New-York tribune., 1920-11-14

the hook does not ring true at all
times, but there is q high percent
age Of it that will bear laboratory
How 1t Feels to Starve
For example, where he says:
"The sun stood in the south: il
was about twelve. The whole town
began to get on its legs as it ap-
preached the fashionable hour for
promenading. Bowing and laughing.
folk walked up and down Carl Johann
Street. l stuck my elbows closely to
my sides, tried to make myself look
small, and slipped unperceived past
some acquaintances who had taken
I'D their stand at the corner of Uni
versity Street to gaze at the passers-
by. l wandered up Castle Hill and
fell into q reverie
How gayly and lightly these ueo-
pie | met carried their radiant heads.
and swung themselves through life
as through ballroom, There was
no sorrow IN single look l met,
no burden on any shoulder, perhaps
not even clouded thought. not q
little hidden pain in any of the happy
souls. And l, walking in the very
MIDST Of these people, young and
newly y-fedged as l was, had already
forgotten the very look of haupiness
hugged these thoughts to myself
as | went on, and found that a great
injustice had been done me. Why
had the last months pressed so
strangely hard on me? failed TO
recognize my own happy temperament.
and | met with the most singular an
noyances from all quarters. could not
sit down on a bench by myself or
set my foot any place without being
assailed by insignificant accidents.
miserable details, that forced their !
way into my imagination and scat
tered my powers to ell the four
winds. A dog that dashed by me.
a yellow rose in mans button
hole, had the power to set nv
thoughts vibrating and occupy me
for length of time.
What was it that allied me- Was
the hand of the Lord turned against
me? But why just against me? Why.
for that matter, rot just as we'll
against a man in South American
When | considered the matter over.
1t grew more and more incompre-
hensible to me that of all others
should be selected as an experiment
for Creators whims. It was, to
say the least Of it, q peculiar mode
Of procedure to pass over a whole
world of other humans in order to
reach me. Why not select just az
we'll Bookseller Pascha, or Hennech-
en- the steam agent?
GAS l went my way I sifted this
thing, and could not get quit of it.
| found the most weighty arguments
against the Creators arbitrariness in
letting me pay for all the others
sins. Even after | had found a seat
and sat down, the query persisted
In occupying me, and prevented me
from thinking OF aught else. From
the day in May when my ill-luck
began l could so clearly notice my
gradually increasing debility; l had
become, as it were, too languid to
control or lead myself whittier /
would go. A swarm of tiny noxious
animals had bored a way into my
inner man and followed me out"
An Untrue Note
But the part where, dirty, ragged
and starving, he follows young
girl for miles and continually oh.
trudes himself on her in a very
offensive way-hunger has nothing
to do with that. It is purely
manufactured incident in order that
the girl may be brought in again
later IN the book as pitying him and
seeking him out. And, by the way,
the kind of succor she offers has
nothing to 90 with the cravings of
the stomach, nor would it arouse the
faintest hint Of ecstasy in a truly
starving man. On the contrary, it
is we'll fed, full blooded succor that
has looked on the wine when it was
red. Silk stockings hold even less
interest for starving men than for
bus conductors.
Hunger is not all true by n long
ways, but it is, nevertheless, an un.
usually good book of it's kind ano
it holds in it the possibilities of s
future Nobel Prize winner. In this
case the promise made good.