Evening star., 1933-03-19
W SARAH Q. BOWERMKN
Il History Of Bohemianism in America, and
Stephen LeacockiS Nee0 Volume on Mark
7zvain-7He Latest Fiction.

Il CtNI/L /LC
nibal on the Mississippi River; his lack Of
much education, his service printers ap-
prentice, his experience as a newspaper man in
the Wild West, Tom Sawyer" and "Huckle-
DERRY Finn" the lecture platform where he was
an idol; his publishing business, his bankruptcy,
and his heroic struggle to rebuild his fortune.
Mr.. Leacock gives all the facts in pleasant mar
rative style, invigorated by anecdotes of which
there are many in connection with Mark Twain.
One Of the most amusing, yet tragic, is the story
of one occasion when Mark Twain popular
after dinner speaker, failed completely at least
in his own estimation. On December II, 1877,
the staff Of the Atlantic Monthly gave a dinner
to Whittier on his seventieth birthday, at which
Mark Twain was the speaker. Longfellow,
Emerson and Holmes were present, 'the Magi Of
the East, refulgent with their own genius and
consuming their own smoke" Mark Twain
had an attack of stage frght-or genius fright.
In their eyes and in his own he was not In
their class. They were authors" real ones; he
was just a rough, cheap Westerner." He pre-
pared for his speech piece of burlesque, such
as would have delighted guests at Gridiron
dinner, IN which three old "bummers," repre-
{, .iting LOngfellow, Emerson and Holmes ar
wed at mining camp and spouted poetry
which paroded that of the three dignined New
England poets. "The speech went wrong" the
or. like Queen Victoria. were mot amused" and
there was frozen silence" Next day Mark
Twain wrote agonized letters Of apology" and
he could never think Of that dinner without q
recurrence of humiliation. Mr.. Leacock does
not, like old-fashioned biog-aphers leave to a
final chapter an estimate of the man." as a
personality. "The man" appears at every stage
in his career, through Mr. Leacocks comment
, and criticism. One piece of criticism is to
question whether the admitted influence of Mrs.
Clemens upon her husbands work was bene-
ficial to it and the history of American letters
MACHINE AGE IN THE HILLS BY NAL
colin Ross New York: The Macmillan
Company.
THE hills" of this book are those of Kentucky
and West Virginia, where Mr.. Ross has
spent much time in studying the condi-
dons In the coal fields and has interviewed
miners, operators, district attorneys, labor lead
ers and relief workers Though machines have
not done their worst-or best-in the coal
regions their industrial effect is felt there and
unemployed workmen and labor strife are the
result. "A machine age twilight has settled
over the coal hills Of the South" The chapter
Impressions at First Hand" is concrete and
human, not theoretical and economic. It gives
an account of . Holy Roller meeting and Of
visits to many of the mountain people In their
homes. Mrs. Farley, wife of q hog owner
boasted that her husbands hog was the loud
est snoring hog in Mingo County, but that it
had been slaughtered, snore and ALL An old
man OF S3. with patriarchal white head and
beard, said that mining and roads had ruined
the land. They ran this concrete road right
through the middle Of my hollow. and now
must live to see my grandchildren racing up
and down road in automobiles"
A chapter is given to "The Radical Approach"
class warfare, violence in strikes, murder in
the hills "fratricidal mine wars"-and Mr.. Ross
says: "Blinders are useful in mine warfare
IN the same way that hymns Of hate are useful
to prevent troops from fraternizing. The hu-
man family has an incurable liking for each
other once the barriers of strangeness and
prejudice are knocked down. Intimacy is justly
feared by the directors Of partisan conflicts"
The chapter "Quakers Into Action" tells of the
relief work of the Quakers in this mountain
country-their milk distribution to children and
ailng mothers their provision Of thousands of
garments and shoes, and their efforts for funda-
mental rehabilitation. Handicrafts proved most
successful for this purpose, as the mountaineers
have natural aptitude for handwork. The
men were set to cobbling old shoes and to
making chairs of hickory, solid and artistic
the women made quilts according to famous old
patterns. Payment was in food and clothing.
Marriage is snare for the younger genera
uon, one which they recognize but seldom
escape. Girls with slim figures and gay eyes
cannot fail to read their futures in beho2dhg
the slatternly breeders of children who so short
a time before were hunted by the village gal
lants. They know, and lacking an escape,
they put their fair heads into the moose" The
direct style Of this book is in harmony with
the concrete, untechnical materials
HARDY PERENNIAL BY Helen Hull New
York: Coward -McCann
A WOMAN with a brilliant, egotistical hus-
band and four modern, entirely self
centered children who has survived to early
middle age, must be a hardy perennial" As
.Cornelia Prescott says, hardy perennials stand
a lot." It is to be suspected that one reason
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