South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-12-08
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BOOKS AND MAGAZINES
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THE WOMAN ALONE"

Perhaps the most inexhaustible
fund of material for philosophers,
artists, poets authors and all manner
OF intellectual persons to draw from,
is and has been through all ages. the
relation of the sexes. 1t has furnished
material for many OF the literary mas
terpieces and il has never failed 10
provide a curious world with food for
thought. Authors sometimes are able
10 accomplish with the eternal tri-
angle, an absorbing and wholly unob-
jectionable story, too often they over
step the limits of literary convention
and create merely an offensive situa-
ton. the indiscriminate display of
which cannot but have an unwhOle-
some effect upon the thought and
morals of the masses.
OF the former type is 1.-The Woman
Alone" by Mable Herbert Urner
(Hearst's International Library Co.,
y. ". 1t embOdies, however, phases
which are revolving TO say the least,
and the entire story leaves an I'M
pleasant taste in the mouth. The fact
that il is so Enthusiastically true 10 life
as it actually is. redeems il and its
author, although the story does not
strike one as a literary creation, de-
stined to live. 1t rather tends to i'm
press one as a painfully candid por-
trait of three characters whom cir
cumstances and the moral weakness
of the two have plunged into a ghaSt-
ly and unnatural situation.
Whether it was her intention to do
so. or not not, the author has proven
cOnclusively that the first duty of the
married man, in spite of his desires,
is 70 the woman he has married: that
though he may passiOnately want an
other woman, he is bound first and
last TO his wife, by power over which
he has no prestige, and which eff
fectually rules him into resignation.
And she has proven at the same time
the unmitigated folly of the woman
who gives herself in love to a man
without marriage, and the greater
error OF loving man already welded.
Had she once reverted to the first law
which prohibits such a condition, the
author might have made of her story
a powerful argument, as ii is she has
merely related the incidents with no
pretense of holding up for moral eX-
ample. the sin of the weak man and
the deluded girl. The purpose of the
book is left to the deduction of the
reader, but there is no installing the
significance of the ending, which
leaves the girl ruined and alone, the
man restored 10 his wife.
PROFESSIONALLY. the most natural in
ference after the various seQuential
experiences in the violent love affair
the first blissful. stolen moments to-
gether. hours by the sea with the blue
sky above and the green waves be-
side. dinners in fashionable restaurants
under the gay lights and wanderings
into the green country among the
flowers and the fresh fields, where the
delight OF being together seemed so
pure and stainless that they failed TO
see the significance OF their ultimate
relations-unQuestiOnably the infer
ence which seizes one as he watch s
the situation grow from innocence to
guilt, from happiness 10 sorrow. is
that the man is as deludcd as the girl.
he really does not love any woman
but his wife and the violent attrac-
ton he feels for the girl is merely
infatuatiOn brought about by her
youth. her beauty and a certain subtle
influence she yields over him.
And the consequence is simply that
he tires of his own passion. just as the
palate becomes sailed with too much
sweet, he finally exhausts from the
stress of an unusual experience and
returns % the wife who has borne his
name for 20 years, who has always
possessed him and who always will.
such is the unmeasured power of the
marriage law AT the end. the girl
understands that what she has
dreamed was the lasting devotion of
his heart. was merely the unstable
passion n man feels for beauty. real
enough while ii lasted, but destined
to last only so long as il did not in
terfere with the program Of his we'll
ordered. prOsaic life. And. crushed.
her youth wasted and absorbed wholly
by the unfortunate experience, she
child whose innOcenSe must bear the
clusion to await the coming of the
burden of another's transgreSsiOnS -
withdraws into some unhappy Sc
b. Z. H