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automobile has given the soft ones their opportunity. In those days two shots was the limit. Now it is five or six from a firearm that is perfection in itself discharging in rapid succession cartridges loaded with such scientific precision as makes them extremely deadly. Formerly our game birds had a fair chance; now they have no chance.

Always is it easy to find the wrong. The difficulty is to find the remedy, and the greater difficulty is to reduce that remedy into legislation. I have before me Dr. Pope's interesting book, "Hunting with the Bow and Arrow" (Putnams, 1925). Every sportsman should own a copy. Here is his idea:

With the rapid development of firearms, hunting tends to lose its sporting quality. The killing of game is becoming too easy; there is little triumph. and less glory than in the days of yore. Game preservation demands a limitation of armament. We should do well to abandon the more powerful and accurate implements of destruction, and revert to the bow.

So writes the man who, with bow and arrow made by himself, has laid low the deer, the moose, the mountain sheep, and the grizzly bear, besides smaller game. He is now in Africa, with Stewart Edward White, hunting with bow and arrow. A law forbidding the use of any device for the killing of game other than the bow and arrow would be impossible of enactment. However, the principle is well put.

Richard Jefferies, who is spoken of by Colonel Roosevelt as a man of letters, a sportsman, and a naturalist, gives us a more practical solution. Consider what he says in that delightful essay, "The Single-Barrel Gun." You will find it in the collection of his essays published in 1908 by Chatto & Windus, under the title "The Open Air." His was the day of the double-barrel, and his hope was for a return of the single-barrel. I can only quote briefly:

Quickness of firing keeps the double

barrel to the front; but suppose a repeater was to be invented, some day, capable of discharging two cartridges in immediate succession? And if two cartridges, why not three? An easy thought, but a very difficult one to realize. Something in the power of the double-barrel-the overwhelming odds it affords the sportsmen over birds and animals pleases. A man feels master of the copse with a double-barrel; and such a sense of power, though only over feeble creatures, is fascinating. . . .

For everything but the multiplication of slaughter I liked the single best; I had more of the sense of woodcraft with it. When we consider how helpless a partridge is, for instance, before the fierce blow of shot, it does seem fairer that the gunner should have but one chance at the bird. Partridges at least might be kept for single-barrels; great bags of partridges never seemed to me quite right. Somehow it seems to me that to take so much advantage as the double-barrel confers is not altogether in the spirit of sport. The double-barrel gives no "law." At least to those who love the fields, the streams, and woods for their own sake, the single-barrel will fill the bag sufficiently, and will permit them to enjoy something of the zest men knew before the invention of weapons not only of precision but of repetition --inventions that rendered them too absolute masters of the situation. A single-barrel will soon make a sportsman the keenest of shots.

The single-shot single-barrel gun will afford plenty of sport for any sportsman. Such a firearm will prove equal to all the things so well said of it by Richard Jefferies. In Ohio the hunters would welcome such an opportunity. However, they made their election between the surrender of the repeater and putting quail on the song-bird list and lost their right to hunt them at all. Even on the outskirts of the cities and villages quail are now abundant throughout Ohio. Last Sunday a covey of twenty-four leisurely wandered about my yard in search of insect food. We favor the single-shot single-barrel gun. It will take

longer to kill a few birds, but it will teach deliberation.

B

A Question of Armament

UT if bow and arrow be obsolete and the single-barrel unable to respond to the desire of the soft ones to kill, why not limit the power to kill by limiting the hunter to the use of the double-barrel? Why not limit the right to shoot to but three days a week during the open season, thereby permitting the coveys to have some peace and an opportunity to feed? The answer of the many sportsmen is that the remedy to reduce killing of game is to fix a bag limit by law and leave it to the conscience of the hunter not to violate it. Their argument is, if you have a bag limit, what difference does it make whether you use a single-barrel, double-barrel, or automatic shotgun? The answer is, that too many hunters pay no attention to bag limits, and such a law is unenforceable, and there is no such thing as conscience in one who believes his natural rights are being impaired. Nevertheless there should be a bag limit, for whatever it may be worth, because true sportsmen will respect it.

The game laws of any State may be amended by providing for an open season for quail shooting, during which they may be hunted only on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. It may be made. unlawful to shoot at, injure, or kill any game bird with any repeater, automatic, or other magazine gun, or except when they are flying. A bag limit of twelve quail in one day or fifty for the season is a reasonable limitation in those States in which agriculture is in an advanced stage of development. Five woodcock, geese, and shore birds is not too low for a day's limit; nor are ten duck a day or sixty for the season an unreasonable restriction. However, the principal accomplishment is to limit the power to kill by excluding the magazine gun. prohibition should be universal. Restrictions respecting upland shooting depend upon local conditions, but those about migratory birds should be universal.

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M

Edited by EDMUND PEARSON

"One Increasing Purpose

A Review by CLARA BELLINger Green

R. HUTCHINSON in his latest
novel, "One Increasing Pur-
pose," has for his theme the

world-old desire to fathom life and its
meaning the "Master-Knot of Human
Fate" which concerned thinking men
long before Omar Khayyám gave it up:
There was the Door to which I found
no Key.

The hero of the story, Simon Paris, the youngest of the three Paris brothers, and a war veteran, furnishes one more instance of the fact that the war unfitted many men for the ordinary business of life. Returning home after the unspeakable existence in the trenches, he found, to his amazement, his old world going on precisely as it did before the war. He cannot go on as he did before. Life has a different, a deeper meaning to him. He cannot explain the change in himself which he realizes and which all detect. Coming out of the war "unscathed”always expecting to "catch it," as all his comrades did; "and he never did catch it" he has come to believe that he has been spared for some purpose. He is obsessed by the notion, but to make sure of it he seeks to communicate with

his mother, with whom he has always had sympathetic understanding and who has died during the war. His experience, alone in the dugout-his companions killed when his involuntary cry, "Mother, why am I spared?" brought to him the assurance of her presence, is not altogether unusual or unnatural. It is related that he "felt within him one of those astonishing, unexpected, inexpressibly comforting acquisitions of absolute knowledge" that he had been spared and would be spared for some purpose. Excess of emotion, one may say, yet there are moments when the heart demands and seems to receive, without outward manifestation, certitude of the lost. one's presence.

Simon Paris, familiarly called Sim, is a man of the Mark Sabre type, not quite such a helpless buffet of circumstance as the eccentric hero of "If Winter Comes," but, like him, lacking the inherent selfprotective faculty to a degree that nears imbecility. Like Mark Sabre, he irritates by his inability to cope with ordi

One Increasing Purpose. By A. S. M. Hutchinson. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. $2.

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nary conditions. Sim's pursuit of his
purpose is the story of the book. To
normal intelligence this purpose might
have been sought as effectively while
"doing the day's work" in some lucrative
business. Not to Sim. First of all, he
"chucked the service," thus depriving
himself of the increased pay which pro-
motion to the rank of major at the close
of the war brought him.

"What on earth does he want to retire
for now?" pertinently asks his brother
Charles.

Questioned on this point and his reason for turning down every business opportunity offered him, he merely replies: "I don't know." "Gassed," unknown to the author, concludes the reader. If he could find the right person to whom he might confide his spiritual emotions, he feels that he could define himself. Elizabeth enters, and at once comprehends him and his mental processes. One wishes that her sympathy were less soft, that she might instill character into this somewhat floundering hero. But, though inspired and encouraged by her, he still gropes, getting an illuminating glimmer now and then, until by slow steps he at length perceives his purpose. Countless others have trod the same path and arrived at the same truth; but to him it is a marvelous discovery. He formulates his revelation, "Christ the Common Denominator," and sees his purpose as the duty to proclaim it. Elizabeth, who, from a quixotic notion common to heroines, has found it out of the question to marry him for about twenty years, is now (her own obstacle removed) confronted by his-the necessity to go forth and preach, thus delaying their happiness. She gives him a year to try out his experiment, surmising, no doubt, that the end of that time will find him content to live his new religion in daily life. As a novelist Mr. Hutchinson's chief idiosyncrasy is excessive reiteration-a point of style which impresses and enchains at first, but in the end becomes wearisome. A pertinent word or phrase is employed until it grows threadbare. Each incident, in carefully chosen phraseology, is repeated again and again, words of the original telling retained, as if a teacher were fixing them in the mind of a pupil expected to learn them by rote.

Certain forms of speech also are affixed to each character, as though stamped upon them. We have to forgive Sim for his inevitable "old man," "old girl," "old Charles," "old Niggs," "old Gand,” for he is English and cannot help it; and the author, being English himself, sees no reason for varying his greetings. We know that when Sim meets his brother Andrew he will accost him: "Niggs, old man, how goes it?" and get the answer: "Oh, pretty good, Sim." Alice and Elizabeth spare the author's inventive powers by exclaiming, when other words fail them: "Oh, Sim, Sim, Sim!" Thus we know what to expect conversationally from each one- -a method which saves mental strain on the part of the author, if monotonous for the reader. Linda, it is true, talks, and talks divertingly, but Sim's linguistic paucity and triteness, so at variance with his spiritual experiences, constantly disappoint.

Mr. Hutchinson still indulges in dislocated and involved sentences.

We

read: "She stressed exactly with a stress that no word in the language not buttressed, as 'exactly' is buttressed, by some of the stoutest pillars of the alphabetical bridge across the abyss of inarticulation, could possibly support without crumbling out of audition; and the stress she thus gave it had the happy quality of implying that, while she of course knew everything on the subject that was commonly known, hers was the type of erudition that desired to know also every secret, possibly sinister, depth that was not generally known."

In the side character of B. C. D. Ash, the "super-famous novelist man,” Mr. Hutchinson apparently has drawn a humorous picture of himself as an illustrious novelist frantically evading the attentions of a too eager public. If it is an actual picture of his personal woes, he must have been an egregious sufferer from the fame thrust upon him. He has made B. C. D. a ludicrous object in his hysterical efforts to dodge the public, but that, we suspect, is intended as humor. And it is more than probable that Mr. Hutchinson will be afflicted still further in this respect as the author of "One Increasing Purpose."

Fiction

VOLCANO. By Ralph Straus.
New York. $2.

Henry Holt & Co.,

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tirely apt, "Volcano" is a diverting and delightful book; not quite credible perhaps, but as the sub-title reads "A Frolic," that need not matter. Moreover, it is only when it is finished that doubt arises; the spell holds until the end. But Mr. Straus has achieved something more than a temporary convincingness; he has written a novel dealing with the "dangerous age" the heroine is forty-twowhich is neither pathological, morbid, tragic, nor naughty, but merry, kindly, and keen. Miss Gertrude Belt, cold, competent, and correct until in one wild escapade as highly incorrect as it is innocent she throws off the smothering atmosphere of a narrow-minded little English town to find her true self, proves to be really a woman of heart and charm as well as courage. Her experiences, with a handsome and ingenuous young sailor for a "pal" and the clever semiinvalid man of the world, Mr. Pountby, for observer and ally, and for a background the over-proper town of Croome with its over-proper, when they are not

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Line forms on the right for all who are not entirely satisfied with what they've got. Count off by fours, multiply by the day of the month, and subtract your age, and you arrive at the number of people who already have discovered how much the Classified Advertising Section can help them.

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manners, morals, misdirected reforms,
misapplied standards, and hard-won free-
dom well worth smiling over.

SWEDEY. Ethel Hueston. The Bobbs-Merrill
Company, Indianapolis. $2.

Following Swedey is as sticky a business as the lollypop with which she is discovered in the first chapter. With incredible quiescence she goes through associations with a Methodist ministerial family, several laundries, a doctor, an army captain, and some waiters, to a grimly glorious love. One of the gentler romances of the World War runs through the book, and there are some charming glimpses of Iowan country life. The trick ending to the story is amusing, but for the most part "Swedey" is an excellent example of the lengths to which linked sweetness can be drawn out.

THE GREAT PANDOLFO. By William J. Locke.
Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. $2.

The love story of two unusual people, Paula Field and Sir Victor Pandolfo. Both are large-hearted, large-minded, fascinating, gifted, and proud. She is a young widow, gently born, beautiful and aware at once imperially and humorously of her charms. He, the son of an English housemaid and an Italian imagevender, is an inventor, a genius, and a master of men; egoistic, generous, impulsive, gallant, dramatic; a magnificent exotic creature accustomed to carry everything before him. But Paula, who instinctively rebels at his overwhelming ness, is not easily to be carried. Mr. Locke still excels in the happy art of discovering new and interesting people concerning whom, as soon as he introduces

In writing to the above advertisers, please mention The

them to us, we quite naturally and simply want to know all that he can tell. Paula and the Great Pandolfo are worthy additions to the long list of such literary acquaintances for which already his readers have occasion to be grateful.

THE MYSTERY OF THE GOLCONDA. By William N. Vaile. Doubleday, Page & Co., Nen York. $2.

The author of this exciting tale of mining, murder, and mystery is, we are informed, a Representative in Congress from Colorado. Whether his Congressional experience has assisted him in the composition of his novel is dubious, but if he could preserve its style and spirit in the halls of the Capitol some future pages of the "Congressional Record might be so much the easier readingyet stay! Were we not tempted to skip and did we not compromise on skim ming, his hero's one political speech We were, and we did. But it is a very brief speech at that, and the remaining 299 pages we absorbed entire and with out pause.

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It was a poet, albeit a New Yorke of course, who said that the owl was al "an earnest boid." But in this book t serious Mr. Boyd takes his life in h hands, and accuses Mr. Mencken, f nineteen long pages, of being an 100 American! It will take many a draug of Pilsener to drown the memory of th insolence. Mr. Boyd also repeats m of the familiar sayings about Mencken: That he is really a ge natured man, who does not, in his r home life, roar and rave consta against all things American-again m things, in fact, outside Berlin T Vienna; that he is a hard worker h that his seeming ferocity has had lig culated object in scaring many f timid; and in making the Gree Village maidens love to display his n zine, the "American Mercury," as walk uptown with it clutched in hands-much as Bunthorne carri lily.

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The object of Mr. Boyd is to s that there is a legend about Mencken, but that, while his bark is rible, his bite is not half so Nevertheless, long after it was annou that the editors of the "Smart would cease in their new and chas "American Mercury" to use the shi method of criticism, there is still a deal of club-swinging and Schrec keit but incidentally the "Mercu a very readable magazine. Its w feature is that so many of its con Outlook

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tors try to write exactly like. Mr. Mencken.

Drama

A PLAYER UNDER THREE REIGNS. By Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson. Little, Brown &

Co., Boston. $5.

It is an excellent thing for a player to have more than one interest; if he is bound entirely to the stage, then he can talk of nothing but shop, and his circle of friends is confined to those whose concerns are no broader than his. When Forbes-Robertson announced his retirement, every one said, Why he will go back to his painting. They did not know how near to his heart the brush and palette were. But they merely caught the suggestion and passed it along.

In his reminiscences, just published, the graceful impersonator of Hamlet confesses that he never had the temperament for the theater. It is futile to speculate whether he would have made a greater painter than actor. He used the brush many times, and there are a large number of portraits by him in various homes. But we are pleased with his art life, because in his book it has enriched the

pages with many excellent word pictures of artists and writers with whom he came in contact before and after he went on the stage. He speaks with intimacy, with charm, with vividness, of these Royal Academician s. In fact, there is much reverence in these pages for most of the people he associated with. There is no self-onceit in Forbes-Robertson's ices. He gives us a quiet narrative, y ith much humor in it, and runhis rough with but one insistence

reminisce

ning

His fa

one.

red and mistrust of the Hun. mily circle was a warm and vivid The drawing-room life of his day the have been delightful, especially if Sugh these drawing-rooms could pass folk as George Macdonald, Ford anox Brown, Alma Tadema, Rossetti, winburne.

that bes-Robertson began his career in was period of the English theater which Art at the beginning of what Henry Iter Jones first called its Renascence. Wis the time of Charles Reade and cam and Taylor and Robertson. Then

era

er the healthy novelty of Pinero. His Invas the time of Marie Wilton, of and Terry in their pristine strg Mgth. He tried out his abilities with ay Anderson and Modjeska. He first

to New York in 1885. Throughhis volume, with the particular care Baedeker, he notes the characterisof the United States and emphasizes changes in our strange (to the Britland through successive generations. ward the middle of his book, memory ng full, he seems to have rushed his

story. That is unfortunate. This gentleman, who with his pen has caught some of the courtly rhythm of "Hamlet," should have given more of his full life.

Language

EUPHON ENGLISH IN AMERICA. By M. E. De Witt. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. $1.20.

This book aims to promote the correct pronunciation of the English language as it is spoken by cultivated persons in England, Canada, and the United States. It gives "euphonetigraphs," or reproductions in print of the pronunciation of a number of personages of all these countries.

WORDS AND IDIOMS: STUDIES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. By Logan Pearsall Smith. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. $2.

Chapters on English sea terms; the English element in foreign languages; four "romantic" words; popular speech and standard English; and English idioms.

Biography

ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN THE NATIONAL CAPI-
TAL. By Allen C. Clark. Published by the
Autho Washington, D. C.
Lincoln's associations with the city of

Washington-his personal rather than his political life. His first coming as a attended as President; the shops he Congressman; the balls and functions he patronized; his death and funeral; and the trial of his assassins. Whatever is new in the book is perhaps not of great historical importance, but everything connected with Lincoln is interesting. The illustrations, chiefly from photo

graphs taken in Lincoln's time, are many

and excellent.

Notes on New Books

A GROUNDWORK OF ECONOMICS. By Joseph Johnston. The Educational Company of Ireland, Ltd., Dublin. 2s. 6d.

AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP. By John W. Davis, Philip Cook, Albert C. Ritchie, Luther B. Wilson, and Charles E. Hughes. The Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York. $1. Addresses given under the management of the American Bar Association.

ENCHANTERS

OF MEN. Colburn By Ethel Mayne. G. P. Fetnam's Sons, New York. $5. Reprint of a book published in England in 1909. Histories of the great vamps. FATHER'S FIRST TWO YEARS. By Fairfax Downey. Minton, Balch & Co., New York. $1.50.

An illustrated handbook, humorous but not lacking in usefulness, on how a father should behave toward a baby.

HISTORIC SILVER OF THE COLONIES AND ITS MAKERS. By Francis Hill Bigelow. The Macmillan Company, New York. $4. Handsomely illustrated and physically very heavy. A fine book of information, with pictures on nearly every page. First published in 1917. This is a new edition. FAITH AND SUCCESS. By Basil King. Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City. $2. Moral and spiritual counsel.

BEST SERMONS, 1925. Edited by Joseph Fort Newton. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York. About twenty sermons.

ADVERTISING THE CHURCH. By Francis H. Case. The Abingdon Press, New York. $1.25. How to boost the church; suggestions by church advertisers.

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In writing to the above advertisers, please mention The Outlook

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