Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1922-04-14

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but it was hardly an adequate review
of so able a book. so l am going to
talk of it again today
Who of us have not wondered
what Poland is really like now, and
Austria, Germany, Slovakia? What
do the people over there think of
conditions, the people who before the
war made up the bulk of the stream
of immigration here from certain
ports? Steiner's book covers the field
of conjecture very thoroughly with
iirst-hand information. He tells hi=
experiences of last summer when he
followed the thin stream of emil
grants from the interior of each of
the countries to the ports Of en-
barkation, studying then to find out
what were the present-day condi-
tions which caused them to leave
home, what they thought of Amer
lea, and what they expected to find
when they arrived
He eulogizes the Quakers for the
work they have done and are still
doing in the war-cursed districts. He
has some very telling SMILES to ap-
ply, too in describing conditions as
he found them Germany he likens
to starched collar on the neck of
perspiring mantle shape still
1 there, but much shrunken at the
edges and all the starch soaked out.
What he thinks of Austria is sue
cinctly told in the chapter heading:
Finis Austria" Vienna he calls
"The Merry Widow" Budapest is
place of real terror and gloom, he
thinks, the least peaceful spot on
earth.
And Poland? Everyone seems
corrupted and nothing is safe. This,
of course, is not peculiar to Poland"
Switzerland, cursed with the de-
. pressed and fluctuating currencies of
all the surrounding countries, he
pities. In conclusion he says: Re
ligion which is to save, or rather
make for a Christian civilization
for as yet there is no such civiliza-
tion-must bridge the chasm be-
tween the like and unlike, it must
make brotherhood real"
1t would be interesting to learn, if
possible, how many of the writer's of
today jumped into the game with no
special preparation. There is. for in
stance, that clever young woman,
Edna Ferber, author of the Emma
/ McChesney stories which ran so long
/ as a series in magazines and were
later collected into books. She lived
in the little city of Appleton, Wis,
and at u left high school to become
a reporter on the Evening Crescent
there. Thence she went to Milwau-
kee (where 7 met herr. Chicago, New
/ York While she was on the Mil
waukee Evening Journal she wrote
her first novel, Dawn O'Hara"
/ (Grosset & Dunlap, New York;. a
tale of newspaperdom It was pub
lished in 1911, and since then she
has been the author of a book a year,
most of them collected short stories.
She was not a brilliant success as a
reporter when I knew her because
she laughed at instead Of with peo-
pie, writing clever things that hurt
their feelings so that shortly she
found herself unwelcome in. the
haunts of news. In the lyceum lee
ture field she was no more success
full, I am told by lyceum manager,
/ because she lacked the necessary per-
sonal attraction. But as a short
story writer and novelist she made
a permanet place for herself with the
tired business woman" she por-
trays. If you haven't read Roast
Beef, Medium" you might get ac-
quainted with her through that.
Some New Books
The Beggars Vision, by Brooks
More new edition..
A Wayfarer's Caravan, by Alex
ander.
The Jeweled Serpent, by Kath-
arine Treat Blackledge.
Angel Face, by Reginald N.
Hincks.
The Stronger Light, by Mary Cert
rude Balch.
(All above are Cornhill publica-
\