The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-08-06
MAYFAIR TO MOSCOW:
CLARE SHERIDAN'S DIARY
BONI & LIvERIGHT. 1921.
A BOOK REVIEW THAT is NOT QUITE ONE.

presses ner WISHES feSaAuih5 ee
future of her little daughter and son.
Of her daughter, she writes: II do
wish she could be brought up purpos-
full, not luxurious, and to feel that she
will have career. Work alone brings
happiness, and the desire to achieve
or to attain is the only satisfaction"
Of her possessions, she lucidly ex-
plains: "I have not much to leave, my
philosophy of life is to travel light
and not to accumulate, but to throw
off,.
One feels the courageous conviction
which moved her to enter upon this
enterprise in the paragraph where
she counts the possible cost and makes
her decision. Says she: u don't care
what happens to my work. I've work.
ed hard and done my best. hoped to
make name for myself. / am am
bilious to do good work It's very,
| very long road to climb, and I'd like
to get further along it--but this is
great adventure and worth doing
and / am rather tired Of the great
uncertainty of the future, and 30, if
it all ends so soon it ends well". To
her children, she leaves this splendid
injunction: "Work, Work, always
Work. Don't turn your backs on the
| Worlds new doctrines, not even if you
have, something to lose.. Remember
4 the millions whose lives are not worth
/, living and who MUST be helped"
Only the highest type of motherhood
leaves her children legacy like this.
Standing out to sea with England
wrapped in shroud, Mrs. Sheridan
4 INDUCES in this healthy, sane bit of
philosophy. "Now for the first time I
have leisure and calm to think over
what am doing. There persist in my
mind faint echoes Of warnings, but /
must have no misgivings. 1t seems to
me unlikely that Kamenev would in
vite me to go to his country i'll were
| likely to be either unhappy or in
danger there. There are moments in
| life when it is necessary to have blind
faith" Truly, there is something
marvelously eternal in this woman's
| life sources.
| One must recognize the wholesome
democracy Of the author. Outside the
i Kremlin gate an old peasant mistook
4 her for Sylvia Pankhurst. Upon learn
Ling .his mistake bn said f"Pnt uo,, ,a,,a I
We must reach the workers with
this information, and. therefore, your
English? and ! hope a good .Com-
munist." Il did not answer, / iust
i pressed his hand.'
i After much scurrying about and
much more waiting, the sculptress is
accorded a working room in the
kremlin-because it is near to those
she is to do, whose time is dear. There
are many delightful snatches Of con-
versations and scenes recorded that
throw fitful tho interesting lights
upon. the heads of the Soviet govern
ment. Recording a conversation with
some department head or other, she
says: Happily no one in this country,
knows anything about my family.
bringing up, or surroundings. have
not got to live down my wasted years.
can stand on my own feet and be
accepted on my own merits"
Mrs Sheridan is the fighting type.
On page lilo in speaking of her fear
that not all women would be happy
IN the larger political life of women
under the Soviets, she says: "Person-
ally prefer my life with all its
struggles and its uncertainties since
everything crashed for me, than the
days Of peaceful home protection and
inactivity" N
NJ tne opportunities placed before
artlsts under the So..'ats the author
gives an illuminating paragraph. q
love the bedrock of things hers. II
had no children would remain and
work' There may be no food for the
oody' but there is plenty of food for
sne soul, and ! would rather live 4
discomfort in an atmosphere Of
sieahtlc effort, than in luxury among
the purposeless." These are NOT The
words OF an ordinary sensual bour-
eeois' but OF highly purposeful wo.
man OF developed social instincts
However, this article has already
become too long and / realize thai
only Clare Sheridan and not her book
nave as yet reviewed. But / suorest
'na' you read the book. There Is bpt
une paragraph to add Let us take
ner comment upon the conclusion ~
her work in Moscow.
MY work is ended but I ou Ia,
" go l love this place. | love tbs
! peop'e VINO pass me by in the street,
: /. ioye tne atmosphere laden with
with sacrifice, with tra.
seay :, would like to live among
outside Aor enem
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