Evening star., 1932-10-23

Wnere tney leIC OH.
But Lou Henry is something more than
a mere listener She knows how to
absorb knowledge and information and
wise gossip about the world and big al
fairs, and she also knows how to put it
forth No one who knows her would call
her exactly talkative And yet when the
occasion warrants she can talk as long
and as entertainingly as any other wom-
an I have ever known. She has always
enjoyed driving car; and when she
takes her own car down to the Rapidan
she sometimes talks steadily for the
whole three hours. That happens,
usually, when the guest beside her is a
stranger and little shy. At any mo-
ment some coincidence of ideas is likely
to start her off on narrative about an
adventure in Vladivostok or Melbourne,
a little humorous incident on Mandalay
or Toxic.
remember her saying once, as she re-
called a conversation with a Chinese
servant, that was when was first mar
ried and having fun talking to every
body" Her impulse to share her friendly
vivacious mind with everybody is natural
and native.
DERHAPS that is due to the fact that
she was born in Iowa, received her
first impressions there. Iowa does some
thing to people It gives them a friend
illness, simplicity, a trust in humanity
that no amount of experience in the
grand world can ever eradicate. 1t
makes them meet others on the basis of
what they both are-nOt what they have
or know or believe. It is, after all, true
American inheritance. Lou Henry was
taught in Iowa to be a good neighbor;
and Lou Hoover keeps that quality. She
can't be exactly neighborly in the old
sense there in the White House. But
by visits and letters she keeps her old
friends, and especially those of Stanford
University, about which most Of her SEN
timental life centers.
In that region of the Blue Ridge Noun
"neighbor" means something, as it did
in the Iowa of Mrs. Hoover's girlhood.
It is one of the highest compliments she
has ever received that the Blue Ridge
women consider her not as the First Lady
of the Land, but just as neighbOr. They
say that when she is riding over the
mountain trails she often turns toward
some mountain house, dismounts, throws
the reins over peg and calls"
I suspect that somewhere in Mrs Hoo
yer there lies submerged a fine novelist.
Even as little girl she must have had
discriminating eyes to see and retain
what she experienced in life. There are
simple pictures, such as the beautiful
plaid dress she had one Autumn, and
its sad fate. The day she first put it
on she was initiating her father-stand-
ing by the stove with her hands behind
her back and her feet apart. She stood
too near and burned a hole in the new
dress. Her mother soothed her heart
break and mended it very cleverly.
Then there's the little slat- -fronted
gingham sunbonnet which she was al
lowed to make on the family sewing ma
chine; and what it was like to be lost in a
cornfield when you were almost too small
to think your way out. Not only that,
but she remembers the childish impress
sions which are evanescent in most of
our memories, but which weave the fbers
of character. Her elders, of course, never
knew how much she was taking in-'I
didn't like that. I'll never do that when
I'm big" or I'm going to be just like
that myself" She is still trying to live
up to some of her elders
She can remember all those elders and
all her contemporaries. One day when
was visiting her she had for luncheon a
school friend whom she hadn't seen since
she was graduated from the eighth grade.
They began talking about their school,