Not Sufficient Variety

By way of introduction just a word to remind readers of the difficulty of the reviewer's task nowadays. He must sit down, bent on honest criticism, which is the purpose of a review, and see continually flitting before him the vivid phantom of "precocity mated with the unreserve of a female infant." Deliver us from its clutches, for we know not what it is!

The current number of the Advocate should be dedicated to O. Henry, for the three stories depend on the problem of mistaken identity which he handled so supremely well. Of them, P. R. Mechem's "Burley knows a Cubist" alone is done with any particular skill. The style in description and conversation is light and the characters are cleverly sketched, although the close is distinctly weak. W. D. Crane in "Bully" and L. Wood, Jr., in "Short, Sweet and Bitter" do not succeed so well in following the difficult master. Both attempt what few people can accomplish skilfully in clearing up their mysteries by means of a letter, and both lack vigor and compactness. Whatever the merits and demerits of the stories, however, the Advocate has been unwise in selecting three so similar. Had O. Henry himself written them we would be justified in asking a little variety. The two bits of verse, best characterized as pleasant, are neither important enough nor distinctive enough to relieve the sameness of the prose. At least, oh Advocate, one real love affair to make things interesting!