Evening star., 1933-12-03
W SARAH Q. BOWERMAN
The Mar Years i'm journalistic Modern
Hlstmy-OHer Early Wiuter Books,
Including Some Fiction.

repealed. Alva Johnston In his introduction
says that The Night Club Era" is the first
organized and accurate story of the stirring
changes in felonious and gay life in the New
York of the past decade and a quarter" New
York was at first somewhat dazed by the VolStead
act which made prohibition absolute and there
was uneasy questioning as to whether the law
would could be enforced There were wakes
in many of the most elegant hotels and clubs.
The chapter Last Night" describes colorfully
what went on in all the most popular places,
in that time of doubt and mourning. With
equally specific detail Mr.. Walker tells of the
awakening to the fact that liquor was still
obtanable and Of the adjustment to new meth
ods. The old bar rooms went; speakeasies
came in overwhelming numbers.
A great parade marches along through the
night club era-gangsters, night club entertain
ers, keepers Of fashionable and of foul joints,
millionaire prot1igates. stars Of the stage, the
screen and society. Mr. Walker does not ask
whether enforcement was possible, nor does
he attempt to assign blame to any one Except
perhaps to refOrmers who would interfere with
personal activities; he merely tells what hap
pened. He deals in specific names, Of persons
and places, only occasionally using a camou-
fage. There Is an index, in which We find the
names of such opposite personalities as Alfred
u
and Dan Healy, Nicholas Murray Butler and
Texas Guinan. The last chapter. Thoughts Of
an Old Fuddy-Duddy While Sitting" is q med
ley of memories, probably culled from news
papers more or less at random, and producing
altogether jazzy effect. One of the
thoughts" is a commentary on the New York
of the era of prohibition: will James, the
cowboy artist, puzzled and sick on his first
trip to New York" Perhaps it will apply
equally well to the post-repeal New York. The
question of today may be expressed by the title
of that recent thoughtful novel of Hans Fal-
lada-"Little Man, What Now?"
SEA WALL. BY L. A. G. Strong. New York.
Alfred A. Knopf.
ERE is struggling Irish story, pleasant in
! ] its prevailing tone. though 1t is full Of
tragic implications The events are related
they appeared to Nicky D'Olier, from the time
when, as q small boy, he grubbed in the dust
heap behind the two houses on the sea wall
and found treasures of broken china and cast
OF. hr1S-a-6rac; until he returned to Kingstown
after the World War and was almost irnrne-
diately plugged" in dark street one night
because he did not realize there were troubles
in Ireland. The story always returns, as Nicky
did. to the two houses the sea wall above
Dublin Bay, Crena and Avourneen. The his
tory of the houses was written by Mr.. James
Wilson, during the time when he was distraught
over the loss of his mother, whom the ribald
DR.. OMara called "old Gorilla -gob" be-
cause of her inordnate love Of food The doc
tor had bought the houses in the days Of his
prosperous practice and high esteem in the
neighborhood and had settled at Creina and
leased Avourneen to Mr.. Frederick D'Oler.
recently retired from the Indian Civil Service,
and his wife, the beautiful but capricious Laura,
the two who became the parents of Jack and
George and Nicky.
The story is full of mysteries, which puzzled
Nicky and were solved for him only by de-
grees and after many years Why were his
parents away from home so much of the time
and why was he left with the doctor and
his sister, "the Duchess" at Creina? Why did
the Duchess take to her bed every few
months and write poetry and refuse to see
any one from outside? Why did the doctor
carry mysterious bundles out of the house at
times and why did 'the Duchess" go a hunt
through the house afterward? Why was the
doctor so intimate with disreputable Old BurnsP
Why did the boys on the sea wall call muir
derer' when they the doctor? Why did
Auntie Fan live alone in town instead of with
Rochestown Grandmamma, her mother? Why
did no one ever see Rochestown Grandpapa?
OF course he was i'll. but "you do see Ill people
sometimes, don't you?" Why did Nicky's hand
some parents seem to hate each other? Finally,
why olQ SWHuy-uoFulg udiilS aIio VI aAAo Ao'e
such fascination for his dearly loved brother
George and why did God allow him to be
drawn under one of the trains and killed? Was
there a reason for it2 The love Of Nicky for
the Irish coast is the love of Mr.. Strong him
self, which gives added charm to subtle story
told in delicate prose.
GLORY BY Francis Stuart New York: The
Macmillan Co.
A GAIN Francis Stuart translates into q
T. story his mystic love of martyrdom. Glory
to his heroine, Mairead OByrne, Is martyrdom.
As she faces the firing squad, in companion
ship with Frank de Lacy, sk< Is elated, up
lifted into the realm of the ideal, and welcomes