Evening star., 1925-06-06
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the BookLouer.

Anne Sedgwick's "Tante" is Thea
Kronborg in Villa Gathers novel
THE Song of the Lark" Thea be-
comes as great a musician as Tante
but is not such an enslaver of other
personalities. She is, however, from
her early childhood. dominant over
people and over life. She knows by
instinct, before real knowledge de-
velops, that she Is gifted and per-
siStently, WordleSsly, demands her
chance. Thea's mother only, in the
large family, realizes that she is diff
ferent from the others and treats her
differently. Old Prof. Wunch, drunk
ard, but a real musician. tells Mrs.
Kronborg that Thea has talent. That
word talent which no one else in
Moonstone-would have understood,'
she comprehnded perfectly. To any
other woman there it would have
meant that a child must have her
hair curled every day and must play
in public. Mrs. Kronborg knew 1t
meant that Thea must practice four
hours a day" So Mrs. Kronborg keeps
the other children out of the parlor
where Thea practices and sends her
twice a week in Summer and once
week in Winter over the gulch to
the Kohlers, where Wunsch boards.
She also permits Thea to lie in bed
Sunday mornings until she and Pas
tor Kronborg and the six other chill
dren have filed away to church. This
favoritism and Theas own quiet as
sumption of superiority cause hos
tile lineup on the part of her sister
and brothers, SO that her last year
at home is full of half concealed an
tagoniSmS.
With the exception Of her mother,
who understands her, Thea gets on
better with men than with women.
At every period of her life there are
men ready to help her, men whose
interest centers on her. When she is
II she almost dies of pneumonia. DIR.
Archie, the chief of the two Moon
stone physicians, saves her life and
knows that in doing so he has saved
what he cares for most in the world.
Years after. when she is a great
opera singer, he tells her: "As for
me, life would have been a pretty
bleak stretch with you left out" Ray
Kennedy, brakeman on the line be-
tween Moonstone and Denver, adores
Thea when he is 80 and she is II,
and plans to marry her as soon as
she is old enough; his small savings
start her music study in Chicago. Old
Prof. Wunsch loves Thea, the only
one of his pupils worth teaching, and
recognizes the possibilities in her
voice. 1T was a nature-voice, Wunsch
told himself, breathed from the crea-
ture and apart from language, like
the sound of the wind in the trees,
or the murmur of water" Harsanyi
her piano teacher in Chicago, discov-
ers her voice. Her excessive vitality
tires him, yet he gives her his time
literally. HE had never got so much
back for himself from any pupil as
he did from Miss Kronborg She
lifted the tedium of the Winter for
him, gave him curious fancies and
reverieS." Landry, Connecticut
farm boy, who has grown into a con-
cert singer, meets Thea in Germany
and becomes more interested in her
and her voice than in himself and his
own voice. He plays for her when
she cannot afford an accompanist and
when she becomes great is satisfied
with what friendship she can spare
him. Finally, there is Fred Often
burg, wealthy brewer, who meets Thea
in Bowers studio in Chicago, and is
attracted by her Swedish fairness anu
the steely CLINT in her eyes and her
uncompromiSing frankneSS. Then he
hears her sing and is enough of
connoisseur to realize her powers and
her needs. So he joins DR.. Archie
in watching Thea's career and lending
a hand when it is wanted.
Thea is perhaps a more interesting
personality as a child, when she
wheels her baby brother Thor about
Moonstone and across the board walk
over the sand gully to Uncle Billy
i -
is when, as the famous Kronborg,
she is singing the parts of Elizabeth
Ella, Sieglinde and Fnicka before
large, enthusiastic audiences in New
York. Through all her success,
Moonstone and her early life are the
standards she cannot get away from,
and DR.. Archie says, Il don't believe
we should be any happier If we did
get away from them" Thea muses.:
Nearly all my dreams, except those
about breaking down on the stage or
missing trains, are about Moonstone.
You tell me the old house has been
pulled down, but it stands in my
mind, every stick and timber. In my
sleep I go all about it and look in the
right drawers and cupboards for
everything. 1 often dream that I'm
hunting for my rubbers in that pile
of overshoes that was always under
the hatrack in the hall. l pick up
every overshoe and know whose 1t is,
but I can't find my own. Then the
school bell begins to ring and begin
when I'm tired. All the old furniture
and the worn spots in the carpet-it
rests my mind to go over them"
X X x x
DR.. Paul NJ Paine, the librarian of
the Syracuse Public Library, has re-
Gently published a Map of Good
Stories" On a map of the United
States he has ingeniously marked out
the sections in which famous pieces
of fiction are laid. For example, Geor-
gia is designated as Brer Rabbits S
Patch; Uncle Toms Cabin is shown in
Kentucky; in Tennessee are found the
Lonesome Pine, the Great Smoky
Mountains and the home of the Prodi-
gal Judge. Prominent in Virginia are
Cartersville, the home of Colonel Car
ter, the Balisand plantations and Rich
ard Carveps jamestown. On the map
Mark Twains River is conspicuous, as
is the route of the Covered Wagon.
DR.. Paine has a conventional sign to
indicate both Zenith City and Main
Street and has put one of them in
each State, thereby apparently indi-
eating that there are Main streets and
Zeniths everywhere. OF almost equal
interest is 1.-THE Gold Star List of
American Fiction the eighth edition
of which has just been published by
the Syracuse Public Library This list
of about 500 titles specializes in his
torical backgrounds and local color
and, in the words of the preface. en-
deavors "in these trying times, to be
rather prudish than daring in it's
recommendations"
X X X
Perhaps it is not bad thing that
f,Ip lo., Ia