Evening star., 1934-04-29
b4 SARAH BOWERMAN
The Beechers, Together Win Saints and
Sinners of the Period-Attrncti0e
Spring Fiction.

United States" and Socialism in Theory and
Practice" In his autobiography, puohsneo
about six months after his death In Octooer'
1888 he tells of his early experiences on the
lower East Side of New York, after his immi-
grafton from Riga. Latvia. with his parents,
at the age OF II.
He was employed for time In Sweatshope,
making shirts and waists, though the family
had decided that he was to continue his
high school education and prepare Tor pro-
fession. His earnings were pathetically small
and his tenure always uncertain. Stability OF
job and pay came with his nrst political )oo,
a clerkship in the national Office of the Socialist
Labor party He also found there his life
work After admission to the bar, he defended
many sensational radical" cases, among them
that of Johann Most, anarchist, and the pup
lcation the Masses under the espionage
act His campaign for the New York mayoralty
brought forth vehement attacks. Many IA
nous names figure in Mr. Hillquit's book-Louls
Brandeis Charles A. Beard, Samuel Gompers,
Euegene Debs Norman Thomas, Upton SIN
clair, Maxim Gorky, Jack London, Walter
Lippmann. In his chapter Has 1t Bees
Worth While?" Mr.. Hillquit says: TO me
Socialism has never been mere abstract
philosophy or intellectual pastme. 1t has been
my ideal and religion and one of my principal
interests in life. I have given my whole adult
existence to the service Of the cause. L
have nothing to regret, notnlhg 70 apoiogiS
for"
JAMES SHORES DAUGHTER. BY Stephen
Vincent Benet. Garden City: Doubleday,
Doran g. Co.
1T WOULD matter very little whether or not
] Mr. Benet had story to tell-he has one
because his whimsically drawn characters and
his humorous thrusts at the situations they get
themselves into are more than sufficient to
make the reading of James Shores Daughter
worth while. He has a style which renecS
personality at the same time sympathetic ana
satirical The return from Europe to their
native America of the widow Of an artist and
her four prodigies Of children, Enid. 1mogen,
Carlo and Gareth (who would have been Pom
pilia had he been a girD is the occasion for
some of his best writing Gareth is telling the
story. "A prodigy is bad enough, but to nave
the tricks of the prodigy without the talent!
ss.I can see myself in the Fauntleroy suit, with
bow professionally poised, as the ladies' dresses
rllstled and the audience settled down. 1 can
see myself, say. But, fortunately, at this dis
tanoe I cannot hear" Unable to make q
youthful virtuoso Of her son, which she at
tempted through the influence OF James Snore'
Catherine Grant returned with her remarkable
children to Italy where she continued to write
her little "Jaunty Heart guide books and soon
married Count Guido rotund and formal, who
had always kissed her orange-hower- soap
scented hand.
Though all the Grant family are unusual ana
interesting the story is really that OF Gareth
and James Shores daughter Violet, innocently
in love with each other in childhood, without
knowing it, but separated later by circumstance.
James Shore, starting with Western mining
venture at Gunfint had amassed fortune,
ruthlessly for he loved power more than money.
His son was a weakling; his daughter, IN ms
image should have been the son. Her charac-
ter is inscrutabe and we never quite UNDER
stand why she married Charles Morton instead
of Gareth. What we do understand. as the