Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-29
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the BOoklOreP

party, q boresome one, in the de luxe
apartment of old Hector Champion in
Sutton Place, New York City. This is
the opening scene of "Twenty-Four
Hours" by Louis Bromfield. The people
are in addition to old Hector, his
nephew, Philip Dantry; Jim Towner,
wealthy, idle society and club man, and
his wife Fanny; Ruby Wintringham, a
widow of uncertain past, now partner
in a fashionable antique shop; David
Melbourn, one of the worlds biggest
business men, also of uncertain past,
and Savina Jerrold, enormously fat, old
maid of one of New Works best families,
who has in her youth been in love with
old Hector and cannot quite forget 1t.
The story follows the lives of all these
persons for "a hours, a very critical
period for some Of them. Most of them
are busy doing things they should not
have done and get themselves into diff
cultieS they would have avoided If only
they had gone home and to bed after
the dinner party. Old Hector and
Savina, in their respective homes, after
drinking a little hot whisky and BROOD
ing q great deal over their futile lives.
do go to bed. Hector expects to visit
his doctor in the morning and to be
told that he has only q few more
months to live; in this he is disap-
pointed, for the doctor tells him that
there Is nothing the matter with him
but hypochondria. Savina expects to
arise to continue her usual round OF
committee meetings and social trivial
ties; instead, because she is worried
about Hector, she visits the doctor and
Is told that even at this late day she
ought TO marry Hector.
x ~
The other guests at Hector'S dull din
ner party do not go away to such in
nocuouS happenings Melbourn ac-
companies Far. Iy Towner, who has been
his mistress for some time, to a cheap
"arty'' party, then takes her home and
breaks his connection with her in a
rather brutal manner. While Fanny
RACES in her room and tears her clothes
and the bedspread, he seeks Mrs. Win
tringham In her penthouse on top of
a skyscraper and asks her to marry
him, with the purpose of enlarging the
remainder of his lie with a home and a
family Philip Dantry goes to the the
alter to find the tawdry little actress with
whom he is in love, proposes to her and
marries her the next day. We know he
is headed for disappointment, for she is
not the innocent girl he thinks her
and has no intention of trying to live
up to his ideals. Jim Towner's "a
a dance hall to meet his mistress, Rosa
Dugan, popular singer there, is taken
home drunk by her to her apartment,
where later in the night she Is muir
dered by her former husband Sicily
Tony. q gangSter. Jim Is thus placed
in circumstances which are likely to
cause suspicion to fall upon him. Of
course, in the process of relating the
events of the "a hours the history
fNf 0n ri Dc trlI ali
gether "Twenty-Four Hours" seems a
rather cheap story, of not very fine
people, cleverly and somewhat artisti-
cally told.
The old dime novel Of the 60S los
and 80s has long since been replaced
by the popular magazine. The first
dime novel came out in 1850 and after
that was the deluge. In his book Dime
Novels" Edmund Pearson has given the
history of this type of literature
("literature" used in its broadest sense),
with many examples of the type.
earliest dime novels which, instead of
being viciously sensational as many be-
lieve, were "reverently following the
lead Of Cooper and Scott" The first
dime novel was "Malaeska: the Indian
Wife of the White Hunter" by Mrs. Ann
Stephens, and was definitely suggestive
of Cooper. In the preface to this book,
as the first Of series, Beadle & Co.
stated the aim ito reach all classes, old
and young male and female" and not
only to satisfy popular demand for
romance, but also to instil pure and
elevating sentiment in the hearts and
minds of the people" This purpose
sounds almost like one suitable for a
Sunday school library. OF the part
played by the dime novel in the Civil
War, Mr.. Pearson says: THE little
books were sent to the camps in bales,
like firewood. They were shipped on
freight cars, wagons and canal boats.
When bundles of them arrived in camp
or else they would be torn from him.
Among the commodities which the
Union and Confederate pickets ex-
changed between the lines the Beadle
novels were in great demand"
John Haynes Holmes gives "a Gen
tiles survey of Zionism" in his book
Palestine Today and Tomorrow He
visited Palestine something over q year
ago and investigated three influences
which he found to be fundamental in
the tense situation there: The govern
ment of Great Britain as holder of the
mandate under the League Of Nations,
the movement for nationalism on the
part of the Arabs, and ZioniSm. With
regard to the riots of year ago and
the "Wailing Wall" disputes, Mr.. Holmes /
says, IF the Arabs struck at the Jews |
1t was because they regarded them as
the occasion, and thus gladly made |
them the victims, of their resentment
against the English at whom they dare |
not strike" His conclusion is that !
zionism can succeed only through the |
good will Of the Arabs. not by means
of the police power of the British
mandate.
Visitors to any Of the resorts on the |
shores Of Lake Maggiore in North Italy |
are always fascinated by the chain of |
blue Borromean Islands, named for |
famous medieval Italian family, which |
stretch irregularly across the lake. !
Guide books tell something of their ,
romance and history, but only in con-
else spare sentences. The book THE |
Romance of the Borromean Islands,"
Flonzaley Quartet, would be Q salts
Tying companion for q stay on Lake
Maggiore. In addition to the history |
OF the Borromean family, It contains
much about the various literary, artistic
and musical celebrities who have spent |
happy, productive days on the islands. |
Among them were Wagner. Goethe,
Stendhal and Gustave Flaubert, who |
haunted Isola Madre, the largest Of the
islands.
\ 4
Thomas Jefferson appears as pure
American, not as the product OF French
philosophy, in Thomas Jefferson, the
Apostle of Americanism." by Gilbert
Chlnard, professor of French literature
at the Johns Hopkins University. DR..