Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-13
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the Booklover

and Victor" by John Rathbone Oliver.
Rumor and a comparison of the book
with the biography of the author In
who's Who In America" seem to indi-
cate that the story is partly autobio-
graphical. John Rathbone Oliver Is q
psychiatrist, criminologist and professor
of medicine. He was born In Albany,
N. r, in 1872, and was graduated from
Harvard in 1894. An extract from his
biography reads: Grad. Gen. Theol.
Sem, 1900: NJ d. U. Of Innsbruck,
Austria, 1910; Ph. D., Johns Hopkins.
1927: unmarried; master at st. Paul's
Sch, Concord, N. H., 1894-97; priest,
p. E. CHI, 1900; curate st. Marks CHI,
Phila, Pa, 10000 (resigned: restored
to orders. 1920; surgeon Austrian
army, 19i4-15: psychiatrist, Johns Hop
kins Hospital, 19l5-17: chief med. ON
Ger to Supreme Bench Of Baltimore.
since 1917; prof. history Of medicine,
U. Of Md, since 1927; pvt. practice as
psychiatrist and criminologist; Episco-
palian tmem. clerical stan Mount Cal
vary CHI"
"Victim and Victor is the story of
two men. Are they merely the dual
personality of the author? One, an
elderly curator of an anatomical and
pathological museum, tells the story Of
the life of his friend, deposed Angli-
can priest and mingled with 1t much Of
his own story. The curator, DR.. Claude
Monroe, who is also a psychiatrist, and
for the restoration or salvation of GER
tain mentally unbalanced persons who
come under their care. Michael Mann
himself is at one time, after his bitter
est experiences, patient in psy-
chiatric clinic. There DR.. Monroe re-
discovers him and brings him back to
adjustment with his unhappy life. Then
begins the cooperation between the two
men which lasts for some years and
brings help to so many unfortunates.
Extracts from the doctors case book
give the stories of some Of these people.
There is the distraught boy of 10 who
escapes from the psychiatric clinic and
goes to his mothers country place to
find his grandfather's revolver in the
drawer Of the old shaving table, but
hears Michael Mann, who has followed
him. singing He Has Sounded Forth
the Trumpet That Shall Never Call Re-
treat" did you hear him?" the boy
sobs. "He sang 1t, too. That-that
song I told you about-the song my
grandfather used to sing for me when
I was kid. 1t meant a lot to me
then" There is the case of John James
Smith, who, with the nature of a b.
hemian poet, has been compelled to be
a minor bank clerk The wife was
like the bank; both lived by exact, I'M
deviating routine, without Imagination,
without emotion, without change. +.
Twenty years of the bank with two
weeks holiday each year, 20 years of
his wife and IL of his daughter with
out any holiday at all, were. finally. too
much for Smith" Each case treated by
the physician-priest partnership at the
refuge" is different from every other
case and Is cared for individually.
\ y
During all his mission to others,
Michael Mann Is mourning over the Joss
OF his priesthood and longing to be
restored. What / want" he pleads
with the bishop. lis the authority tc, ex-
ercise my priesthood. I want to-to say
casionally. want to feel that the
ecclesiastical restrictions that are in
force against me are removed. I want
to be free as a priest to--to offer the
holy sacrifice for the quick and the
dead. To 60 once more unto the altar
OF God, the God Of my JOY and glad
ness. Don't you understand
what 1t must mean to be a
man who has somehow thrown away
the one thing that he loved most in the
world and who cant-can't get it back?
1t isn't as though he'd lost 1t. He still
has 1t, in sense; but the power to use
1t Is denied him. And to make use of
just that one thing in just one way is
the only one thing that his heart longs
Tor. Once q priest, always a priest"
The offense for which Michael Mann
was unfrocked is never told. Several
times the author seems on the point of
telling it, but draws back from the reve-
lation, and satirically plays with the
curiosity of the reader.
\ X u
The ennlity between the Empress
Frederick, mother of the ex-Kaiser. and
Bismarck was one of the important DO
litical factors in German history during
the later years Of the reign of Emperor
William and the earlier years of the
reign Of Emperor william II. This en-
nifty and many other interesting cross
currents Of feeling appear In the Let
tiers of the Empress Frederick" edited
by Sir Frederick Ponsonby. The mar
rage of Victoria, eldest child of Queen
Victoria, to Frederick, heir to the throne
OF Prussia, was love match and con-
tinued happy to the end, according to
the evidence of these letters. Bismarck
opposed the marriage from the first. He
hated English influence. AS the years
passed another cause of hostility de-
veloped. The Crown Prince Frederick
and his wife were Liberals and as such
were feared by the Junkers. The illness
and death of Frederick, Emperor for
such a brief period, increased the Bit
terness Of the Empress toward Bis
marck and his Junkers, for they wished
from the start to have the disease pro-
nounced tncurable, so that the Crown
Prince might never ascend the throne.
The Crown Princess, later Empress, did
her best to conceal the gravity of the
Illness. II Frederick had lived to reign,
Germany might have been saved from
the domination of the military class.
which brought about the downfall of
the Empire.
\ X y X
"The Art of Thinking" by Ernest
Dimnet. gives some instructions about
the employment of leisure time in cul-
tural thought. Unitarian thinking for
the purpose of earning living has no
place in the Able Dimnet's book. He
believes that the trained mind may
function on several levels at the same
time and that there are many obstacles
to thought, such as fantastic images,
negative suggestions and inferiority
completes The book is suggestive, If
not altogether original.
\ X \
In his latest satirical allegory, "Mr.
Blettsworthy on Rampole Island" H. G.
Wells takes hero disillusioned with
the world to an island in the South
Atlantic, off the Patagonian coast.
where he has him live happily among
cannibals, who look upon him as holy
mailman. Then, like old-fashioned
stories for children. the whole thing
turns out to be dream. Mr.. Bletts-
worthy has not been on an island at all,
but has merely been suffering from de-
lirium, in which he has had a view OF
our tODSV-ttirVy world as it might ap-