Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-05

it's serenity. of q philosophy older than ours,
maybe wiser than ours. Hwa Wei Ling seems
an inseparable part of such beauty and such
austere self-posSession.
HILLTOP BY Evelyn Miller Pierce New
York: Alfred H. King.
THE Texan nowadays Is stepping out into
literature. The ripening time, it seems
for passionate love of the Lone Star, of deep
admiration for it, of a natural desire ito tell
the world about it, Right on the heels of
"Coronado'S Children" comes another Texas
Hilltop" a first novel, whose setting
drifts back to railroad-building days, to land
DoomS and the other big dreams of settling
the West. In respect to being of the soil itself,
of having it in her blood, Mrs. Pierce has
written local novel From every other point
the story might have been laid-well in
WeedSport or Elkhart or Cedar Rapids Land
scapes change, but the human remains the
same. So in this little Texas town there was
a North Side and South Side. Amy Light
foot was girl from the South Side and her
mother was-never mind her mother The
combination, however, was fatal to Amy. For
just as the world over were those North-Siders
cruel, heartless, unSpeakably little, to the girl
who, ambitious, was bound to go to school over
cross. And she did. And she played havoc
with the boy hearts over there, of course.
Much of the trouble sourced in that Such
obstacle set SO Skillfully against her. To be
sure, she was beaten out of the boy she loved.
But she did marry the rich railway promoter
who came that way. And thereafter the
author by the sheer force of good sense saves
almost SaVeS-the matter from becoming fairy
tale on the hand, melodrana on the
other. The ATTITUDES of the day are godsend
to the novelist who can get away-get
away entertainingly, tco-with attitudes and
behaviors that few years ago would have
rejected rixalc rod 70
ers alone. Not greatly overdone, this novel of
Texas, yet the next will trim its corners
and squeeze its bulk, just little Plainly,
credit gees here to art of making the people
come alive. Here is real girl-and such q
girl. One Is genuinely glad that at the end
she is still master of her life still handling it
In her own way. You'll like that girl despite
an impulse to discipline her once in a while
You will like the spread and color of the story
as whole. first novel that has a lot OF
promise for the next one. like it.
MAN IN A BLACK HAT. BY Temple Thurston,
author of "Enchantment" etc. New York:
Doubleday, Doran g. Co.
nULL title-don't you think?--uninsnired
Yet the story itself gives new turn 20
the mystery routine that is beginning to 1T
into its rut like that ducks foot in the mud
An odd fellow, that man under the hat
that he held strange powers something ike
magic over other men and a most curious
working spell upon women And some began
to remember about him-that, for instance
he had not changed shade in youthful looks
since he was at oxford, almost half a CEN
fury before. Something to look into that
Then other things began to happen in his
neighborhood, sinister things like sudden and
mysterious DEATH with its entail of new clues
fresh trails-and starting all over again about
win rfvzo
more OF fresh substance Because this active
and oblig1ng mystery purveyor has enlisted
the black magic of the knights of the Rosy
Cross. lost manuscript of the Rosicrucian
order, one that must at all hazards be
gained, gives some sort of motive to the tale
and provides wheels for its advance from one
terrible situation to another Murder telepathic
power, exercised by the man of mystery to
supplant another and act wickedly, in his
stead; the spirit of this necromancer suf-
ficiently embodied to furnish Incompatible
alibiS as well to effect other weird APP
pearances of diabolic cast So you see 4
the art of the writer measures up to the
canny pattern OF his power of invention, YOU
are bound to have refreshment in the way
OF the detective story. And you will find
just this offered you by Temple Thurston
author Of score of popular novels.
NEW DREAMS FOR OLD By Mary Badger
Wilson. Philadelphia: The Penn Publish
ing Co.
A NOVEL of Washington. A product of
home talent we'll. most engaging
story besides. Clearly. the design here is to
write a novel that tastes of Washington. A
plan to catch the particular SAVIOR of the city
as distinct from that of other American towns
The theme is not Bagdad, as less astute writer's
who set out with it seem to think. The Capt.
tai of the United States instead. Therefore it
tc hot &c
to the role of hero. library attendant be-