Douglas daily dispatch., 1928-02-26
AIMEE'S STORY
In BOOK FORM
GETS COMMENT

Douglas gets into the picture in
the New York book review as done
hv Isabel Patterson for the New
York Herald Tribune of Feb IA The
theme is the latest book effort OF
Aimee Semple Mcpherson, the Los
Angeles evangelist whose cry OF
eh-e-l-p,. as she puts it in her book
echoed through the desert wastes
across the border from here prior to
her appearance at Douglas sister
town of Aqua Prieta many months
ago to tell her story of the kidnapping
escapade. Miss Patterson enlivens
the quoted portions of the book with
her own reactions 10 the statements.
Here is the story as clipped from the
Herald Tribune:
Our favorite heroine of fiction,
Aimee Semple Mcpherson, has writ
ten the story Of her life, In the Serv-
ice of the King CLiveright). 1t is
new style autobiography, beginning
in the middle instead of with dry
statement of when and where the
narrator was born And the style
is equally modern, sometimes leaning
toward that of Ernest Hemingway,
and at moments suggesting Gertrude
stein, with one allusion to t. S.
Eliot. But, on the whole, the strong
est influence is either Cecil de Mile
or Erich Won Stroheim. For example,
the opening chapter, entitled "The
Escape" owes much to the movies. "
1t begins thus: 8 Ne
sSandI
Gray sand!
{" A wilderness of sand
Lost in the desert-and night
closing in.
Help!
H-e-l-psI
"'H-e-l-p' I cried, as stumbled
over the wssteland.
'H-e-l-p!' cried the mocking echo,
growing softer and softer in the dis
tance until it sobbed its way into the
deathlike stiffness of the desert dusk.
n "A dropping, forlorn, cotton-clad
figure, trudged faltering into the
swelling gloom. wavered, staggered,
scarcely able to lit one foot after the
ctner. The heavy shoes, far too
large for me, chafed burning bliSters.
Sinking to my knees, Swayed un-
certainly, arose, went on, only to
fall again"
Lights -. Action 80.
CAMERA. Cut!
1.-THE second and third help,
spelled out, is to assist those OF the
audience who like to read the titles
aloud
'Mrs. Mcpherson herself comments: !:
Today, in my study, writing these
words, in the secure, quiet sanctity
81 f1an aI1,
possible The entire grotesque epi-
sOde-the kidnapping, the dark, blind
moment when I sank into uncon-
sciouSneSs beneath the smothering
blankets on the floor of that auto
mobile the afternoon cf May 18, 1926;
the wild flight of the strange car
which bore me away from the beach
at Ocean Park, adjacent to Los An
geIeS, and some 16 miles to the west
ward-bore me away-into nowhere;
the captivity in that first house; the
hurried move to te crude desert shack
in Old Mexico, just over the border
from Douglas, Arizona, four weeks
later; the escape, the trek through
the torrid heat, the stumbling, crop
ing progress all, all seem impossi.
BILE"
Well, we wouldn't go SO far as TO
say that Improbable, perhaps ex-
cept for the StsssS ement about the tor
rid heat. Heat is indisputably torrid.
The Feminine Touch
Interesting as Mrs. Mcpherson S
apologize is, it is almost too reserved
and discreet. The account of her
childhood is sheer impressionism. "Ca-
madam home. The gabled farm.
house. Rolling meadows. Fertile
acres Orchards in full bloom. I.
A maple forest Sugar time :. .
Frost. Snow !. Ice" And one deep
ly significant word, Chores!'
Then there is fairly clear nara
tive of her first msrriage, to the Rev.
Robert Semple; OF going with him
to China as a missionary, and of his
death thereA
But her second marriage-of course
it's her own affair, and she knows
best This is show she tells it:
Loneliness; oh, the poignant ter
Tifying grip OF it; and Roberta dire
need for q home and better care than
I could give her without one; first
one and then the other would prey
upon me.
'eIt was at this time that I mar
ried again. / took up my households
duties with the understanding that /
should go back to the Lords work it
ever the call came.
"sThat call came a year and hall
1ater-a clarion call My husband
recognized the CALL went with me and
helped me for time, but dec1ied to
go back to his world Of business
That's ali there is; there isn't
, any more on that subject. But there
are 313 pages altogether, mostly in
teresting, even though by indirection
as a psychological study. None OF us
could write that many words without
telling a rood dee.i, consciously anc
unconsciously And that Mrs. Nc
Pherson wrote it herself we do no
doubt for moment, observing thai
feminine touch about the borrowed
shoes in which she staggered acros.
the desert shoes 1Hf too large fol
me-
% -----------
SIX KILLED ON CROSSING