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

Novels with an obvious moral were
more common in the eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries than they
are In the twentieth century, when
both authors and readers are in
clined to be supercilious over preach
ing fiction. Charles G. Norris bravely
.defies fashion in this respect, how
ever, and risks being called 'fnartis-
tic" by the critics. In his recent
novel, Bread" he might be a CO.
temporary of Samuel Richardson,
who published Pamela. or Virtue
Rewarded" in 174l. The moral of
Bread is as open to criticism as
that of Pamela" Richardson
sketched the career of young SER
want girl who successfully resists the
attempts of her employer. a country
squire, to seduce her, and is finally
rewarded" by his marrying her.
Pamela consciously reckons the ad-
feels honored in the end to be mar
ried by man whom she knows to
be thoroughly corrupt. Mr.. Norris'
moral in Bread" is that women
should not be permitted training in
a profession or business, because, II
they are able to earn a living, they
will be less likely to accept unsatis-
factory treatment from bad or indff-
ferent husbands, and may for con-
venfent cause break up the home"
Complete dependence Of women Is, he
concludes, safer--at least for men.
X y + =
Unfortunately Mr.. Norris story as
1t develops has, like William ].
Bryan's lecture against evolution,
tendency to convert his audience to
the opposition. Martin Devlin is in
love with his wife Jeanette. but he
CANDLES. gets drunk, lies to his wife,
allows debts to pile up through ex-
travagance and does not play fair"
in the matter of her household al
lowance. She Is efficient. thrifty and
abhors debt. Having had business
training and experience before her
Of doing all tho cooperating in
matrimony and leaves Martin and
goes back to her Cob" Then Mr..
Norris proceeds to bring retribution
on her and to reward Martin, whom
he seems to consider the aggrieved
party. Martin secures a divorce
after few years by the method Of
falsely blackening his wife's char
acter and marries a charming ex-
manicurist who brings him two de-
makes a fortune in the automobile
business and acquires perfectly ap-
pointed mansion, servants, limousines
and a good stock of the best bootleg
whisky. Jeanette succeeds in her
business, but never attains very
high salary. because she is a woman.
In the the last chapter she is shown
returning after a few days or ao-
sence to a cold, foodless apartment
and throwing herself weeping on the
hn1 Igi hlfQEHd
arms to soothe her loneliness. One
cannot help wondering why the
apartment was cold. as 1t is repre-
sented 20 be In good, modern apart
a dependent married woman might
have found the pantry empty II she
had left il so. But, of course, Mr..
Norris had to make case.
x X
America has seen such great
growth Of large scale cooperative
marketing organizations as applied
to many products, such as prunes,
grapefruit, oranges and other fruits,
as we'll as dairy products. that 1t
seems strange that thus far there has
been in this country such a slight
development of correlative orsaniza-
tions-that is, of co-operativeS or
ganized to serve consumers. DR..
James P. Warbasse, in his Cooper
ative Democracy" furnishes de-
scription of consumers co-operatives
as they work in Great Britain. on
the continent Of Europe, in South
America, Mexico. Australia and in
the United States, especially among
farmers and recent emigrants. But
the author has given not simply
scientific and critical description of
the actual workings of these CO.
operative societies, but devotes the
bulk of his thick book to propa-
ganda and panegyric of the Rochdale
idea as the savior OF men S souls, the
panacea for all forms of industrial.
economic. social and governmental
diseases The book is so long and
SO overladen with verbiage as really
to defeat the purpose of the author
to convert the reader to the tran
poses. Fortunately there Is an
nounced for publication in the
workers Bookshelf" series another
book by DR.. Warbasse, The Co
books in this series are by intent
kept brief. readers whose time Is lin
tied will do we'll to wait for the an
nounced book
The dramatic pictures and stirring
adventures of African colonial life
which made u success of Sir Harry
Johnston's novel, '"The Man Who Did
the Right Thing" will also recon-
mend his autobiography to many
readers. It Is published under the
title 1.-THE Story OF My Life" but the
story Is not that of an ordinary
traveller and explorer. Sir Harry
Johnston ranks, in the opinion of
some, with Livingstone. Stanley and
Rhodes as an explorer and empire
builder and, in addition, is linguist,
a naturalist. a painter. an historian
and novelist. The photography OF
his published works includes nearly
forty volumes. OF these many are on
exploration and government in At
rica, as THE River Congo" The
Kilimanjaro Expedition" The Nile
quest" "Livingstone and the Explo-
ration of Central Africa, "A History
and Description of the British En-.
pIre in Africa" and 1.-THE Coming Up of
Africa" His best known novels are
1.-The Gay-Dombeys." The Man Who
Did the Right Thing" and The
Vaneerings."
Sir Harry Johnston's first visit to
the continent OF Africa was made
when, at the age of twenty-one, he
went to Tunis to study Moorish art.
He began his explorations in 1881 by
q trip to the southern waters of the
Kongo. Later he led a scientific
expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro. His
consular service began In 1885. soon
after this he met Cecil Rhodes and
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