New-York tribune., 1921-12-18
By Grace Phelps

0y- AIdCC ! uCIpS
N F SOME wise grown-up had taken
Crete aside and volunteered few
4 biological explanations on her
eleventh birthday or before, "a
Young Girls Diary" would have been
valuable addition to literature in
stead of to psychology. But since
there arc parents who still have illu-
sions concerning the things children
see and hear and talk about, this auto
biography of a young girl from the
age of eleven to fourteen S me OF
paramount Importance, Just as it is
written.
Names of persons and places are dis
guised in the translation to hide the
identity of the author, but it IS evil
dent that she is German or Austrian
girl whose parents were cf -he pro-
fessional class and in comfortable cir
cumstanccs. There are al. sort Of
holidays and feasts end the ;nter
change Of presents, ara these are de-
scribed with enthusiasm, or Crete
s above all things, perfectly normal
girl. School work, teachers, 4chool-
mates and family take up MAN. pages
of her diary. Throughout al these
relations, however, Crete preoc-
cupied with the mystery Of sex, which
not all the information she cleans
from schoolmates and servants can
explain satisfactorily.
There's no sense in this secrecy"
she writes when she has reached the
age Of thirteen, "for, in the first place,
that always makes one think about
things and, secondly, one always finds
out in the long -'un."
1t is this native integrity hat make
her write with frankness that is
nothing short of amazing, except in
certain cases where her information is
too ugly or horrible, as she herself says,
to be set down, or where she has no
words to express her meaning. There
are, howayer, remarkably few blanks
and the diary itself, its .ransators
say, has not been expurgated
occasionally there is a lighter side
to the serious questions she discusses.
One OF her friends, Ada, is stage
struck and she is considering how hest
to qualify for her career. "After all"
she says, only woman who has q
baby can become true artist" An
other friend who had o cousin on the
stage In the provinces agrees with this
view, but Crete sets it down as her
opinion that "Fr.nke's cousin is only In
the Weiner Theater, and that might be
true there, but it may be quite diff
ferent In the Burg Thea.er and the
Opera, and even In the Peoples Thea
ter"
Somewhat earlier in her diary she
reveals tho shrewdness Of her obser-
vations in other matters. when
father and mother say we'll see, it really
means yes, but they won't say yes so
that if it does not come off one can't
say they haven't kept their word" In
another entry she comments on the
unreasonable attitude parents display
toward their children. "Eella's mother
says: we make such sacrifices for
our children and they reward US with
ingratitude.' 1 should like to know
what sacrifices they make. I think it's
the children who make the sacrifices.
When want to eat goosebsrries and
am not allowed to the sacrifice is
mine, not mothers"
In the introduction the editor says
that the errors in spelling and the
like must not be regarded as "the ex-
preston of a childs incapacity for the
control of language" but "as errors in
functioning brought about by the in
huence Of the unconscious" 1t seems
to us the book requires an index with
psycho-analyt;c Interpretation to
make that warning clear. Leaving the
"h" out Of ohm" may be significant,
but what we most want to know is why
the No. SO should sound to Crete "like a
squirrel jumping about in the wood"
Quite the most naive entry on other
than "segsual" questions is the ore
made on her fourteenth birthday, when
some one thought she was sixteen
mo, thank you. To look like sixteen
is quite agreeable to me, but I should
not like to be sixteen, for after sll
how long is one young; only two or
three years at most"