
priests and monks march, chanting
paeans Of praise:
The Beauty Of the Purple
Ten thousand years to the joy Of the whole
world.
Then splendid procession Of the
exalted ones Of the earth. Sumptuous
ceremonial robes, embiazoned with
gold and jewels, turn the green lanes
into flaming currents of color.
Matched, snow white mules, a-glitter
in gorgeous trappings, move staidly
beneath their royal riders. Brilliant
banners wave. Fresh outbursts
OF martial music and priestly
chantings hold the cadenced measure
true. And deep within the body OF
this pageantry, like a jewel in its set
tings, rides the great lord of the
world. No, not the risen Christ A
ruler Of the earth instead--an offset
TO that spiritual kingdom in whose
name homage is here bending the
knee to temporal power.
~ **
That Easter is now 1900 years be-
hind US. That city Is New Rome"
imperial Constantinople." THE Beauty
of the Purple Is a pictured story of
that time wherein Saracen and Chris
tian Were fighting for the supremacy
of the Western world.
II
This is the story of Leo the Isau-
r1an, who became Emperor of New
Rome" in the eighth century. It's
motive. its direction, it's triumphant
climax rise out of the menace Of the
Moslem crowding from the East to-
ward the Imperial City and out of
the victory OF Leo and his armies
over these invading Saracens. The
shifting and vivid back ground is that
of Constantinople under this impend-
Ing danger, and the city in its own
imperial powers and aspects as well.
Happily, this is the story OF a man,
as well as the historic truth about
one OF the worlds great rulers. 1t is
by virtue of the former fact that the
latter one makes it's striking impress
sion and creates its interest. For
this old story becomes current and
familiar through its likeness to in
Vulnerable instances around US today
of the obscure boy who achieves emil
nence out Of his own character and
his own will to succeed. Not often
does he gain the greatest of political
heights, as Lincoln did, as this Leo
did, but he gains enough, and in
ways that make Leo the Isaurian
close to him in spirit; distant only in
the inconsiderable separation of mere
centuries. Essentially cotempora-
neous. this historic novel; Therein
lies both its value and its interest;
therein, too, lies its triumph OF con-
struction. So
A shepherd boy from the slopes of |
Isaurus IS driving his fathers focks |
to the marketplace. Through the lit |
tie village a troop of royal riders
dash. A sudden turn, and serious ac-
cident impends. Leo, swift and
strong and brave, throws himself in
between and averts calamity The
Emperor himself rides up at this mo-
ment. A whimsical turn Of the royal
favor opens just a slender crack in
the door through which the shepherd
boy catches a feeting glimpse OF a |
great and splendid world. Later the
door swings wide to him, first as
faithful servitor, then as soldier and
patriot, then as imperial ruler, whose
great work was to hold back the
Saracens from their designs against
Constantinople and the West.
x y X
And throughout this long, upward |
march, beset by difficulties and dan
gers CT every sort-treachery, jeal-
ousy, days and nights Of unremitting
work and ceaseless watchfulness-l
one goes along joyously, for he is all |
the time in tho company of a man
fearless, a little stern, not at all un-
settled by place and preferment, not |
misled by the ready hattery around |
him, patient, hard-working, single |
minded man, bent upon preserving in
safety his own Christian city of Con-
stantinople; not ashamed Of his |
early life either, for his peasant |
mother is beside him. A sturdy little |
woman, this Kasia, bent upon many |
charities and unmindful of the great |
artificial life around her, as she is in |
different too. to the open ridfcule |
cast upon her. For many a touch OF |
genuine humor are we Indebted here |
to solid little Kasia, mother of Leo
the Isaurian. And other very real |
persons come, into this story-Fer- |
gal, the quick witted Breton; old |
kallinikos, the scholar and inventor, |
who produced the Greek fire" that |
so fiercely worked against the Sara |
Gems; his lovely daughters, who in |
their turn influence the romance of |
this tale, and many another-all Of |
whom carry the distinction of being |
as real and communicable as IL they |
were part of the day in which we
ourselves live To be sure, the ex-
ternals are all different. The mode /
of life, the common interests of court /
and people. the display the ceremony.
the gestures-these are of that dis
tant day and of that remote place.
But these are the externals, the nom
essentials. important in conveying a
true picture of that period, but never
true human qualities that source the
behaviors and attitudes of the men
and women projected here.
r y r
The conflicts between Christian and
Saracen, which provide a large part
OF the true historic flavor to this
romance, are Of q quality to stress
still further the cotemporaneous
character of effect produced here. AS
stirring military action, these battles
by land and sea are surprisingly fine
in big and brilliant and conclusive
And when, finally, the