Current Advocate Average

The current Advocate is rich in fiction but relatively poor in verse and contains but two articles. The latter are in some respects the most interesting contributions to the number. They echo many a dispute about verslibre. Mr. LaFarge attacks, Mr. Jayne defends, the new form. Mr. Jayne's essay is very thoughtful but we can imagine becoming quite as absorbed in "Paradise Lost" as in "Christable." Mr. LaFarge is very worth reading on the other side, but has, at times, the rather irritating superiority of the classicist. The unsigned opening contribution to the number gives us three opinions of war in the abstract, of which the first would seem the justest, though the author obviously did not mean it to appear so. Mr. Parsons' "The Abandoned House" is good description but the word "animals" is rather a colorless designation for rats. A story by the same author, "Footfalls in the Desert," supplies us with mystery and "local color," but its greatest claim on our regard is the discovery of the Mexican Christmas flower. "Shade of Linnaeus!" What plant is this? We doubt if the avid soil of Mexico could produce it. We fear it needed the greater fertility of Mr. Parsons' imagination. Mr. Carroll's story is light, very light, and judged by the standard of the average American magazine, altogether irreproachable. Mr. Davis' "The Lord's Prayer" is touching enough. We do not wonder that the Belgian children were unable to forgive the Germans. Such forgiveness comes only with understanding. Of the other stories, "A Tale" is perhaps the most arresting, in spite of the conventional pessimism which we find also in Mr. Slingerland's story.

Turning to the verse we must congratulate Mr. LaFarge on the practical application of his theories. "To Meliboeus" is undoubtedly the finest poem in the number. Otherwise the verse is not distinguished. We feel keenly the absence of Mr. Hillyer. Does Mr. Rogers ("The New Shakespeare,") really think the age heroic? If so, he must surely admit that it is heroism without intelligence.

Two editorials and a book-review close the number. The editorial on Russian relief work is particularly timely and valuable. The reviewer of "Christine" is, we think, quite right in assuming the letters therein to be fictitious. He does not mention the interesting theory that Owen Wister is the real author. Yet there are obvious similarities between "Christine" and "The Pentecost of Calamity" in point of style and method.

On the whole, the current issue suffers less than we might expect from the blighting influence of the war. It manages to uphold very creditably the literary traditions of the Advocate. ARTHUR K. McCOMB, '18.