Evening Star Newspaper, December 15, 1929, Page 46

1929—PART .TWO. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 15. NOTES OF ART AND ARTISTS Exhibition of Paintings Purchased from the Ranger Fund at National Gallery of Art—Widespread Recognition of American Art—Other Notes. BY LEILA MECHLIN. HE notable exhibition of paintings by contemporary American art- flurgumhmd from the Henry Ward Ranger fund, which open- ed in the National Gallery of Art, United States National Museum, Tuesday evening with a private view and reception, is not only interesting in itself but important because of that for which it stands—the widespread recognition and support of American art by Americans. Henry W. Ranger 30 years ago Was ene of our leading American portrait painters. Born in Syracuse, N. Y. in Jenuary, 1858, he received a public school “education and completed one o at the Syracuse University. But e had in him that urge for pictorial expression which makes the artist. After working in this country for some years he went to Europe, where he remained until 1888. In 1901 he was elected an sssociate of the National Academy of Design and in 1906 he was made a full academician. Being self-taught and having made his way single-handed, he realized perhaps better than many how difficult it was and is for an artist to in recognition, to establish himself. wvoted to his own art, producing con- stantly, he was keenly interested in the art of his associates and he was instru- mental in many instances in securing | The pictures so purchased, the will pro- vides, shall be given by the council to library or other institution in America maintaining a gallery open to the pub- lic, but all such gifts are to be made upon the express condition that the Neaticnal Gallery at Washington shall have the option and right to take, re- claim and own any picture, provided |such option and right be exercised at any time during the five-year period beginning 10 years after the artist's death and ending 15 years after his death. If this option and right is not exercised during such period the picture becomes the property of the institution to which it was first given. In accordance with this bequest, and with the income derived from the Ranger fund, 78 paintings have now | been purchased. These 78 paintings are | included | shown collectively for the first time. in the present exhibition, As the Council of the National Academy of Design is the purchasing agency, the majority of these works have been ac- quired from exhibitions of the academy. This does not mean, however, that they are invariably the works of academ- icians. The cffort has been to secure genuinely fine paintings—paintings of permanent worth. 1t is interesting to note how wide the their placement by purchase in public | distribution of these paintings has been. and private collections Henry W. Ranger was a close friend 'placed in the Nailonal Gallery A few have already been permanently of Art, % *MARGERY AND LITTLE EDMUND.” BY EDMUND C. TARBELL, N. A. of William T. Evans and was con- stantly consulted by Mr. Evyns in the matter of purchases for the Evans col- lection. When Mr. Evans determined to give the choicest works in his pri- wate collection to the National Gallery of Art, it was Henry Ranger who came with him to Washington to help make the arrangements, and it was Henry Ranger who advised in regard to the selection of works fitting for gift. He and Mr. Evans were fellow conspirators in the desire to profit the Nation, to build up a great collection of American , to secure for American art- during their lifetime adequate Tecognition. Mrs. Ranger passed away before her tusband. They had no children. At his death, in 1916, it was found that his entire estate, the sum chiefly of his own earnings, but a considerable amount, was left to the National Acad- emy of Design to establish a fund for the purchase of pictures by living American artists, all of which could be claimed by the National Academy of Design, but if not so claimed could be given to other institutions throughout the country. Furthermore, pending de- cisions, these pictures could be lent to other institutions, and are so lent. The wording of the will is definite and in- teresting. It first directs that th2 en- tire estate be pald over to the National Academy of Design, the principal to be kept invested and the income to be spent by the council in purchasing paintings produced by American artists, at least two-thirds of such income w0 be spent in the purchase of works by artists 45 years of age and over; the remanider, at the option of the council, in works by younger artists—a provision PAINTING PURCHASED FROM THE RANGER FUND. but the majority have been sent far afield—to the Califorina Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, to the Cedar Rapids Art Association, Cedar Rapids, Jowa; to the Fort Worth Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Tex.; to the Michigan College of Agri- culture and Applied Scieace, East Lansing, Mich.; to the Portland Society of Art, Portland, Me.; to the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis; to the Toledo, the Cleveland and the Dayton Museums of Art; to the Gallery of Fine Arts, Yale University; to the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design; to the Denver Art Museum; to the Norfolk Soclety of Arts; to_ Phillips Academy, Andover; to the Montana State College, at Bozeman; to Mills Col- lege, California; to Beloit College, Wis- consin; to Washburn College, Topeka, Kans.; to the Free Public Library in Jersey City, to Vassar College, to the Carolina Art Association, to the Malden Public Library, Malden, Mass. Thus the message of American painting, through the Ranger bequest, reaches many people throughout the land. Lately, in New York, wide attention has been attracted by the establishment of a Gallery of Modern Art, likened by many to an American Luxembourg, a gallery which as its opening exhibition showed only works by French modern- ists. But here in Washington, with the Evans National Gallery collection as a nucleus, continually increased through the operation of the Ranger fund, we have a gallery of modern art entirely and essentially American. It is for this reason that the present ex- | hibition has significance which far sur- | passes the interest and merit of the which in a measure safeguarded choice. | works shown, “ACROSS THE VALLEY,” BY HOBART NICHOLS,N. A. PURCHASED FROM THE RANGER FUND. art institutions in America or to any But that interest and merit is by no means negligible, for included in the collection are impressive paintings by some of our foremost American ters. For_example. Cecilia ux, und C. Tarbell, Emil Carlsen, Edward W. Redfield, Daniel Garber, John C. Johansen, Childe Hassam, Ochtman, ‘Walker, Schofield. Gardner Symons, Waugh, Irving Wiles and Willlam ‘Wendt. ‘The collection is hung in the large center gallery and three adjacent smaller galleries, counting the broad hall on the main axis as one. They are large canvases and of necessity are hung, frame to frame, in some instances two-deep, conditions imposed by the limited space of these improvised gal- leries. But even so, they are effective. In the main gallery a position of spe- cial distinction has been given, midway of the right wall, to Cecilia Beaux's portrait of Dr. Drinker, formerly presi- dent of Lehigh University, a portrait entitled, “Man in White"—a thoroughly representative work—a brilliant piece of painting. The subject is seen seated in a Windsor chair by an open window holding in his lap & yellow cat con- tentedly drowsing. The play of light on the head, on the white Summer suit, is superbly interpreted. There is & | quiet dignity about the whole figure | immensely impressive. Broadly painted, there is no bravado of technique, but instead execution amazingly skillful. In an adjoining gallery one finds a | recent and extremely engaging double portrait by Edmund C. Tarbell, “Mar- gery and Little Edmund,” a_portrait painted out of doors, very different in style from Mr. Tarbell's earlier works but no less successful. To this paint- {ing was awarded the Isidor medal in the most recent Winter exhibition of the National Academy of Design, from which exhibition, just closed, it was purchased. Mr. Tarbell has achieved in this work that force, strength and vitality for which the modernists strive, and he has combined with it that beauty of color, form and the fllusion of light through atmesphere ‘which they almost never achieve. Here is a painting essentially of our time, typically American in spirit and yet closely akin to enduring tradition. The Benson painting is a still life, shown, if one remembers aright, in one of the Corcoran Gallery's great biennial exhibitions—a painting which derives its charm from the artist's interpretation of beauty in common and uncommon things—a bowl of fruit, a bowl of flowers—colors harmoniously brought together, loveliness of surface texture, tone, imposed by atmospheric conditions within doors. This, too, is & great work. ‘There are interesting and impres- sively fine paintings by artists of Cali- fornia whose works are less frequently seen than perhaps they should be here in the East—a landscape by William Wendt; a picture of the sea in its rela- tion to man by Armin Hansen, en- titled “Storm Birds." Here one may see Lilian Westcott Hale's charming portrait of her daugh- ter “Nancy,” with which acquaintance was made in one of the Corcoran Gal- lery's biennial exhibitions. This is a portrait which has pictorial charm as well as interpretation of personality. Beautifully has Mrs. Hale painted the wintry atmosphere seen ugh the window by which Nancy is seated. Charmingly has she recorded in all its subtlety the atmosphere of the home. Daniel Garber’s landscape painted near New Hope, entitle “To=- hickon,” is already familiar to National Gallery visitors, having been early as- signed to the National Gallery and for some time on exhibition here. It is a superb work which loses: none of its strength and beauty by becoming a part of a larger whole. ‘Thomas W. Dewing, who is so well represented in the Freer Gallery, is represented in this collection by a typi- cal work, a painting of two women en- titled “A Reading,” ed to the ?tntclnntn Museum, by which it is now ent. It is & matter of considerable local pride to find included in this exhibition paintings by Hobart and Spencer Nich= ols, by Everett Warner and Jerry Farns- worth, all formerly of Washington. It is worthy of note that the Taos school, in one-time distant New Mex- ico, is well represented in this collec- tion—Ernest L. Blumenschein by two paintings, “The Gift” assigned tempo- rarily to the Fort Worth Museum of Art, and “The Burro,” assigned to the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sclences; Berninghaus by a picture of Indians entitled “Their Son,” lent to the Art Club of Erie; Couse by a representative Indian figure, “Shrine of the Rain Gods,” lent to the Toledo Museum; E. Martin Hennings by a beautiful picture of Indian horsemen seen against the golden foliage of the aspens in Autumn, “Passing By,” lent to the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston. Irving Wiles, among our leading fig- ure painters, is represented by a por- trait of “Mile. Maria Safonoff” seated at the plano, and Ernest Ipsen by a striking study of a lady in black, “Cap- tain Taylor's Sister.” Charming and beautifully rendered is John C. Johansen's “Evening Interior,” a picture of the living room of his own home, in which he and Mrs. Johansen (Jean MacLane) are seen seated by a lamp reading. Childe Hassam is seen at his best— and what more could one desire?—in a painting of “A Long Island Garden” showing in the foreground a lily pond in_bloom. Emil Carlsen is represented by “Hem- lock Grove,” probably in tempera—cool 1 PURCHASED FROM THE RANGER FUND “CAPT. TAYLOR OF THE PAINTI RANGER F/ STER,” BY S PURCH RNEST L. IPSEN, D FROM THE N. A. ONE HENRY WARD D FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART. and frosty in tone, very reticent, very sympathetic in rendering, a white horse in the foreground; Dines Carlsen by & characteristic still life, “White and Sil- ver. Another impressive still life is “The Orange Bowl,” by Anna Fisher, which likewise demonstrates the inher- ent beauty in common things. Nisbet's “The Hurrying River,” well known through reproduction and also from the artist's etching, is another ex- cellent purchase and has come from the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah, to which it has been as- signed. Schofleld is represented by & “WOMAN OF THE PEOPLE” A BRONZE RECENTLY PUR- CHASED BY THE CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART. IT IS THE :l(‘)‘:RK OF CONSTANTIN MEU- R. somewhat similar subject in Winter, “The Rapids,” a broad, hurrying river partially icebound. Here is a collection of paintings in which the note of beauty is from first to last dominant, a collection which for this reason alone cannot fail to secure the attention and approbation of the public. It is the intention to hold a similar exhibition here once every 10 years, bringing together all of the Ranger fund purchases for inspec- tion and review. This, the first exhibi- tion, will continue to January 31, after which those works not already assigned to the National Gallery of -Art will be returned to their temporary homes. ‘The Smithsonian Institution has pub- lished for distribution in connection with this exhibition a very attractive illustrated catalogue containing a brief account of the Ranger bequest. For the excellent arrangement of the collection and its effective hanging the director of the National Gallery, Wil- liam H. Holmes, is responsible. At the opening view Dr. Abbott, sec- retary of the Smithsonian Institution, welcomed the guests, and five or more members of the Council of the National Academy of Design were in attendance. * o ok X THE Corcoran Gallery of Art has ac- quired for its permanent collection a bronze by Constantin Meunier, re- cently shown in the Belgian exhibition. This bronze is entitled “Woman of the People,” and it is a representative work, hence a valuable acquisition. Meunier, it will be remembered, was a sculptor of the laboring classes, one whose aim was to dignify labor. Many of his bronzes are of miners. In the field of sculpture he paralleled to an extent the French Millet in the fleld of painting. But Meunier's sculptures are essentially plastic, works in which art | transcends subject matter. The bronze purchased by the Corcoran Gallery is an excellent example, beautifully mod- eled, profoundly serious, thoughtful and thought provoking, a great work in sculpture and a work to which the Belgian Deogle may always point with pride. Incidentally the Corcoran Gal- lery is to be congratulated upon this purchase, The Belgian exhibition in which this | bronze was included is now being shown in the Pennsylvania Museum, Philadel- phia. Prom there it goes to the Brook- lyn Institute and on to other museums of the country. * ok K K TH! Soclety of Washington Artists announces its thirty-ninth annual | exhibition to be held in the Corcoran Gallery of Art from January 5 to Janu- ary 31, inclusive. Paintings in oil and sculpture not before publicly exhibited in Washington are eligible, and those desiring to make contribution should deliver such works to the New York avenue entrance to the Corcoran Gal- lery on December 31. Entry cards may be secured by applying to the secretary, i).ol::nh C. Claghorn, Cabin John, Mary- The jury of selection consists of the officers and members of the executive committee of the society. The prizes will be awarded by a special out-of- town committee consisting of Mrs. Charles W. Hawthorne, wife of the painter and herself a painter of dis- tinction; N. C. Wyeth, the illustrato: and Hans Schuler, sculptor of Balti. more, head of the Maryland Institute. These prizes will consist of bronze medals in the following classes: Por- tralt (including figure composition), landscape (including marine), still life, and sculpture. Artists who have been awarded the medal in any class within five years are not eligible to compete in the same class in this exhibition. The soclety has arranged to hold a special exhibition in all mediums at the Maryland Institute, Baltimore, in Feb- ruary. Contributors to the annual ex- hibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art are asked to indicate whether they are willing to have their works included in this Baltimore showing. The society is therefore stepping outside of the city and thus extending its scope and in- fluence this season. ‘The officers of the society are: Hon- orary president, Willlam H. Holmes; president, Minor S. Jameson; vice president, Mary G. Riley; treasurer, Clara R. Saunders, and secretary, J. C. Claghorn. The executive committee includes Eben F. Comins, Catherine C. Critcher, Margaret French Cresson, Charles Dunn and A. J. Schram, * ok ok X APrE:R an absence of a year Mr. and Mrs, Willlam Penn Cresson have returned to Washington and reopened their home and studio at 1727 Nine- teenth street. Mr. Cresson is well known in this city by his architectural work, as well as his diplomatic asso- ciations and as an author; Mrs. Cres- son, the daughter of Daniel Chester French, by her excellent work in sculp- ture, among which is a. head of a young gir], included in the Corcoran Gallery’s collection and a memorial bas-relief in the Young Women's Christian Assott= ation Building. Mr. and Mrs, Cresson spent last Winter in Boston and were abroad during the Summer. * K K X ILIAN MILLER, who has been holding an exhibition of block prints in color of life in Japan and Korea at the Dunthorne Galleries and giving demonstrations of woodblock printing, is to exhibit and make sim- ilar demonstrations in a number of the leading museums in different parts of the country following her engagement heré. One of these, in the near future, will be in the Print Club, Philadelphia, which has a charming little home, a re- constructed old stable. Another will be in the Art Institute of Chicago, in con- nection with an international exhibi- tion of woodblock prints, the first fo its kind which this great institution has held. . Miss Miller's father, Ransford. S. Miller, American consul - general of Korea, is to retire from the diplomatic service two years from now, at which time he and his family wiil probably return to Washington and take up residence here. The addition of Miss Miller to the local art colony is a pleasant anticipation. >k CAI&ERON BURNSIDE of this city and his wife, Irene Burnside, for- merly Mrs. Meecham of Washington, held a joint exhibition in Paris last Summer, each showing approximately eight works. In November they ex- hibited at The Hague. Mr. Burnside last May was elected a socletaire of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts on account of his exhibit in the Salon. * ok ok * YESTERDAY afterncon the Art and Archeology League of Washing- ton, of which Mrs, Mitchell Carroll is president and Mrs. O. H. P. Clark sec- retary, held a meeting at the Woman's National Democratic Club by special invitation, at which time Theo J. Mor- gan gave a talk on his current exhibi- tion of paintings on view during this month in the national club house. * K K x "[WO Hungarian artists, Elena and Bertha de Hellebrandt, will exhibit from December 16 to January 4 at the Yorke Gallery. These two young artists have studied extensively in Austria and Germany, also in Paris. In this coun- try, where they have within a year taken up residence, they have exhibited by invitation at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Gainsborough Galleries of New York and the Brooklyn Museum. ‘They come of a gifted family. * K K K T the Arts Club, 2017 I street, the exhibitions changed today. The collections of portraits by Miss Saunders and caricatures by Charles Dunn are re- placed by an exhibition of industrial art, At the opening tea this afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Robert Le Fevre will be hosts, * K Kk JFORMER exhibitions. by the Land- scape Club of Washington have prepared one for the pleasure to be derived from this organization’s cur- rent show at the Mount Pleasant Branch of the Public Library, which will remain on view throughout the month, ‘The exhibition is conservative in character, as heretofore, and the ma- jority of the work shown depicts the National Capital and vicinity. - The artists apparently find this locality an inexhaustible source of beauty and are content to portray it without recourse to new fads in technique. Most of the 43 works on view are paintings in oll. Benson B. Moore is represented by four paintings, beautifully executed and harmoniously framed. The most ef- fective of them is “Anacostia Hills,” a large canvas with five-sixths of the nur’nce devoted to cloud effects against ‘There are two bird and tings by R. Bruce Horsfall, having been lent by Na- ‘ture Magazine, in which much of this artist’s work appears, “Sycamores,” | of & man’s iife: REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS The Life and Letters of John Hay—Paul De Kruif Writes of “Seven Iron Men”—John Erskine’s Latest Contri- bution—Novels by Well Known Authers. IDA GILBERT MYERS. N intimate and true disclosure of the human would be, were it possible to secure this, the most useful of contributions to the rest of the world for the pur- pose of a general self-revelation. Words are the instrument, the only instrument, of such disclosure. Libraries and vol- umes are packed with these, all pur- porting to project among us this char- acter or that one exactly as he existed in the flesh, exactly as he continued to exert influence beyond the short period of bodily tenure. Blography, autoblography, formal correspondence, the diary—these are especially dedicated to deliver, body and soul, this man or that woman to us for our schooling—for schooling in our- selves and in the others so little differ- ent from us. Yet, the biography is but a second- hand dealer in the goods, bodily and spiritual, that it offers. The autobi- ography is bound from its very nature to be written a line or so above its au- thor, rather than alongside nim. The book of formal correspondence suffers the same expansion of exact truth. Even the diary is penned day by day in the presence of imaginary onlookers and listeners. = Hunting for a true source of information about one indi- vidual or another—that is as true a source as may be found—it seems to me that a body of casual friendly let- ters comes near to the goal of one's quest. These must cover a fair period of time. They must not deal with epochal events, such as stir one out of himself. They must run along beside the common current of life in its con= tacts with between the writer and a goodly variety and number of friends. ‘These are not for publication and so do not make appeal to the strain of vanity that all have in common. They are not eventful in content. Instead, they are the simple overflow of friendly and unpretentious intercourse, revealing, these seem to me. And here are just such letters, interwoven with the story * K K K THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HAY. By Willlam Roscoe Thayer. ‘Boston: Houghton Miffiin Co. TKE nucleus of this book is the let- ters of John Hay, covering the events of his whole life and including friends of wide and significant range. With these as the centers of advance, Mr. Thayer has created a record of fact that possesses the substance and vitality and charm of the story itself. As the matter grows, from letter to let- ter, from one connecting anecdote to another, there emerges one of the sim- plest and most likable of men—just the kind of man that John Hay was, and is, certainly to the people of Washing- ton, where he still lives, vitally and beautifully. More than this comes out besides. For within this volume Wash- ington itself exists—the great and beau- tiful city, stretching from the days of Lincoln to yesterday, when the John Hay house, facing Lafayette Park, gave ay to the promoter. Either of effects—that of the man himself, ti of the Capital itself—would be of high value for any book. But here the two unite in a volume of high historic value and of great personal distinc- tion. The mark of the book, whether considering the man in his usefulness or the city in its beauty, is simplicity, an absolute charm of just that. To catch the manner of Mr. Hay is proof of this simple quality of the man, listen to him for a minute about his citizen- ship: “When I look back upon the shifting scenes of my life, if I am not that altogether deplorable creature, & man without a country, I am, when it comes to pull and prestige, almost equally bereft, as I am a man without a State. I was born in Indiana, I grew up in Tlinois, I was educated in Rhode Island, and it is no blame to that scholarly community that I know so Itttle.- 1 learned my law in Springfield and mw politics in Washington, my diplomacy in Europe, Asia and Africa. I have a farm in New Hampshire and desk room in the District of Columbia. When I look to the springs from which my blood descends”—and so he goes on to name a Scotch ancestor, half Eng- lish, and another of both German and French strains. Whimsical, genial, lovable he, in this mood, by way of his letters re-creates the Washington of Lincoln’s day 8o vividly as to give the reader a clear partaking part in the affairs of that terrible period. Through- out the letters and Mr. Thayer con- tribute to a volume of American views that are invaluable in substance as they are invaluable also in spirit and the manner of ,:,hc*lr projection. * * SEVEN IRON MEN. By Paul De Kruif, Dlustrated. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. EOLOGISTS told Leonidas Merritt, not once but many times, that there was no iron in the Mis-sa-be Range, up beyond Duluth. In turn he called them “scientific squirts” (al- though not to their faces) and, with the “misery-strap” pressing his sweating forehead, wore out many pairs of shoe- pacs tramping the back brush in his indefatigable search for ore, simply be- cause his father, the pioneer, who did not even know iron when he saw it, had assured him and his close-knit band of brothers that it was there. The brothers, aided later by husky sons and nephews, plugged away year after year and it was there and they found it. And when they did find it, lying in great open basins just under the topsoil and by A. H. O. Rolle; “Autumn,” by Louis Dergans, and a number of other paint- ings have delightful color schemes in- spired by the season just past. Mr. Dergans’ “Autumn” and “Georgetown University” (seen from the Virginia shore) are rich in color, warm in tone and in rather (for him) a new vein. Of the paintings done abroad or in other sections of the United States, “River 'Odet, Quimpere, Brittany.” by Garnet Jex, is perhaps outstanding- in a flat decorative style, with an ef- fective use of the picturesque houses and costumes of the region. The only still life in the exhibitio is a superb water color by . H. Holmes of “Pottery,” the warm gray, jade green and blue jars being placed against a red background. Attractive water colors also have been contributed by Col. F. S. Foltz, Roy Clark and W. Boyer Pain. A number of etchings are shown, by J. C. Claghorn and Witte- nauer, L 'HE Baltimore Museum of Art an- nounces as among its December ex- hibitions a memorial exhibition of the works of the late Alice Worthington Ball, and the opening of new period rooms with an exhibition of Americana. ‘The Baltimore museum is not con- fining itself solely to exhibitions, but is sponsoring lectures, concerts and also story_hours for children. ’ Al l 1" Theodore Roosevelt's l‘ Sister (Mrs. Douglas Robinson) says “Rounds out a perfect trio—T R’s “Letters to His Children,” His “Diaries” and now—THE WHITE HOUSE GANG - == By Earl Looker J. Montgomery Flagg Illus. $3.00 Fleming H. Revell Co. “¢hitars B * Fourth the great tree roots, it did mot even have to be ming ply scooped up by steam shovels. ow the devil are ye goin’ to sink a shaft into this stuff?” scornfully asked a veteran Cornishm: “This here can’t be an iron mine. It's got no hangin’ wall, no foot wali!” How the Merritt outfit found it and mined it and what the final outcome was is told in this book by a man who has been able to make microbes as in- teresting reading as elephants, and their hunters much more so. It is not well to tell too much in advance of the plot, or even the style and atmos- phere of a book on this order. Suffice it to say that it is a skillful combina- tion of the epic and romantic. The vol- ume has seven heroes instead of the usual one, not to mention a couple, or three, villains. As you turn certain pages you can actually smell the camp- fire and feel on your own face the sleet that pelted these dogged timber cruisers who traveled always with one eye cock- ed aloft at the white pines and the other cast down for that iron which the old man had declared must be there. Their neighbors rather pitied them, but trusted them implicitly. They knew them as the sort who, when their first business venture went on the rocks in the form of a wrecked schooner and they found themselves in debt to the tune of $1500, promptly knocked off merchandising, went into the woods as sawyers and stuck there until from their wages they had saved enough to square themselves. Then, and then only, did they resume their other activities. When they rode the crest of the wave of widespread public approval and, for & brief time, of sudden prosperity, their neighbors rode with them, some of them longer and more successfully than they. How they could not quite hold on to what they had found is sad enough. How their great open ore pits teamed up with the great established steel mills to transform the United States from a sprawling bucolic giant amusing him- self with iron into an efficlent titan whose very vitals were of iron, is inter- esting enough reading. But far more interesting is to read what sort of men they were; of their persistent patience and unquenchable optimism; their loy- alty to Leonidas, their leader; even of their occasional darned foolishness— that is the big thrill. It is often said —probably was said during the infancy of Daniel Boone—“Ah. but America doesn’t breed that sort of men any more!” However, she does, and the so- lution of progressive problems proves it. No matter who he may be, one can- not help wishing, as he turns the final page, “I wish 1 were a little more like that.”” R. M. K. * K K X SINCERITY: A Story of Our Time. By John Erskine, author of “Penel- ope’s Man: The Homing Instinct,” etc. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Mer- rill Co. TWO and three years ago—or three and four—John Erskine, school- master, went adventuring, first with Helen of Troy and then right into the Garden of Eden with the mother of all creation herself. A comedy of laugh- ter and delight was the issue of each of these romantic outfarings of the pedagogue. It was no doubt difficult for even this facile fictionist to get on to the curves, so to speak, of Helen and Eve, those beauteous ladies of far-off days, but this could have been nothing compared with the task set for him- self in the new novel, “‘Sincerity.” For the sake of it, and for the sake of us, Mr. Erskine has moved up into the present. Here is a drama of telling the truth. A novel—but, alack and alas, not one with the happy ending that the hearts of readers demand! How could it have a joyous finale with every- body telling the truth! It couldn’t. Here it is—two women and the hus- band of ohe of them. The wife sent her friend to the husband for the smoothing out of a difficulty between the wedded pair. Error one. No wife is going to do that. The explanation took on a tender turn—much too ten- der. Said the woman friend, “I shall tell your wife just what we did!” Error two. *No woman on earth is going to do that particular thing—sincerity or no sincerity. The expected followed. The_wife left her spouse and set out for Europe. The next mistakes come— not in a failure to be sincere, but in the fact that John Erskine should have sent & woman of so crude an order— well, anywhere except where she could have an attendant to keep her within bounds. One pities the poor thing, n—ymg to appear waywise when she is so blatantly yet unborn to the world. 8o she wandered around France for & eriod and then came home to find the jusband living in complete respecta- bility with the betrayed lady who went to him on the domestic peace quest. In a new corner of the country they appeared to be as much married as the rest of the community. The wife promptly filed her prior claim in a good deal of distaste for the domestic ir- regularity before her. Somewhere in the heat of accusation and counter at- tack she also became “sincere,” admit- ting. her own two or three excursions into the wide latitudes and longitudes of illicit interest while across over there where the Puritan has long ceased from troubling. Error three—but what's the use! The “errors” have gotten quite out of hand. One is bound to fall back, not upon the plain truism that actual sincerity is obsolete, that it has re- maining only a current academic moral slant for publicity purposes. No, one goes further back to meet this par- ticular situation, back to the fact that John Erskine has lapsed from the good comedy centering around Helen and Eve to the pure farce of these two women of the modern day playing at being sincere. No , these two wom- en, no good even to John Erskine, since they fail utterly in holding up the lit- erary hands of this joyous comedian who has run away from school to find current comedy rich as that with which he has already adorned the lives of two women of the past. LR THE SMALL DARK MAN; a novel. By Maurice Walsh, author of “The Key Above the Door,” etc. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. AN Irishman in the highlands of Scotland! He goes there to visit g dear war-time friend, during his vaca- tion as schoolmaster. He hopes to flad there, as he has sought elsewhere, the red-headed girl of his dreams. He finds the girl of his dreams, but she is not red headed. She is, in fact, tow- headed, as he at first scornfully re- marked. She is furthermore all but engaged to a highly superior young man for whom the “small dark man” of Erin conceives a strong distaste. There is an adventure, initiated in a blistered heel, including a lively man- to-man fight on the mountainside, a long vigil through the night, a tramp home, reunion and eventual adjustment and happiness. Mr. Walsh tells this story with a de- lightful touch, with clear characteriza- tion and with distinct persuasiveness. He uses but a few figures for his little comedy, but all of these are vivid and distinct, and all are very well woith meeting in the pages of this most agree- able tale. ERE STRANGER FIDELITIES. By Ma- thilde Eiker, author of “Mrs. Mason's Daughters,” etc. New York: Dou- bleday, Doran & Co. A ROMANCE drawn off from the war, Here is a young Frenchwoman with a soldier lover from America. The girl has a husband, elderly and away somewhere, probably on war duty. Time goes by and the American soldier goes back to his own country. The husband dies. The girl marries a sec- ond husband—no, not the soldier of her idyllic love, but again an older man, an American—with whom she comes to this country to live. This, the situation. A lover and two husbands toward each of whom this girl maing tains a high loyalty. Sounds complex, doesn't it! And it is. Without an une derstanding of the difference between the outlook of the American and thag of the European, particularly of the French man or woman, it remains Bopelessly involved. Miss Eiker has seized upon this fundamental differe ence of temperament that in the two peoples expresses itself so oppositely in the emotion that is known as love. I§ is this deeply intelligent comprehension, this finely subtle disclosure, this ironig acceptance of tragedy rising out of the basic disagreements of racial social oute look and custom that sets “Stranger Fidelities” so high above the other fine fiction by this young writer. An indew pendent and gifted young woman with four novels of distinctive stamp and superior structural qualities standing to her account as an urge toward other creative fiction of like individuality, of equal artistry. * kX % THE CRIMSON CIRCLE. By Edgar ‘Wallace, author of “The Clever One,” etc. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., Published for The . Crime Club, Inc, THE guillotine failed to work. The knife fell short, leaving a red mark around the man’s neck, when the mob intervened for his release. That is the beginning of this bad business. A band of organized criminals grew out of the incident. . Cleverly these were held in ignorance of one another, all of them in ignorance of the identity of the leader, Extortion and, in case of re- fus: murder—such the formula of . Murders centered upon a certain neighborhood. Offset against these criminals were the agents of de- tection—three, all told. Inspector Parr, a bit"heavy, a shade dull—or so it seemed. Then Thalia Drummon, beau- tiful and bad, clever and corrupt— plainly all of these. Had she not been up before the court which had more than once convicted her and put her in prison? Artful and mysterious escapes followed—or were these escapes? The last of the three, and the best, Derrick Yale, master detective. You should see him at work, smiling tol- erantly at times over the crude direct- ness of Inspector Parr-or, in other ‘mood, offering bright suggestions and useful hints. Or were they useful, after all? Upon this foundation a most active ' line of events and incidents opens to the reader, who, about once &, minute, thinks he sees ~leam of light —no. it was not light, unly a heavief (Continued on_Ninth_Page.) = Yorke Gallery 2000 S Street EXHIBITION of Paintings by ELENA and BERTHA de HELLEBRANDTH December 16th to January 4th | > The Novel That Knows what it’s talking about It's tragic and laughable how EOPLE WILLTALK By Margaret Lee Runbeck Reilly & Lee, Chicago h-m-s,‘ present the “Supreme m is Cl Authority™ to your family or to the e e R i e e sy e w gift that lasts a lifetime! WEBSTER'’S NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY The Merriam-Webster there are 452,000 eatries, including thou- W WOR! 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