Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-10

have changed hardly at all from Adam down.
Two men in each case love the same woman.
And the woman chooses wrong in each case.
The woman appears to have positive genius
for poor picking in this conjunction the world
over. However, that is something else. These
are good love stories, botn of them That the
poorer choice was made gives the author-any
understanding to do with situation and
character, with adjustments and compensa-
tions. Nothing else would be quite so sapless,
save to the two concerned as perfectly
TRANQUIL, complete love episode. And IN this
story there is plenty to try the stamina OF
all concerned Here are strong characters
and weak ones, too. A most lovable mana
ne'er- do-wel, by the way-gives to the whole
matter its chief charm. An unsuccessful
actor but a triumphant philosopher, is this
the best of all the people in the story.
little town out West provides a real back
ground for the action in the between whites
when the theater of some distant town Is
not engaging the larger part OF this group.
The story would have benefited, it is likely,
if this particular profession had not inter-
vened To be sure, Mr.. Wright wanted to project
his theory, or gospel, that our earthly exit Is
no more definitive than moving into the wings
of the stage-but he went too far afield, I'm
thinking, to make the demonstration, which,
upon the whole, is an obvious one Yet TO
this popular writer any one Is glad to pay
tribute for his simple certainty that to be
good is to be happy in the long run, and 1t Is
To be good Is to be happy, in the short rum
too and this, the most Of the time, Is what
Harold Bell Wright is trying to say. know
he is accredited with having his eyes too ex-
cIusfvely on heaven, but this is an over
hasty judgment. In effect, he means just
what the rest of US mean, but cannot express,
pictureSquely and fervently, this writer
does. To be decent and honest and clean is
about the sum of his gospel That Is the sum
Of our conviction, too. The SophiSticate tries
to muddle this issue with deep-sounding OBJ
securities. That is his business. That Is why
he has this name, "sophisticate," clouding
issues with unsound opinions. Decency is its
own reward right along every day, IS about
the sum and substance of this popular nov
elist,s preachment. good sermon it is too,
and dependable And the reading folks
like it, all over the country.
SINGERMANN. BY Myron BRING, author Of
Madonna Without Child" New York:
Farrar & Rinehart.
TN word, this is q story of an American
immigrant family in its first generation.
A Jewish family But this is not a story
about Jews, since the author believes-rightly,
no doubt-that this race is like any other in
its basic responses to outer influence Rather
does Mr.. BRING record the reactions OF the
Singermann tribe to the new environment,
these appear without reference to any possible
racial interpretations. From New York the
Singermann family moves out into the West,
first to Minneapolis and then on to the mining
town Of Butte, Mont. Five boys and girl
to Moses and Rebecca Singermann. The back
ground for the Americanization of this Ru-
manian racial root was the vivid mining town
of the Forthwest-m miners, roughnecks, loose
women, fighting men, hard work and hard
play. All OF it rough. Innumerable scenes
substantiating the hard life, hundreds of cpl
sodes accenting its robust and lusty temper,
come together here in a plain conscience of
precise accounting that is, to the reader, like
being hand himself, like taking part in
of the big TODD. Playing loose hand
exaggeration, in other words-is the inherent
invitation of such a life as this But Myron
BRING is another sort He pays no heed to
such seduction. Instead. he sits bit closer,
gives a edge to his pencil and sets the
matter down, this and that, exactly as
it looks to him. I deeply interested near
the beginning of the book when he telling
about his boyhood in Minneapolis. I could
follow him there and did. This exactness
of report impressed me. And so I tagged
along with the Singermanns enjoying the
story immensely but not forgetting wherever
was able TO check up this fellow to see how
important to him the true quality of this
Western setting for the making of Americans
out of a foreign stock. Interest and conf
dence grew together. And it seems to me
that Myron BRING, along with three or four
valuably to the authentic story of settling
America. Not that that his intent prob
ably. He set out to tell a story of experience
and observation. He has done it superbly A
substantial, dramatic, completely competent
novel of America in its making.
ALL IN THE RACKET. BY William E. Weeks.
Introduction by Arthur Garfield Hays. New
York: Charles Boni paper Books)
MOT long story, but long enough to lift the
lid of great city for view of some of its
inside works. Long enough to show the COM
plicated machinery of vice, to lay bare its
ramihcations in every direction, its curious in
terlockings with official authority and profess