Evening star., 1934-07-29

lOOKIuk at n LAn young ACuONs ueAlG
and strong, with the round. blue,
shaven chin of his father, a bare
head Of thick, black curls. and eyes
blazing black with devilry and tenn
per. A thoroughbred. whatever his
ancestry" Jamesy and his wife,
Mag Carly, and his two sons Shamus
and Daheen. and Maag's daughter by
former marriage, Julie Brien. be-
come warm friends to the refugee.
Rogue Mccoy. Not too broad. and
probably not too realistic. Irish hu-
NOR seasons the romance, which is
frankly improbable. The Road to
Nowhere" is much more varied In its
interest and richer in character por-
trayal than Mr.. Walsh's last romance,
"Blackcock's Feather" Because Of
its setting and deep feeling for Irish
life and tradition. Mr. Walsh's work
inevitably suggests that Of Dom
Byrne, whose early death probably
cut of the full development Of his
powers as q romancer, though for
tunately not until he had written
'Hangman's House" Field Of Honor"
and Destiny Bay"
MAGPIE. The Autobiography Of
Nymph Errant. BY Lois Vidal.
Boston: Little, Brown g. Co.
IRON the almost oppressive quiet
l. of sn English vicarage to vaga-
bond life very nearly the equal Of
that Of Francois Villon or. in fiction,
of Le4Lge's "Gil Bias" is long jour-
ney, both physical and psychological,
yet It was accomplished by the human
magpie. or nymph errant, who calls
herself Lois Vidal. There we're many
children in the Vidal family, which
first had its home in the country
vicarage and later near oxford. Their
very existence was a misfortune, since
over them all spread the dark cloud
OF possible, or probable, insanity. The
life In nursing home for mental
father spent the last 10 years of his
cases and the blight appeared in one
child after another. Lois herself has,
usually on her own initiative, found
peace at different times in a hiding
place" fro mlife and its problems.
Of the first such retreat she says:
IT was only too triumphant at homing
at last (she was l6), coming into
my heritage, not Of madness as I
knew it, who had read of Lamb and
Mary and Lear and Poor Tom, and
all the crazy looms of history, as Of
kindred spirits, but of that enfran-
chisement Of the spirit that must
adventure beyond the worlds limits"
The mother, herself sanely normal,
but abnormally energetic and versa
tile in all the duties which she per-
formed with unflagging spirit, was
perhaps the greatest sufferer of all,
as she watched anxiously for symp-
toms in her children of the we'll
known trouble and attempted to guard
them from any unnecessary strain.
What is surprising in this story Of
Lois Vidals life and the life of her
family is that, lin spite of ever
present and frequently intensified
tragedy, their atmosphere was not one
OF gloom and depression. They were
all endowed with buoyancy which
made them able to rebound after every
drop into the depths, and their ef-
forts to achieve were incesSant. Dur
ing the World War Lois went over
seas as clerk for special intelligence
work. Various occupations in Eng
land and France followed the war,
until, after an interval of IA years,
another stay at the home of love"
was necessary, which lasted for two
years. Emerging from this retire
ment, she went as a governess to
Corsica, then to Canada, where she
had secretarial position, began "this
monumental work" and was in and
out of hospitals.
Her hobo life has brought her to
lodgings under hedges and on the
London Embankment, to work as a
charwoman and as hotel slavey, to
association with all sorts of people.
Her vagabonding did not begin until
she was in her SOS and was per-
hapS the best cure she could have
selected for herself. The events and
acquaintances Of her wanderings have
evidently occupied her interest to the
exclusion of inhibitions, and have
certainly provided satisfaction for the
subconscious longing to escape from
her family surroundings, which one
doctor considered an aggravating
cause Of her mental trouble. A So
Journ with the Salvation Army was
one OF her last adventures and the
last recorded was her marriage to a
naval officer. Lois Vidaps story Is
such human testament as Vera
Brittain's Testament of Youth"
Axel Munthe's STORY Of San Michele"
and Halliday Sutherland'c "Arches
OF the Years." but is swifter, more
entirely objective, strangely less in
irrespective than any of these. One
speculates on the interesting situa-
ton there might have been if Axel
Munthe and Halliday Sutherland.
psWhiatrists, could have known Lois
Vidal.
A GOLDEN HIGHWAY. Scenes of
History's Greatest Gold Rush Yes
terday and Today. BY G. B. Glass
cock. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-
Merrill Co.
1848 the Sacramento River route
was the most crowded highway in
California, for it led to the diggings
which were causing mass migration
from all over the United States. In
1884 some Of the old stream beds are
being worked over under the stimulus
OF Government high prices. 1t is inter-
esting to speculate on what the dis
covery of rich new gold fields would
do to the international currency situa-
ton and to the depression in general.
Mr.. Glasscock does not talk of gold
versus silver and paper; he tells of
the adventure Of gold in California In
story which, though true, is as wild
and romantic as anything written by
Bret Harte or Mark Twain. He ar