Evening star., 1923-11-10
The Library Table
BY THE BOOKLOvER

Social problems seem to be crowd
ing each other in the brain Of Sheila-
Kaye Smith. since she has mixed two
weighty ones in about equal propor-
tions in her last novel. '-The End of
the House OF Alard." As the title in.
dicates. the problem which is prob
ably foremost Is the dying condition
Of the great English estates from
the double disease Of accrued mort
cages and heavy postwar taxation.
The Alard estate Is so heavily mort
gagged that old Sir John Alard can
barely serape together enough annu-
ally to pay the interest. He goads
his sons and daughters to make rich
marriages in order to save the estate,
but rich husbands and wives are not
always forthcoming, and when they are
the marriages are not always successful.
Gervase and Jenny. the youngest son
and daughter. refuse TO sacrifice them
selves to the family and so achieve hap
piness, each In a different way. The
final catastrophe for the family is reach
ed when it becomes certain that there
will BIO no next generation OF Alards
and that the Alard estate must be
sold. Gervase pronounces the doom
OF the estate:
The famiiy's taken enough. For
500 years 1t has sat on the land, and
at hrst 1t did good--it cared for the
poor, 1t worked it's farms to the best
advantage, ard the estate prospered.
But It's outlived those dayS-it's only
an incumbrance now: it's holding
back the land from proper develop
ment; It's keeping the yeoman and
small land owner out Of their rights
1t can't afford to care for the poor
1t can barely keep its hold on the
land by dint OF raising mortgages and
marrying for money. 1t can only be
Kept up by continual sacrifices-of
the land, Of the tenants, of it's own
children. It's like a wicked old dying
god. that can only be kept alive by
sacrifices-human sacrifices. And,
tell you, 1t shan't be any more"
The other problem Of the book is
religious. Miss KayeSmith tries to
demonstrate that in English Ca
tholicism Cor Puseyism, as Sir John
called it) is to be found the modern
religion suited to the new democratic
world. Gervase gives his conception
Of it:
Catholic Christianity stands fast
because 1t belongs to an order of
things which doesn't change. It's
made of the same stuff as our hearts.
It's the supernatural satisfaction of
all our natural instincts The
parson and the squire will go and
their places will be taken by the
yeoman and the priest who were
there before them tn be a
democracy which will have the best
OF aristocracy kept alive in it,
= Z 4
The Importance Of Juvenile reading
is being stressed by the annual OBJ
seryance Of Children's Book week. For
the fifth successive year booksellers,
public libraries, schools, women's
clubs, parent-teacher associations,
churches and other organizations
have increased the interest in chill
dren's books all the year round by
focusing attention on the subject for
one week. This years campaign
falls in the week Of November I1-17.
Since the readers of children's books
today will become the readers of
grown-up books tomorrow, the Book
lover welcomes this movement In
view OF the many poor and weak
books published for children and the
LdSh CL O1 WGil lnlen-
toned parents in making selections
of books for their children. he would
like to amend the slogan adopted for
Chfldren's Book week, More Books
in the Home" so that it would read:
More and Better Books in the
our children TO read books by the
yard or the cord. nor to make their
minds sieyes through which to pour
a vast quantity of poor stuff. There
are plenty of good books for chill
dren. IL only they can be weeded
worthless rubbish.
Wallace Irwin's new novel, Lew
Tyiers Wives" is considered by some
critics his most serious effort" 1t
is a real life story based on the clash
of differing personalities in their
daily relations. Lew Tyler is a
handsome, charming Californian, with
more attractive surface qualities than
soundness of character. His first
wife. Jessie. is old fashioned in her
devotion and trustfuIness and is dis
illusioned but slowly. His second
wife, Virginia. is young and frivo-
lous. and we do not know how well
Lew gets on with her, because the
story ends when they have been mar
ried only a short time. Mr.. Irwin
indicates his belief. however, that IL
their life. is not altogether a failure
1t will be because OF the character
training which Lew has received in
his life with Jessie.
- X X
The life Of devotion to incurable Q
and impoverished cancer patients
which Rose Hawthorne Lathrop
(Mother Alphonsa) has led for nearly
thirty years Is described by Maurice
Francis Egan in a prelude to new
edition Of the Memories of Haw-
thorne." by Mrs Lathrop. It was the
deep sympathy of her father for hu-
man suffering, and especially certain
passages of his essay, Our Old
Home" that suggested to Mrs. La
throp, who afterward as a. sister of
charity became Mother Alphonsa, the
foundation of her charity for the
gan her work in 1895 on the lower
East Side in New York city. The
present sanitariumS OF the charity
are at II jackson street, New York,
and the Rosary Hill Home. at Haw-
thorne, near White Plains. The re-
uuirements for admission are that
patients must be incurable and abso-
lutely without money to pay for care.
The charity is known as The Serv-
ants Of Relief for Incurable Cancer"
DR.. Egan says: There is a touch Of
human warmth in the formal report
that tells of the marvellous growth OF
this work. and even OF righteous in
dienation, where Mother Alphonsa
declares that there shall be no for
bidding aspect in the hospital
rooms. AS for experiments on the
incurable patients she will have
none of them. while any exhibition
Of aversion in the presence of a pa