Evening star., 1926-03-06
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BOOkLOUer.

! Wild geese which fly over the
prairies, northward in the Spring al
! sowing time and southwark in the
! Autumn, when the earth has yielded
it's growth, are used as symbols oil
| human aloneness by Martha Ostenso
in her novel wild Geese" 1t Is
first novel, of a young school teacher
born in the mountains of Norway
| near Bergen. and becoming at the age
of IT a teacher of the children OF
Icelanders and Indians in the province
| of Manitoba. 1t won the combination
| $13, 500 prize of 1925. offered by Dodd
| Mead e. Co. and the Famous Players
Lasky Co. 1t was obliged to meet the
| triple demand of motion picture pro.
duction, magazine publication and
book publication. The knowing critic
| judges that 1t would probably have
| been less melodramatic In parts If the
motion picture requirement could have
| been cut out, but Miss Ostenso in a
| recent interview says that 1t was writ
| ten without any knowledge of the
prize contest and was offered for the
| contest by her instructor in novel
, writing at Columbia University. The
theme, land greed, on the part Of a
tyrannical old man who sacrifices TO
his mania all his family and any pos
calls Sheila Kaye-Smith's Sussex
Gorse"-a far greater novel. Caleb
Care in wild Geese Is as ruthless
as Reuben Backfield in Sussex
Gorse," but not such big elemental
character. One has the feeling all
along that Caleb is really insane and
| that the family should have him com
mitted. Reuben nearly drives every
one else insane, but we know that he
himself Is always perfectly sane. self
| controlled and has counted every cost
Mark Jordan. the illegitimate son of
Caleb Cares wife. Amelia. Is in his
lonely nature especially typified by the
wild geese. He has come to Oeland
| 10 hold a homestead for poor Anton
klovacz. tuberculous Hungarian
who must go to sanitarium for treat
ment Here. as he is living alone in
the wretche0 klovacZ shack. Lind
Archer, the pretty district school
teacher, first meets him. Both Mark
and Lind are city dwellers. here on
| the northwest prairie only for an in
terlude in lives destined to be passed
on more crowded stage. But even
after they have found each other
Lind realizes that in his deepest self
Mark will always stand inevitably
alone
Mark at least is able to comma nd
the physical privacy which his lonely
soul demands. The children of Caleb
Gare-Martin, Ellen, Judith and
Charlie-have privacy neither for
bodies nor souls. Nor have they So
ciability to satisfy their human needs
StInprViSp6 iS hot
From in the morning. when Caleb
thumps with the broom ha ndle on the
board floor of their attic sleeping
chamber. which is the ceiling of his
room below, until about at night
when they tumble exhausted into their
hard beds, separated from each other
by curtains. their tasks are unendine.
Caleb StrollS about the farmvard. nut e.
terlnS with broken tools. samples of
seeds and cattle medicines. or drives
IN his cart around the fields. finding
tault and urging his children on to
harder effort. With his squat. TOP.
heaVN hgure, his head thrust forward
his pointed gray locks struggling over
his forehead and his sardonic smile. he
is like one of the gargoyles on the top
or Notre Dame. keeping an evil watch
over Paris. Every one of the family
is in complete subjection to Caleb. his
wife most of all. Their abjectness
, is hardly sufficiently accounted for.
One feels that any of them could
easily at any time have defied him and
told him to go ahead and do his worst
That worst could not have been as
bad as his daily sneerins tyranny TO
be sure. after Judith has hurled an
Ak at her father--and missed him
he has some real hold on her, through
10 fhnnnt 70 lafs II ~
in the city," When Caleb meets a
tragic retribution-as, of course. he
doeS-nO one even pretends to he
sorry Martin builds the new house
he has long dreamed of. Judith mar.
ries her lover and is happy and Amelia
orders good coffee from the city mot
me brand kept by Johanneson at
Yellow PosO and complacently serves
II To Mrs. Sanbo when she comes over
from the neishborins farm to call.
A class of literature which seldom n
ever. comes under the ewes of readers
OF this column IS described in two re.
cent magazine articles. In the New
Republic for February 81, Ernest w.
Vaudeville writes briefly of what he
calls Gutter Literature" and in the
March Atlantic Monthly Oswald Gar.
rlson Willard takes as his title Sex.
Art. Truth and Magazines" Both
write about the same thing, the recent
crop of new type of periodical. open.
ly sold on newssta nds and circulated
by the million. Fresh titles appear
almost daily. seeking to outdo one an.
other in obscenity-obscenity which
either wells itself behind an affecta.
tlon or SNUG moralizing, or openly and
unashamedly appeals to the sex in.
stlnct at its worst" One Of the critics
, divides these magazines into several
categories-the true story" group,
the confession" group, the .snapnv
story group, the artists and models
groupS and the out-and-out vulgar
group. with titles such as Hot Dog ;,
Red Pepper" and the like. Although
the stories in these magazines almost
invariably have a sex motive. the pub.
l1shers all claim not to he actuated bv
any mefcenary motive, but only by a
nutN TO safeguard our youth from
pItfalls. and more than one of them
after delightfully."- portrayiny the mr.
falls. makes his characters turn ia vir.
Iue ana repentance. Frank Kent of
me Baltimore Sun, who has previous.
~ written about magazines of this
CLASS winch ne found in abunda nee in
sfnall towns all over the IInited
states last Summer, is quoted as saw.
ing that II the spread of this neu,
literature is not checked IT will soon
oe possible to say of this country
that its people are steeneS IN dirt,,
literature :" "h'E
recent review of The Nen,oirs
OF william Jennings Bryan hv him
self and his wife, Mary Baird p,van
begins; William j. Brvan wrote a." a.
number of books. but none Of tber'
were any GOOD" The BookIover does
not wish to dispute this statement
whether or not it is amy good how.
ever, the Memoirs will undoubtedl,,
hnd MANY readers. Are there nor all