Evening star., 1926-12-11
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BooEloUev.

One of the earliest successful
woman journalists lived in Wash
ington during and Immediately fol-
lowing the Civil War-Mary Glenn
mer Ames. A year before her death
she married Edmund Hudson,
Washington editor, but all her writ
ing was under the name MARY Glen.
mer Ames," or Mary Clemmer,' and
her simple gravestone in Rock
Creek Cemetery bears only the name
Mary Clemmer" For many years
she contributed to the New York
Independent articles under the title
"A Woman's Letter From WashlnS-
ton" These letters were by no
means filled with the social tattle of
Washington. though that played
part, but discussed politics in such
q vigorous and outspoken manner
that the writer often made enemies.
AS they covered the period Of the
impeachment trial Of Andrew john
Son and the presidency of Gen.
Grant. there was opportunity for the
expression of decided opinions. OF
Grants administration she wrote:
After years of close personal obser-
vation SO far as my words
can reach the people, ! warn them
|. against the repetition Of such
an administration as closed March q,
1871" In the galleries of the Sem
ate and House, at public gatherings,
in the drawing rooms of Washing
ton and at her own Monday "at
homes" on Capitol HILL she had the
opportunity of seeing and meeting
people of prominence, and pen pic
lures OF public men were frequently
in her letters" OF John Sherman,
Secretary Of the Treasury, she wrote:
"He has the judicial brow and
mind, wise, strong man. with a ten
der heart. which he never hangs out
for the worlds Inspection" OF Gen.
Garfield, at the time of his election
to the presidency, she wrote, THE
first consciousness is of his immense
vitality"
Two published volumes of Mary
Clemmer Ames drew some of their
material from the Washington "let
ters"-"Outlines OF Men, Women and
Things" and "Ten Years in Wash
ington." One of the best descrip-
tive chapters in the former volume
in Arlington in May" In this there
Is touch of her strong antiSouth
ern feeling. She was very close to
the Civil War She says, Far be
that day when to Mary Custis twife
Of Robert r.. Lee). or to her chill
dren. shall be given back the home
Of her fathers The chapter "NNom-
an Suffrage i'm the same volume
shows Mrs. Ames as sympathetic to-
ward all efforts to gain justice for
women. but not herself Il believer
that the ballot was the greatest need
OF women. "Ten Years in Wash
ington" is of interest 10 many resi-
dents of Washington today, who de-
sire TO know the Capital of the past.
one chapter. "Old Washington"
tells of the building of the city and
its early muddy condition.; and
Building the Capitol carries on
the story of origins. The Congress
siUnaI Library describes the old
library in the Capitol and gives an
interesting sketch of Dr. Spofford
the librarian. 1.-The White House"
chapter covers the official residence
from the days of Abigail Adams, who
hung her linen to dry in the east
room. to those Of Lincoln. Ladies'
of the White House" wives of the
Presidents" and "a Chapter Of Cos
sip are all gossipy chapters. THE
-.
Grants Reception are devoted TO
the official social life of the Grant
administration. '1nauguration Day
at Washington" enables those who
have seen recent inaugura tions to
make comparisons.
81 =: y
The Middle West occupies + very
large place in our modern American
literature. perhaps d disproportion-
ately large place Easterners and Far
Westerners might say. Booth Tar
kington. Villa Gather, Sinclair Lewis.
Zona Gale. Hamlin Garland and
Sherwood Anderson have all helped
to make the Middle West vital and
sometimes poetic. The life of a
child in the Middle West in the years
following the Civil War is the sub
ject OF Sherwood Anderson's Tar:
A Midwest CHILDHOOD" In his fore
word Mr.. Anderson characterizes
Tar as partly autobiography
partly fancy. Tar Moorehead is
sensitive boy who grows up in
hit land miss sort of way, because
his father has too little sense of
responsibility toward his family and
too little love for conventional work.
lie is d delightful boy. with his love
of solitude and of the woods and
streams. his dreams. his pa athletic at
tempts to understand things. and his
loneliness in the midst of sordid town
life. "Tar" is a companion to "A
Story -Teller's Story" and the two
seem to give Sherwood Anderson's
sincere feelings not only about the
Middle West, but about much of life
anywhere.
Self-realization and self-eXpression
may be the ideal of most of our mod
ern novelists for their character crea
tionS, but it is not an ideal which
seems adequate or worthy to Mar
garet Deland and Dorothy Garfield.
These two established fiction writer's
have this Fall had new novels pub
lished. in both of which the old-fash
loned ideal of self-sacrifice is revived
and vigorously defended. In each
case the example of self.sacr!flce is
so eccentric and Is carried to such an
extreme that IL becomes an excellent
argument for the modern doctrine of
the right of each individual to self
realiZation-even selfishness. In Mar
garct Deland's novel THE Kays."
Mrs. Kay devotes over 20 years of
her NE TO caring for the insane for
mer mistress of her husband. With
some distorted idea of vicarious atone
ment for her husbands sin. she with
draws herself from all human asso-
Citations and passes her days secretly
in the antechamber to the insane
woman's attic room. until she her
self becomes at least decidedly
queer In Dorothy Canfied's novel
Her Sons Wife," Mrs. BaScomb as
sists her daughter-in-law to become
a bed-ridden inyalid-really pushes
her into invalidisnl--and then devotes
the rect of hal. life tca % RING. fo,. har.