The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1922-05-12

1 iii
"Goethe's Helena =" mo book that VIII
not improve by repeated readings de-
serves to be read at all.
| Arthur Stringer's book, The Pral-
rie Wife, was a beautiful thlng, anu
..The Prairie Mother" continued ths
charm. The Prairie Child, his new
book of the series (BoDDa-Morrlii)'
however, seems to me to have iost tue
divine fire. and brought the mother
down to a pretty low spiritual ieVei.
In fact | do not remember anyone III
lrecent fiction who seemed to be so
downright "catty" as Chaddie Mchall'
The author seems occasionally to rec
lognize it, as witness for instance this
from her dairy: "Arn't you making IL
rather lard for me?" ! demanded, try
ing to hold mystelf in. but feeling the
bob-cat getting the better OF the pur-
ring tabby.
The story opens with her husband,
the big Scotch Duncan Mckail,
caught kissing the homely old school
mistress, and his wife taking him 10
task for it. Now, the readers SYM
lpathy would naturally be on the side
of the begreaved wife, but it does not
take many pages to wing it around to
the husband. For it is made all TOO
plain that Duncan is morally aware
Ibis wife no longer loves hiH-knows
it before she realizes it herself-and
is naturally wild with jealousy OF
everyone who claims her attention
land affection. She idolizes her son,
and his father like many another man
is angry at the fast growing barrier
between them. He misses her close
companionship, warm affection, and
perfect understanding that she used 70
give him. Instead he feels a coldly
critical, disappearing attitude which
turns to open hostility whenever they
disagree on points touching the boy.
She is unwholesomely retrospective,
sorry for herself, and not looking into
her attitude toward him for the cause
of his momentary detection. She fall
ed him, and in spite of her boast that
she could read him, through and
through, she did not see that it was
not so much lack of love on his part
as on her own that drove him to seek
warmth and comfort in another wo-
man.
Man Is not naturally the mono
gamous creatures that woman would
like to believe him. 1t is only very re-
Gently, as world history is reckoned,
81 HT hn ri %
population, that Christian civilization
has pursaaded man to content himself
with one wife. The Old Testament He
lbrews, the Moha,9medans Of today,
primitive peoples. all allow a man
las many wives and concubines as his
worldly goods will support, and the
Mormon thousands within our borders
still believe in plurality despite the
law which forbids its practice.
To me the great point in this book
of Stringer's is: A wife must love her
husband, and continue to show him
she does. il she expects to hold his
love for her 1t must be a matter Of
daily bread, not one honeymoon feast
the memory of which is expected to
last him the rest Of his life. She
must continue to give if she would
continue to receive.
Herbert Quick has done beautiful!
] and, | believe, permanent thing in
his tenth book published by Bobbs-
Merrill (2), "Vandernark's Folly" lie
has put into warm, appealing, human
| document the pioneer history of his
| native prairie farms of Iowa, making
it is novel of real power. 1t is done
| in so frank and natural a manner that
| one must accept it as typically true of
the strong clean, thrifty generation Of
pioneers.
If the farmers of today want 10
keep their boys and girls on the farm,
why should they not see to it that this
is the sort of story book they read,
instead Of tales Of fortunes made on
the stock market or in the sky-sGrap.
ers? Consider the influence, for in
stance, OF such passages as that on
Jacobs thoughts when he first look
ed out across the green sea of his own
township land:
II had reached my own country;
had been part of it on this whole
wonderful journey, getting acquainted
with its people, picking up the threads
OF its future, now it's history. Prior
to this time | had been counting the
country; now | was to be united with |
it in that holy wedlock which binds |
the farmer to the soil he tills Out Of |
this black loan was to come my own |
flesh and blood, and the bodies, and |
| believe, in some measure, the souls |
of my children. Some dim conception
of this made me draw in a deep, deep
breath of the fresh prairie air."
And as our enormous foreign pop
ulation has created a growing problem
a pressing need of AmericaniZation,I
why not popularize Mr. Quicks sensi-
BILE solution, through his story, where
he makes Jacob say:
"A lot is said nowadays about the
Americanization of the foreigner; but
the only thing that will do the thing
is to work with the foreigner, as I
worked with Magnus-let him help me Il
and be active in helping him. The
Americanization motto is, Look upon
the foreigner as an equal. Help him.
Let him help you. Make each others
problems mutual problems-and then
he is no longer a foreigner
The best thing | hope may come
from this book is the inspiration 1t
may be to others to preserve similarly
the romantic, heroic, pathetic and in
spring episodes of local history thro-
ughout the whole country while some
OF the original pioneers are with us
VINO may give their invaluable aid