Evening star., 1924-03-15
The Library Table
!. by THE BookLovER

United States during the period from
the civil war to 1896 are presented
with a Thackeray-like fidelity and
interest by Kathleen Norris in her
novel, Certain People OF Impor-
tance." San Francisco Is the setting
of the story, but the business meth
DDS. the domestic life. the prevailing
ideas, the recreations, the converSa-
tion, the housefurnishings and the
clothes are those which were more
or less prevalent all over the country.
The four Brewer girls make them
selves dresses with bell skirts sweep
ing the ground and finished at the
bottom with brush braid. with bre-
telles on the waists and with four
yards OF material in each sleeve.
When their Aunt Fanny comes out
from town to see them she wears one
of the new stiff shirt waists with
detachable collar and cuffs and has
a small wat.h pinned on her waist
carries one of the dress SUIT c.ses
which have just come into fashion.
Mrs. Brewer Usually wears about her
home a scalloped sacque of calico or
SICtOTld brewer is CHiucu
by her mother because she wishes to
waste good food by making new
tangled salad from apples and cell
cry The homes of the various mem
bers of the family are comfortably
furnished with tightly tackled car
pets. heavy walnut and horsehair
furniture, plush-covered patent ro. k
ers, handicapped tables, Scalloped
covers of pium-covered cashmere on
the mantels and pianos. photographs
trH all, h
rated with roses and butterflies and
crayon portraits of the last genera
tion.
Any symptoms of independence on
the part of the Brewer girls. even
when they are approaching thirty, are
met with the gentle reproof from Mrs.
Brewer, Cant you trust mamma,
dear?' or Doesn't mamma know what
is for your happiness?" Certain every
day subjects are taboo in polite con-
versation. When the news is given
out in the Brewer family that Aunt
Ella Cra abtree has a small son, Lou
murmurs, We knew il was coming,
anyway" and her mother sternly says,
Il never want to hear you speak on
such subject again; do you hear
me?" May Brewer is extremely anx-
ious that her daughters should marry,
but this desired end is only accom-
plished by their taking matters into
their own hands. AS Lou says, Papa
and mamma mean well, but they have
no sense"
Certain People of Importance is
a big family novel, like Thackeray's S
"Newcomes" and Galsworthy's For
syte Saga" The careers of two gen
erations of Crabtrees are briefly
sketched and those of a third genera
tion somewhat more at length. but
the period covered by the latter hall
Of the life of Reuben Elliott Crabtree
fills the greater part of the novel.
Reuben has four children and they
with their families live through the
changing period of the latter half OF
the nineteenth century. Reuben S
daughter, May Brewer, and her fam
lily live at San Rafael, Reuben himself
and his unmarried daughter Fanny
live in San Francisco, and in the early
years whenever there is any family
emergency one sister or the other
Journeys by horse car, ferry and dirty
suburban railway to impart the news
or ask assistance. Later the wonder
full telephone makes il possible for
Fanny to telephone May that pa is
over-but pa lives many years after
that. In the beginning the wholesale
spice firm of Crabtree & Co. does a
steady, substantial business under
the conservative management OF
Stephen Brewer. Later competition
grows up and Rob Crabtree, who has
moved somewhat with the times, tries
ito persuade Stephen Brewer to do
some advertising; but stephen is un-
lalterably opposed to such waste, and and
ot, 4rix
the firm of Crabtree & Co. goes INTO
bankruptcy. Two years later old
Reuben, the head of the family, who
has for some time been childish, dies
at the age of eighty-five.
For the past several months the
/ enterpYising International Book Re-
view Of the Literary Digest has been
tain what they consider to be the
| ten best books published since 1900
! The results, announced in the March
number, show that 1853 readers
have voted, each naming ten books
of the present century that they re
gard as best. The votes collected
books by 1,201 authors. The ten
books receiving the highest vote are
j in the order named as follows: Wells,
Outline OF History" 1858 votes)
Ibanez, -Four Horsemen of the
Apocalypse" GID; Hutchinson, III
| canization Of Edward Box" ts4s};
papln., Life of Christ" (345);
Churchill, The Crisis, (ao2); o.
Henry, short Stories t2s6): Wister,
! THE virginian' (281); Hendr lck
! Life and Letters Of Waiter H. Page
t256l. and Robinson: "The Mind in
receiving the ghest votes (scatter-
ed among several titles) were Wells,
| Ibanez, Hutchinson, Churchill. Box
Papini, Harrington, Conrad. Gals
worthy and Sinclair Lewis. The ar
| tic.e giving the results of the poll
! records in detail the votes for each
or more. These authors may con-
| slider themselves elected in this de-
| mocracy of letters.
+ - = y +
Readers Of Basil King, the novelist,
| who have followed his work in that
field through ''Griselda" and The In
/ ner Shrine to THE Happy Isles
/ have also been interested in his ex-
cursions during the last few years
into other fields, including THE Aboi-
| fshing of DEATH" devoted to spirit
!, communications; "The Conquest of
Fear" a book on mental hygiene, and
now 1.-The Discovery of God" In this
book the author traces through the
Bible the struggle of man to find God
as shown in the experiences of the
| spirits most deeply sensitive to God
sucb as Abraham Noses Isaiah and
| lighted the way for others. The con-
! ception of God that he traces was
| progressive from Abraham. to whom