The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1922-05-05
BY ALICE LINDSEY WEBB.


There was some mention in this
column recently of f. A. Steiners
new book, "Old Trails and New Bor-
aers,' but it was hardly an adequate
review OF so able a book, so | am
gong to talk of it again today.
VINO OF us have not wondered what
EPoland is really like now, and Aus
ira, Germany, Slovakia? What do
the people over there think of condi-
lions, 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 con-
lecture very thoroughly with first
hand information. He tells his ex-
periences of last summer, when he
followed the thin stream of emmi-
grants from the interior of each of
the countries to the ports Of embar-
i kation, studying them to find out
what were the present-day conditions
which caused them to leave home,
what they thought of America. 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
there, but much shrunken at the
edges, and all the starch soaked out.
What he thinks of Austria is sue
emily told in the chapter heading:
"t1nis Austria" Vienna he calls
The Merry Widow" Budapest is a
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 depress-
ed and fluctuating currencies of all
the surrounding countries, he pities.
In conclusion he says: Religion
which is to save, or rather make for
a Christian civiliation-for as yet
there is no such civilization-mus
bridge the chasm between 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
instance, that clever young woman,
Edna Ferber, author of the Emma
| McChesney stories which ran so long
as a series in magazines and were
in the little city of Appleton, Wis,
and at II left high school to become
a reporter on the Evening Crescent
there. Thence she went to Milwau-
kee (where | met herr. Chicago, New
York. While she was on the Milwau-
kee Evening Journal she wrote her
first novel, Dawn OHara" (Gros-
set & Dunlap, New York;, tale of
lnewspaperdom. 1t was published in
| 1911, and since then she has been
| the author of book year, most OF
them collected short stories. She
was not a brilliant success as re-
porter when / knew her because she
laughed at instead of with people,
writing clever things that hurt their
their feelings so that shortly she
found herself unwelcome in the
haunts of news. In the lyceum lect-
ure field she was no more successful
| am told by a lyceum manager, be-
cause she lacked the necessary per-
sonal attraction. But as short story
/ writer and novelist she has made a
permanent place for herself with the
tired business woman" she portrays
YOU haven't read Roast Beef
Medium" you might get acquainted
| With her through that.