The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-05-15
OUR BOOK REVIEW
SECTION
BY GEORGE MCLAUGHLIN.


Vacations, by Gerald o'Donovan,
5oni and Liveriuht, New York City.
l started this book with acute mis-
givings, as l learned from the "blurb"
that it is not fiattering to the Holy
Roman Tools. | expected an ignorant
TRADE. To my delight | found it a
stark picture of the unnatural life Of
priests and welI-written and
sympathetic.
Two sisters enter a convent. One
endures the petty convent politics, the
idle chatter and the uselessness of her
life for three years and then calmly
leaves-to the chattering rage of all
the holy" men and women. The other
upheld by fat vanity and series of
liaisons with priests enjoys the life.
The characters are vivid-the vii
lage publican and his wife; the dreamy
old Mother Superior; the business
manager-an abrupt Robot the
priests-one a sensualist, one full Of
dry wisdom; one brainless loon and
wonderful evangelist by virtue of
Soulful eyes, Sweet voice-and
a habit of stealing his. sermons. An
excellent book to read and better
one to give girl. who has discovered
a vocation" in the convent.
Land and See Tales for Boys and
Girls, by Rudyard KiplIng, Doubleday,
Page G. Co., New York.
Kipling has written rafting good
stories and much stirring verse for
which he may be forgiven his "hate"
stuff-"Mary Postgate," Cleared" and
ulster" (for which last "A E." took
him sternly to task. His last book
is bitter disappointment, dull and
insipid. The theme is fit for Boy
Scouts-"Be loyal to God, King and
Boss"-and the yarns are mediocre;
the following being typical: a hashed
account Of medal winning exploits, a
blurb of his boyhood school and nine
teen pages to prove that a man ig-
norant of rife work, can't use a rife.
Characterization of Edward Box"
an autobiography by chas. Scribners
Sons, New edition..
This is an excellent book to read
with Woodward's Bunk" l am I'M
able to believe that my country Amer
icanized Bok.-He is hundred per
center, who happened to be born in
Holland. He combines business
shrewdness, nauseating sentimental
ty and genuine American snobbish-
ness, in perfect blend.
When only thirteen years old, he
practiced the fundamental, capitalist
theory that to make money, one hires
a man to work for him ana pays him
less than he produces.
He describes infinitely his obser-
walton of our aristocratic small fry
Grant, Hayes, Beecher, Lyman Abbott,
Cleveland, Roosevelt, and other non
entities.
His American sentimentalism and
''idealism" crop up, when he tells of
his crusades. He improved American
architecture and house furnishings
WhAAC JdOOD nus was uSntiuB uuOuC-
cessfully and unaided to clean up the
awful New York tenements. He cam
paigned against fake culture in wom-
ems clubs and against Paris styles in
women's clothes-while Ogden Armour
was using the Saturday Evening Post,
Companion magazine to Bok's Ladies
Home Journal') to smoke screen Up
ton Sinclairs exposure of the filthy
packing houses and their brutal labor
conditions.
His mushiness gets full play on the
World War. He tells with snug COM
placency of his share in propaganda
ing the war and raising money for it.
Never once did he ask For what pur-
poser" He sloshes maudlin sentiment
over the troops, uses superlatives on
the two wounded he met-but is will
ing to send 100000 more into the
same inferno. In conclusion he hopes
that Russia will prove a second U.
S. A."
God-and the Communications