Arizona republican., 1919-04-06
l. LITERATURE AND ART
 -. Conducted by LEW HEAD

"MY ANTONIA." Please pronounce, it Anton ee-ah, accenting the first syllable. The character study of 1918. None other compares with it. It stands ont in literature as The Angelus" does in art. I have seen great loads of mangled rock fed into the voracious nav of science and invention, to emerge finally, pure gold metal. And now I have seen a crude Bohemian girl fed into the jaws of American ex- nerience. crushed, disintegrated, muti- lated. torn and bruised. to emerge pure gold character. That's My An tonia." That's Villa s. Gathers won der story of last year..
 No character in literature, save pos sibly Dickens, lives with me as does Antonia. I shall be astonished if any ever does. And, right here, let me confess a prejudice of long standing. | Totally without basis, it has always | been rather subconSciouS idea Of mine that a woman could never write q great character, study or paint a 1 great picture Miss Gather has com 1 pletelv routed my prejudice as far as l literature is concerned. In art, it still | stands. My old tan cap is doffed to- l Miss Gather. And 1 am so in earnest about it, too, that l am going to see l that she knows it.
 Antonia-I love her. A crude, awk- | ward helpless little girl Of fourteen; | brought to this country by her parents ! -a scold. ill-tempered mother and a 1 temperamental, saddened, artistic father; set down on the raw plains of | Nebraska; her home, a dugout; her portion, to tend cattle, to follow the | blow. to thrash, to put in from sun rise to sunset at mans labor. Then hired out; set down in town life; taught to dance; tickled by the atten- tion of the village youth; misunder- 1 stood, discharged and cast on her | own. Still, there is that ebullient | spirit that flame of girlhood, that in- defatigable something that begets | vanity, pride and, withal, sacrifices not virtue. Development follows development of body, of manner, of hope A hired girl" true, but not a hired spirit The Bohemian longing for home, for babies, for domestic duties, burns within a soul, that evil 1 never soils.
 | It was not surprising that Antonia reached out with inspirational en- thusiasm to marry the dapper rail- | that she should spend days and nights on pretty house dresses, nighties, skirts and every conceivable sort of linen. It was perfectly as We would expect of her, to travel to Denver to marry "her man." But it is infinitely more pathetic, for all these meaning ful trifles, that we see her again, in her old home, a sad, trampled upon. submerged girl of 24, unmarried, moth CT of a fatherless babe.
 Again the old grind again her sil- houette is opague against the setting sun, as she drives her team into the corral All but the hiring out" in threshing time, Antonia is as she was So deep is her humiliation that she finds solace only in frenzied work and utter retirement. We owe Miss Gather debt of gratitude for conveniently skipping twenty years of Antonia s progress through the retreat of so- cietys quelling inquisition. We are rather glad that she leads us to the pleasanter successes of the other towr girls. Yet as we follow their happi- ness and achievements, we carry 1T the far corner of our memories 2 sacred little altar before which WI pause ever and anon, to cross our selves and say Q prayer to the mem ory of her shattered hopes.
 Yet, not shattered, for here she i: again, big, robust, healthy and strong mother of q dozen; ruler of acres O billowing grain; the forging power O Q loyal husband; Antonia, just as WI would have her with the jars of pre- serves, her kegs of pickles. her flocl of geese, her immaculate kitchen. he
 long rows of brown baked loaves, anC golden crusted pies. Such stalwar sons, such vigorous girls, such an olt i fashioned, old country husband, Thi
 is our Antonia, the Antonia we love the Antonia that brfoke the sod o
 Nebraska and made an empire o
 wealth out of a waste of barrenness
 Houghton. Mefflin company call thi
 a very distinguished piece of writing.
 So do I. l will go further. Antoni;
 is the predominating character of 1915
 And how simple it all is; how absurdl.
 realistically, beautifully simple. Afte
 all is said and written, isn't it true
 that the more naturally natural thing
 are portrayed the deeper they pene
 trate. the firmer they lodge, the longe
 they abide?