Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-16
THE LIBRARY TABLE

The modern woman who is so worn
out by the household cares Of an apart
ment and the parental cares connected
with one or two children that she re-
quireS some weeks of vacation away
from her family every year, with per-
hapS a soiourn in q Sanitarium every
second year, should read the life story
OF Grandmother Brown" as 1t Is told
by her youngest daughter-m-law, HaE-
riet Connor Brown (Mrs. Herbert p.
Brown, in the Atlantic Monthly prize
biography. Grandmother Browns Hun
dred Years: 1827-1927." With her un-
usual intelligence and capability, il she
had been a man, Grandmother Brown
would have made her mark in pubic
life. As she was woman OF the pioneer
period, and woman who accepted DOM
vigorously and philosophically all the
duties assigned to women OF her time,
she would have remained unknown out
side her own devoted family. had net
her daughter -in-law had the insight tic
realize that dearly as they loved her.
greatly as they honored her, 1t had hard
ly occurred to her twoScore descendants
that she represented, in her person,
something bigger than her own family.
a conNolete tradition of many families.
which had significance for the whoie
Nation / was filled with q desire TO
take from her own lips her impressions
of the stirring age OF which she had
been a part"
Into Grandmother Browns 10l years
and months were packed more eK-
perienceS and more hard work than
All 4. half dozen average lives. On Esr
ninety-ninth birthday she admitted TO
her oueStioner that one of her worst
faults had always been overworking
I'D like to have cord stretched 10
hold all the clothes I've made; I think
'twould stretch from the prison to the
mill. I did fairly good housekeep-
ing, too. I'm sure I've baked enough
biscuits to make the Great Pyramid" The
cooking of food for family, farm helpers
and numerous guests: the washing and
ironing of clothes and cleaning OF a
house; the cutting and making Of gar
ments; the bearing and bringing up of
eight children--theSe were ordinary
tasks. Grandmother Brown also made
candles, ran a dairy, helped prepare
the lard, hams and Sausages when hogs
were killed, took care of the chickens,
and when everything else was disposed
Of, we women always had knitting to
do" In nursing her children through
many illnesses, Grandmother Brown
available usually lessened the chances
of recovery. So she added the practice
OF medicine and even surgery in her
own family to her other duties. Lying
In bed in the sitting room with new
born child, she directed an old woman
of the neighboWhood in the care of
three Of her children who had scarlet
fever. She gave her patients no
medicine, but fed them on fruit juices
and beaten eggs and kept them cool
was a practitioner Of the warm bath
for all ailments. Relating her ex-
periences, she said, I've done q little
surgery myself in modest way" and
then told of putting the badly burned
hand of her youngest son on thin
board splint, to prevent the fingers
from being drawn up, and again of
putting in place and binding the
severed ends Of three fingers which the
same son had cut of when cutting
sheaf oats for q pony. Dentistry was
another of Grandmother Browns &C
complishments, and fortunately so, for
horses were not always to be spared for
trips to town even when toothacheS
were exeruCiating.
W Y # =
In her last years, after q fractured
hip had made her q cripple and she
could no longer move freely about
household tasks, Grandmother Brown
spent much Of her time in piecing beau
tiful quilts, in making fine dresses for
grandchildren and great-grandchildr
and in embroidertng countless lunch
cloths, tablecovers and garments for
the various members of her family. In
1928 she sent an embroidered dresser
scarf TO President and Mrs. Coolidge.
AEly x4ghu hn M fh0110hf
it, she replied: why, friend told me
that she had read OF woman who had
knitted o wash rag for President Will
son. She was 30 years old and her
friends thought 1t remarkable that she
could knit wash rag! thought that
IL a woman of 80 could knit a wash rag
for Democratic President 1t behooved
one of 96 to make something more than
a wash rag for Republican President
ter's children were born In Vermont"
~% X x
The history and significance Of voodoo
especially as believed In and practiced
in Haiti, are given much attention IN
1.-THE Magic Island" by w. B. Seabrook
Mr.. Seabrook succeeded in being ad-
mitted into the confidence of some OF
the natives and so learned much about
the secret rites Of voodooiSm. Maman
Celie, the high priesteSs of the mys-
terieS," took him into the inner shrine.
Between Maman Celie and me there
was a bond which cannot analyze or
hope to make others understand, be-
cause in my innermost self its roots
went deep beyond analysis or conscious
reasoning. We had both felt it almost
from our first contact. 1t was as ii
we had known each other always, had
been at some past time united by the
mystical equivalent of an umbilioal
cord, as If had sucked in infancy
at her dark breasts, had wandered far
and was now returning home" Woo
dooism is religion, or superstition, Of
great antiquity. and is composed of a
Africa and some distorted conceptions
OF Christianity. The cross and the
serpent are both worShiped on vood0o
affairs. Mr.. Seabrook found himself
sharing the native psychology to GER
tain extent as he witnessed Voodeo
ceremonies. II did not experience the
revulsion which literary tradition pre-
Scrihes. It was SavSSS and abandoned,
but 1t seemed tn me magnificent and
not devoid of certain beauty
X y x
The Protestant revolution, or the
Lutheran Reformation. is treated from
the Cathot4c point o. view, with both
vigpr and delicacy OF style, in Hilaire
Belloc's How the Reformation Hap
pened," The Reformation appears as
an accident the result Of Anne Boleyn's
insistence on being the Queen and not
the mistress OF Henry VIII. This view
is supported by Hackett's recent hi
ography of Henry VIII. In order to
make Anne Queen of England, Catherine
of Aragon had to be divorced, and, as
the Pope refused annulment, Henry
formed his own divorce court of SUBJ
servient officials. broke with Rome, and
declared himself the head of the Eng
lish Church. To those not accepting