Evening star., 1934-01-07

The technical difficulties, which were overcome
in ingenious ways, furnish some amusing pas
sages in the book We are shown Richard
Waring stretched out like corpse, his face
covered with plaster of paris. while the mask
for the White Rabbit is being made, and vari-
Gus students learning to control the many
oysters that were to succumb TO the blandish-
ments of the wicked Walrus and the cold
blooded Carpenter" 1t is a temptation to re-
late many of the anecdotes Miss LIE Gallienne
tells of her friendships with other actors and
actresses, beginning with Sarah Bernhardt,
whose autobiography she copied by hand when
she was only II. The book is delightful as
any play the actress-author ever produced.
ROOSEVELT AND HIS AMERICA. BY Bernard
Fay. Boston Little, Brown g. Co.
BERNARD FAY is French historian who has
= fondness for American subjects and is
able to treat them both critically and synpa-
theticaly. Discriminating American readers
are quick to note the difference between intel
lgent criticism and prejudice. and to appreciate
understanding, when foreigners write of
America Prof Fay is widely read in America
and his brilliant studies of George Washington
and Benjamin Franklin have been accorded a
creditable place among works of American his
tory. The present book on the Roosevelt ad-
miniStration is of different type, because it
deals with the active present, instead of the
sion of still unsettled economic issues. For
these reasons it is less satisfactory than the
former books. Prof. Fay is a better historian
than economist, and understands American
history better than he does current American
problems. However, any one who writes now
of the year 1888 is picking his way through
quickSandS The aim of the book is specific
Ito remind Europeans that America is force,
not formula And President Roosevelt gave
an opportunity to study American energy and
initiative and its freedom from all formulas
and methods"
Fully half of Roosevelt and his America
is a discussion of events and problems of the
period between the World War and President
Roosevelts Inauguration in March, 1888. The
period is described as that Of Lost America;
Harding Coolidge and Hoover are characterized
The Wreckers. Three Wooden Kings and
Mellon, Rockefeller, Morgan and Mitchell are
treated under the heading Bar Gold or Golden
Calf" With the election of President Roose-
velt America Finds Herself Again Prof.
Fay's analysis of the policies of the Roosevelt
administration is clever rather than acute. The
subject has been handled with more knowledge
by many American writers since March 4. 1888.
Too much Importance is probably attributed to
that nebulous thing called the brain trust"
Prof. Fay believes that President Roosevelt is
an innovator but not a radical; that he is one
of the most astute of politicians, and that his
greatest achievement the one that has de-
ton more than any other single thing in the
last 80 years and that has astounded the world,
is that he has been willing and able to rule
NEST OF SIMPLE FOLK BY Sean
OFaolain. New York: The Viking Press.
THE volume of short stories Midsummer
Night Madness" by the young Irish teacher
of County Wlckloe, Sean O'Faolain pronounced
Shawn O'Phelan), was accorded warm praise
by the critics when it came out "A Nest OF
Simple Folk" is his first novel and should def
nitely give him a place among the growing
number of gifted and original writers Of young
Ireland 1t is only few months since the
publication of the simple, beautiful autobiog-
raphy Twenty Years A-Growing' put Maurice
O'Sullivan in the group. Mr.. O'Faolain in
choosing his title perhaps not unmndful of
Turgenev's novel, "A Nest of Gentlefok" and,
by his portrayal of his group of aggressivey
living Irish farm people he has demonstrated
that, whether among gentle folk or simple
folk, human nature is much the same. BY her
marriage to Long John O'Donnell, son of the
tenant of the bog farm of Ahill, Judith Foxe
descended from the gentle folk to the simple
folk. Her two sisters remained in genteel old
maidhoOd with their father, irascible old Leo
Foxe. owner with encumbrances) of the iilapi-
dated estate of Foxehall. After the marriage
Miss Rachel and Miss Anna never really visited
their sister and her rapidly increasing brood,
which stopped only at the number 10, though
they sometimes dropped in, while passing" the
dung soft and stenching" ODonnell farmyard,
which they seemed to forget was mile of the
carriage road.
The first section of "A Nest of Simple Folk"
so biting in its realism that it is as certainly
drawn from real life as were the stories of
that old masterpiece by the Irish novelist, Will
Carleton, Traits and Stories of the Irish Peas
antry" 1880, concerns the enforced will
making and the death of Long John ODonnell.
While Judith and the lawyer, Dee hang over
the bed of the dying man and try to wiring from
him his assent to the will they have prepared