Evening star., 1927-03-06

milan Go.
Y WERE is d little book for whose
S55" %S'',"s no '"sss ssssoa sn'9's @aa,sesT 1sS:
4 4 That there is good reason be
hind it. however, events still
fresh in every newspaper leader'S $
mind make clear. Forgetting for the
moment the bitter occasion for its
production, we remember only that
this book projects the most warming
and healtening of all human be
havi0rs. For here is a friends de
Tense of his friend when that other
has passed on outside the field Of
mortal combat No theme greater
than this. none that has been more
justly exalted by the finest genius of
art than this one.
The Inquisition is commonly rele-
gated to definite point in the record
of mems past This institution. never
theless marches actively along with
every present. For there is some
thing about the human that i'm his
own confident belief, constitutes him.
individually, the arhiter of every other
mans religion His own theory of
life and death and the beyond no
matter from what source deduced, is
the one specifically calculated to save
the soul of man. and this theory he
strives sedulously to impose upon the
rest of the world. Toward the end
of his days the truly great Luther
Burbank became the subject of such
inquisitorial zeal. A retiring, sensi-
tive man, deeply buried in his work
Burbank felt keenly this obtrusive
and unfriendly onset. There is little
doubt that his life was shortened by
bitter blasts of hostile criticism. Will
this lamentabie fact in any way deter
the zealots of bigotry? 1t will not
Luther Burbank is known to the
world as Il pioneer in useful scientific
achievements. Wise men working in
the modern spirit hailed him as a
genius laboring in the domain of
plant life. To the majority, to the
average, he was q wizard who would
Gear watching. Then the fire of
superstition kindled. This solitary
and engrossed worker found himself
shut in by its flames. Are you an
athe1st?" Are you an infidel?' shot
out toward him from the blazing bar
ricade. BeWildered. dismayed, hurt
by these envenomed darts, the spirit
of Burbank faltered and then failed
his tired and oVerworked body. And
SO, the man died.
Frederick Clampett here takes up
the spiritual life of Luther Burbank.
Out of the nearness of long friend
ship and deep intimacy and great
love he gathers up the words of his
friend and the deeds spreading them
out for everybody's reading. And we
go over this beautiful service of
friendship, forward and lack and
forward again, And out of such deep
scrutiny of this devoutly honest rec
ord we find-juSt a man who loved
his fellOwmen. And that. after all.
is ones best warrant for existence
or isn't it?
MOTHER DEAR: The Empress Marie
of Russia and Her Times BY V.
Poliakof. New York: d. Apple
ton & Co.
FOR years to come the royal fam
lily of Russia will excite interest,
poignant and general. The hideous
death of Nicholas III and his family
still rouses a feeling of horror even
amidst the many horrors succeeding
that one. Victims of d system no
doubt, victims as we'll of moment
of political frenzy reaching down
through all layers Of Russian life, the
Tsar. with his wife and children and
certain attendants, paid terribly for
the sins and mistakes of all the Rus
sian rulers that had gone before him.
Here is an intimate story of the moth
er of Nicholas II, of the Empress
Marie and Of the times around her.
In what must now be counted as a
quite equivocal affection, the people
of the great SlaV state had a fashion
M ma CT Ia
Father" Mother Dear" The Empress
Marie. the Mother Dear" of this
memoir, is Danish Princess, the
sister of Queen Alexandra, both
daughters of King Christian TX of
Denmark. where the former Empress
went a fugitive from the fury of the
Russian populace. Certain distinct
advantages accrue to this author out
Of membership in the family, which,
as bankers, held close business and
confidential relations with the royal
house. Documents from this source
add distinctly to the effect of fresh
evidence which this book holds. This
new material, interviewer with the
general affairs of the Romanoff regime,
serves to produce u vivid and inter-
esting picture of a country and a
time almost wholly strange and in
conceivable TO American readers. The
central figure, Empress Marie, is an
outstanding one, a woman of high
intelligence. of great courage, of po-
iitical sagaCity, of personal charm
In this projection it is around her
that the pomp and ceremony of the
court circle, around her that political
policies develop. around her that sus-
picion finally grows, changing adora-
ton into hatred, with it's train of
inimical plots and devisings. The
whole book constitutes a vivid pic
ture, backed by the history of the
moment, animated by the spirit of
that unhappy period and colored by
the personality Of the capable EN-
DRESS herself.
WITH EASTERN EYES. BY Ernest
Poole, author of 1.-The Harbor." etc.
New York: The Macmillan Co.
MIR. POOLE'S new novel takes it's
AVA title from the fact that a Rus
sian, by the merest chance, becomes
an interested onlooker at the threat
ened breakup of a perfectly good
family. 1t appears that
they do it differently in Russia,
though just the methods employed
there are indicated here by implica-
tion rather than by any account in
detail And that Is right, too, for then
this would have been another story.
AS 1t stands here it is the uncommon
common sense of the wife that holds
the institution of marriage together
in so far as her own household is con-
cerned. And, by the way. this wife is
about all that there is to the case in !
hand. BY some most unusual gift Of re- |
straint and foresight the woman seems !
to realize that her spouse is at that
critical point In his career when he |
simply goes off his head in a delirium |
over the other woman, another wom- |
an anv other woman. And so, suffer
ing like the very devil meanwhile. she |
lncIs g the door. ON her heart and brings |