The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 5

4 THE BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE. NEW YORK. SATURDAY. APRIL IS. 102'.

BARREN SOIL A FERTILE GROUND FOR NOVELS OTHER BOOKS UP FROM EGYPT 1 RASPBERRY GARLANDS AND BAY LEAVES The Paper Knife Dibble Has John L. Stripped, and What A Big Bum He Was! Simon Kent, Scout, Offers Thrills to Youthful Scouters -By RUTH HALE- fi IM Ellen Glasgow Writes a Long and Beautiful Book About Virginia and a Woman "Arrowsmith" Reconsidered. Scott Fitzgerald Spins a Yarn and Ring Lardner Does a "Clip Book." T-kERHAPS Ellen Glasgow's newest book. BarrenGround." published by Doubleday-Paje. will be treasured by the few and neglected.

by This cartoon, showinff Lord Nelson with the French fleet in tow. was considered snappy staff in the 18th century. From "The Nl Side of British History," by Geoffrey Callender (Little, Brown). Riding Range on Publishers' Grazing Grounds Spots Good And Bad for Reader's Roundup the many. It is, I think, by far the best book she has ever done and one of the beat ever done by anybody, but, even so, And myself trembling for Us fate.

It Is so long, so detailed, so faithful to all the minute things which, In the end, make it true and important Its emotional cast is Spartan, or. to borrow Miss Glasgow's phrase, Presbyterian. The lovely lady who Is its heroine is a Covenanter caught In the tolls and her life, however exhilarating in its loftier aspects, is actually drudging and unloved. It is as true. I believe, as any book ever written.

It is as true by the findings of Oliver Cromwell as it Is by. those of Slgmund Freud. But never, never, in one single line, is there an actual moment of Joy In It if one except that fugitive ecstasy with which the girl watched the unfolding of her blue nun's veiling dress, brought from Richmond by the country dressmaker. A life lived heroically against the most disastrous odds, lived successfully against actual and traditional odds, is a beautiful thing and should be a warm, exciting thing. It should be, and it isn't.

Miss Glasgow has done superbly the story of a life which has every virtue nnd no Joy. It Is, I think, 'a story which should be done over and over again we should all have our noses rubbed In It we should be forced by Just such power as Ellen Glasgow has to admit finally that good works are not enough. Already and, for that matter, since the beginning our unconscious selves have demanded Joy, vigor, gaiety. The human soul has a hard row to hoe. It takes up Its individual burden with Just about the following as Its precept: What you want you may sometimes, by fortuitous accident, have, but, mind you, it will bo bad for you and you must remember that, what with totem and taboo, with civilization and the ecclesiastical and traditional virtues, you will always be making war against yourself.

Half of you will be true and sure and magnificent the half that lies deepest and that you most love. But you are not yet living In a world which has the simple courage to believe In the true part of you. Tou are not yet even the Inheritor of that simple courage for yourself. Tou must suffer and suffer and suffer, so that, before you know It, "you will have followed tne ancient way and made of your sufferings great, dignified, noble virtues and In that rarefied delusion you will die. -By GEORGE B.

Talks Things Over Proves He's as Old as He GEORGE BERNARD SHAW made a practice of sayins obvious things several yearn before It occurred to other people to say them. Consequently he Is supposed to he the Peck's Bad Boy of modern letters, and this Is an error. Granting that he knows all about writing plays and has a consistent standard of wit to camouflage his other writings, so that tho thoughtless may take them "seriously, the time appears to have arrived at last wher may begin to call him a tiresome old man. For years he has been baldly challenging the world to produce a man clt-verer than he. For years the world has been afraid to take up his challenge.

But a long siege of a bad stomach and a faith in a vegetarian diet have called him to an accounting. 'If he Is often the first victim of his own sense of humor, If his destination is often the House of Mirth Instead of the Palace of Truth, if he Is often Impractical in his proposals and fantastic In his criticisms, he never lacks the cardinal virtue of being stimulating, provoc ative, comments Arthur Henderson in his foreward to "Table-Talks of O. B. 3.," recorded by himself (Harper Brothers). And that is Just the trouble.

Shaw has said for so long a period that his public is composed of empty heads and idiots afflicted with arrested development that his. public has come to believe it, with the result that Mr. Shaw is getting careless. That Is too bad. YOU will get a lot of fun out of "Table-Tall out you won't get much information or food for Improving whatever stock of human Ideas you may now possess.

And since Oeorge Bernard Shaw poses as a philosophical dramatist, one must conclude that these scattered snatches of rather smart conversation are In a sense his second childhood. When he says: "The pornographic novel appeals to a want which literature cannot supply. It offers a hungry man a description of dinner," ho is In his old facetious form. But when we catch him snickering over something like this: aiy opportunity was 18 months before the war, when I showed how it might have been averted. I cannot help governments if they will not listen to me, on have not the strength of mind to act on my very mild suggestions," then, I suspect, we have an' old man cutting dldos before his public like the slick young freshman home from college, advising his father how to mismanage the family business.

This matter of being unable to refrain from ehowlng -oft to an amazed audience some day is goinir to prove Mr. Shaw's Waterloo. Not that his public will gain In Intelligence. That ia too much to hope fpr. But it Is clear that he really is growing careless and eventually somebody is bound to discover that B.

has been spoofing the whole crowd. If Mr. Shaw is lucky enough to die before this happens, he will, of course, become one of the Immortals. But it will be an accident, for it Is clear that he goes along in his mad, reckless way, se- JUST ECHOES France Frederick's Book of Poemi Just Off the Prei. Price $1.50 Ask Your Nearest Bookseller for It.

ABRAHAM In of a I to ELLEN GLASGOW has told flawlessly the story of a woman who poured out all of her emotional self unreservedly to the man whom she believed would answer In kind and in degree. He did not so she betook herself away to heal the wounds. She did not heal them, but she did what nil of us do, in default of knowing how to do better, she covered them over. Never again In all her life did she covering scar. She pretended that It wasn't there.

She walked In a great circle around her life, with her face always turned from the center. She married; she made a fine financial success of her life; she became, as the phrase goes, a "philosopher" In other words, she became finally so expert In dealing with her tragedy that there was never a pang that she could not talk herself out of. She lived 30 years in outward know what to do about this great tragedy of her youth yet I know printed page than of that day when lover, wondering if he had life left hear. conscious indifference to the emotional of no more poignant passage on any she watched by the death of her lost enough to tell her what she wanted to CURR1E- With Arthur Henderson ani Ought to Be at His Age. renely confident that a veretab' diet will make him last forever.

snys. in explaining his rudd' cneeKs: "I look my sue. and I am age. It is the other people mhd look older than they are. What rani you expect from people who eat corpses and drink spirits? Lest this result in a stampede to Wallabout Market for bargains in lettuce and spinach, with a resultant blow to the business of great Chicago packers, let me add that ha also nays: "The property master in any theater can construct a carrot good enough for a stare donkey, and any literary craftsman can construct a sham play good enough for the donkeys in the front of the house." Of -which might be said: What can you expect from a person who dines on salads and drinks watered milk? APPARENTLY Arthur Henderson has purposely made his questions so that the Shavian answers come back as the sayings of some modern Marcus Aureltus: something of the sort occurred "Table-Talk," with a possible damage to Mr.

Shaw's reputation. An a coiner of epigrams, the man who was cariraV in "The Sacrificial Goat" is liV to rank abo" all others now -ent In Twentieth Century. it lend themselves poorly to coherency and even Shaw himself would hardly claim there is inythlnil co herent in "Table-Talks." MfK'i however, can be forgiven a titan who can put the movies In their place with this: "If one has the gift language, asking one to write a dumb show is rather like asking Titian to paint portraits in black and white." He threatens to write movie. In spite of his complete contempt for the Industry. On astronomy he is no less vehement.

"A man's sense of humor should be sufficient to prevent him from believing that our neighbor, the sun, so close to us that a cloud between us can make the difference between a hot dav and cold one, la 93.000,00.0 miles off, or even 93,000. have no patience with such fol lies." His defense of this wauUl probably be that it Is no more nonsensical than theories of other times. There is a little something about practically everything in the "Talks." in the grand Shavian manner. You will find the book amusing, even though it adds not a cubit the great man's stature. He is still the school teacher and we are his pupils.

The only hitch lies in the fact that he has been teaching us for thirty-odd years without making us learn anything. ARE YOUR FRIENDS SAILING ON THE Brooklyn Eagle's FOREIGN TOUR? Give them books from the Things Seen Series von London By A. H. BI.k $1.50 The Riviera Rich.rd.oo. $1.50 Florence By E.

Crienon $1.50 Italian Lakes -By Mrs. R.gg 1 .50 Venice--By F. Loiudale and, Laura Ragg $1.50 Send for our catalogue, "Seeing the World in Books" or call and examine our complete stock of travel books E. P. Dutton 681 5th N.Y, STRAUS Way of the etc Last Hope Ranch by CHARLES ALDEN SELTZER DEATH closed over him before he could speak.

The habit of years reasserted itself In the amazing woman and she became, almost at once, the efficient, brilliant, dominating creature she had made of herself. She went to this funeral and she did not cry. She came home with her stepson and she said that all the beauty and dignity of life still lay before her, There would be her usefulness, her wisdom, left to her, now By AUNT JEA.V. OCCASIONALLY a book conies to my notice that requires special comment. Such a book is "Simon Kenton, the Scout." by Jane Corby, published by Thomas Y.

Crowell and illustrated In colors by H. L. Hastings. The reviews on this page are usually of interest to the adult reading public, but this announcement is made to the younger generation, that a surprise and delight Is In store for them within the pages of this book. Jane Corby needs no introduction to Eagle readers, nor to tho literary world.

Her first book, "Davy Crockett," waa published recently enough to be recalled with pleasure, and her charming jingles and proso writings have delighted thousands of boys and girls who are readers of The Junior Eagle, of which sne is the editor, and it is to them especially that attention is called to Hie exciting Indian story from Miss Corby's pen. The story is founded on fact Simon Kenton Is an historic figure In this tale of frontier life during the Revolution, a boy filled witti the enthsulasm of youth to accomplish big deeds, and when given the opportunity he enters into a round of adventures that thrill and excite, the reading of which will excite envy In the boys of today. Indians are no longer on the trail in these regions. The movies show them In war paint and feathers and looking very savage, but if met with in real life they would undoubtedly be found to be products of civilization and show no desire to shoot or in any way molest their white brothers. A group viB-Ited the Children's Department of The Eagle recently, a part of a circus, and as it was my desire to present a cunning little Indian boy with a doll, I went through many motions and pantomime to make my wishes known to the father, who was in full regalia of war paint ind feather headdress.

He finally put a stop to my antics by saying, in perfect English, "We shall be delighted to accept' the doll, Aunt Jean." There's nothing like that in "Simon Kenton the Scout." From the beginning of the book, where Simon Kenton quarrels with William Veach, the son of a neighbor, there is a succession of thrilling events, as the characters go over the mountains, through the woods, wage war, make perilous Journeys in the open country beyond the Alleghanles, daring rescues and many appealing personal touches. Such is the book depicting one general theme, and so accurate is the author that each character stands clear, lifelike and unforgettable. Perhaps the chief charm of the book will be found for children, especially boys, in the scouting and hunting expeditions, descriptions of the life and customs of the times and in the boy Simon, who knew Daniel Boone and George Rogers Clark and other mid-Western pioneers. The author's ability to see through the eyes of children has already given her an enduring fame. If you have enjoyed the Indian stories of Cooper, here is one written by a modern author which has the same general theme.

POETRY AND JUST POEMS "BEST POEMS OF 1924," edited by Thomas Moult (Harcourt, Brace Co.) "ONCE IN A BLUE MOON," by Marion Strobel (Harcourt, Brace Co.) By LOUS RICHARD THOMA. THERE is much to be said in the favor of anthologies of modern poets, the least of which is that they present new material in a most acceptable fcrm. Music critics all know what it is to listen to an evening of Beethoven, or an afternoon of Chopin, or a performance of a Wagner opera, In like manner, the reading of a volume of poetry by an Individual, be he Aus-lander or Mark Van Doren cr Robert Frost, is, to this reviewer, a most depressing task. If there be anything to be found too often in this world of books, it Is too much of a good thing. What we need is more anthologies with a greater variety of inclusions.

Thomas Moult is to be congratulated. He has performed his task well. While we deplore the absence of several favorite poems, we realize that his choice is the task of one man, and a catholic taste it is too, with a liking that leans, perhaps, toward dramatic verse rather than lyrical. His selections include quite notable things by English and American poets. The Sitwells are there, praise be to Thomas Moult! and and Lord Alfred Douglas and a great diversity of others, all of whose contributions will stir your Imaginations, although you may not like them all.

and we predict a fascinating evening for you if you are a lover of the finest modern poetry. We hope this book will become a permanent annual and already we eagerly await Mr. Moult's volume for 1925. For Miss Stroebel we cannot say much. She displays no originality, no lyrical quality and evidently tins no sense of the dramatic.

Her work has neither solidity nor depth. It appeals neither to the mind nor to the emotions. There are words written on a page, that Is all. We are triad that a book such as hers Lappears only once In a blue moon. "THE SPRITE, THE STORY OF A ItKD FOX," by Ernest Harold Bavnes (Mrcmillan Company, New York).

Possibly no one before the reading public todnv, or in times past, hna a more intimate knowledge of animals, of their lives, their loves anil their hates than Mr. Baynes. In this he Is most ably assisted by his talented wife. This true story of a red fox Is one that at once appeals to one by Its clever handling of a diffi cult subject the Inner life and na- true nf so sly and crnfly a little animal as this fellow proves to be. The Shepherd of Eternity And Other Poems By EVA GORE-BOOTH A ren of spirit unl tfMrns tirhier mich hfftdlnKH a In Prutite of The AnsWriM) Prnyr.

Thn Vondi-rful Hour. To a Little Hoy. PulMt-r nf lUinboTVB, The HliMen Huiuty, etc. Crown 8vo. Net $1.50 Applied Philosophy By C.

Y. C. DAWBARN "Wo rf1 It through to tho end, and have pltfod it nmonic tho non-etupptra tho author iinn mature In our opinion, he ban a vry hrond, true rutturw, drop vMn of human 'x-perlenco, a wise and hopeful outlook." Thorium L. Mflnnon In tho At 10 York Ttmvn. Crown 8vo.

S'et SI.75 Longmans, Green Co. 55 Fifth Avenue New York AddrctB frrpnrtmrnt for fitting to rr-ci're announnmtt. By NCNNALLY JOH.VSOX. p.P. DIBBLE'S biography of 1 "John L.

Sullivan" (Little, Brown Co.) Is the life story of the most notable fat-head that ever lived In America. If you can believe all that has been told and written of Sullivan, and there isn't a single contradiction to it anywhere, he was probably as terrible a person to know as ever walked the face if this earth. In all of the Dibble record or tne word-of-mouth rec-V n-A 1 A 1 mm. orings mm, a Titan, down to 1925, he never said a word, he never had a thought, he neyer gave a single sign that was less than nauseating except to the kind of people who would not find what Sullivan had to say nauseating. Jim Tully, himself a prizefighter at tne time and not a man to be asphyxiated by the gas that surrounds Sullivan's memory, said in a review of this book recently that Jack Dempsey could have knocked John L.

Sullivan's block off. That's fine. For Dibble's work is an unsentimental, intelligent gathering together of what he could find about Sullivan. He set out to work on a figure tf almost fabulous memory. The whole Sullivan record, his Jolly practice of smashing people in the Jaw, his endless boasting and preaching, his barroom guzzling, his advertised conversion to prohibition at a time when another drink would have put him in his grave, his indecent hypocrisy about his marital troubles, which he Justified in pious cries cf persecution beyond human endurance the entire1 mass, as shoddy a career as a man could have, was hallowed and colored and, by some strange means, made fascinating and adorable to a whole race of box-fight lovers.

Out of this confusion of Idolatry in its mcst Imbecile form, Dibble extracted all of the facts he could, divested them of their pathologically affectionate draperlles, and laid them out without comment. No comment' was necessary. It was through absolute ldelity to fact that Ring Lardner made "The Golden Wedding" a very moving story. It has been through unadorned, or almcst unadorned, fact that Dibble 'has made "John L. Sullivan" a noteworthy story.

Ocasionally, unable to repress himself apparently, he waxes a little ironic, offers a point to this or that episode; but mostly this Isn't necessary. When on one occaslcn he addressed an. audience in the classic city of Boston thus, no pointing of a moral Is needed: "This is the only real country In the world. China is bigger, that don't matter. It takes all the good in one hundred Chinamen to make one bad American; and besides, they don't knew what to eat." Sullivan's life seems an open but somewhat confusing book.

He was a bruiser from the start, a man who never lost; always he won or, infrequently, got a draw. He was forever lashing out with his coarse tongue, threatening socks on the Jaw, and cleaning out barrocms. He wanted to fight anybody and everybody. He was as sentimental as an old woman, and wept for himself and sobbed over every idol set up. He was a grand-stand player and a show-off.

He was a truculent citi zen, with a head swollen unbearably large, witn a conceit past standing, and the courage and audacity of a moron so lew in Intelligence as not to feel anything but superiority. (He horned into everything, Into every field, and throughout his lifetime suffered or rather made a nation suffer through an hallucination of cerebral greatness. In his old age he" was a space-grabber and a deliverer of opinions on every subject. He was garrulcus and tedious, obstinate and malicious, a fearful old wreck of a booze-hound. This much Is not news, nor was it news when Dibble put it down.

But not much more was known, nor ran much more be learned through Dibble's work. He it seems, to uncover anything not already public property, but he renders a great service In stripping the news of its bouquets and perfume and honey, tributes from a vast generation of peculiar idolaters, and setting Sullivan down "for what he was which was not much beyond an anlmallsh ability to punish. Thus there is no figure of life projecting from "John L. Sullivan." He is the same old John, a bruiser and a boozer, a caricature of a tough. Brooklyn's Best Sellers The appended list is an actual composite scoring list, based on reports of this week's sales from Abraham Straus, Miss Adams' Book Shop, Frederick Loeser Rodgers' Book Stores, Ross' Book Store, T.

B. Ventres and A. R. Worn-rath: Fiction. "Tho Constant Nymph" (24), Kennedy; "Arrowsmith" (26), Lewis; Harcourt, Brace.

Soundlncs" (11). A. H. Gibbs; Little. Brown.

"Love" (5), Double- day-Pape. "Reckless Lady" (6), P. Potts; Macmlllan. Non-Fiction. "Twice-Thlity" (14), Bok; Scribner.

"Life of Christ" (9)Papinl; Har-court. Brace. "When We Were Very Young" (9), Milne; Putton. "Illlteiate Digest" (S), W. Rogers; Putnam.

"Mirrors of New York" (5), B. De Casseres; Lawren. "Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge" (5); Scribner. "Ariel" (6) Maurols; Appleton. Five (5) points are credited to each first place on a list; four (4) for second, three (8) for third, two (2) for fourth and one (1) for fifth.

For the Jazz-Jaded To the reader of reflective temperament who, grown a little weary of tho Jazzy tempo of much latter-day writing. 1m In search of more se rious mental nourishment, we heart ily recommend V. J. Dawson "Autobiography of a Mind" (The Century Company). The book is exactly what Its title implies, an authentic record of the development of a thoughtful man's mind, the deductions drawn from a lifetime of Intimate acquaintance with books and men.

And it is a cultivated and phlosophtc mind, too, uncannily observant and understanding, and keenly attuned to the pilch of things. Moreover, the volume Is couched in a prose which Is truly beautiful, of a rare simplicity, never obscure, and which preserves always a delightful harmony and niceness nf balance. Its rhythmic cadences are in places reminiscent of nothing so much as Lamb's best essays. A gentle melancholy pervades its pages the spirit of Is sober but not somber, serious but never oppressive. In tliort, an eminently readable and worthwhile book which will be caviare to the shallow-minded and superficial hut will be much appreciated by the person of thoughtful Inclinations.

MIC HAUL SCIIUR. i greater than ever. -i. Now all of this Is true there Is no happiness without wisdom and usefulness. But those must flow from Joy and fulness of living or they are sterile.

It is true that Ellen Glasgow called her book "Barren Ground." but I feel that the title came more from her burled knowledge than from any that she exposed. She knows the great waste lands of Virginia, the neglected, overused earth, which the native Virginians are too obstinate to refresh' by alternating uses. She knows that broomsedge claims Jt first, then pine and life everlasting. Her saga of the woman was also the saga of the misused, land. But seemed to feel at the end of the book that she confused a redemption to usefulness with a full redemption and, because of that lack, I feared thai, magnificent as her story was.

It would fail to exalt or comfort us. perhaps, however, she was right and I am wrong and, If that is true, 'Barren Ground" will be widely and gratefully read. 88 Dudley Rets the fortune, mammas t-nd designing misses make for him. His long platonic friendship for Janet Harvey is disrupted. She may or may not have expected eventually to marry him, but aroused by the competition, to save him from himself and the designing damsels, she enters the lists and of course wins.

As the author says, "It took tho monkey a long time to turn into man, but it takes no time at all for him to become a monkey." Without trying to be heavy, the novel achieves greater worth and charm than many a pseudo-serious volume filled with little pretension to literature. Deft and sure, the author of "The Judgment of Paris" has Judged aright his style and kept it well In contact with his theme. THE GREAT ADVENTURE By D. H. VERDER.

A BOOK by so eminent an authority on Artio discoveries ns Vilhjalmur Stefansson can but be hailed by all lovers of adventure. If his books remind one of the writings of Daniel Defoe, they have this advantage, that they are the chronicles of actual adventurous happenings. Some critics would find in "The Adventure of Wrangel Island" (Macmlllan) the flavor of a Conrad novel. The first question that will occur to any one hearing of this new book by Stefansson is "Where is Wrangel Island?" It is a fair-sized island between Alaska and Siberia. Even to think of visiting the island makes me shiver think of spending a winter there! Stefansson tells us in the preface that he himself has spent ten winters in the Arctic regions.

But ho did not take part in the adventures related in this book. He remained further south, while four young friends of his, Galle, Crawford, Knight and Maurer, went to popularize Wrangel Island. Let me quote a bit from the diary of young Knight: "October 25 Everything comes to him who waits or goes after it. At 7 a.m. the dogs set up a howl.

Crawford rushed out, and about a hundred feet west of the tents stood a female bear and two cubs. Crawford, in seven shots, killed them. The cubs proved to be yearlings." Knight had the sourvy. "February 10 Feeling porrly today. I can see that I cannot go away from camp and unless a bear walks in there is small chance of one.

for the woman cannot be trusted with my rifle. She is easily excited and knows nothing about a gun. This Is the only rifle we have. She went Barret Willoughby, author of "Rocking Moon" (Putnam'), hat pioneered in Alaska and to hat written a vigorous tal of the North. to the traps today and saw only one fresh track.

In the meantime all I cart do Is to eat all the blubber possible. Come on, bear!" All four young explorers lost their lives on this expedition. They were brave, courageous fellows, and thought they were doing a service to their country and fellowmen in finding out more about a desolate region. Wrangel Island, thaf had 6en discovered by the Brltlfh but r.ever colonized by any one. Lusty young men love such adventures and always will.

Burning blood would be tempered by howling gales and long pilgrimages through the regions of Ice and snow; but most of us prefer to read about, not to experience, such rigorous adventures. WINDOWS FACING WEST By Virginia 'MacFadyen The biography of a beautiful and successful mistress Third printing $2.00 ALBERT CHARLES BONI, NEW YORK A La Jack London. SPOOKS, clues, mysterious voices, gruesome murders, lonely bouses, disguises and every other element that a detective story with any self-respect should have, are In "A Voice From the Dark," by Eden Phllpotts (Macmlllan Company). A child Is slowly tortured to death through fright. Two women boarding in the same house tell the story to a world famous detective, John Rlngrose, who was trying to take a vacation and write a book of his life, after he has heard mysterious childish shrieks in his room at night.

Rlngrose starts on a hunt for the murderers, the aristocratic principal and his servant accomplice. He applies the psychology of fear to the servant but has to use subtler methods with the more intellectual principal. There are thrills enough in the story to satisfy the most abject detective-yarn fiend. The denouement is not unexpected, but the steps by which Rlngrose accomplishes his end and brings the murderer to Justice keep the reader in the delightful suspense that is the fascination of good detective tales. It is a battle of wits, equally keen in quality, with the villain losing but proving himself a game sport In defeat, Stories Mislabeled.

The short stories by Richard Con-nell gathered into the book named "Variety" (Minton, Balch Co.) are the paler fruits of prosperity. Lately a writer able to turn out such a sharp and clever Btory as "A Friend of Napoleon," he Is in this collection a writer turning out slender Insignificances. Somehow the irony that was his has been mollified to a great extent, and the teeth have been drawn from his satire. There's not much kick left. It Is, of course, an audacious thing to label stories as he has these this one "a satiric story," that one "a sentiment story," this one "a comic story," that one "a cynical story." One is inclined to retort that, by some standards, "Big Lord Fauntle-roy" is not comical in the least, that it is, on the contrary, an exasperat-lngly incomplete story, unsatisfying, and without that bottom of plausibility that stories of this type demand.

"Neighbors" is, on the other hand, a cynical story, but the cynicism is much more ostentatious in this version than it was in DeMau-passant's more notable version, "A Piece of String," or even In DeMau-passant's later versions of his own first idea. Moreover, there is a challenge in the author's own classification of stories, a provocation to disagreement, an objection to such gratuitous explanations. Somehow the idea rounds as though Connell had read Ring Lardner's burlesque introduction to "How to Write Short Stories" nnd taken it seriously. How to Run Faster Practical training methods of competitive track and field events are set forth in careful detail, with excellent numerous illustrations. In "Track and Field," by T.

E. Jones, physical director of the University of Wisconsin, published by Scrlbner's. The book's sub-title is aptly descriptive, being "Principles and Dotails of Training and Practice for Each Event," and in turn the author takes up fundamentals, the sprints, the quarter-mile, the half-mile, relay racing, one-mile and two-mile runs, cross country running, walking, steeplechasing, hurdle races, running high Jump, standing broad Jump, running broad jump, pole vault, shot put, the discus, javelin throw, hammer, and notes on preparation for a track meet. While Mr. Jones' book Is Intended primarily for youths, it presents the technical points of track anil field work with great thoroughness, so that old-timers may find a tip or two of worth on their events also.

To the lad Just, entering upon an athletic career it is bound to be of most valuable it Ih a thoroughly practical manual that wastes no time with generalities, but goes at once to the point, describing euch event well and concisely. Dudley Decides Newspaper cartoonists, close to the life that people live, not the life that Is talked about or gets into print, are fond of depleting stupid men with the imprint of a heavy boot on appropriate parts of their anatomies. That Is what the reader feels like imprinting on Dudley Build, hero of "The Judgment of Paris," the novel by Carleton Kemp Allen, published by Dodd, Mead. But on pausing one discovers that sTthe arousal of this feeling is but part of the skill with which the author keeps up the reader's Interest. As page after page slips by, and Dudley Budd is guided safely-over one obstacle after another by tho heroine and by his able lawyer friend, Interest mounts and mounts.

Finally, of course, Dudley paddles his own canoe, ami makes progress on his own In a circle. To be more specific, the plot is this: Dudley's uncle, scion of a cast-off branch of a fine old family, born nnd raised poor, falls for the money bug. He goes to America, discovers a compound that he can sell, returns to England, (he scene of the book, and comes out with "Fudd's Pills Take One and See." He dies wealthy, leaving his money to Dudley soon after the story opens. Dudley Is lair, fat and foolish, living well in a cozy coma with moss over his brain. He hates to be disturbed a lot of money.

The judgment of Paris, It may be recalled, was to decide on the best of all presentable maidens. As soon THE Paper Knife has a complaint from a fairly constant reader that in reviewing ''Arrowsmith" I did altogether too much talking about Sinclair Lewis and "Main Street" and "Babbitt," and altogether too little shout "ArrowBmitm" That is, as I remember, a Just complaint, and a "little something ought to he done about It, more so because "Arrow-smith," considered minutely, has many exasperating by-products which, inless one is warned of them in advance, may estrange a friend disastrously soon. "Arrowsmith" is, I think, a tremendously important book, because it is a hymn to a superb and Increasing quality, in American life the ftoneer spirit which is so true and so complete. In those who have it that they cannot even conceive of the possibility of betraying It. Martin Arrow-smith was one of these, a dedicated man, whom nothing could deflect, for long, from his appointed end.

He wanted to be a doctor a great doctor. He began as an apprentice Jn tho ofllce of an old doctor In his little town. He could be found almost liny day poring over Gray's "Anatomy." He went on, then, to a medical school, to a period of small-town practice, to sclentiflo research, to a gigantic battle against a plague in a Caribbean island, through the enervating time of a wealthy marriage and great success, to a remote camp In the North Woods where, with a fellow scientist, he shut out the world and beleaguered himself with a laboratory. Books for the Gardening Season (Garden Week, April 19 to 26) Start gardening now! You will find these Books of genuine help in cultivating and improving your be it large or small. THE LITTLE GARDEN FOR LITTLE MONEY $1 71 By KATE L.

BREWSTEK VARIETY IN THE LITTLE GARDEN By FRANCIS KING PLANNING YOUR GARDEN SI 71 By W. S. ROGERS GARDENING WITH BRAINS S2 45 By HENRY T. FLICK A. S.

BOOK SHOP Mezzanine, East. NOW, anybody who reads "Arrowsmith" with any Intention of being moved by other persons in the book besides Martin himself and the wonderful Leora will find an abundance of things therein to stir him to exasperation. There is hardly anybody in the book, besides these two, who are not caricatures. Lewis' gift for lampooning had begun to run away with him long since, and If "Arrowsmith" had not been redeemed by its central portrait, it would have been nothing but a testimony of complete collapse. But, however over-elaborate, however burlesque the background and the fellow actors, Arrowsmith is himself a great person, and Sinclair Lewis has written him so that you cannoffail to understand him.

Lewis has loved once, and become eloquent. For my part it seems to make not the slightest difference' how many little choking hates clutter the surroundings. Even the amoeba survived by knowing how to spit out all the and that wasn't nourishing. By th author of "The SCOTT FITZGERALD Is a strange little bird. I can't make head or tail of him.

I did not read "This Side of Paradise" until I had had my head talked off about it, so that it fell a little short of what I had been led to expect, through no fault of Mr: Fitzgerald's. In order to set myself straight about him, I read all his other books the moment they came out, and they did seem to me to be torrlble. Now I have Just read "The Great Gatsby," published by Sc'rlbner's, with a note on the book Jacket to the effect that "lt'ls a magical, living book, blended of irony, finance and mysticism." Well, of course, I suppose the Scribner Jacket-writer wants to sell as many books as he can, othorwlse I swear I would think he had gone completely mad. Find me one chemical trace of magic, life, irony, romance or mysticism in all of "Tho Great Gatsby" and I will bind myself to read one Scott Fitzgerald book a week for the rest of my life. The boy is simply puttering around.

It Is nil right as a diversion for him. probably. He does, obviously, like to use hlfaluttn words and hifalu-tlner notions to concoct these talcs. There may be those who like to read him. But why he should be called an author, or why any of us should behave as If he were, has never been explained satisfactorily to me.

I "HE latest novel by the author who is considered by many the most interesting contriver of Western storiea now writing. Mr. Seltzer has a long list of cow-country novels to his credit, and he is immensely popular not only here but in England and Australia. This story centers upon a man haunted by an ac cusing conscience, who with his daughter retreat to a lonely ranch, his last hope, seeking hard work and for-getfulness. Peace flees from the ranch upon his and he and his daughter are involved in a whirlwind of fighting.

One of Mr. Seltzer's very best. Price $2.00 THE CENTURY 353 Fourth Avenue. New York. THE new Ring Lardner collection called "What of It," and published by Scrlbner's, Is hard to describe, but not In the least difficult to recommend.

It Is made up of odds and ends of his stuff printed or acted elsewhere already, but Lardner always thrives on the second time around. It has In every part of It the sardonic, tragl-comlc spirit which Is King Lardner. Go and buy It, keep It, and read It to your grandchildren..