Evening star., 1934-10-06
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY SARAH C. BOWERMAN.
CAMEL-BELLS OF BAGHDAD. BY
Janet Miller. Illustrated. Boston:
Houghton Miffiin Co.

CAMEL-BELLS OF BAGHDAD. BY
Janet Miller. Illustrated. Boston:
Houghton Miffiin Co.
DR.. Janet Miller for her prowlings IN
many lands, sometimes with a med
ical motive, sometimes just for ad-
venture and curiosity. After finish
ing her medical training in America,
England and Germany, she was sent
by the Southern Methodist Church to
Japan and, after IL years there, found
herself going to Shanghai as super
4 intendent of the largest womens
hospital in the East. When there was
a demand for a hospital in the Bel
gian Congo for the treatment of
sleeping sickness, 1t was found diff
cult to secure doctor for this par
ticular work in the land known as
the white mans grave" though fear
rarely prevents doctor from pioneer
ing in the cause of humanity and
science. DIR. Miller, a little, sun
tanned woman, agreed to accept the
task and has already written of some
of her experiences in "Jungles Pre-
ferred." The present book tells, not
| Of professional achievements under
dangerous conditions, but of a gay,
capricious journey for pleasure only.
DR.. Miller was moved to visit Bagh-
dad because a British museum libra
rian insisted on finding for her one
fascinating book after another about
the city of the Arabian Nights. She
was the only passenger on a British
Merchant Marine boat going directly
to Basrah, the port of Iraq, on the
Persian Gulf, from which she went
by train (the hottest and dustiest
train journey of her life) to Bagh-
dad. During her stay in Baghdad
! she came to feel that the camel-bells
| of Baghdad are the sweetest sound
in the world" But inevitably, for a
woman afflicted with the migratory
spirit, one whose imagination was
easily stirred, DR.. Miller did not re-
main quietly in Baghdad. Visitors at
her hotel, where she had a palatial
room at the out of season rate, told
her of other places of antique splen-
dor not too far away, and she forth
with set out on subsidiary pilgrim
ages. She visited "Abraham's home
town." in Chaldea, that land where
the people live in torture because of
! lack of water denied them by the
| King Of Iraq. She journeyed across
the desert to Kermanshah and Ha-
MADAM and Teheran She went south
TO LSfahan and ShiraZ, and visited
! the ruins of PereSepoliS, the city of
Darius the Great, and the tomb of
| Cyrus the Great at Pasagardi. She
went north TO the littoral Of the
Caspian Sea. She went east to
Meshed. the most sacred city in the
/ world to a Mohammedan next to
Mecca. She reveled in the gardens,
| the fruits, the moonlight, the bazaars,
| the minarets, the color of Iraq and
Persia. Many others have Travelled
over the same routes and fingered
happily in the same places as DR..
Miller, but few are able to write of
them as enthusiastically and charm
ingly as she.
THE FOUNDRY. BY Albert Halper.
New York: The Viking Press.
Writing of workers as one of the
workers, Mr.. Halper has in his view
nothing academic. is entirely con-
crete, and if he has any motive of
propaganda it is kept very much in
the background. Among many and
brief experiences. drifting from job
to job, Albert Halper once worked in
! an electrotype foundry in Chicago.
half the time with the bosses and
half the time with the laborers. And
heard them plotting against each
other. Each side tried to pump me-
l kept my mouth shut. 1 didn't say
anything. I just remembered" Those
last three sentences prove him
pragmatic philosopher, specializing in
the way to get along in life. He kept
his mouth shut and remembered to
good advantage and The Foundry"
is the result. In it he has put bosses
and laborers, good collection of
! them, all intense, hating. loving,
graSplng, vociferouS individuals 1t
is well that at the beginning he has
introduced us to his chief characters
in an annotated list of several pages.
Before we have read far, however, we
have singled out a few for our espe-
| cial interest. They are two of the
partners, Jack Duffy and Maxi Steu-
ben, Old Charley, the elevator man;
Slavony. tank man: Miss Weber, the
handsome bookkeeper; Kubec. the
molder, and Mrs. Hill, Duffy's mistress.
! Biggest character of all is the Fort
Dearborn foundry itself, "a roaring,
crashing jungle of men and machines
and hammering noise, a place where
, printing plates are made"
The time of The Foundry" is be-
tween the Autumn of 1928 and the
Autumn of 1929. that is when the
great prosperity boom was sagging
toward collapse. though few people
recognized the fact. The opening de-
scription of day in the foundry in
the middle Of October, 1923, is a
mastery piece of realism. August
Kafka is curtly engaged as a shipping
clerk at the beginning of the day and
two dozen other applicants are turned
| away. We accompany him about the
foundry and see how it operates and
| become acquainted with the workers.
Through the course of the story
Though the word story" is a mis-
nomer for what is a seemingly casual
record of everyday events, with
sketches Of personalities. we learn
something of the outside life of all
the foundry people. Jack Duffy hates
his wife and has finally found a
, woman he thinks he can permanently
love. Slavony, vulgar artist of the
foundry, is heart-broken by the death
of his 4-day-old baby. Kubec, Jealous
husband, immures his wife in a coun-
try cottage, but even there she finds
lover. Mr.. Halper's staccato style
is effective. He shifts nimbly from
person to person, giving a brief tale
about each. The only unity is that
supplied by the integrating force of
the foundry. the center of all the
lives, but that is sufficient Energy
unbounded marks Mr.. Halper'S writ
ing, but there is a lack of restraint
which often results in sentimentality
and melodrama.
THE HILLS STEP LIGHTLY. BY
Alberta Pierson Hannum. New
York: William Morrow & Co.
Two cabins on the ridge just off