Evening Star Newspaper, December 12, 1926, Page 64

: g i THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. 0., DECEMBER 12E 1926—PART 2. Sixteenth Century Carpet to Be Displayed at Corcoran Gallery. Exhibitions of Note—Etchings on View ' BY LEILA MECHLIN. WORLD-tamous animal carpet woven in Persia in the six- ' teenth century, which formerly 7X belonged to the Emperor of {F Austria and is valued, it is said, at/approximately a million dollars, is to; exhibited here in the Corcoran QGallry of Art from December 14 to 18. . This carpet, which was probably given by Peter the Great to the Aus- trian. Emperor, Leopold I, upon hi visit to the Austrian crown in the year 1698, is one of the rarest and finest examples of the Persian art of carpet making in existence. For many years it was a cherished possession in the collection of the Austrian Em- perors and was perhaps esteemed the greatest of that famous collection, which is universally acknowledged to be the finest ever assembled in the ‘Western World. After the overthrow of the Haps- burg family the Emperor’s art treas ures were transferred from his palace at Schonbrunn to the Austrian State Museum and for the first time exhib- ited to the public. In order to endow the museum it was determined to sell one of the fmperial carpets. This was the one chosen for the sacrifice. The sale was sanctioned by the reparations committee and executed under the seal of the British legation. Thus the car- pet became the property at that time of the firm of Messrs. , Cardinal ¢ Harford, London. It is now owned by V. Behar of Glasgow, Scotland, by ‘whom it was lent to the great Persian art exhibit assembled this past season in Philadelphia, from whence it comes here. This carpet measures 25x11 feet in dimensions. Like other of the fine court carpets, the warp and weft are of silk, but the pile is woven in the finest quality of selected wools—wools probably taken from the lamb's breast. For this reason the pile is as lustrous as silk and has deceived not a few. ‘The dyes, likewise, represent the high- est achievement of the dyer's art. As @ writer in a recently published art Journal has said, “Nothing could ever Qim the intense glowing emerald bor- @er, the lusirous ruby of the field.” It is its pattern, design, color and work- manship that give this carpet supreme importance, fabulous value. A British writer, in an article pub- lished in a recent number of Apollo, an astute London art journal, has writ- ten as follows: “The carpet was finished about 1560. It is thus in the zenith of the poetic pelod of Persian textiles, for the weavers then were artists in the true sense of the word, poets in wool and silk and gold, who often worked verses from Haflz into the design they were weaving-—men who took infinite pains, who reckoned time as nothing, whose wants were simple and a few, ‘whose ideals were without limit. “It is Interesting to imagine how the weaver-designer developed his g‘. He had traditions of the past guide P him. First, he mused over a_ deep rose or rul ground, into which any other hues could merge with soft and delicate effect, but yet remain distinct, His eye pictured great, sweeping and thread-like stems on i, and these he wrought into spirals, connecting them with others and making them to blossom into ttes, rosettes and leafy orna- ments of .wonderful beauty in form and color. Larger motifs were put fn their appointed places; Chinese cloud-forms, drawn with vigor; giant leaves inhabited by floral details, and other flowers, half-artichoke, half- pomegranate. * * * A vast host of smaller blossoms, buds and flowers were ‘added, until the ground became a maze of shapes, orderly, though in Wnt confusion~a veritable riot pairs of birds in gay plumage, an- telopes and their kind. After them came the maned lions prowling, or leaping on_ their prey; striped tigers and leopards, jortrayed as if they had been copied from some old Sassanide silk, In the fleld of the carpet as a whole there is an atmosphere of mys- tery—it reveals and it conceals. It is an allegory of the beauty of Aurora in the jungle garden. “This is made plain by a long in- scription which almost fills the first stripe of the border. A ground of the most exquisite vellow, upon which a mflu‘m of thin spiral lines is traced, an ideal setting for the Persian serip. * * * The main stripe of the border has a deep verdant green fleld, upon which is a pattern, repeating in many instances detalls of the orna- mentation of the general rose ground of the carpet. * ¢ ® A narrow out- side stripe repeats the general rose tint in its fleld, and by this binds the panel of the textile to the border, in general effect. The cloud-forms here remind one of their evolution from the Chinese dragon of the sky. ““The carpet was woven for, and used at the court of one of the Sanfid- iap monarchs of Persia, although it may not have been, as tradition avers, woven in Ispahan. A new chapter in its history opens with a journey to Burope as a present from the Shah 10 the- then Czar of Russia. probably at & period when costly gifts of that description might have had some in- fiience on the political history of na- tions. * * * The ‘Emperor's carpet’ 18, Beyond comparison, the most ex- cellent of animal hunting carpets of any period. In the course of the ages it has sojourned in Ispahan, Moscow, Vienna, Schonbrun: d London, and, last of all, America. ‘With reference to this and other great examples of Persian weaving, one 'of our distinguished American landscape painters, Edward W. Red- fleld, is quoted as having said that nothing could exert a more potent beneficent influence on American painting than these, not that they af- ford material for meditation but rather for inspiration. All are agreed that they are great works of art. Fur- thermore, they are growing scarcer each year. No one would dream of using this hunting carpet to tread wupon; those who collect such works hang them on the walls. They are material not for use but providing & feast for the esthetic sense, an im- at the Smithsonian. pears the corner of a scientific chart, showing cubes and other gcomeiric figures. Dr. Stratton looks toward the observer, as though having glanced up from his work. The heaa 18 well modeled, vital and tonvincing from the standpoint of portraiture. This portrait has beeome the property of the Bureau of Standards, and was unveiled with suitable ceremony on December 4. * kR % IN the Winter exhibition of the Na-, tional Academy of Design a paint- ing of “A Mayan Monarch,” by Wil liam Fair Kline of New York. tracting special attention. Mr. Kline writes that he has been greatly as- sisted, not only in the painting of this picture, but in his knowledge of May- an art, by Maj. George Oakley Totten of Washington, author of a sumptu ous book on Maya art. Mr. Kline says: “What I have done with this subject I owe to Maj. Tottén for help on the archeological aspect. He has not only made exhaustive studies, but has shown rare taste and discrimina- ton in bringing, to light the most sig- nificant features of the art of this iittle known people.” Mr. Kline has been specializing for some years in Aztec and Maya eub- jects. “We cannot,” he says, “shut ur eyes to the wonderful possibilities ind inspiring subjects offered by these wncient people.” He has made iuil use of the collections in our Museun nere and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He says: “The end is not attained by merely going out and getting an In- dian to pose, but by searching our mu- seums and libraries and developing the subjects as one feels they should be." Here is a work of art which com- ETCHING OF CREISKER CHAI NORDFELDT. THE WO! is at- own mother and an Interpretation of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London. The methods employed are drypoint, which, as almost every one knows, means a scratching of the plate with- out use of acid; pure etching, which is the result of biting and often re. biting through the medium of acid woodblock prints done in the Japanese method, requiring several blocks, one for each color; and woodblock prints bv the Nordfeldt method, consisting of the use of one block with several colors, After all, how little medium signifies, except to give adequate ex- pression’ to. the artist's conception of beauty,. visnal or imagined. B. J. O. Nordfeldt, etcher, painter and woodblock printer, was born in Sweden April 13, 1878, and was brought to this country when he was 13 years old. He studied first at the Art Institute of Chicago, then in Paris at Julien's Academy. He studied woodblock printing in the Japanese method with F. Morley Fletcher in England. - He has- lived for long periods in France, England, Italy and Sweden, with shorter sojourns in Ger- many and Spain, and one Winter in North Africa. While in Provincetown in 1917 he invented a new method of woodblock printing by which one block could be used for impressions in several colors; This is not done in one printing but in a number, and the effect is quite different from that pro- duced by the use of a series of blotks, Mr. Tolman, chief of the division of graphic arts of the National Museum, under the direction of which these ex- hibitions are assembled and held, quotes_from a recent letter received from Mr. Nordfeldt, as follows: “I was living in Paris when the war broke out, in 1914, came back to Amer- , ST. POL DE LEON, BY B. J. O. RK IS AMONG NORDFELDT’S DRYPOINTS, ‘WOODBLOCKS AND ETCHINGS ON EXHIBITION AT THE SMITH- SONIAN. . bines, in an excellent manner, sclen- tific research with artistic rendition. ‘The painting is pictorial, a record of the past and at the same time broadly and finely painted. * % % % ‘HE exhibition of etchings, dry- points and woodblock prints by B. J. 0. Nordfeldt to be seen at present and all this month in the Smithsonian Building has the virtue of variety as well as merit. The potentialities of four different processes are illustrated and the subjects shown have been found in many parts of the world. For instance, among the etchings there is a group of three architectural subjects characteristic of Chicago — “Bridge Builders,” ‘Coal Crusher and the “Field Columbian Museum. ‘There is a group of four representa- tive scenes in San Franeisco, among which mention may be made of “China- town Shops” and of “The Golden Gate Beach.” There are three Venice subjects and three Paris subjects, four from Brittany, four from Tan- glers; while among the miscellaneous will be noted a portrait of the etcher’s pulse on the part of cotemporary to more beautiful creation. And yet, strange as. it may seem, these great works of art alone must pay duty in order to enter this coun- try. Under the present tariff they are heavily taxed. The reason given is protection of our own carpet. making industries, but the carpet makers themselves have within the last year joined togethgr to ésk Con- to cancel this duty, realizing that there is no competition between the present and the great past, and thet much is to be learned by an exam'nation of such superb speci- merms At the most recent convention of the American Federation of Arts a resvlution was passed indorsing such sotion. It is earnestly to be hoped that it may come to pass. k% X RLES BITTINGER of Boston, formerly of this city, has lately painted an interesting and excellent portrait of Dr. Samuel W. Stratton, former director of the Bureau of Standards, now president of the Mas- sachusetts Institute of Techmnology. The portrait shows Dr. Stratton seated at a covered table on which stand the instruments used In the science in which he has won special the wall back of him, to renown. On ica in the Fall of that year and spent the next few Winters in New York and Summers in Provincetown. In the Spring of 1918 I was sent to San Francisco In charge of the camouflage of ships for that district, and when that work was over, at the end of 1918, I stopped off (supposedly on my way back to New York) to take a brief look at New Mexico—and have been here ever since. This Southwest coun- try is so full of material, both for painting and etching, that I find I have no desire to go back to Europe.” Mr. Nordfeldt is a member of the Chicago Society of Etchers, the Cali- fornia Print Makers Soclety, the Taos Society of Artists, the Santa Fe Arti: and the New Mexico Painter: He represented in the national museu of Christianla, Norway and Sydney, Australia; in the museums of Detroit, Toledo, Chicago, Los Angeles and others, besides which he has received numerous much-coveted awards. * % % % OMER SAINT-GAUDENS, director of fine arts at the Carnegie In- stitute, Pittsburgh, is to deliver an illustrated lecture here in the audi- PORTRAIT OF DR. S. W. STRATTON, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE BUREAU OF STANDARDS, NO PRESIDENT OF THE MASSACHU- SETTS INSTITUTE: OF TECHNOLOGY, PAINTED BY CHARLES BITTINGER AND UNVEILED DECEMBER 4 AT THE BUREAU. torflum of Central High School on ‘Wednesday evening, December 15, on the work of his distinguished father. It was Homer Saint-Gaudens, it will be remembered, who compiled and pre- pared shortly after his father’'s death the “Life and Letters of Augustus Saint-Gaudens.” None so well as he knows the work of this greatest of our American sculpters or the spirit in which it was produced. ‘Washingtonians have much reason to .hold Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ memory sacred because of the service he rendered, without compensation, as a member of the Burnham Park Com- mission, which brought back to life the I'Enfant plan and pointed the way to the beautiful development of Wash- ington, our National Capital; also be- cause we have the privilege of having, here in Rock Creek Cemetery, his masterpiece, the Adams memorial, one of the greatest works of art produced in recent times. Augustus Saint- Gaudens, furthermore, lent enrich- ment to our Nation through the cre- ation of beautiful works in sculpture. He was an indefatigable worker, he was dissatisfled with anything short of perfection; he set a high standard, the standard of the ideal. Furthermore, through his studio at Aspet, Cornish, N. H, which has now become a memorial museum for the people of the whole United States, he gathered around him a group of talented young men and women from whom have come, and are still com- ing, works of sculpture of superior merit, adding beauty to our dities, en- richment to our lives. Among these are James Earl Fraser, whose superb statue of Alexander Hamliiton stands on the south steps of our Treasury and whose Ericsson Memorial graces our Potomac Pork. An effort is being made at this time to secure an endowment fund of $100,- 000 for the maintenance of the beauti- ful estate comprising Saint-Gaudens’ home and studios, filled with his mas- terly and exquisite works, which the sculptor’s widow and his son have generously given in custody to the State of New Hampshire for the peo- ple of America. Forty-six thousand dollars of the needed $100,000 has been raised. The sum has grown slowly, because it has been the desire of the donors and the trustees that the sum, as a whole, should represent many small gifts. Doubtless there are those in Washington who would like to make contribution. If so, they will be grateful to know that Glenn Brown, Corcoran Courts Apartments, 403 'fwenty-third street northwest, is the chairman of a local committee and will be glad to receéive and transmit any such gl“s‘.( G Miss Hattle E. Burdette has just finished a most admirable portrait of Mrs. Thomas F. Bayard. It is a three- quarter-length oil painting, and shows Mrs. Bayard wearing an evening gown of light blue, with a deep, handsome bertha of point lace. It is sald to be an excellent likeness. Anouner o Miss Burdette's recent works is a por- trait of Miss Clark, daughter of Mr. Allen C. Clark of this city. She is pic- tured in a lavender gown, with a ing of coral beads around her meck. third lately completed canvas is 4 still life study—a bowl of zinnlas, charmingly colorful and most skill- fugxy rendered. iss Burdette has a rare perception of color, as well as a nice. decorative sense. It Is rather remarkable that one who paints as broadly as she does in ofls, and who 1s so successful in children’s portraits in pastels, should also achieve genuine success in minia- ture painting. Miss Burdette’s minia- tures rank among the best. She has lately painted a most engaging minia- ture from an old portrait, giving to the charming subject a new lease of life. U. S. Bureau of Mines Specialist Sees Plenty of Oil for the Family Flivver (Continued from Third Pags.) drive tunnels in all directions through the sands. From these tunnels small perforated pipes are driven into the sands, which drain the ofl out of the sands. It flows to larger slpes back at the foot of the shaft and thence is pumped out. This requires installing an expensive plant, but in some fields the high recovery that is assured might justity the cost. After the shaft, tunnels and pipes are installed it merely requires time for the oil to be drawn in, as a sponge draws water. I understand the process is about to be installed in “wlfldg:lnm !!Kl,:!l‘a country, some companies - vinced it is practicable and progubla. “It s pretty well understood by this time that ofl can be distilled trom coal. In Europe much work is doing along this line. But more appeal has been made by the plan of extracting ofl from shale. The shales of Scot. land have been worked for three- quarters of a century, and they are almost unlimited in this country richer in ofl than those of Scotland, Kentucky, Ohio, Colorado, Utah, Ne- vada, Wyoming and California are particularly rich In shales. There is no doubt about the possibility of ex- traction; it 1s just a question of the cost at which, with the best possible equipment, it can be done. Congre: has made two appropriations, aggr gating about $180,000, with which the bureau has installed a plant near Ru- lison, Col to distill oll from the Colorado River shales, Two retorts have been put in, one of the Scotch type, and one American. Production of ofl at Rulison is just getting fairly started, and we u‘: ‘cflmi{‘ll l.l: l::;‘n good deal about 'rom the: - :lmenm, It is calculated that the shales mined at Rulison will produce about a barrel of ofl to the ton. “In Scotland they are working shales that produce about 25 gallons of ol per ton; the seams are from 3% to 8 or 10 feet thick. In Colorado are seams many times as thick and containing much more oil per ton. Reduction of shales involves an enor- mous mining operation, and after the ofl is extracted, the vast tonnage of refuse must be disposed of. So it is expensive compared with produclng oil trom wells. On the other hand, 8 :J: resources are so extensive as to ‘| sure against any deficiency in ofl stp- Y “A MAYAN MONARCH,” BY WILLIAM FAIR KLINE. THE PIC- > TURE IS CONTAINED IN THE WINTER EXHIBITION OF THE %A- the left, ap» TIONAL ACADEMY OK DESIGN, plies, once the price of ofl is high enough to justify these operations. “But that may be a long time ahead, Ben E. Lindsly of the Bureau of Mines Experiment Station at Bartles- ville, Okla., .is confident that explora- tion, better recoveries, better utiliza- tion ‘and deeper drilling would furn enough ofl to meet all requirements for at least 25 to 50 years, If it tould be extracted in that time. But as a practical matter, this would not be possible. Within that period there will be times of shortage, when ol trom shales will be needed to supple- ment the oll from wells, etc. * e “Meantime Federal and State gov- ernments and the industry are co- operating in an astonishing range of investigations and studies. The State of Oklahoma gives an appropriation to help maintain the Bartlesville Ex- periment Station, while the oil com- panies everywhere assist its work. The station is carryig on investiga- tions looking to larger recoveries, to prevention of wastes, protection against fire and effective utilization of lower grades of distillates. tivities cover such a wide even an enumeration of them would run into tiresome detail. Expert fire prevention forces, equipped with approved apparatus, even to suits of asbestos clothing, are maintained by the operating companies, trained by the experts of the bureau. Let me glye you one incident illustrating the quiet heroism of these men, who do unbelievable things and take the most frightful risks, simply as part of their day's work. - xoe “‘On July 11 last a_gas well in the Chickasha, Okla., fleld caught fire. It was ducing about 20,000,000 feet of gas daily, which meant the fire was a fearful disaster. The Bartlesville sta- tion received the report by telephone, and it was immediately recognized that a ‘shooting job’' was required. Hugh M. Kent, one of the engineer drillers at the station, hopped into an aeroplane with Aviator ll’snly Parker and flew to Tulsa. While they were up in the alir the station called up Ford Alexander, at Tulsa, a skilled well shooter. Alexander met the aeroplane at.the Tulsa flying field and climbed in. hree hours from Bartlesville they landed at the site of the burhing gasser, baving done 250 miles. They immediately put on asbestoc suits and prepared for business. A movable shield of galvanized iron backed with earth was pushed up as near as pos- sible to the burning well and 650 pounds of nitroglycerin planted, con- nected with an electric battery to de- tonate it. You can imagine the nerve of those boys, carrying that nitro right up under the guns of that plllar of flame. But they did it, got away to a safe distance, exploded the charge and ‘blew out the gas’ as literally as you would blow out a jet. No heroics! Just a bit of the day’s work. But it was typical of the kind of adventure, of the new sort of demand on nerve and courage, that comes with the in- troduction of sclence and invention into modern industry.” That bit of graphic description was only a sample of what one hears al- most at every turn in the oil country. The men who do that sort of thing are not afflicted with any notion of being heroes. They don’t tell much about their experiences. But they have them all the time, and in an in. fnite variety. Magistrate Studies London Unemployed A London magistrate has investi- gated personally the condition of the “‘down-and-outs. He changed his robes in court and donned tattered clothes, old shoes, a scarf, string to support his trousers, and an old worn- out cap. Then his honor began a lonely . all-night pligrimage through London’s underworls He sat for a while .on the benches along the Thamas embankment where a few men and women were stealing some sleep. A young woman, a down- and-out herself, slipped him a three- penny bit. Then he went “to bed” for a couple of hours on the flagstones beneath the national gallery. He had some eight companions there, one of whom mutely gave him a bundle of old newnpcfiu for a “pilloy Another offered him a piece of Bread. He observed hundreds of men sleeping in the crypt of a church. “They were all decent people unable to find a job, and I found more kind- heartedness among them than in my own usual surroundings. None was intoxicated, and I feel certain that had a passer-by drop his purse they would have pic! it u&:.nd re- turned it to him,” remarked enter- ‘Newest Offerings From the Publishers—Fiction by Eden Phill- potts, George Barr McCutcheon, Cyril Hume, Margnret Widdemer and Others. BY IDA GILBERT MYERS. PORTS OF FRANCE. By Herbert Adams Gibbons, author of ‘“‘The New Map of Europe,” etc. Illus- trated by Giovanni Petrini. New York: The Century Co. N “Ports of France” Herbert Adams Gibbons turns story tel- ler. Yet, so ingrained in the his- toric attitude is this writer that he takes it as a matter of course | before & subject that is not, in intent, | history at all. And thereby are readers {all the richer. This book embodies a | vacation, a rest, a bit of sight-seeing, | all around France, Mr. Gibbons said "to himself he would go, wandering along, touching its various ports, 1maybe Jjust to keep his excursion to | some kind of order. And this is what he does. To Dunkirk and Boulogne at the north, and on around to St. Malo and Brest, and then down to the ports of the Loire and so along to Marsellles does he go, stopping at some ports not named here, and pass- ing some that there is not time for him to consider within the limits of | this book.. First, according to origi- nal design, Mr. Gibbons is the mere stroller, soaking up the sun and air and scéenery of his journey. And we get a great deal from this role. As soon, however, as he reaches one of the ports which he is seeking, he be- comes the artist, composing the port hamlet or town into its unity of mass and color, into its neighborliness of land and sea, into the character that usage has bred in its personality. Ana that is most interesting, too. It is only, however,. when thé true and in- stinctive historian steps out that one gets the full content of each of these ports of France. How old is it? What gave rise to it just at this point? What peoples have used it? What civilizations have fostered it and given it form and spirit? Just how in its physical appearance does it make record of these various contributions to its present being? What is its present in relation to the life ot France, of the world itself? What is its future, and why do you say this. Stroller, artist, historian, story teller all around the coast of France doe:- he go, we close upon his heels, listen- ing to the fascinating story of these outposts of France. * %k * THROUGH MANY WINDOWS. By Heten Woodward. New York: Har- per & Bros. 'UST this day in world affairs there is no subject more important than that of the success of women in busi- ness. For they are all out after busi- ness success, these women—young and old, the serious and light-minded, the cleareyed and the muddle-headed. Many will fail, as many men do; a few will succeed, as a few men do. And there are all sorts of life-savers out for these seeking women. The most of the rules ame worth nothing. Some of them are mildly suggestive. But there is a book, so sourced and projected as to promise first aild of effective sort to serious woman work- ers. In this book Mrs. Woodward tells of her own career as a business wom- an—tells it, too, in a clear sincerity, with dispassion, without vanity, with a thoroughly sensible outlook over the field into which women are nowadays swarming. She goes back to the be- ginning, to the days when, with not a thing on earth to sell, she sallied forth to sell it. She had scrambled to- gether a few marks that she called stenol’nghy. With these, and her youth, she made shift to get into an office, trusting simply in a God and a kindly employer to keep her on there. Of a more serious sort than many, she began' to see that business implies some useful thing to offer, some real thing to sell. So she began to develop her own slim stock of wares. She began to create her own merchandisq. That was the first step —the step that not many take. With this her road not only began to straighten, but it began to climb slow- Iy the hills of success. And all along the way the girl saw into the inside of other businesses than her own, and upon these she makes keen comment —a comment that is never bitter, that is shrewd and sane rather. Well, in a word, this is a useful story—not one of the dull, useful stories, but an ex- citing one instead that is calculated to fire many a woman with a better sense of her “job” than she now hold: Better than set rules, book; better than any daily dozen of busi ness precepts. Here is personal ex- perience projected with sincerity, with a fine intelligence of understanding, with vivacity and interest and charm. L A GIRL FROM CHINA. By B. Van opular_Hi 'T has a historic implication, that day in July, 1926, when a Chinese girl her examinations at the Sorbonne and received her degree as a lawyer. A woman out of the East standing as an equal in the great fleld of occidental learning. That girl is Soumay Tcheng, and this book covers Soumay Tcheng'’s story related by her- self. Projected in a complete simplic- ity of manner, the story, nevertheless, spreads behind and around this strik- ing personality the full tradition of the Chinese family of high degree. ‘The daily life is tradition in the East, and so here the past and the present blend in customs and ceremonials whose origin is of truly venerable cast. But this is the story of a rebel, of a mild-mannered and most engag- ing rebel, but of an unconquerable one at . The girl goes on to tell how, little by little, she set herself against the narrowed lile of the women of the East. How little by little she gained here and there, until now she is a free woman, as women everywhere are coming to be free to follow their own inner urges, their own intellectuality, thelr own tastes, their own occupa- tions. A common tale here in the West, but with Soumay Tcheng a very Alad- din adventure of romance, as gaining somewhat of personal freedom she steps out into the dream of greater freedom for China itself. A very win- ning, a very strong personality looks out from this recital of a soul adven- turing out into the windy places of the worl outreachings toward its vis- ions of universal well being. And a delightfully stirring story of just one girl this is besides. * x % % JIG-SAW. By Eden Phillpotts, au- thor of “A Voice from the Dark,” etc. New York: The Macmillan Co. ¢6 J1G-SAW” provides an unusual so- lution of murder mystery. A solution much more absorbing than the plain open work of the average | detective story—that jumble of incom: sequence, triviality, futility and forted climax, As a whole, the story objecti- fles the relative powers of Instinot on the one hand and pure reason on the other. In so primitive a business as | murder instinct operated originally long before reason was born. Let us see how it operates here. On the one hand is a pair of detectives, the best of their kind, They are devoted to the logic of murder, From the deed it- self they work back to motive and then forward to the discovery of the criminal by way of his own inevitable self-exposurq, . In other words, they spread thePpuzzle, to it, plect juired for they d Is a man whose life has been spent among native African tribes. His schooling has been largely that of the hunter, that of outwitting the jungle. Trained by the wild beasts to a per- fection of his own flve senses, to a deep subtlety of pursuit, to secrecy and power of attack, to skill in self- concealment and escape, he here ap- plies this jungle learning to the gentle art of murder in the midst of civiliza- tion. This gives the heart of the mat. ter away, an unforgivable thing to do as a rule, but here the opening up of the matter is of far more interest than its final moment. However, there is a point left to your own fresh dis- covery and el ent. . And that njoym | point is the attitude of this wholly | frank and engaging murderer as an instrument in ridding the world of three harmful people and at the same time of serving friendship in a very high way. A highly intellectual fronting upon a matter that as a rule s met more humanely, if not more philosophically, Oh, yes, a love story, a curfous one goes along—and the twain are living happy ever after.| down in Central Africa. Read this'] detective story and let the 50 others wait a while. * £ ok % KINDLING AND ASHES. By George Barr McCutcheon, author of “Grau- stark,” etc. New York: Doda, Mead & Co. THE wearing power of Barr McCutcheon’s theme in “Kindling and Ashes” is indicated by the fact that it has been used all over the world since stories began to be told :nd written. Here are the two fam. lies between which lles a feud deep nd undying. And from them stej ut the man and the maid, one from ach side, coming together under ar impulse more profound than eve: uman hatreds can evoke. The ol heme here becomes modern an \merican. Southern blood and South 'rn_sensibilities guide it toward th daying of the offending youth wh ias stolen his lady from the riv: lan. The question then is “Wh illed Bennie Jaggard?” In the sc ution of this mystery the matter takes an original turn from the au- thor's attitude and method. What does he do but take the reader in on the inside of the case, leaving the people of the story outside and wholly mystifled. This {s a most unusual turn of method, a brand-new line-up of forces, one that gives the reader himself something of the feeling of actual authorship, something of the natural joy of knowing an important thing that “only we few -have the key to.” To this day the three people most intimately affected by the death of Bennie Jaggard don’t know who killed him—but we know. A cynical undercurrent here makes an honest appraisal of certain human motives—not agreeable to the senti- mental soul, but an honest appraisal just the same. The story gives read- ers a fine chance to go along on the inside. It affords first a good intel- lectual exercise, and gives one a chance, besides, to see if this popular and practiced story teller makes good in his unusual handling of this matter of mystery. * % * % THE GOLDEN DANCER. By Cyril Hume, author of “Cruel Fellow- ship,” etc. New York: George H. Doran Co. A PAGAN story on the subject of Albert Wells, factory hand iIn these days of shops and high-pressure nroduction. From the outside these ok like elements so incongruous as to defy any sort of blending. But, from the inside, one finds that we in overalls and grimed with grease may carry dreams in our hearts as well as the best scrubbed and most delicately scented sybarite in the world may do. And so it is with Albert Wells. He saw her once, the “golden dancer’— or thought he did, which is practically the same thing. At any rate, he saw a being of beauty whose grace and loveliness crept into his heart for an abiding. And life with its grimy out- side went on with Albert Wells. His small and .rmful achievements had nothing at all to do with the gorgeous splendors that, transpiring inside him, held his heart high and transmuted the dally happenings to things fine and sweet. It s the old story—the story of our dreams, where every man may be a hero, every man may be a lover of beauty, a partaker of the es- sential poetry of life. The old story, to be sure, but here it has the clear charm of poetic rendition. It has the insight of a sympathy such as only artists of one sort or another sess, a sympathy dashed wit] sophistication that is still new e a th is- [to_provide a smiling enjoyment, not old enough to communicate both bit- terness and the effect of complete dis- {llusion. No, let’s let it go that we are ts of pagan brand, all of us, as Albert Wells is, and that here we have a very discerning man to show us to ourselves in this light. A lovely story of young things roaming the world in quest of their birthright, a full sense of joy in romance and beauty and love. * % x % GALLANT LADY. By Margaret Wid- demer, author of “Graven Image,” etcé New York: Harcourt, Brace 0. STORY so modern in form and content that it might have been skimmed of the events of yesterday or today. It has to do with a girl who by accident finds herself not ma By Mo Dt o B B8 B of At ried, when she had supposed’herself to be in possession of a perféctly valid husband. To_ complicate the matter there is her baby. daughter, & quite adorable thing. Well, the story con- cerns itself with the career of this girl, with what she does, where she goes, how she builds herself again into a new sort of existence. New lovers? To be sure. She is a.most tractive person. Well, what does sl do — I mean about men, lovers, hus- bands and such—after she has made it entively plain to herself that, in'so far as a living and success are conterned, she has no need for any of these male attachments. A very ‘clever story, chiefly by virtue of the fact that. the people within it and carrying on here are not only real people but thay are clever ones as well.. One likes-to as- sociate with them. One likes to see how they, meeting and parting, doing this and doing that, serve to bulld a consistent and -believable and - highly interesting drama of social .life it appers today. No, I'm .not telling what the girl finally did about Charles —that's the man she thought was her husband. It was the war, you see. Reading here, you, too, will wonder what she is going ta doand you'll have a few anxious moments of your own about it. U i ER THE DEAD RIDE HARD. By Louls Joseph Vance, - author of “The Lone Wolt,” ‘etc. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. ° 'HE Near East has been the main- stay of many a writer of romantic adventyre, Since the Balkan Wars ind thé World War It has lent {tself with even more of glamorous effect ©o.these purveyors of herolsm on the ne hand, of deep villainy on the sther, It is at Budapest that Louls vance sets this swift adventure of ne rise of revolution, -of the down- |l of a king, and of -the gallant ervice of a lovely, lady in behalf of er sovereign lord. It is the hazard f this service that starts the chiv- iry of the writer up to invent a hero dequate to meet the perils at hand. ‘ure adventure throughout, yet with -nough of political unrest and ac- tuality in the quarters chosen for setting to give a semblance of verity and realism—in spots at least-—to this high-flying invention based upon the downfall of kings In a region where no other event is more probable and at a time when sovereigns are about the worst bet in the great game of politics. An exciting matter that will carry one on through it without any stops whatever for any reason what- ever. And what a stunning title—ap- plicable, too—and titles are so often such miserable things. BOOKS RECEIVED RENEGADE. By Arthur_ O. Friel. Philadelphia: The Penn Publishing Co. ENGLISH OAK AND SPANISH GOLD. By Thomas A. H. Maw- hinney, author of “The Sword of the House of de Merillac.” Illus- trated by Manning de V. Lee. ghlladelvhia: The Penn Publishing 0. s THE AMATEUR ' ENTERTAINER. By A. Frederick Collins, author of “The Book of Magic,” etc. New York: D. Appleton & Co. SUNSET HILL. By Kathleen Mary (A:bbou. Philadelphia: Dorrance & ‘0. SCOTT BURTON'S CLAIM. By Ed- ward G. Cheyney, author of “Scott Burton in the Blue Ridge,” etc. New York: D. Appleton & Co. TRIGGER FINGERS. By Owen P. White, author of “Them Was the etc. New York: G. P. Put- . ‘THE MOUNTAIN OF JADE. By Vio- let Irwinand Vilhjalmur Stefanson, authors of “The Shaman's Re- venge,” etc. New York: The Maec- milan Co. ‘THE FIGHTING SLOGAN. By H. A. gody. New York: George H. Doran 0. HIGHROADS OF PERIL: Being the (Continued on Fifteenth Page.) PAUL PEARLMAN ‘ lG St. NW. 1 1 Which you will want to read —and own—the lasting kind| ‘The Big Mogul figqng?c. ol}:‘u'mhuhil-.A The Disry of & Young Lady of Fashion : ¢ Best-seller everywhere. B; Knox. The year’s gayest h&.’ After Noon ¥ s Susan Ertz's novel of romance after . A best-seller everywhere, 1 Preface to a Life e B "y’ canmot be “.a,.@m"' " “Simply cannot: be si says the Nevp ork World, ¥ The Man They Hanged i of Captain Kidd. By the ever it Robert W. Chambers. I Bounty of Earth i By Donald and Louise Peattic. A story | for nature lovers, a real decoration to the literature of the year. $2.00 28 Humorous Stories: Old and New. y Tt @end_Eight Famous Authers. ited by Rhysand C. A Damm | Cleowe! - 82.50| B; Edit Scott. g Carpet . By Rusth Comfort Mitchell; A ing and imaginative romance laid in a Southern village. $2.00 nghungSevchndlu ly Cynthia Lombardi. A novel of mys- tery and romance in an Italian Vills, $2.00 The Gentle Art of Tramping d.Ae - mq:mpfl'fl;?:ywhhhul- and enthusiasm. w&m Tllustras Oy nin T Hriom, The iucnntog y in F. 3 story of the canal era in America. Lllus- From Myth to Reason - 4 By Woodbridge . The story of the march-of the llmn‘w',llhi in its undes- Caravans and Cannibals * By Mary Hastings Br 's adventures in the Tlustrated. Number Four Joy Street By Walter de la” Mare and Others. A book for children. Illustrated and white.