The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-17
BOOKS and THINGS

Books that you may carry 10 the
are the most useful after ail'-
Johnsoniana.
If you are a constant reader of
the Saturday Evening Post. of
course you read one of the clever
est and most interesting serial stor-
les that has appeared in that mag
azine for some time, "Manslaugh-
ter" by Alice Duer Miller IL you
missed it. buy it in book form and
start it Immediately. You will find
it we'll worth while. Lydia Thorne,
around whom the story is woven,
had inherited from her father, a
wealthy, se1f-made man, who be-
gan as New York laborer, and the
only parent Lydia could remember,
a violent, indomitabie will.
Early in her childhood there had
been frequent violent clashes be-
tween the two wills, that of the
child, forced at first to bend be-
cause of the superior physical force
of the father, but Lydia gradually
winning more and more of the
skirmishes in the eternal warfare
between the two. Mr.. Thorne died
when Lydia was still in her teens,
and the girl was brought up, or
rather brought herself up, amid
great wealth and luxury, with her
only chaperon and companion, a
qNiet, intellectual gentle woman
formerly engaged by Mr.. Thorne.
BY the time she was %. Lydia's
will was sovereign in the little cir
Gle which formed her world. No
more did Lydia have recourse to
the violent outbursts of temper
that had characterized her youth.
Her friends were only too willing
to give in TO her whims rather than
precipitate her dispIeasure. Amid
a pleasure-loving, irregular, wilful
life, new element enters An ac-
cident, while Lydia is speeding on
one of the main roads of Long Is
land, resulted in the death of a
motorcycle policeman. and to Ly-
dia's amazement she is indicted for
manslaughter.
After a long and complicated
trial. in which she takes an intense
interest, never dreaming that it
can result unfavorably for herself,
a verdict of guilty is returned by
the jury, and Lydia finds herself
sentenced to three years labor in
states prison Her new life is an
interesting one At first she is in |
dignant that she should have been
sentenced unjustly, but in spite Of j
her wilfulness and selfshnessel
Lydia has an inherent sense of !
justice and begins to realize some |
thing of the rights of others. The |
is a terrible one, but it |
is interesting at times, and at the |
end of three years the girl leaves +
with actual love and pity fQ- her
fellow prisoners. An attempt to re-
turn to the old life fails. and the !
story ends with the energies which |
had been misdirected in a domin- i
ant will diverted into useful chan
nels. Lydia Thorne is one of the !
most interesting transformations
recent fiction has given us and the
story is unusually interesting and |
decidedly worth while. (
Another story of various interest
in this weeks issue of
he Saturday Evening Post is Face
% race, 0y Edwin Lefevre. 1t is
4 rather futile story of the ire
sponsible only son OF an indulgent
bank president The
'ather, Fl silly brought to the break
ng point by prank after prank of
lis sons. finally insists on a mar
-iage with a certain clever, sensi-
Die young woman" of. his acquaint-
lnce. whom James J. Jones. Jr.. has
never seen, as condition of fur
her relationship between the two
Zones, hoping that the marriage
will act as bracer for Junior and
nstill in him the necessary virtues
# responsiveness and Dependable
ty. Junior agrees on his condi-
ion that since he has never seen
he exceedingly capable young