The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-10-13
Bill PeIley,s First Book.

citation of Vermont character and
knack OF expressing it by way Of the
printed page His first book, THE
Greater Glory" is very evidently a
complication OF several magazine
short stories, with the character of
Mary Wood, based on "reminiscences
of his own mother, as the central
figure. 1t shows some of Pelley's best
work in a permanent and attractive
| form.
The scene of the story is very eyi.
IDENTITY in Bennington, pen-named
! Paris" In the book, and the romance
of Mary Wood and John Purse begins
| in the office of the" Daily Tele-
graph under which the establish
| ment of the Bennington Banner is
very thinly disguised. Undoubtedly,
| too, the character of Sam Hold, pro-
prietor, is more or less predicated on
that of Frank n. Howe, although one
could hardly imagine Frank throttl-
ling an irish foreman for saying rude
words about a sanity compositor.
| The locale of the story Is Benning-
ton, beyond a doubt, as certain des-
criptions of landscape and terrain
would be recognized at first glance.
The description of the "Old Wheeler
place" is photographically accurate
so far as well,known abandoned
farm near Bennington is concerned,
although its cameo-like drawing
might apply to many others.
Near the top of Cobb hill on the
right-hand side of the road, you would
leone to weather-beaten old house
now faded to a sun-blistered, mustard
Thrown. crazy stone wall beneath
row of hoary. gnarled unpruned ma
pies divides the south dooryard from
the highway.
No one lives in that old house at
lpresent. For long time its rooms
lhave been empty, its doors locked, its
blinds drawn. The lilacs grow rag
ged and frowsy at the corners and
are full of caterpillars. The back yard
| is choked with caraway, yarrow and
bastard raspberry, with an added mix
ture of wild roses, syringas, blossom
| less hollyhocks and cOarse-grained
rhubarb banked against the west wall
OF the house and ell A wellsweep
| by the opposite fence has defled the
wears but beyond it lie the founda-
tions of gray-timber ruins of some
! out-huildings that collapsed in the
Shirkshire storm of two years ago.
There are many OF them scattered
| through this section of Vermont, True
his particular place is not so dilapi-
dated and abandoned as some others.
| It was a stuffy little bedroom up
under the eaves.It smelled of wealth
er-dried shingles and cedar chests and
musty closets and old rag carpets, A
! cheap, low-hung, yellow bedsteaad
withsa ridiculously high headboard
and a ridiculously low foot-board and
Z bouquet of hideous brown flowers
between the one south window and
the west wall, squaring out into the
room and leaving space only for a
rocker and bureau with badly
| nawed glass
This sort Of description is abso-
utely Photographic, and the book has
plenty OF it.
Drawing the character of Mary
Wood, who refused TO marry the scion
Of wealth and Waited until the real
man came along. is really beautiful
tribute to a sainted personality
ask done with a reverence and care
hat is almost sacred, yet the author
makes 1t more than that. He says
| The story OF Mary Wood. to us in
| the newspaper Office is the frail, del
cate. beautiful history OF the love OF
= girl for man and for the sons Of
| hat man which that girl bore him
Yet somehow. as wegrow older and go
| Town the bill Of life and see the new
children coming UP and the marriages
! taking place CHow did Pelley happen
to use that banal phraseD and watch
the friends and loved ones and ac.
quaintances dropping by the wayside,
the story of little Mary Wood re.
solves itself in to a eulogy of the
| wives of good men everywhere.
Tile book is not all that sort of pen
siye sentiment There are some par
ticularly clear-cut characters-such as
Mibb [Mabel) Henderson, the girl
with the priceless singing voice, who
narries the aforesaid scion of wealth
for the money and style which it
meant, ruins the man by her heart
| essness and is finally beaten almost
o death by him and her beauty ruined
at the height of her fame( and in
fanny.
The return of Nib Henderson to
he fatherless home of Mary Purses
| six sons and her bitter realization OF
how little her life has meant com
pared with Mary's is one of the most
poignant bits OF drama in the book.
Furthermore, the deliberately child
less and finally wretched life Of Nib
is sex sermon in the terms of
daily life that need to be preached
in exactly that way, just about this
time
The sickening tragedy of Mary's
mother, finally killed by the crazy,
drunken brute who was Marys step
father and the subsequent suicide is,
alas, too true to some dark phases of
country life and there is the episode
of Mary's fake. legacy arranged by the
man who married. Nib Henderson.
decidedly a melodramatic touch. For
low comedy. there is the description
of the amateur play certainly
unique bit and almost incredible of
belief Does Mr. Pelley means to say
hat anything like that really han
ipened? &lFWIEEIEFkI
.Peney will go far with this sOrI
of thing. It's mostly genuine and is
done with first-hand knowledge and
sympathetic appreciation of actual
conditions and real life that makes it
tr1lly readable and admil.ble -Rut-