SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1923'

THE MICHIGAN DAILY ®P T5 Iit

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IN WHICH THE OBSERVER TACK- Terms of Conquest, by Howard Vin-
LES THE CHRISTMAS PRESENT cent O'Brien, (Little, Brown, $2.), is
PROBLEM the sort of book which Dr. Frank
Christmas gifts may be roughly Crane might praise as a tale of high
classified under three heads: things morals, steadfast endeavor, and de-
that can be worn or eaten, things served success. Dr. Crane would be
that cluller up the house, and books. quite right-but he should add that
Having had no experience with the it is the sort of novel which has turn-
first since Santa Claus went out of e American fiction into a paradise
style and Leiig disbarred from the for moralists, Epworth leaguers, and
second by a kitchenette apartment. plain damn fools. The hard working
the Observer will confine himself to young printer and his wife Ivy;' the
the third. Of course, the unkind per- ability and conceit of the printer, his
son trying to find a place to lay his will to succeed, and his arrival com-
hat in the said kitchenette flat, might fortably near the top make up the
remark that in the Observer's case. material of a typical American story.
j objects of the third class automatical- There is a practical (i. e. crooked)
ly graduate into the second. .. But politician whom the hero conciliates,
discussions of metaphysics are out of and a few other minor characters,
place here. such as son and daughter, a dreamy
And so the Observer will try his "scholar," and a few friends, but not
hand at solving the gift problem, each one person in the whole story lives a
try being limited by an arbitrary limit life free from the curse of the plot.
of $2.50. on the grsund thsat sugest-. There is a little variation, of course,

V.


A Jost Cherished Gift
A DIAMOND
Regardless of hose manyotler Jewelsthe
may have a Damtu nd she is alw"s s re ady
Otov as ~a
This beautiful 18k X% be Grld R ng only
s4w as
Schlanderer & Seyfried
. { . 3WEL}RS '
MI South. qin ( ttreet ,


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ions involving higher. sums require and the book makes entertaining read-
lengthy explanation and argument. 1*5.
Such explanation is to be found in Michael's Evil Deeds, by E. Phillips
longer reviews written by the Observ- Oppenheim, and published by Little,
er or his wife, who insists that her Brown & Co., is another variation on
position as family treasurer gives her the theme of the stupenduously brainy
an inside position on matters of this criminal who is outwitted by an even
sort. more brilliant detective. To the Ob-
Let us begin, therefore, with a book server it suggests Craig Kennedy In
about books, since it will supply such the days when Reeve was still expert-
information as this contribution menting, but he can easily conceive a
lacks. What Books Can Do For You. dozen people reading it to four who
by Jesse Lee Bennett (Geo. H. Doran jwill stick by even an H. G. Wells
Co., $2.) is exactly the thing desired. -omance. For the right readernit would
and possesses the great virtue of be- .e "great dope"-and such right read-
ing different from anything else to ers make up an alarming percentage
be found. Its purpose is to survey of those to whom Christmas packages
modern hooks on every field, from test be sent,
cosmology to adventure stories, to A much better book, since it is both
list the best of them, and give a back- 'ionest and convincing, is Luther
ground for the reader who may 'wish Nichols, by Mary S. Watts (Macmillan,
to consult them. There are eleven $2.). Luther Nichols is an average
chapters on the general features of American boy-that is, the average
human knowledge that call to tind boy born of foreign parents and liv-
Professor Robinson's "Mind in the ing in a country district, who gets
Making" and "Humanizing of Knpwl- little -education and moves to a city--
edge." They are not' easy 'reading. Cincinnati in this case. The boy leaves
but they are profitable, and 'cas be his. father's truck farm, gets himself
taken in instalments of any length-; a job in a livery barn that has be-
the Obesrver read them on the "L" 'ome a livery garage and while his
and street-car. Following these chap- 'iest friend, Roy McArdle, is away
ters are 50 pages of 'book-lists, be- to the war marries Roy's girl. And
ginning with discovery 'and adven- then, with Roy back, Luther, who did.
ture and ending with books for chil- his bit at Camp Sherman, finds him-
dren. They can be used either as a self a job in a private family as
guide for buying, or as finding lists on ,chauffeur, while his wife goes into the
one's pilgrimages to the public i millinery business. There is then an
brary; either way they will be use- affair with the daughter of the house,
ful. Maybe they appeal to the Ob- Juliet Ordway.
server particularly because he is lazy; So real, so convincingly alive Is
maybe because, like many other folks, Luther Nichols that the Observer
he is too busy to give long and deep strongly suspects that only to a small
thought to the selection, of his read- extent is he a boy of fiction. His
ing. Anyhow, he likes them. . . simplicity and humaneness are part
I * * * * of real life, just as the things; he
Having thus praised a book that does are the things done day in and
recommends one's reading, we ma! day out, from Maine to New Mexico,
chronicle the arrival of three volumes in villages, towns, and cities. Mrs.
wihch Mr. Bennett is not apt to ad- Watts does not tell his brilliantly, but
vise, but which nevertheless will en- she tells it well, and the slowness of
joy more than a small measure ot her writing fits the slowness of Luth-
popularity. The first of these, Fannie er. In this sense of realism, there-
Fox's Cook Book (Little, Brown,& Co.) fore, Luther Nichols ranks with Main
was both a surprise and a puzzle to Street and Winesburg, since it re-
the Observer until his wife took it ports honestly the lives of ordinary
off his hands. Since that time he has people. It has more of real stuff than
eaten biscuits, stews, soups, desserts, a thousand volumes such' as those by
and potatoes, all done a la Mrs. Fox. Oppenheim, and the Observer wishes
He conquered all of them, and even it success.
expressed a willingness to meet the * * *
group again ; an admission which to A final glance over-the bookshelves
him seems sufficient recommendation reminds the Observer that he should
for a book he has sampled deeply, not close his suggestions without
though has not read. mentioning at least one true gift book
-a volume that is at once both beau-
The others are novels, of the sort tfill in appearance and significant in
the Observer reads when his high- content. And there is none which
brow friends are sure not to drop in so completely fills these requirements
for the evening. One of them, The (Continued on Page Seven)


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