Evening star., 1926-04-25

session. One of these stories, THE
Landmark" IL given out here for the
first time. The tale goes back TO
1880. 1t is to g. degree, therefore, a
picture lying Just on the near side OF
the pioneer period of that state. The
time when the land has become set
tied and In a measure filled with the
comforts and advantages of that day.
1t deals with the breaking away OF one
of the sons Of a settled and honored
family, a forced breaking away by the
decree of the father who attempts to
push his son on into the true pioneer
region of Missouri. The plan mis-
carries through the Intervention of
the mother whose theory of any hu-
man Landmark" is the characters
that q community fosters and cher
ishes.
In a genial word of introduction Mr..
Allen compares the opera and the
symphony in respect to certain fea-
ture. The opera, he says, must have,
is definitely dependent upon its set
ting, it's background. The symphony
is not so dependent. The opera with
out a background could not exist.
The symphony with one would not be
symphony. Then he goes on to say
that modern American romance is
like the opera, greatly concerned
about the character and feature and
effect of its background. Realism of
a kind, a less important kind. The
better kind of story telling is con
cerned with the human element, with
the soul Of the man or the woman,
with those qualities which, like the
symphony, are independent Of special
setting, belonging instead wherever
human feelings and actions work
themselves out along the stable lines
of character and well-doing. Very
interesting, and certainly well OBJ
jectified in this group of stories.
*N X
CARIB GOLD. BY Eilery III. Clark.
author of Loaded Dice" etc. In
dianapolis: The Bobbs- Merrill Co.
A PIRATE story that convinces the
reader Is spite of himself. In the
first place the matter begins on the
sober and authentic coast of New
Jersey, not away down in that puz-
zling and dubitable nest of islands
and islets punched together as the
West Indies-home of all unbeliev-
able pirate tales. No doubt, the coast
of New Jersey was as sober and
| well-set 158 years ago, the date of this
business. as it is now. The story tell
er himself has much to do with the
credibility of the whole. He saw ii
all himself. He was part of 1t.
(This tale without question is one of
| the many longlo and buried records
| that knowing investigators are now
adays prying out of the ground and
other secret placeS.D
The story proves that this boy act
ualy knew the great pirate, the
BLACK Panther" Capt. Francis Brac-
lay, in a less picturesque naming.
Just a gawky New Jersey lad. of
ready rife and slow speech, this boy
| who fell into the hands of the Black
Panther cruising along that part OF
the coast. On the pirate ship he was
carried away to Jamaica where ter
rible things were going on. Slaves
were whipped and killed by their
brutal masters. Then the black men
in an even more savage rising killed
the masters. The boy saw all of that.
And there was a treasure to be found
and carried away. And lady to
rescue. Such doings as never were
before you will read here and you
will believe every word of it all. For
never was there an honester talker
than this boy of speech. so plain and
slow, telling the things he saw and
had past in. Just as convincing this
year as the adventure itself was real
158 years ago on the coast of New
Jersey and down to Jamaica.
y X X
YE THAT JUDGE. BY Helen r
Martin, author of "Tillie, the Men
nenite Maid etc. New York
Dodd Mead & Co.
RY way Of the continued and capa
- Bile work of Mrs. Martin, the Penn.
sylvania Dutch are spreading out into
much larger neighborhood than that
provided by the ample Keystone State.
Indeed, all of us throughout the coun.
try are coming to know and to enjoy
the seemingly uncha1ging qualities of
these SettlerS-Dutch in perpetuity, as
it were.
Here within the familiar general
setting of Mrs. Martins novels the
romance has to do with young girl
and her two lovers. The girl is a
fiapper, or as near to a flapper as the
locality would be likely to breed. At
any rate, she is a gay, courageous
audacious girl, with pluck enough to
earn her own living and to engage
actively, il not always tactfully, in the
town doingS around her. One of the
suitors Is rich young man with some
Of the most obnoxious disqualified
tions of his class. The other one is a
serious young bishop. The new sort
of clergyman, this young man-one
of the many who nowadays are turn
ing away from pure ritual to the bet.
ter Righteousness of common sense
and good deeds toward the helpless
and needy. So here in essence are
three of the great forces of society
mammon, righteousness and the flap
per. However, this is not a preach
ment. No; it is love story, pure and
simple; well constructed romance
that takes into account outstanding
features of life at the present hour.
You will be interested to know which
one this very much alive, very inde-
!! pendent girl chooses at the last mo-
ment of the interesting situation.
COUNTER CURRENTS. BY Elsie
Janis and Marguerite Aspinwall
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
A LIVELY romance. wherein the
current of New York life coun.
ters that of an Arizona ranch, herein
sophisticated town folk hobnob with
q wild Westerner of the feminine per-
suasion, wherein honest men come up
against plain crooks, and wherein the
tricky passion of love comports itself
in traditional uncertainty. A brisk
business from the first minute to the
last-hard riding. quick shooting, and
in the city an almost miraculous de.
lection Of willy thieves on the part of
the dashing heroine of the adventure.
Celebrity is the keynote of the whole
the ready shift Of scene, the instan.
taneous answer, often with a gun: the
hell.bent dash from here to yonder
the lightning return to be ready for
the next move in crowded and
packed program.
When the story passes on to the
moving picture, toward which il is so