Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-01

~" clearly the authors. new novel.
In case of his failure to deliver new mover
,vhv then it was for readers to take up "Coro-
net, for q second time. 1t is settled. Here Is
Manuel Komroh, ms new poOk' Two Ani-NeS'
in hand.
We are all pretty much alike. Nobody is truly
and deeply singular. So, for the past 2'OOO
wears there must have been very general and
sustained curiosity about minor phases OF IIle
supreme Tragedy-Calvary. Reaching, yearn-
ing. to get close, and closer, one instinctiveiy
reenhodies the full scene The hH, the
planted crosses SO ptifully burdened, the people,
the hushed life the brooding air. Reluctantly
and secretly as if doing wrong, one looks at the
two one on either side of Jesus, and wonders,
sorfuwfully about them. Who were tney!
What had they done? Were they real male
factors? Were they there to add TO the lgnom-
inv of Jesus? Or, was this simply execution
day according to the law OF the land as II Is IN
our own jails and prisons? These questions we
have asked over and over. Again and again
have we rebuilt the scene, usually in secret.
Manuel Komrof dares to bring the matter
into the open. DareS to make theme OF these
two criminals who gained undying names-not
for their wickedness however monstrous that
may have been, may not have been. But gained
lasting fame. instead by virtue OF their great
companion in atonement. AS it, maybe, some
subtle essence of extenuation passed from his
own innocence across to them.
Having dared to make this particular pair OF
malefactors his theme, Komrof goes away back
to their beginnings, to their youngish and
younger years. One, man grown when ne
enters the story. The other, q lad. From that
moment Manuel Komroff works in his true
character as exact recorder Of events and pc
RODS As prime historian. As dramatist adj
venturer and romancer, besides History,
drama, romantic adventure, in q blend Of inter-
weaving that must satisfy an artist as 1t so
clearly is bound to enthran and convince read
erS of high and exacting demand.
Jerusalem and the desert land roundabout.
This the setting of the great story. Here the
colors and tones and shadings OF native lie,
deepened or muddied or blurred by the tyran-
mics of the Roman overheard The daily run
of existence-habits of work, food, sleep, rest,
habits not so good, gained through efforts to
cheat or to circumvent alien rulers. Nights OF
Jerusalem Days in the desert with rest spots
Of palm and water for camel and man. Great
undertakings of building under pressure upon
the laborers nconceivable inexactions OF
cruelty and venom. great place for the nur-
ture OF wickednesS and raScality Of every sort.
From such setting Komroh draws the twin
wrongdoers OF this tale Infinite work has gone
into It's conception and projection. Pick out from
the multiplicity of its details any one of them.
Test it by your own study and reading. Call in
the neighbor next door to help. 1t stands every
time. And that Is intellectually fine. Fine, as
art, I mean. Considerable as history, too.
Though the second is less vital. Since we DO
not learn from the past. But, as an artist who
must have the harmony that lies in actualitieS,
as Q pure painter Of one single symphony drawn
from . period, from an EMMANUEL Komron
has created more simply, even better because OF
this, than he did in that absorbing and mas
terry "coronet.'
ST. vTTUS DAY. BY Stephen Graham, au-
thor of THE Way Of Martha and the Way
of Mary" etc. New York: D. Appleton &
Co.
THE curious, and the complAiners IN a family
skeptical key, might have very good time
collecting from history the number of Saints
DAYS" upon which enmities and conspiracieS
have exploded in murder, in massacre even,
and In swift-following war itself. History IS
spotted with such names and events. Yet, IN
fact, there is sound implication against re-
ligion, any religion, in these happenings
Rather do such dates. by way Of their as
sembages and ceremonies and excitements, pro-
vide opportunity for carrying out long-cherished
designs against this or that hated person or
institution.
case in point stephen Grahams admir-
able "St Vitus Day" This the day at
Sarajevo in 1914. when Archduke Ferdinand
was murdered by Gavro PTincip. st. Vitus day,
the great national festival day of the Serbans,
day Of remembrance and vengeance, from the
battle Of Kossovo on down. A national ferment
that naturally produces political martyrs. Young
Princip, enc of these. He knew exactly what
would come TO him. 1t did come, speedily.
Today Princip is held high by his countrymen.
"St Vitus Day" a pure historical romance,
Celebrates in detail that which goes into the
making CT political martyrs. Here in the Near
East Under slightly other externals, in the
Far East of anywhere else. This romance gees
along step by step with the growth of that
fatal conspiracy that fired the second shot
heard round the world" The conditions Of
life under foreign depostism, the daily hurnili-
ations breeding resentment, hatred, and viii
for reyenoe-when the time came We get the
story of this young man. this Prncip. story
whose outcome is forecast from the influences
under which ne came to young manhood And
by way of this we get also the full pattern Of