Evening star., 1924-11-01
The Library Table
BY THE BOOKLOvER.

One reason why the novels and
poems Of the three Bronte sisters
are read today is the interest felt
in the sad. coloriess and short lives
Of the Brontes. passed on the gloomy
Yorkshire moors. Mrs Gaskell has
told most sympathetically the story
Of the Bronte family in her Life
of Charlotte Bronte" A recent book
by a present-day dweller in the
Bronte country, which gives inti-
mately it's atmosphere, is "Bronte
MooIs and Villages from Thornton
to Haworth," by Elizabeth Southwark.
with illustrations in color. by T..
Mackenzie. All three sisters were
born at Thornton, but soon removed
with their father. the Rev. Patrick
Bronte, to Haworth, where they spent
Southwark says of this part of York
shire: THE Bronte country from
Thornton to Haworth is stretch
of wild hills and rocks and yawning
quarries, Of harshly outlined fields,
with the relentless moors creeping
up to their black walls, waiting for
tho first moment Of forgetfulness to
take back what has been wYung
from them. A country Of whistling
heather and Shaping, bowling winds.
a country that Winter loves to clasp
seem that every drop of life blood
would be drained, changing the snow
to water that it may take a frmer
grip with ice. A merciless country,
that takes its toll of life on snow
bound moor, the pit and the quarry;
where man wrings bread from the
soil by the sweat Of his brow, where
he must work IL he would live, for Of
food and covering he needs more
Many stories are told in this in
teresting book of the customs Of the
natives" of these moors, Of their
traditions and ghost stories. Frugal
ity has always been one Of the
primal virtues. Formerly ito save
fuel, enough porridge was boiled in
the morning to serve for two meals;
that left over was poured, hot. into
bottle, then corked. and placed
In the bed to keep warm until noon"
apparently an early thermos ar
robbers existed-'lawless inhabitants,
who were difficult to catch because
the constable himself was among
them" One Thornton woman. left
alone by her husband at night. hid
her brass" under the kitchen CRATE,
and when the robbers pounded on her
door and demanded admittance. took
down the gun from the rafters, went
behind the door and shouted: EFT
first at comes I sail shoit-an' I
sail shoit to kill" The robbers did
went away. Ponden Hall. near
Haworth, now a ruin which might
house a dozen ghosts, probably fur
nished Charlotte Bronte with the
original Of Thornfield in Jane Eyre"
and Emily Bronte with that Of
Thrushcross Grange in "Wuthering
Heights"
The publishers and critics are COM
pairing Henry Ceards "A Lovely Day"
with Flaubert's masterpiece of bour-
geois feminine adventure, Madame
Bovary." Nine. Duhamain is. II pos
sible. portrayed as more commonplace
and more stupid than Emma Bovary,
her life is shade more dull than
Emma's, and NJ. Duhamain is at least
as monotonous and uninteresung as
M. Bovary. Like Emmy Bovary, En-
nestine Duhamain Graves romance be-
fore the extinction of her youth
takes place. She finds it for a time
in her Imagination and then attempts
to materialiZe 1t in a concrete amour.
For the man in the case Flaubert
selected, with consummate skill, a
finished man Of the world, wise in
all the ways of courtesans of high
or low degree. SO that, contrasted
with him, poor unsophisticated Emma
Bovary seems a novice attempting TO
be a cocotte. Henry Ceard, on the
contrary, has created in Trudon.
Ernestine's lover, vulgar fellow
lacking in all the refinements-in
fact, man much of her own type
and no more romantic than her own
husband. So Ernestine's adventure
falls fiat. as did Emma's, but for
different reasons, and she settles
down to await middle age in the
henceforth unbroken dullness Of her
accustomed life.
Although this column is for the most
part devoted to books, yet the Book
lover reads many magazines. and from
time to time calls attention to articles
that have been found specially inter-
esting. A thrilling story of the re-
suits OF the investment by a State of
large sums in education is entitled
North Carolina's Dreams Come True"
by French Strother. in the November
Worlds World. 1t is an account of
Gov. Aycock's vision of what education
would do for an ignorant and poverty
y
been realized by the transformation of
that Commonwealth into one of the
richest and most progressive States of
the Union and has produced. for ex-
ample. a splendid system of public
schools, State university that any
State might we'll boast of, a system of
highways that makes motor travel a
joy to even the remotest mountain
hamlet, a revived and modernized ag-
~ ;-I;
of industries" Another striking arti-
Gle appears in the Outlook for Octo-
Der %, in the form of "A Letter of
Confession and Challenge" by John
Spargo, formerly one of the foremost
American expositors of socialism, who
tells why he has ceased to be a Social
list and why he considers that the pro-
gram Of Socialism now appears to me
to be quite obsolete rendered
obsolete by life" He contends that in
America I'VE are progressing toward
the goal of a genuine social democracy
we are much nearer the ideal
Of social democracy than any nation of
the old world. Along lines peculiarly
American, answering American needs
conforming to American conditions and
experience, we are evolving a new type
OF socialization." Mr.. Spargo believes
that popular ownership. not public
ownersip and naturalization are solv-
Ing our problems of housing and trans
portatfon, and that the cooperative
movement and not price-fixing will
help to relieve the farmers troubles
He likewise comes out emphaticaIly
against the proposal to amend the Con-
stttution so that Congress may over
ride vetoes Of the Supreme Court, per-
tfnently pointing out that German
Socialists. in framing the federal con-
stitution for the reich after the war,
deliberately wrote into that constitu-
tion a provision investing their high
est court with the power to pass upon
the constitutionality of laws enacted
by their parIiament Mr. Snaroo n,t