The New York herald., 1921-12-25
New York Teachers
Dreamed of China

The Macmillan Company.
T~ROM Pearly Gates, small vii
lage in the Berkshire Noun
tains. came Peter Wells to
teach in a New York school. 1t had
been his uncle, Bill Gowdy. who had
pushed him into this uncle and his
uncles collection of stamps. For IN the
Inner world of Peter Wells there
= had been romantic dreamings. and
these dreams became more real with
the introduction of the stamp album
''the fascination of foreign names, of
tiny, colored pictures of kings, en-
perors, rajahs, shahs, of great national
heroes, of old cities, temples, mosques,
of lions, elephants, unicorns. of ships
and harbors, mighty rivers" But
mostly the pictures In his mind We're
of China. Golden idols, tinkling bells,
sinister priests on murder bent, lurk-
ing in dark temples with long, gleam-
ing knives in their hands; enormous
brightly painted junks attacked by
swarms of river pirates; camels IN
long, weird professions winding over
the desert at night; mandarins IN
shining robes watching their dozens OF
gorgeous young wives dance before
them In the light of tossing paper Ian
terms; harem loves, escapes and muir
ders; fields of poppfes, opium dives!"
And then came Moon Chao, the little
+ Chinese lad. and simultaneously the
romance, the love of Peters life, the
girl who so deeply stirred the shy,
warm intensity Of this New England
lad. AS he thought of Kate, of their
talk, of Kate's love and knowledge OF
China of his desire for her, his
thoughts scared glowingly only u be
encountered by a frank look he gave
himself in the mirror. II may look
like boarding house." he told him
self, "but by God I've got a China in
side.'
Their marriage followed quickly
Through all the discouragements--fo
there were maryland through the
sicknesses, the birth and demanding
life of the small daughter, runs the
hone of China ahead. 1t is partly this
that goes toward making tpe book SO
real. SO like any of us, all of us per-
haps. with something to look forward
to, again and again being forced 10 put
it aside as impractical, but ever cher-
ishing it as a dream which because OF
the greatness of our desire we feel is
bound to come true
1t is not only the adventuring po-
tency of China which always beckons
them. even If at times the gesture is
only seen by their subconscious minds,
but of what can be done in China, IN
her schools. in her vast life. And IL
is through the medium of schools that
Mr.. Poole draws his encouraging
hopes of the future.
'.The mothers belief that in her
child there is great gold" explains
Moon Chao. "And to save this gold
before the child shall harden into duh
beggar man, the mothers in every land
will rise. demanding schools-schools
multiplied-schools splendid-schools
into which is poured a wealth of wis
dom. watchful care and understanding
sympathies, a wealth as deep as the
gold that lines in the children waiting
for the light"
The principal characters are teach
ers. They are the beggars who sit on
the bags of gold. Under them are the
youth of all the land, here and every
where, and the ones who dig for the
The characters are living people
The old principal. Dillingham;, with his
philosophy and his charm, his work
and his school and his wide open
mind. is one of the most appealing.
ITS this-this rising feeling-this
sense of having such lot inside of us
when we are young" Dillingham; tells
Kate and Peter. up it comes. and as
each one of us makes his solemn little
attempt to flash his light up to the
stars he gets to feeling like God AL
mighty. Then, in most cases, down 1t
goes. and he feels like q man again.
And after many such ups and downs
he gets used to this feeling. It's like
an old friend. 'Hello-you here again?'
he says. Good morning And pres
emily Good night For down it sinks
again to sleep. And the sleeps. grow
longer--longer"
"Beggars' Gold" is very unusual
book Into it Mr., Poole has put that
distinctive quality of his Of capturing
whole enormous crowds of people and
holding them for us while we too get
our glimpses into their struggles and
their elmer lives' He lets us live
very close to his principal characters
The. book does not belong in the cate
gory OF the realistically self-engrossed
emotional tales. 1t contains rather the
altruism of sympathy. And the reader
is left with the hope of a late realiza-
ton OF the dream of seeing China,
which has colored all the years of a
New York youth and early middle age.