The New York herald., 1922-10-15

wood Broun. q. Z. Putnam's Sons.
TT EYwARD BROUN has done
well in choosing for his scene
the environment he knows
best-the newspaper office. Peter
Neale, Harvard trained athlete and
sporting editor of the Bulletin, has
neglected musical scores for baseball
scores. To fall in love with an opera
singer is the last thing you would
expect him to do; therefore he does.
1t is the will of Fate or. as Irwin Cobb
would have said, ITS too improbable
not to be true" Possibly it was the
sportsman's love of physical beauty
that attracted him to Maria Algarez
when first he saw her-she was a
dancer in those humble days-per-
forming in New York music hall
She was standing still in the mid
die of the huge stage. And then
everything about her had come to
life. There was never any feeling
that she was thinking about what
to do. No roll call was carried on
in her mind before she kicked or
leaped. or flung an arm above her
head. The left jab of Joe Cans was =
like that, too.
After wait Peter met her in the
dressing room which she shared with
the Eight Bandanna Sisters Quite
early in the conversation she revealed
quite expected egoism in the question,
And some time you will tell about
me in your newspaper and say I am a
great dancer?" A little later, when
the affair thickened. he limited that he
would like to marry her. And so they
were married. 1t was happy enough
marriage as far as it went. Maria
hated to neglect her art Tor the baby,
and a dangerously short time after
the birth of Peter. Jr., Maria walked
out of the sickroom, leaving a note
and very young child behind her.
She had found both Peters. the old
one and the young one, interferences
to her career. A few hours later the
Bulletin sent Peter Neale to Carson
City TO report a prizefight.
From that day on Peter finds him.
self in the double role played sue
ccssfully by certain species of pen
guins-that of mother and father
at the same time. There is a great
deal of Haywood Broun in the pic
ture of Peter Neale. The last words
OF Maria's farewell note had been,
miss Haines says he is like me. II
that is so. Peter, you may have much
trouble. But leave him just little
bad"
Peters interest grew when he
learned, by close study, that the child
was going to be a southpaw. He
boasted a little around the Bulletin
office and secretly decided to raise
the child himself; trusting as little
ac possible to the fallible feminine
hand
That growing older was fought with
much philosophy Of the latter day
school. When Peter, Jr., familiarly
known as 'Pat," grew to the talking
age. he was warned against referring
T., Peter Neale as father" or dad"
or ''pa''-terrible Victorian nicknames
which SAVIOR of feudalism, paternalism
and various more deadly perils. Father
and son were Peter" and pat" to
one another. Their relations were
Rrounonian. Once or twice Peter re-
verted to type and soundly spanked
his Pat.
And the boy grew older. Clumsy,
practical, incoherent Peter Neale saw
in his son a college baseball player,
and in after life his worthy successor
as sporting editor of the Bulletin. The
book is another study of those two
misunderstanding animals, father and
son. While Peter follows his beat
from the local room to the Polo
- II. o,-I xx,I.<
he prefers football to baseball and
goes no further in the former sport
tran to sit on the substitutes bench
during the Yale-Harvard game. Mean
while there is Maria Algarez, singer
and egoist, stirring like a phantom
in the hereditary blood.
But to tell plot--and THE Boy
Grew Older" has plot through which
the self lf-revealing Broun philosophy
IS exploited--is to spoil story. After
a few chapters we begin to feel the
question into which Broun's story is
leading us. The boy grew-to what?
Artist or athlete? Two strong hands
lay upon him; the practical, un-
subtle paw of Peter Neale, the, del
fcate, ghostly fingers of Maria AL
garez physically she was no mother
to the boy. She refused him the
breast and followed her ambitious
star. Certainly she had no claim to
him. think; and IL 1 read Broun's
story Alright. I think he agrees with
me. I should like to know what some
o; the readers think when they finish
the last chapter, which ends SO
abruptly, so Enthusiastically.
WALLACE IRWIN.
THE PENITENT. BY Edna worthley