Evening star., 1934-05-20

out complaint. without even thinking that their
lot is hard Cean is a more earthly woman
than Jen, less in touch with the world away
from her farm. AS the story opens she is
driving away from her fathers farm with her
new husband, Lonzo Smith, in his oX-cart
toward the peeled-log house with the clay
stuck chimney which he has just built for her.
Her satisfaction is deep that now. though she
belongs to Lonzo instead of her father. she also
belongs to herself, with her own house her own
garden, her own crooks and churn and cooking
utensils her way of living. CeanS life is
both hard and happy from the beginning She
and Lonzo work without rest to make their
fields productive and the.r house home. The
detailed description OF their tasks and their
daily living not monotonous, because there are
many adventures and misadventures, makes
the story. Almost Immediately Cean is bitten
by rattler while picking blueberries to stew
for supper. She suffers almost much when
Lonzo kills the calf. though she knows she
must not be ''toucheous" about it. Children
come often, of course. and some of them die
Lonzo dies too and she marries again, this
time the New Light preacher, Dermid o OConnor.
She has another child. The Civil War comes
with its toll of deaths. And suddenly she finds
herself an old woman without realizing how
it has happened The simple, almost rhythmic
style with its slight mixture of dialect words
the story is told if by Cean, is in perfect
harmony with the events Of the narrative. AS
finish reading We feel that the prize judges
did not go far astray. Lamb in His Bosom"
is certainly typically American, and is written
with mature skill with both power and deli
cacy.
ROUND MANHATTAN'S RIM. BY Helen
Worden. Indianapolis: The BobbS Merrill Co.
X Jew YORK is Helen Worden's favo.ite hobby
and she knows its hidden places and their
secrets from many years of exploration. She
writes about New York for one of the metropoli-
tan daileS and is the author of The Real New
York" by which she does not mean the show
places She Is also convinced that romance
and adventure lie on the water front of a great
city" So with friend of similar convictions,
she decided to circle Manhattan Island foot.
Their first walk late in May. their last
about the middle of December. hot Summer
interviewed, spent in the country, but 10 diff
ferent days were passed in covering the 80
miles around the island. They wore old
'neighborhood shopping" clothes. concealed
their small cameras in their pockets, and re-
Trained from taking notes along the way. Before
a pad and pencil. people shut up like clans
The story of the pilgrimage, supplemented with
much lore from Manhattan records, is given
in Round Manhattans Rim"
The tour deux started at the Battery, the
gateway to the huge metropolis and ended
there, after they had become recognized water
front people, End-paper maps show their
route, up past the Brooklyn Manhattan and
Williamsburg Bridges on along the East River
and the Harlem River, to Spuyten Duyvil
(wonderfully suggestive old Dutch namely
around the point and past Inwood Park Dyck-
man Ferry Jefferys Hook Light, Grants Tomb
the long line of steamship piers. and so back
to Battery Park. They visited clam stands and
ate cherrystones and drank clam broth where
Teddy Roosevelt used to come for the same
decaces They stopped at the Seamen's In
stitute and at Fulton Fish Market "Al Smiths
alma mater; at SuHivan'S Shipyard, Bellevue
Hospital, through whose corridors 1900 people
pour every day: the Municipal Lodging House,
the city morgue, where 700 a week lie the
marble slabs and the slaughter house, formerly
a neighborhood of criminal rookerieS. Then
they came to the section of big apartment
houses and the Queensborough Bridge and
looked across the East River to Welfare or
Blackwells Island Wards Island, and Randalls
Island, all dedicated to city welfare and reform
institutions The Polo Grounds, the Speedway,
parks mansions and boat clubs mark the upper
end of Manhattan; shipping piers, newspaper
buildings markets the lower end. Enlvened
by many personal episodes and vivacious in
style, Round ManhattanS Rim" is an enter
tanning book of travel in limited familiar, but
most interesting country.
THE AIR MENACE AND THE ANSWER BY
Elvira K. Fradkin, A. B., M. A. New York:
The Macmillan Co.
CHEMISTRY and aviation two Of the most
~ recent and most rapid in development of
the practical forces in the field of science
have been seized. long before their peaceful
possibilities have been explored, for purposes Of
destruction In his introduction to Mrs Frad-
kin's book. James T. Shotwen, chairman of the