Evening star., 1926-11-20
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookIorer.

thinks Dean Inge, the pessimistic
dean OF st. Paul's. The United States
would never come to the aid Of Great
Britain in the event OF her being at
tackled, unless perhaps it were by
black army A shylock natiOn--that
Ia what our country appears to the
dean. II his views do not tend to
make him popular here he IA i1kely
to be hardly more popular in his own
country where to carry on ana
keep a stiff upper lip" are gospel
In his recent book. "Engla nd. Dean n
Inge denlores the rapid decay OF the
House OF Commons. the growth OF the
power Of labor, the absence OF re
ligious enthusia SIN and the loss or
British trade. The decline Of the Brit
ish Empire and the possible loss OF
India and perhaps Canada are among
| the cheerful prophecies of the dean.
~
II no Englishmen were like Dean
| Inge and all Englishmen were like j.
st. Loe Strachey. at least all who
, make public utterances. our Govern
ment might soon be forced by public
opinion here into a close Anglo Ameri-
can alliance. Mr.. Strachey. editor OF
the Spectator, has written book
! called American Soundings." refec-
| tions on the United States, its people
and their methods OF thought and
! action, which have grown out OF his
recent visit here. He is friendly.
appreciative man, as well as an editor
and writer of distinction, and he ap.
parently found only friendship and
hospitality in this country. In his
| comments in American Soundinxs"
| he is very genial; in fact, he seems
| blind to most Of our national faults
| or explains them away as no faults
at all. The American habit of chang
| ing the public mind. or of acting en-
| tirely contrary to what has seemed
to be public opinion few months
previously, he characterizes as Brit
ish habit also and calls it merely
''preferring practice to theory" The
| cOntinentalS do not like 1t and be
ca use Of it consider both British and
Americans perfdious. Mr.. Strachey
admires American women. but thinks
they are not much different from
English women. He considers 1.-The
greatest thing in modern America
|. the splendid and growing mani.
festations of the university spirit.
He likes American slang and finds
something to say for even such eX.
prossions as you've said n1Outhful
i q
visiting in a country house in Vir'
| ginia, near Charlottesville, when the
woods and mountain sides were rich
with Autumn coloring. The villages
and countryside Of New England re-
| minded him Of Devonshire, Hampshire
and Surrey, but have "a grandsr. II
less intimate, air."
In the half hour Of waiting. before
the Skinners start for the Canon q
garden party, their widowed daughter
reveals to them IL horror in her past
| which ought to alter all their lives
but doesn't. A death on P. d O.
steamer in the Indian Ocean brings to
| the surface manv hidden qualities in
the human nature Of the passengers
Hatred between the resident Of Brit
ish outstation in Borneo and his assist
ant leads to tragedy for the junior
man. A Malay temporary wife and
A British supposedly permanent wife
fail to harmonize in the life OF an
other Borneo resident. The yellow
| streak in a man In the BOrneo service
who has a trace of Malay blood. comes
out under stress of danger. A letter
accidentally in the possession OF
Chinese woman threatens to alter the
course Of the trial Of a British woman
for murder at Singapore Such are
the subjects Of six very original
stories by Somerset Vaughan in his
volume THE Casuarina Tree
A second posthumous volume OF
poems by Amy Lowell has been pub
| lished. called East Wind" The first
was called Whats O'Clock" and her
publishers announce that a third vol
ume will appear The poems in "Eas'
Wind" are on New England subjects
many of them in dialect. Narrative
ard characterization are mingled fr
them. as in many Of her earlier poems
Most Of them convey the chill and
morbidity which seems to be parts OF
New England character. at least 1r
the poems of Amy Lowell and Robert
Frost and the stories Of Mary Wilkins
Freeman and Edith Wharton.
An event Of importance has oc
Cured in the fiction literature of 1925
A really nice girl, nice according ia
nre.war standa rds-one who does not
have a regular liaison in the third
lchapter--has appeared, and in novel
by Frank Swinnerton. too. Polly
Lame, in Summer Storm" is a girl
who loves her mother and takes her
TROUBLES to her, who looks upon her
home as q sanctuary. Home! The re
lief was so intense that a few long with
held tears trickled from her eyes. She
wiped them away and others came
1t was the breaking of her self-con
troll. She had experienced too much
in that afternoon to be able to with
stand this charm. In desperation she
hurried to the sitting room at the
back Of the house, where she knew
che would find her mother. Just SO
in every sorrow, she had run to hel
mother since she had been a child
and in sorrow Polly was still child :
Polly is a self-supportinG girl. She IL
sophisticated, but she does not de
spise her parents and consider them
ianachronisms. She enjoys spending
q great many of her evenings al
home with the family, In the sober
gray and blue and primrose living
room, with it's old-fashioned, comfort
able chairs. and is not restless unless
she is dancing and drinking at a night
club. This may sound az IL Polly
were very Old-fashioned and uninter
esting-or very plain. On the con
trary, she Is pretty. She has sunny
hair, clear gray eyes, a straight and
shapely nose and a piQnant. smiling
mouth. She is also "less slim tha r
the young ladies' depicted in the fash
ION plates. ana Sne IL IiOt pFlIN dHC
priggish. She does not tell her mother
quite everything, she 10 able to stand
up for her rights in business, anc
when a crisis comes she can 6Ght
against a very modern and unscrupu
lous woman to hold the man she loves
Polly Lane Is worth knowing.
Olive Schreiner, fiction writer snt
feminist. who died in 1920. was per
haps best known by her Story Of 6
South African Farm" Her most in
lteresting work, from the standpoint
of symbolism and the short story, wa
the collection of story sketches called