Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-04-28
A MODERN JACOB
AT JABBOK'S FORD
He Wrestled With the Angel and
Found That Love Con-
quered Him

Feminine discomfort stalks through the
early pages of The Ford" Mary Austtn's
latest novel, and it thrusts itself on the
attention at intervals almost to the end
But Mrs. Austin has created two characters
whose lives show how happiness can be
round when a woman ceases to strive
against the laws of nature and how when
happiness Is denied one may face the world
bravely and do ones work with such gifts
as one has. The publishers describe the
book as a tale Of California life This does
not do II justice. 1t is a tale Of life any
where and everywhere in the United states
rms is so because it sei2es hold of the
fundamentals of human character and dis
plays them in action. The setting is mere
~ Incidental The book opens with a pic
ture of group of children acting on the
hank or creek The story of Jacobs wres-
tling with the angel at the ford Jabbolx, and
is occupied with the development of the
lives of these children and of their parents.
closing when one of the boys. grown to
young manhood discovers his right place in
the world after an attempt to he something
For which he was fitted neither by inher-
tance nor inclination. lie tried to he a
lawyer, but he was born on the land he
loves the land, and he finally decides to go
| back to ii. He finds a mate waiting for
him there ready and glad to share his life.
And the book ends with him at the brook
where he had impersonated Jacob in his
boyhood. The girl was standing near. What
happens is thus described
As lie moved down the swale and
across the Ford Of Mariposa il was. in
deed, as if all the treading of the years
since last he played there had been but
stepping stones in the path that led
to her, And as he went he felt a sud-
den stir and sigh of the air as of the
passing of great wings and the angel
of his struggle went from him. and he
knew at last the inefable name by
which heaven alone prevails against us.
And though he felt in going that he
should always limp n little on the
snew Of material success. he knew,
too, that he should never come this way
again and not feel the magic and tri-
umph of this hour.
| Mrs. Austin pays her respects to women
| agitators who seek only excitement because
! they have not been able to find their right
| place in the scheme of things. She makes
| one of her characters say that the way to
| make Socialist is to put a man fitted
| only to raise prunes for six years land
| fitted only to raise potatoes. Because he
| is trying to do the impossible he decides
| the whole world is out of joint. He is then
| ready for social revolution. when the only
| thing he needs is to get on land fitted to
| prunes.
| The story is one to be read ieisurely, for
| it moves with the deliberation of the growth
| of the young persons in it. The thrilling
| moments. and there are many of them. come
| without warning. as they do i'll life. The
| specifically discontented will find much
| comfort in Virginia one of the girls grown
| 10 womanhood. The more serious-minded
| will be delighted with Anne the sister of
| the hero doomed to a loveless life, yet able
| to make her way as a successful business
| woman, retrieving the mistakes of her
| father There is richness and beauty in
| Mrs. Austins style that sets this book apart
| by itself as a piece of literature in the high
est sense. and there Is a social sanity in ii
that is refreshing in these days of fiabby
| ard irresponsible preachments about the
| mistakes Providence made in ordering the
| world.
| THE FORD by Mary Austin. Illustrated by
| T.. Boyd Smith sl5O. Boston: Houghtor
| Miffiin Company.