The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-10-20
BY WALTER ID. HICKMAN


suit.
BY WALTER ID. HICKMAN
THE second you pick up a copy
Il of Alice Tisdale Hobart's oil
for the Lamps of China" you i'm
mediately will think of The Good
Earth"
Although China is the background
of both novels and written by women
who have lived many years in China,
yet there is a difference because
Earth" presents Chinese has the
leading characters and OIL has an
American and his wife coupled with
the progress of giant American oil
company in China and Manchuria
as the chief characters.
Both novels, l believe, accurately
portrays the dramatic changes
which have taken place since royal
ty of Old China gave way to new
forms in government and customs.
oil for the Lamps of China Is
red bloOded reading because it is
filled with adventure that any able
American, representing powerful
corporation, could have experienced
in China in the last sixteen years.
Here is colorful theater of read
ing. It is seldom that l read book
going to and coming from work on
a bus, but 1 found that 1 could not
let oil stay too far away from me.
This novel strikes me as being a
sort of a Covered Wagon story
of a white mans excursion into the
merchant life of old and modern
China. Stephen Chase is the agent
or Just a clog in the all powerful
corporation which in the end saps
the energies and personalities Of
their key men in foreign fields.
The author in her introduction to
the story states None of the char
acters in this book is a portrait from
life. All are the creatures of the
Imagination. Neither is any insti-
tuition described an actual one. The
oil business was chosen because light
is symbolic of progress. Likewise,
the events related are not history.
The whole is a composite of my eX-
periences. observations and reflec-
lions during a life spent in China
and elsewhere"
And so for personal protection,
when I mention an oil company
in this review I am not referring
to any oil company in existence.
THIS novel has at least four pow
Il erful human characterS-twO
Americans, stephen and his wife,
Hester Wentworth, whom he mar
ried on q rebound, after being turned
down by another girl on the eve
of his marriage; Kin, Chinese
servant to Stephen, and HO, once
the most powerful merchant in a
certain Chinese province.
Here is powerful character
drawing of men and women OF
different worlds. They are not Just
etched or Just indicated. but every
character is a full-length portrait.
All live. grow. suffer. fight and love
right before your very eyes.
The author eXcelS IN her human
portrayal of the growth of Stephen
and Hester as man and wife. There
is nothing cheap here, but sort Of
a frontier attitude of settlers or
invaders in a new country yet unde-
veloped
1 chilled about the heart when
Hester had her first baby in dis
tant place in Manchuria. The oil
tanks were in danger and Stephen
was not by her side when the Strug-
gle for life started The child was
born dead.
Do you ever cry or become moist
around the eyes when you read
a book? The world doesn't have
to know it. but 1 am telling you
that I cried silently to myself as
Stephen carried in his arms the
body of his dead son and exam
ined the beauty of his son, held the
diminutive feet in his hand
Then the struggle between Ste
phen and Hester to recover that
barrier of defeat in their program
of life and love. Here is tremendous
writing.
And in a second. the author has
you mixed up again in the death
like struggle of the oil corporation
TO boost its sale of oil and the lamps
which were destined to light China,
but in what a different way than
was expected or even dreamed.
q
The customs of Old China have
been faithfully created as a back
ground for the first part and half
of the novel. Here is dramatic
writing Of the best order. Here is
theater of reading which is filed
with color, woe, sorrow, super
sitition and yet tremendous power
of a race 10 recover after every
catastrophe.
The best compliment that I can
pay this book is that as long as l
live I will always remember
Stephen, Hester, Kin and the great
Ho, who gave his life to save
Stephen when the old order was
swept aside by the revolution of the
new order.
AS State Fair" was my favorite
of last year. "Oil for the Lamps of
China" is the favorite for the cur
rent year.
oil" is published by the Bobbs-