Evening star., 1926-04-04

everywhere ana always Di5 With up
portunities for service. Within this
medium stands Sim Paris working
out in the passionate convictions Of
Hutchinson himself The problems of
social righteousness. A novel that
goes back to Mark Sabre for its 'bea u
tiful inspiration. A novel that de-
yelops in a simpler and more consist.
ent strength than This Freedom"
With more spread than IF Winter
Comes" and with even more convinc-
Ing power.
LEGATION STREET. BY Lenox
Fame. Boston: Little, Brown &
Co.
HARDLY a more enjoyable incident
can for the moment be realized
than to go to Peking in the company
of John Stuart, who is going that
way on a visit to his brother, second
secretary of the British legation there.
This older brother is an observan Mt
man, one who sees things through
the medium of q genial humor that
strips criticism of any evil intent.
Yet, the business of a foreign lega-
ton does seem to him to be q plea
yune affair-calls and teas and din.
ners and games and gossip and rival
| ry with no. end Of jealousy and a lot
Of very polite pickering. We, in the
company of John Stuart, sit at one
side listening to him, as he neatly
sticks pin through this specimen of
| diplomatic service or that one, and
! holds il yup for us to examine and
! enjoy its futile pretentiousness, it's
bombaStic assumption Of work and
! service. Flirtations? Oh, yes, always
firtations to which this broad minded
! friend OF ours ascribeS the most in
| noceift of j, motives-boredom, a fool
of husband, cat Of a wife, the
long distance from home, the limited
resources for wholesome diversion in
| a. strange land. and so on.
That ; is the best Of John Stuart
| among many good things. He is the
most tolerant man on earth, and SO
comfortable. With him we move out
| into the city with its strange streets
| and shops and ubiquitous temples
! with it's imperial palace and the For
! bidden City and the great wall for the
most enchanting of promenadeS. Or
! these Excursions John Stuart can
| pass over to you the strange anC
mysterious atmosphere of the old city
| of Peking until you are in a world far
away from Legation street. Their
| you go back tc it again, back to the
| Legation quarter that seemed like q
| small island, with the waters of an
other immense and entirely alien life
/ surrounding it, and 1t was as lazily
| unconscious of the great tides Of this
! life as is an island Of the waters
which wash against it's shores" A
very beautiful book, artfA, sophisti
Gated, most engaging.
X x **
IGLITTER. BY Katherine Brush. New
York; Minton, Balch & Co.
! A NEAT and clever first novel. Neat
by virtue of it's workmanly build
A container exactly calculated to hole
| its chosen content, with no vacant
! spaces left over for a noisy and vexa-
| tious rafting around of odds and ends
| of superfluous incident Clever the
novel is, in a theme that is picked
right off the somewhat Overwhelming
subject of the youth Of the hour, the
| boys and girls of the moment. Clever
too. by virtue of the authors keen
sight and insight, the latter used tc
interpret that which the former gath
ers in through sweeping and seeming
| ly careless glances.
| This is the story of boy and ever
so many girls. Jock Hamill is the
youth. Just a nice chap, neither
! Adonis nor Don Juan. Save for Low
| ably crooked smile and a pretty clear
| inside, Jock Hamill makes no grea
| bid for alteration. But he gets it, al
the same. First, there is Molly, bu
| Molly is something like a baby's frs
teeth. good enough for the husband
milk of boys first love. Then come.
| the married woman. 1 wonder If am
boy in the world has escaped falling
| in love with another mans wife. Their
| YVonne, older than Jock. Much older
though no one could make Jock be
lieVe that. Yvonne. waywise and
lovely, old as Eve and captivating a.
Helen, or Cleopatra, or any othel
classic siren. But, after all. Yvonn,
has a heart, which she arouses to ac
ton for the saving of Jock and for tn,
| turning back toward her old Ways O.
soft raiment and easy places to sit
Jocks mother makes one wonder how
! any boy can possibly make his way
| through the gantlet of young low,
without a mother. But the most O
them would have messed the matte,
irretrievably. Not this one. Jock!
mother is one of the real creations O
this gayly adept and saucily ironic ad
venture in fiction plucked from the
passing hour. There is another cir
yourself, provided you have not al
ready done so in the serial printing O
this capable and attractive portrava
of young world seeking above ali t,
be stimulated and thrilled. The move
as a whole stands out for it's sense O.
| structure and for its quite conspicuou!
gift OF creating many personalities
/ each complete, no one of them bor
rowing from another.
| II
DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY. By
Fred Jacob, author of "One-ThirC
of Bill" Toronto: The Macmillan
| Company.
! JUST the same historic significance
to this novel as that which marks
Herbert Quick's stories of the settle
ment and growth of the State of Iowa
| or that of many other Of the familia,
novels of the opening up Of the Mid
die West. DAY Before Yesterday
is a romance of early village life ir
the Canadian Province of Ontario
Half q century ago each of these
little settlements was bit of old Eng
land transferred to the New World
To preserve the English traditions o1
birth and upbringing and social Gus
tom, this was the supreme preoccupa
| ton of these villages. Mr.. Jacobs
story takes up this theme at the
point where the younger generation Is
beginning to work away from what
to them are worn-out ways of think
ing and doing. 1t is upon this diff
ference and disagreement that the
story itself makes headway. Quite
apart from the action, interesting a.
this is, Is the even greater effect Of
portraying the older points of view
the older ways of life, that were fast
giving way before the newer aims anC
detectives of the children of these
settlers. Fred Jacob tells plain ant
lnpretentious story. Such romance
- 1t BEARS lies in the theme itsel1
-cher than in the authors reach fol
dramatic effects. But it is dramatic