Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-30

years after her death. "The Story Of An
African Farm" however, was to go on
to triumph around the world wherever
readers valued picturesque character
study, written with true grace and in
herent style, valued above all by those
readers who appreciated honesty which
yet held firm to the sane decencies of
life. This is where a book such as
THE Story Of An African Farm" breaks
sharply with many of the indecencies
in book form which have been published
during the past 10 years. The writer's
common sense was able to keep clear
and clean the essential elements of a
tale which In other hands would have
degenerated into crudeness or mere
bathos.
Several well known novels have been
labeled, at various times, 1.-The saddest
story in the world" but Olive Schrein-
er's epic of the Beers must be awarded
that 1t ends in death and defeat, as
life often does, but rather that it en-
compasses these things with a beauty
OF prose style almost biblical in char
acter. Say what one will, there is q
divine something in style which no
amount Of narrative skill can. render
useless. Granted all the other ele-
ments Of q successful novel, 1t Is style
which rounds 1t out and makes 1t great.
And this style Is not one but many,
Towering once as Shakespeare, again
as Dresser, again as little Olive
Schreiner.
Consider those sentences, previously
quoted, setting forth the method of the
novelist who would attempt to follow
the everyday life of human beings. We
w In In ei~
by so doing the beauty of the writing
is more easily apprehended:
Here nothing can be propheSied.
There Is strange coming and going
Of feet.
Men appear, act and react upon
each other, and pass away.
when the crisis comes, the man
who would At It does not return,
When the curtain falls, no one is
ready.
When the footlights are brightest,
they are blown out; and what the
name Of the play Is, no one knows.
II there sits q spectator who knows,
ne sits 50 high that the players In the
gaSlight cannot hear his breathing"
And these sad thoughts are summed
up in the book, where appear two Of
the most mournfl1 lines ever penned
by man:
"And It was all play, and no one
could tell what 1t had lived and worked
for. A striving, and a striving, and
an ending in nothing"
No matter what ones personal be-
liefs may be, the reader Of THE Story
Of An African Farm" cannot help SYM
pathizing with the struggles of the
spirit which go on therein.
Lord, help thou mine unbelief."
The majestic struggles Of q good woman
are here set forth with stirring validity.
We would not give 10 pages Of this
book for the whole bulk Of HeminE-
ways "A Farewell to Arms" because
the African saga has something In it
which the italian fresco has not-a
gentle, human sympathy, kept alive
and vital with the saving grace Of
humor.
Let the clever ones of earth turn
out their valid pictures" of real life
SO well done that no one can brand
them as false. Let the publishers
issue q new one of these every day.
until no man could read the tenth
OF them in two nfetimeS even. When
the presses and the stores and the home
tables are crowded with them, In the
high and holy name of Literature, now
somewhat In disrepute. some of us will
go back as gracefully as we may to
the good old books, among which "The
Story Of An African Farm" holds an
honored place.