Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-03
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the BooklOUeF

most OF the others; II one reaQS rev,
THE Shiny Night" should be among
suggests the work of Thomas Hardy in
general. and. more specifically, that
piece Of artistic perfection by Mary
Webb, Precious Bane" THE Shiny
Night Is many things that are desir-
able in a novel. 1t is story Of simple
life. close to the soil, in rural England
as it was In the days Of Queen Victoria;
1t Is a story OF dramatic happenings,
even in farm life; 1t Is the record OF
devoted love which lasted over SO years;
1t gives a picture Of the superstitionS
which earlier and even new have in
fiuenced the minds of simple people,
1t is written in q lyric style, with just
enough Of rural dialect to give us the
illusion Of living with those whose life
stories we follow.
4
The axis OF THE Shiny Night" Is
Seth Shone. His powerful, unrelenting
his little community. AS a very young
man fate marks him for tragedy and
he loses eight years Of his life in exile.
He returns to his native village of Clock
Abbott In Mercia, with hair completely
white, but otherwise handsome, strong
man. In his heart is vengeance. which
Is to die only with him. In accord with
local superstitions, he makes stone
images Of his enemies and places them
around the cornice Of the hut which he
builds himself on the edge of Thatcher's
Butland. There. for many years, keep
each other company rough Licensees OF
Squire MARBLE his chief keeper; Poler
and Thomas Palfreyman, Seths cousin,
who has cheated him out of his right
fui inheritance. This inheritance. the
ancient farm Of Beggsrs Oek, which
he should have had from his uncle,
Josh Shone, Is the great and growing
desire OF Seth's life. On his return
from exile, when he finds that he has
lost 1t, he determines that before he
dies IL shall be his to live in and to
pass on TO his children and their chill
dren. The hut which he builds on the
edge Of the forest Is transformed at his
marriage, through the generosity OF his
father law, into a small but dignif1ed
dwelling. which comes to be called the
Image House" Here Seth and his
on the same day as Queen Victoria, live
for many years, with their twin chill
dren, a son and a daughter. But the
DAY comes when Seth proudly takes
Elizabeth over to Beggar's Oak and
tells her that it Is theirs, and when We
read the description Of the place We do
not wonder that Seth makes its owner
ship his goal. Long and low, its black
and white wildly reflected in the lake
that lay before it. its mullioned win
dows sparkling with mocking glee; with
pigeons calling from its gabled roof end
the hills rising dusky behind 1t, it lay
among its arabic and pasture"
NJ y II
One by one Seth Shone's enemies
fall The villagers Of Clock Abbott and
all the surrounding farmers firmly be-
lieve that Seth Shones curse and his
images are responsible for the fateS
which overtake those who have injured
him Twice the disasters of his enc
mics almost wreck Seth Shone himself,
and Elizabeth has periods OF depres-
sion when she fears that in the end
Seth and she and their children VIII
all be involved in the curse. because
Seth has taken upon himself the
vengeance which belongs only to God.
VENGEANCE is mine will repay, saith
the Lord" On the very day when
Seth becomes the owner Of Beggar's
Oak, through the foreclosure OF the
mortgages which he has beer accumu-
lating through man. years. fate over
takes his cousin. Thomas Palfreyman,
and Elizabeth's joy in her first visit
to the place is lessened by her feeling
of the presence of a tragic ghost In
every nook and Granny OF the place"
In the working out Of Seth Shone's
curse and in all the many superstitions
shared by the ShoneS and their neigh
bors, the PoyntonS, the Threadgolds,
the Speedyloves, the farm servants and
even the gentry, a continuous, more or
less hidden, part is played by Naomi
Oldmeadow, former faithlesS sweet
heart of Seth, who is ''witch-wemp."
She lives. with her one remaining child.
a daughter. Michal. in the Chamber
in the Forest" the remnant OF Saxon
castle. Elizabeth visits Naomi i'll the
forest, relying on a promise OF help
made to her by the witch many years
before, In order to hear news OF her lost
son, Richard. She finds Naomi bend
ing over a cauldron in the dim hut. AT
AZ she was T. toothleSs crone. with nut
cracker Jaws and a complexion that
made Elizabeth think Of the skin OF
q toad AS with long watching over
pots, her shoulders were bowed. She
still wore a stained, faded red cloak.
But the Welsh hat was missing. About
her head q scarlet handkerchief was
knotted jauntily." With her magic, or
her primitive wisdom, she first soothes
the agitated Elizabeth and then sets
her heart at rest by telling her Of the
safety of her son. "Haglike, hideous,
Naomi yet had power to loose and TO
bind the hearts Of men. For. witch or
no witch, she was a human magnet
and would be until death douted for
ever the eyes that still burned like
Jewels in the ruin of her face" The
record CT the lives of the Shones, he
Poyntons and the Threadgolds runs
through three quarters of century
and ends not long after Seth and
Elizabeth have celebrated their golden
wedding anniversary. Not until the
very end does Seth consent to leave
vengeance to God and, but for his gen.
tie wife, he would perhaps have died
with vengeance in his heart.
"sixty Centuries of Health and
Physick," by s. q. Blanland Stubbs
and Z. w. Bligh, naturally does not
deal entirely with scientific medicine.
During the greater part OF the 60 cen
turtles health was almost entirely acct
dental and medicine was chiefly magic.
Anthropological discoveries show that
q Java man, whose date was probably
something like $50 900 years ago, had
thigh-bone tumor. Nothing, evi-
IDENTIFY, was done about It. but the fact
demonstrates that disease Is no new
thing, not a product Of the Machine
Age" Among the cavemen were doc
tors who practiced rough surgery, Tor
skulls have been found upon which the
operation of trepanning had been per
formed. The earliest doctor of his
torical record was Imhotep, Egyptian,
who lived about 5000 years ago.
Aesculapius, Hippocrates and Galen are
names familiar in classical medicine.
Galen was advanced in diagnosis, for
he knew how to read q pulse. A Greek
vase of 500 B. C. shows Greek patients
consulting o physician. They nave
bandaged arms and legs and one is
deformed.
In "Ships Of Youth" Maud Diver
continues the love story of Eve Chal-
loner and Capt. Lance Desmond. begun
in "A wild Bird" The background Is
again India-India of the British, not