Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-05-28
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY SARAH G, BOWERMAN.

SCOTS hospitable and drinking
old Highlander In 1.-THE Pirate" Mag
nus Troll Of Burgh Westra. Zetland, is
surely the ancestor Of Hector Macrae,
tough, white bearded fisherman and
conveyancer Of Illicit whisky, in l.. A.
G. Strong's novel Brothers" Hector
Is the father Of Peter and Fergus,
young blond bearded giants when the
story begins. old and white-bearded
when It ends. Like 1.-THE Pirate"
Brothers" Is a romance, but the subtle
Characterization Of the two brothers is
tale Of intrigue. Old Hector had un-
derstood his two sons fairly well, but
has probably never visioned the full de-
velopment Of Peters cowardly, treach-
erouS character nor the fateful results
Of his own dying exhortation to Fergus
to support his brother in all things as
the head Of the family Of the Macraes.
When Peter was IS, after leaving school
with the record of being the cleverest
pupil the schoolmaster had ever had in
the bleak little school house, he helped
his father with new methods Of distill-
ing and kept the accounts Of the trade
Fergus, at IL, was q failure at school,
but he was very strong and could row
tirelessly even though the oar was
much too big for him. When Hector
Macrae pursued his secret business at
night 1t was Fergus who held the boat
out safe distance from the shore,
while his father hid his kegs in the
weeds or among the rocks, where they
could be found by the expectant Gus
toners the next day. Proud Of his
strength, Fergus once expressed Ecorn
of his weakling brother to his. father
and old Hector sharply told him that
the scholar Peter was worth far more
to him than 10 strong fellows. But
when Peter, under the pretense Of con-
Germ for the family honor, revealed to
his father that Fergus was drinking
nights with Capt. Aeneas and was on
the way to ruin" Hector burst forth
furiously: "A dram too many will not
ruin Fergus. 1t might ruin you. Fergus
is strong"
If the story Of the Highland Macraes
recalls Scott. its many dramatic eli
makes suggest the method of Victor
Hugo. The struggle Of Fergus with the
big conger eel Immediately recalls the
struggle Of Hugos Gilliatt with the &C.
topus in THE Toilers of the Sea-" Fer
gus, in search of a lobster. thrust his
hand into q deep recess in the rocks
and touched something else, something
cold and rubbery." and found his mid
die finger caught in paxalydng grip.
Gilliatt entered cave in pursuit Of
crab and in its dark crevices encoun-
tered the octopus, which almost stran-
gled him to death. The narrative OF
Brothers" progresses from one dram
attic situation to another. The admin
istration of Highland justice to an in
former who had given secret informa-
ton to the excisemen took the form OF
the most complex cruelty. 1t was the
clever Peter who suggested the means
by which the whisky-runnerS could rid
themselves of the traitor without having
his blood on any mans head. Only a
man of brains, complimented the neigh
bors. could have thought OF setting the
doomed man afloat in the sea lcch, with
corks arranged to keep him upright. and
a fresh, silvery herring fastened on
his head. so that his death was dealt
him by a swoopin1 iron-beaked solan
goose. The rowing contest between the
Macraes and the NGFarishes, under
taken to prove whisA was the better
family. after the threshing of Willie
McFarish by Fergus because of his Sc
duction Of Mary. the orphan ward OF
the Macraes, furnishes one Of the most
stirring scenes of the story. The Mac
raes won but the contest was the cause
Of the death Of old Hector. His fu-
neral is the subject of chapter Of fine
description. The punishment of Mary
for harlotry, with her removal as a
cause of temptation to the brothers,
was Peters idea. 1t could never have
been Fergus. Fergus had disciplined
himself and had won mastery over self
and circumstance. When the day came
for the accomplishment of Peters plan,
the crafty originator was Ill with an
indefinable illness which the doctor
could not find. So Fergus. the stupid,
the simple. the unsuspectng, following
literally his fathers command to look
to Peter for direction. became the GRIM
inal. and Peter repudiated him.
Poetic justice IS meted out at the end
Of Brothers," as it always is IN ro-
nance, and sometimes is in life. Peter
would not have come to his violent
death ii. he had not insisted that when
ever the brothers went about together
on their work Fergus should walk at a
good distance behind him. There was
no reason obvious to those of the local
moralists who knew his story why
Peters visit to the village should have
been his last. They could see no rele-
vance in his end. He was cut of in
no spectacular sin. and by an instru-
ment which had nothing at all to do
with the circumstances of his life Why
on that day of all others his life should
end, when II might so well have ended
earlier, was a problem beyond their
powers. On one particular. however,
they fastened greedily Peter for sheer
envy would not let Fergus walk close
behind him; and, but for the space be-
tween them, his life might have been
saved. OF this they made the most.
man, had long since given up trying to
understand the occurrences of the
physical world, sought no appropriate
ness in Peters end. God moved in a
mysterious way"
The author of Russia: My Home, "
Emma Cochran Ponafidine, is the
daughter of an, American missionary
who went to Persia. In 1885 she mar
ried Russian nobleman. P. E. Ponafi-
dine, who acted as Russia's consul gen.
eral at Bagdad, Tabriz and Constanti-
nople. Nine Ponafidine lived during
her husbands diplomatic service at
many places in the Near East and for
other periods in st. Petersburg and on
the Ponafidine estate at Bortniki, In
Russian language and, through admin
isteripg her husbands estate, learned
also the Russian peasant. Her happiest
experiences were with the old Russia
before the revolution, when the life of
the nobility on the country estates was
an affair Of luxury and gracious hospi-
tality, when there was no "flve-year-
plan" no dictatorship Of the proletariat.
She shows that in those days of aristo-
cratic autocratic rule the peasants made
definite cultural progress. The latter
part of the book tells Of the revolution,
which resulted in the confiscation of
the Ponafldine estate, since turned into
a state farm. Nine. Ponaf1dine, con-
tinuing to live in bungalow on the
estate, saw what had been q prosperous
farm under her management brought to
ruin by the ignorance and lack of eff
flcient organization among the Soviet
managers. Her evidence as to the up
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