Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-30

beautiful descriptions of rural England" :"
said l, but do not read novels for seen.
cry. Local color is as necessary as
clothes. but clothes do not make man
or woman, either. Some one has said
that Phillpotts i'm his new novel has done
for the nursery workers and oyster
| dredgers Of Essex what he did for the
workers Of Devonshire as though the
clothes Of his novel were Of Importance.
He has really exhibited the actions of a
group of people in which there are two
or three who blame God when they do
wrong. / was thinking about them and
the problems they raise when Doctor Nc
Fabre and Dorothy came up. The heroine
is a charming young woman, gracious.
| educated, with some fine gifts, but she
has no more sense Of moral responsibility
than whirlwind. Her selfshness is
monumental. She marries a man whom
| she does not love and leaves him without
| any compunctons of conscience, She
then poses as a widow and falls in love
with another man, who also loves her
and marries her. She has not the cour.
age TO tell him the truth before marriage
and when he does learn it and her happi-
| ness is wrecked as the inevitable result
, Of her deceit she does not blame herself
l am what I am she walls and can't
help it, And then she tells friend that
she has not forgiven God for making her
| what she is"
Contemplate" said Dorothy.
Yes. She violated the code of honor
| IfE 1,Nn- Iat.
ance OF the existence of such code, for
he has social outcast who has been
! tramping around the country with a
/ woman to whom he is not married tell
! the girl about this code, the second article
of which is that you must not love where
{ YOU cannot marry He cared nothing
for the marriage forms, but he did care
for the fundamental loyalties Of the
human relations. Though not married
to the woman he was living with they
might have been weddeh. This outlaw
couple is used as a foil for those who
were pretending to observe the social
conventions but were violating tho
eternal moralities and dsregarding the
understandings which keep society to
gether. Mr.. Phillpotts has written a
great social satire. Its setting among
the nursery workers ana oyster dredgers
of Essex is accidental. 1t might have
been written about a similar group OF
people anywhere in the world. It's value
lies in its study Of the human soul. It is
a moving moral tragedy, lighted up will,
| flashes of comedy"
Somewhat after the manner of Ham
let'?" asked Ames.
We'll, | would not compare II 10
Hamlet but the man who reads Hamlet
for the sake of the loca! color will fai
as lamentably to see the significance OF
the play as the man who reads The
Banks of Colne' for the sake of ESSEX
! scenery"
Just then Dorothy arose to go and
Ames went with her The pair disap.
peared in the gathering darkness with
the girls hand resting .ightly on the
young mans arm.
"Ames is all right at bottom" his uncle
remarked when they were out OF
| hearing.
Life is a curious thing" said I, ir.
relevantly. I'VE do not know much about
it," GEORGE w. DOUGLAS.
| THE BANKS OF COLNE. CTbe Nurservl nv
| Eden ihllpotts, author Of "Brunels Tower. -
si.5o. '''" 'o'N' Inc macmillan Company