The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1920-05-28
CHARLES COHAN'S
NEW BUTTE NOVEL
"BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE,, is
TITLE OF ONE OF THE BEST
LABOR YARNS
Is Story of Young Man Who Begins
Life in the Butte Mines, Becomes
Labor Leader, Fights Out His
Problems With Ultra-Radicalism
and Becomes an Operator.

of the Butte Daily Miner, is the au-
thor of Born of the Crucible," a
novel which has just been published
and which a prominent editor char
acteriZes as the best labor story that
has been written since Charles
Reade's time, adding that he consid-
cred the heart interest running
through the book to be a most en-
gaging story of love and adventure.
Likewise a prominent eastern crit
ic, writing of the book, said in effect
that not only was it romance of at
tention-compelling kind, but that he
believed it could be a considerable
factor in bringing about better I'M
derstanding between employe and
employer.
Born of the Crucible" tells the
story of young man, Daniel Brad
shaw, who, possessed of a good edu-
cation, starts out to face the world
on his own account imbued more with
the desire for adventurous occupation
than with the object of settling down
to some prosaic endeavor.
He experiences plenty of buffeting
about and finally, on arriving in
Butte, seeks work in a mine
He studies the labor movement as
an active participant in it and comes
in time to be labor leader of prom
inence.
How he comes face to face with
ultra-radicalism, how he judges it
and what course he elects to pursue
regarding it, are most entertainingly
detailed.
Eventually the turn of fate makes
him an employer, giving him ample
chance to view the labor question
from the employing side just as he al
ready has had opportunity to see and
study it from the side of the employee.
Adventure and romance, naturally,
enter largely into the story.
Describing Butte, the book says:
"The big-town features of the cop
per metropolis, its air of ceaseless
prosperity, its heterogeneous popula- |
ton, so interviewer in communal in |
terests and yet sharply defined in ma
tionalities and factions claimed Dams |
close attention.
To describe the city |
would involve the tremendous task |
of picturing physical entity COM
bined with startling, albeit very hui
man emotions of every shade. One
may list all the colors in a Persian
rug and yet that never would convey
the appearance of the rug. Dan
thought about all this and finally he
came to the conclusion that he had
arrived in a modern, western Bagdad
"a place of emphatic contrasts, of
ever changing, Kaleidoscope and
thought and action
and purpose - a conglomeration of
ideals and ideas (and lack of them,
tool, of many widely different coun-
tries and peoples"
Some interesting excerpts from
Born of the Crucible" are as fol-
ows:
''Ye kin be kind to a man an he'll
luv ye, but ye kin be so kind to a
,rowd that it'll suspect ye." &
"And what it is that makes. man S
strong mentally and physically q
or brief period lose entire grip on {
himself when trying in stress of alb L
formal mental processes to return to s
/ more rational and logical reasoning v
" an illogical method, is something t
hat is obscured in the inner recesses b
# man-nature. That is to say that S
n trying to steady himself that night a
Jan Bradshaw for the first and last d
ime in his life, drank to fearful ex T.
ess." o
For crowd-psychology is re- IL
narkable thing-its anger is gossa- II
ner and chrome steel-it melts at a u
iery word or resists a white-hot fur a
ace, and as for the heart of tit is n
ind and enthusiastic to the point of n
while it is merciless as
n inquisition.' io
"I think, John, that the great fl
rouble with most of those ultra-so- ia
ia1istic 'soap-boxers' is that they h,
ave not thought of applying their in
wn theory and process of evolution til
, themselves before tackling any til
ling else" OF
1.-THE fight of these two men in the al
'ee-shaded, brush-guarded, flat
gully was one of definite Fl,
urpose. No desire here to score w
,chnical points by reason of boxing w
TT, but to land jarring, hurtful, pr
'ushing blows-to punish, disable" in
o------ gi