Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-27
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the Bo0klOuer.

miStiC as Phillip GlbbS IN MS mover
young Anarchy" His conclusion is
that, with all their flamboyance and
iconoclasm, the boys and girls of the
1920's will come out all right in the
end. Not so Alice Brown. In her
new novel, Dear Old Templeton,
she presents, as a secondary character
a modern girl who is evidently 1htend-
ed to be somewhat typical. and prophc.
sizes for her through the WORKS OF
Dear Old Templeton future djsas
trous for herself and for every one
who comes into her direful sphere.
Irene Renfrew, neither beautiful, nor
clever. nor original in any way, has
avidlv seized upon all the audacitieS
and unscrupulousness of her age and
tried to make them her own, with but
moor success. She simply doesn't
:'eet away with it" we'll, as cleverer
GIRLS do. A devotee of the theory of
the superwoman, whose right 1t is 10
pick her man and make him fer own,
she spreads her net about and over
Champ Calvert and temporary en-
tangles him, but never to such an
extent that he is not perfectly able
to work loose IL he really chooses.
When he finally does choose, Irene
pursues him indefatigably and wears
him down with series of hysterical
attacks. After one of these scenes
she persuades herself that she is
really going to carry out the suicide
she has so often threatened. She
drives her car madly out IF the woods
where she has been stalking Champ,
on to the main highway, with intent.
so she afterward maintains, to dash
across and down the steep bank on
the other side. But her purpose, II
she ever had one, Weakens at the last
moment and she makes a sudden turn,
on one wheel, and runs down Amy
Templeton, who is walking home from
the suburban railway station. An
did not wish to commit suicide, nor
to be manned; she is the victim of
Irene's egotism, which modern life
allows to go unrestrained. When
Irene drives around to make futile
and inappropriate apology to the
Templeton family, she hears, prob
ably for the first time in her life. how
she appears to a sane person.
Templeton says to her: "You're
young. You've got life before you.
ANU yOu IS SliCII 81 VAIN lOOI JOo
haven't the least idea what it all
means. Somebody's refused you
something, and you're hurt baby
throwing away your playthings.
You, a small. insignificant atom.
You had the power to destroy life.
to cause an amount of suffering you
couldn't understand to save your soul
l suppose it would have been better
for you and everybody if you hal
gone over the bank. You'll live to be
married and the mother Of sons and
daughters. Good God! What is the
world coming to in the hands of i'm
beetles like your" After a sight of
herself in the mirror of Templetons
wrath, she merely crouches down in
the seat of the car and whimpers.
If there were only Irene in the story,
it would be very hopeless; but there
is Sally-Sally, the unusual girl. who
wears her long hair in braids wound
around her head, because she knows
the style suits her, who says Father"
and Mother" instead of dad" and
Num-" who refuses to talk of COM
plexes, self-expression and trial mar
riages, because she hates the modern
jargon, who loves the woods and her
garden, who can endure being alone
with her own thoughts.
X X X
The name of Rodin connotes in
France much the same as the name
of st. Gaudens in the United States
the best of national sculpture. Near
ly everywhere in France Rodin is re-
called by his works and by personal
associations. A book of several
nvDth he o11 dc
Rodin material-"Personal Reminis-
thony M. Ludovici. The author, him.
self an artist, was at one time secre-
tary to Rodin and lived with him in
his villa at Meudon. He speaks of
Robins lifelong relation to the woman
who passed as Madame Rodin as IAN
exceedingly happy one," but says that
Rodin had little fondness for his son.
Never once did l have the opportu-
nifty of meeting Robins son, but very
soon after taking up my duties at the
sculptor's country house l learnt that
there was person who stood in that
relation to M. and Nine. Rodin, and
that it was best not to make any
allusion to him. His name was Au-
guste Beuret-Beuret being Nine.
Robins maiden name-and almost all
l knew about him was that Rodin
was not particularly fond of him and
could not suffer him for long at his
side, and allowed him to call at Meu-
don about once a MONTH"
X X X X
Darwin was not responsible for all
the suspicion cast upon science as the
natural foe of revealed religion. Be
fore the publication of his Origin of
Species" usually referred to as
epochmaking, in 1859, there were
many who considered that an educa-
ton from which science was missing
was the only safe kind for one who
wished to preserve his religious be-
lief. In 1886 Benjamin Lundy, editor
or the anti-slavery periodical, the
Genius of Universal Emancipation,
published the collected poems of Eliza
beth Margaret Chandler, who had
been one of his most valued contribu-
tors and the editor of a female de-
partment" of the magazine. With the
poems was a memoir by Lundy, in
which he gave the chief facts of Eliza
beth Chambers life and an unqualified
eulogy of her poetic gifts and her de-
Votion to the anti-slavery cause. In
speaking of her early education, he
says: I'VE do not learn that she made
greater proficiency in the more scien-
tific studies than many others of her
contemporaries. The bent of her mind,
even at this tender age, was religious
ly contemplative, and she was more
inclined to view with admiration and
gratitude the works of the adorable
author of nature as they We're un-
folded to her mental or corporal
vision than to pry into the mysteries
of creation and strive to attain to
higher degree of knowledge than was.
perhaps, vouchsafed by the Creator"
In caring little for science, Elizabeth
Chandler was not different from most
of the women. or even the men, of her
time. Education then was chiefly
classical and literary, and many of the
leading schools either offered no
science whatever or such a Smatter-
ing Of miscellaneous scientific mate