New-York tribune., 1920-10-20
Books

Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis, which
is published by Harcourt, Brace & Howe,
is a novel about American life which
ls good enough to stand beside Zona
Gales Miss Lulu Bett and Villa Sibert
Gathers NY Antonia. In some re-
spects it is better book. Lewis never
makes me see great stretches of coun-
try as wildly as does Miss Gather, and
he has not quite Miss Gales gift for
characterization, or at any rate not her
surprising ability to turn out COM
pletc person with a few strokes, but as
picture Of the life of an entire COM
rnunity Lewis has done an amazingly
fine job.
Main Street is almost disconcertingly
good. 1t will be a good many weeks,
and perhaps months, before I can sit
down again to the easy task of turning
out copy around the familiar formula
of wailing about the failure of American
rovelsts to open their eyes and tell
some Of the things round about which
they see. Sinclair Lewis has fairly
camped on the trail Of Gopher Prairie,
his little Minnesota town of 5000 in
habitants, and watched it waking and
sleeping and at the movie shows and
IN tlre parlor, and set everything down
i'll his book He hears even better than
he sees. | can't think of anybody who
has been so unerringly right in repro
Gucing talk. He is right to a degree
which is much deeper than photographic
eXactness. He is able to bring in
sharp edge of satirical observation with
out ever letting it become blunt bur-
lcsque. AS a matter of fact, he is
shrewd enough not to do his satirizing
from the outside but to catch his char
acters in those happy moments when
they satirize themselves Mrs. Leonard
Warren, president of the Thanatopsis,
is rounding out her paper on Robert
Burns in the afternoon which the club
has set aside for discussion of eng
l,sh Poetry":
Burns was quite poor boy and he
did not enjoy the advantages which we
enjoy to-day, except for the advantages
OF the fine old Scotch kirk, where he
heard the word of God preached more
fearessly than even in the finest big
brick churches in the big and so-called
advanced cities of to-day, but he did
not have our educational advantages
and Latin, and the other treasures of
the mind so richly strewn before the.
alas, too ofttimes inattentive feet of our
youth, who do not always sufficiently
appreciate the privileges freely granted
to every American boy, rich and poor
Burns had to work hard and was some
times led by evil companionship into
low habits. But it is morally instruc-
tive to know that he was good stu
dent and educated himself, in striking
contrast to the loose ways of so-called
aristocratic society-life of Lord Byron
on which | have just spoken. And cer-
tanly, although the lords and earls Of
his day may have looked down upon
Burns as a humble person, many of US
have greatly enjoyed his pieces about
the mouse and other rustic subjects,
with their message Of humble beauty
am so sorry | have not got the time to
quote some of them
Jack Elder, who owns the planning
mill, is replying to the question, asked
at an informal gathering, DO you ap-
prove of union labor?'
"Me? l should say not! It's like this:
don't mind dealing with my men if
they think they've got any grievances
though Lord knows what's come over
worAmen, ays-don't appreciate
good job But still. if they come to
me honestly, as man to man, III talk
things over with them. But I'r1 not
going to have any outsider, any of
these walking delegates, or whatever