Evening star., 1927-04-17


beautifully simple personal story of
! My Job as Queen" That talk multi
piled many fold the general interest
in this gallant and intrepid woman.
1t added many degrees of warmth and
| affection to the greetings extended
| this royal lady from all parts of the
country. A very interesting thing to
see. that of a great democracy giving
welcome to royalty simply and whole.
heartedly as IL host and visitor were
one--as they We're. Here we have the
story of that tour of America from
Mrs. Morris, who. throughout, was
with the Queen on terms of an old
friendship, as we'll as by virtue of
her husbands substantial diplomatic
service between the United States and
the court of Rumania. There is more,
however, than this useful brand of
circumstances to throw into the count
here for, Mrs. Morris record of travel
with q royal parsonage through a
country like ours where every man
IS as good as anybody else, if not
better. Besides taking advantage Of
this happy situation Mrs. Morris
possessed both the art and the good
sense to pitch her story 70 exactly the
right key. Not so high on the one
hand as to emphasize the coloratura
would not have been able to resist,
not so low on the other hand as TO
rumble along the heavy basso Of
imaginary political signiflcances. In
stead here is a middle course of keen
observation, of interesting incident,
of tactful ayoidances, of vivacious re-
port, centering steadily upon the
figure of prime importance. An in
teresting and admirably conceived
story of the tour of the Queen of
Rumania through this country on the
mission of getting acquainted"
X X
DANCE MAGIC. BY Clarence Bud
ington Kelland, author of Rhode
Fair" etc. New York: Harper and
Brothers.
IT'S the same girl at heart. To be
sure, this particular one doesn't
live on our block, but on New Eng
land farm instead. But both of them
all of the thousands of them-are
in the spell of the dance magic:
Every one secretly believes herself
world famous dancer. This one, this
New England girl, Jahala, had the
daring to try out her dream of her
self. She flew to New York. They
all do. Here, however, there was
very real genius and the Willingness
to work. And things We're going on in
fine shape for the future of Jahala.
Indeed, the girl grew to be famous.
Then-well you could tell the rest of
the story or part of it--Iragedy in
her apartment and it's sequence of
every possible menace and disgrace.
The point of the story, in the mind
of this popular author, lies, one takes
it, in the fact that the girl could
come out of the trial much better
than she went into it, Now this is
a perfectly good ending to the mat
ter, one that all the nice people will
feel just right about. But the girls
who read this story would better bear
in mind that there is only one Jahala
IN about a million. And the girls.
thus remembering, will do well TO tie
their dancing feet and to curb their
over worked sense OF personal genius,
and to recall, as well, that Mr.. KEEL
land is writing an undeniably moral
story while he at the same time turns
out a very engaging brand of girl
hood
THE STRONGER GOD. BY Eric
Waring. New York: Brentano's.
JEANNE D'ARC, on horseback, lead
~ ing the armies of France, is more
of a general lure than that same girl
saving France to it's legitimate ruler.
The woman warrior, for some reason
not easy to probe, is one OF the mt
subjects of romantic adventure. Eric
Warren makes use of it here by way
of an old story that he has revived
for modern use An Austrian girl to
save her house from dishonor took the
place of a brother in the army, there
following a gallant and heroic course
in the service of her country. Such
is the basis of the story in hand. And
an exciting story it is, with never a
sign of the weaker sex" in the cour-
ageous and daring deeds of this sup
posed son of a great house. The end
of the story, to be sure, lies In the
essential fact of it's beginning, that is
in the sex of this brave warrior. For, |
in the course of time, under the great |
est urge that has yet been invented, |
the young woman adjured the army |
and all of its entailments, just to be- |
come the wife of a mere man. How |
ever, on the way to this inevitable |
outcome, there is a deal Of adventure, |
of daring and hazard, to which this |
writer has given a finely imaginative |
touch, good invention and the breath |
of actual life itself.
\ * X
GEORGIAN STORIES OF 1925. Illus
trated. New York: G. P. Put
nGms Sons.
HERE is the fourth year that Sc
lected short stories have been
published under this title, suggesting
that literary institution may here be
in process of formation. Aldous Huxley.
w. Somerset Maugham. Dorothy
Johnson, Gertrude Stein, Z. NJ. Della
field and a dozen more authors con-
tributed to this 1925 edition. Those
who like the short story-and in
these days there is time for no other
xind-will find some interesting read
ing here. The general level of the
book is high, in the way of good
themes and competent handling. The
book offers opportunity, besides, to
the student of the short story. who
is able here not only to examine the
purpose and structure and effect of
these tales, but who has here that
equally useful opportunity of making
and contrasts of
method and effect. The book is cal
culated to be of service to both
reader and the student.
D0n~rt D-~yE~wwTWNwN 1