Evening star., 1933-11-05
% SARAH @. .BOWERMAN
Me7U Books by Mrs. Franklin d. Roosevelt
and alice Roosevelt LongzUorth THAT
Ed7vardiau Era
Ed7vardian Era.

an Ira.
dying. for long time, strong in his resistance
to disease, perhaps as the specialist, Sir Ber-
tram Cobbold hints, because he has been an
invalid all his life and has had such excellent
care He never appears, never speaks, during
the course of the story yet doubts for
a moment that he is there in his bedroom,
and that he is spelling the lives OF all the
family There number Of them-frst OF
all, Mems" the o. MS second wife, who has
nursed him for twenty five years; Thomas
Rushbrooke, jr.; Dick. Edith, and Amy, chill
dren of the first marriage; Daphne, Nicholas,
and Angela, children of the second marriage;
and a number of interesting grandchildren.
tThere a genealogical table, Thomas jr.,
has always loved his stepmother, frcm whom
his father dextrously separated him in the
beginning of their acquaintance. Ede is
hysterical, demented. Nicholas is resentful of
his fathers dominance, wants to get away
from the family and write, but is, unfortunately,
lazy Daphne had always had way with
the o. M" probably because she was not
afraid of him. and had often been selected to
manage him in the interest of SINE family
scheme.
The story of the OLD Mans acute illness.
after long nvalidism, the family gathering to
await his death, his unexpected revival. and
his death some time later, is told most
artistically> by means of con, ersation among
members of the family. We learn almost i'm
mediately that no one wants him to live. that
all more less secretly hoping he will
die and are disappointed when the specialist
offers hope Of his continued survival. Tney
all decently conceal their feelings. except Edie.
who attack of hysteria bitterly expresses
the wish that when the nurse left her TO
administer oxygen In an illness OF her father
1>ofo chA 1,oI fI,o c1iY1-
ply The lives of all the family are followed;
between the supposed last illness and the long
awaited death of the Old Man. BY his
influence the lives all thwarted and
mudded and by his last will and testament
things are made even worse. Miss Sprigge's
method, perhaps the result of her interest IN
the drama Except for the World War. she
would probably have gone on the stage), is a
difficult one. but it is sHllfully and con-
sistently carried out. 1t results also in un-
usually clear and acute character portraits, for
the characters reveal themselves, without any
apparent help from the author.
CROWDED HOURS. "reminiscences of Alice
Roosevelt Longworth. New York: Charles
Scribners SINS.
uI CAN hardly recollect time when I was
not aware of the existence OF politics
and politicians" says Mrs Longworth in begin
ming her book Because Of the fact thus stated
and her own marked abilities it has always
been a subject for Washington discussion why
Mrs. Longworth has never sought what she
would so easily have found-a political career
for herself The reason is Of course, mat
ter of temperament. When one has the tenn
permanent of observer and critic, one does
not plunge into the midst Of action. To watch
the world go by is an absorbing occupation,
especially when it is such a varied and interest
ing world as that which Mrs. Longworth has
known This book, telling what she has seen,
with her acute comments thereon, is bit of
social history which would have been missed
had it never been written.
The crowded hours about which readers
will be most curious are naturally those after
the Roosevelt family came to the White House
and before Princess Alice married.
Many of the stories of her independence and
originality which circulated then about Wash
ingt-n she tells with humorous enjoyment
But her life as wife of Representative, then
Speaker Longworth, was as full of experience
and observation her life daughter of
the President Her comments about the
people in public life whom she has known well
and Immediately and shrewdly estimated
are extremely frank. She says: THE Hardngs
never liked me- and can hardly blame them"
She then explains why, and comments on the
amount of alcoholic refreshments served in the
White House of Harding-under the eighteenth
amendment. The Coolidges she liked and on
one occasion found Vice-President Coolidge q
dryly interested observer Of poker game. We
naturally turn to the good index for Cam"
and find a three-page account Of the Cam
LOngworth feud." In one way says Mrs.
LOngworth Il was completely innocent of any
participation in it; in another I made a little
mischief which had the most unforeseen
results Altogether, Mrs. Longworth's book
furnishes, along with the more serious record
of happenings, the little dish of gossip" which
all women and some men are supposed to
love.
GEORGE LEWES AND GEORGE ELIOT. A
Review of Records BY Anna Theresa
Kitchel. New York: The John Day Co.
THE meeting of George Henry Lewes, bril-