Evening star., 1924-04-19
The Library Table
BY THE BOOKLOVER

A life most rich in literary act!vi-
ties and literary associations was that
of Mrs. Humphry Ward. In her
Life" by her daughter, Janet Pen
rose Trevelyan, we are given pic
ture OF a precocious. imaginative
child growing up in family of lit
erary tastes and traditions, to be-
come in early womanhood herself an
author in the midst of a. scholarly
circle at oxford. Mary Arnold, after
ward Mrs. Humphry Ward, was
granddaughter Of Arnold of Rugby
and fayorite niece of Matthew Ar
mold, "the sad poet and gay man OF
the world" Her father was the inti-
mate friend of another poet, Arthur
Clough, and sometimes Mary, child
of nine or ten, would accompany the
two on their walks through the val
leys and across the streams OF the
English lake region, dancing on
ahead or lingering behind to watch
the birds or the flowers or the rush
ing streams. Her early love for TINS
lake country impressed itself later
| on the settings OF many of her novels
Mary Arnold was fourteen when
her parents settled at Oxford She
soon began to work with her father
| at the Bodleian. and before she was
| twenty was deep IN research in early
Spanish literature on her own ac-
| count. Some of the friends made in
| these Oxford days were Jowett, Mark
| Pattison, John Richard Green, Ed
ward Freeman, Mandeil Creighton
| and r. H Green. When she was
twonty-one she married 7. Humphry
| Ward, fellow and tutor of Brasenose
| College, and for eight years after
| ward they continued to live at
oxford.
Then Mrs Ward. life shifted TO
London, and became for forty years
an existence of. ceaselcss activity
| crowded with interesting pursuits
| and people. With Robert E1srnere''
she began her novel writing, and al
most never afterward was she with
| out some novel in process OF crea-
ton. Her home was changed from
| time to time, as health and work de-
| manded, from her London house 70
her country place, Stocks" or to a
| cottage in the lake region or d villa
| in Italy. Wherever she was, her
home was d center not only for rela-
| tiyes but for friends. English and for
| eign most of them of literary or
| politicsl distinction. She corTesponded
\ for years with Henry James, and he
| visited her at Stocks. Lord Acton
! Gladstone, Lord Morley. Mr.. Asquith
and Sir Gilbert Parker were other
| friends of this period. In 1919 "the
unre lentiug pressure Of war taxation
| made II necessary for her to give VI
| her London house in Grosvenor pla ce
| OF her last night there she wrote to
I l.. = ~ 49,
about it-that last night Thereof
| the people who had dined and talked
| in it-Henry James and Burne-Jones
| Stopford Brooke. Martineau, Watts
| Tadema. Lowell, Roosevelt. Page
| Northbrook, Goschen and so many
| more"
| II would never occur to most of US
! to notice resemblance between the
names OF flowers and the names oi
diseases. but Susan Ertz has pointed
IL out in 4 quaint passage in hel
| novel, Madame Claire She says
Did you ever stop to think that the
names of diseases and the names o.
! flowers are very similar: For in
| stance. 1 might say, Do come and Sc,
my garden. 1t is at its best now, AND
| the double pneumonias are reall,
wonderful. I suppose the mild winteI
had something to do with that. I'm
very proud Of my trailing phlebitis
too, and the laryngitises and deer
| purple quinsies that ] put in las
| year are a joy to behold. The bed OF
asthmas and malarias that you used
to admire is finer than ever this sum.
ner, and the dear little dropsies are
all in bloom down by the lake, anC
make such d pretty showing with the
| Line ANTHRAX border behind them , -
y *
THE Power OF a Lie," by JohaI
| Bojer, is fiction sermon of great i'm
pressiveness Knut Norby, 4 prosper
Gus old Norwegian farmer is an up
right, kindly man, whose chief faults
are pride and some irritability under
his wife's nagging. His pride in him.
self as one of the two chief land
| owners Of his district and his fear OF
! his wife's tongue cause him TO con-
| ceal the fact that he has stood surety
/ for the note of Henry Wangen. who
| has become bankrupt. The next step
| Is that when questioned, he denies it
| Then the rumor. starts that Wangen
has forged Norby's name, and Norby
| first does not deny 1t and later con-
| firms the falsehcod. So the lie starts.
| and. once having committed himself
4
! The matter OF the supposed forgery
! comes to court, and the whole dis
| trict is divided in Its sympathies be-
| tween the two men, but most OF the
| influential citizens stand with Norby
because he has always been prosper
| Gus ard respected. Norby's son, who
has discovered mis- fathers lie, strug-
| -les to force himself to rescue the ac-
| cused Wangtn, but gradually gives
! up under the pressure OF family af-
fection ard the family atmosphere,
| and acquiesces In the prevailing opin-
| ion that his father is the injured per-
| son. Norby himself. as the trial pro-
| crosses, comes to believe in his own
| innocence. At tho end, when the
| power of the lie has accomplished its
| work, Norby is given a dinner by his
/ fellow citizens as testimonial OF
their confidence in him, and at the
| dinner he heads a subscription for the
| benefit Of the destitute wife and chill
dren of Wangen. now convicted and
| in prison.
DIR. William s. Sadler, an eminent
Chicago physician, who has written
| several excellent books on popular
medicine, after having given many
years to the study Of spiritualism
has recently published a little book
entitled The Truth About Spiritual.
ism." that well states the case against
a belief in that cult The following
extracts are, frpm his final chapter
summarizing his conclusions: ct an
| prepared. fnaiiy and deliberately
| after a quarter of a century of stud v
| observation and personal experience.
with mediums psychics and senj