Evening star., 1924-08-02
The Library Table
BY THE BOOKLovER

ciplinarian who combined tact with
severity and secured results such as
few modern instructors are able to
produce. Francis Thompson in his
biography, st. Ignatius Loyola" tells
many interesting anecdotes of the
saints methods. On one occasion a
novice wavered in his resolution and
meditated departure from the order
Ignatius told him to leave IL he would !;
but first, when he walked at night, to
lay himself out as on his death bed
and ask himself how he would wish
to have lived when death was at
hand" The youth remained. When,
however. he did not find in novices
missed them ruthlessly. He was
known to have dismissed at one
fell sWoop, and 10 subsequently," He
insisted on a variety of duties and
once asked novice, taking his turn
in the Kitchen, to stop and write some
verses The novice cleverly produced
some f1attering verses addressed to
Ignatius himself. The saint reprov-
ingly asked If the novice really
thought him to possess all those vir-
been a natural diplomat, replied that
"he knew nothing of that, but he
knew that 1gnatius ought to possess
them"
A wealthy young man who had
come to the order had in his cell a
handsome crucifix, of which he was
particularly fond. For that reason,
and the Jesuit rule against private
property, the natural expectation
would have been that he should at
once have to surrender it. But Ig-
natius took no seeming heed. until
the youth had made large advance in
detachment. Then he said: Since our
brother has learned self-renunciation
and has the image of the crucified
Christ in his heart, we may take it
from his hands," He judged we'll, the
young man was no longer reluctant.
Yet this same subtle trainer made a
novice. who kept a sloyen room.
and bear it slung over shoulder
through the house, proclaiming to all
comers his fault.
Ignatius always had great sympathy
and patience for the hot-headed and
quick-tempered among his followers,
because Of his own fiery temperament.
"Of two lay brothers contrasting in
temperament, he cheered the one
swift to anger, rather than the other
who needed no heartening. . A
laggard and weakling might by Gods
grace save himself, but was scarce
likely to save others. There was place
and scope in the company for the
gentle and docile. as for all tempers.
provided that they were mated with
zeal; but the saints own gallant spir-
it favored the gallant-not from
favor, but from wisdom"
Ignatius laid great stress on clean
liness-a minor virtue not generally
favored at that time in Italy, the
headquarters of the order, or any
where else, for that matter. '-The
novice-master, a true child of the
time. once reported a novice to him
for the shocking foppery of frequent
ly washing the hands, but the saint
gave him cold comfort. He was to
watch for any tokens of vanity in
other ways, but not rebuke the youth
for this extraordinary inclination to
cold water"
Old Chester, the Pennsylvania small
town created by Margaret Deland as
the scene for her earlier stories, pub
lished in the volumes "Old Chester
Tales" ''Dr. Lavendar's Peoples" and
around Old Chester" has been re-
volume, New Friends in Old Chester"
This volume contains three novelettes,
in each of which DR. Lavendar, the
lovable old clergyman, who is the viii
lage philosopher and mentor. has a
prominent part. The first. The Elliots'
Katy" is the story of an immigrant
servant girl imported into Old Chester
Old Chester Secret tells of the de-
votion of a foster mother and her
adopted son. and has a dramatic eli
max. The third, How Could She?"
shows a modern girl handling the
delicate situation which arises when
her fiance wishes to be released from
his enga cement and she is unwilling
TO release him.
Christopher Morley has in is pages of
the August number of the Bookman
painted a vivid and appealing picture of
Walt Whitman in what he calls a one
act portrait The scene is laid in Whit
mans cottage in Camden, n. j.. in 1888.
four years before his death. The char
acters are Mrs. Davis, his housekeeper
Dr. Osler, his physician; Horace Trau-
bel, his Boswell; Logan Pearsall Smith.
an admirer brought by Traubel; Rich
ard Harding Davis, then a reporter on
the Philadelphia Press, in search Of
story, and Walt himself, partly par
alyzed. The dialogue, so far as Whit
man speaks, and that is good part of
the lines, is largely made up of his pub
lished writings and acknowledged say
ings. The Booklover hopes that this
see 1t.
Though there are some of us who are
plunged into profound melancholy by
glad books" and "Pollyanna" people in
real life-the sort who tell US "it might
be worse when We are especially
miserable and see bright side" to all
our troubles-yet there must be thou
sands of people who like the Polly
anna" type both in literature and in life.
The publishers of "Pollyanna" and
"Pollyanna Grows Up" are so convinced
of this that, despite the death of Eleanor
H. Porter, who originated Pollyanna,
they mean to have further Pollyanna
books. They have turned over to Har-
riet Lummis Smith the task of continu
ing Pollyannas career, and so we have
the third glad book" "Pollyanna of the
married to Jimmy Pendleton and lives
in New York. She has the usual
ecetasies and trials Of the first year of
married life, and Miss Smith relates
them with rather more humor than
Eleanor H, Porter employed. The end
''slushy." Jimmy returns from the war
to find himself the father of son, and