Evening star., 1935-03-28
ChildNeedS
Truth With
It's Reading
Life Should Be Shown
With Light and Shad-
oW in It's Course.
BY ANGELO PATRI.

p ECENTLY books about youth. and
~ there have been many, have been
gloomy, sordid, ugly accounts OF be-
deviled children. Parents are either
foolish or cruel. Friends are enemies
in disguise. Teachers are tyrants and
bad characters.
object strongly to the tone Of
these books. Life is not like that.
Even on the darkest day that ever
dawned upon suffering humanity
beauty dawned also. In the hours of
deepest anguish strength to endure,
and hope, and peace, came stealing
into the stricken soul. There Is no
burden, no sorrow, no sin that goes
unrelieyed. Life Is fundamentally
good and that goodness finally strug-
giles to the surface and brings peace
and beauty with it. Mans struggles
are justified in the end.
There are ugly things in life. There
are people who spoil their own lives
and blight the lives of others. 1nno-
cent children, long suffering fathers
and mothers, patient toilers, suffer
under conditions that wiring their
souls. But always, somewhere, some
how, relief comes, wrongs are righted
and suffering is soothed. Beauty OF
spirit rises and shines to bless hu-
manity in the midst of its woes.
have no quarrel with those who
insist upon facing the truth. Truth
should be faced when one can flnd
it. Who has? Surely the unbroken
darkness of blighted lives is not the
truth. Why should it be more truth
full than Pollyanna? It is no nearer
the truth. Life is q mixture of good
and evil light and shadow. People
are sinful and brave and cowardly and
mean and kind and generous and glad
and sad, in person. The whole OF
mans humanity expresses itself In
him from hour to hour, but he is the
greatest of all the creatures that walk
this earth. He is capable Of great
sacrifice. tremendous struggle, gor-
geous flights, triumphant victories
over himself and his earth.
Why not remember that when tell
ing a story? Dickens did. I read
Dickens again and again, and never
tire Of the story he tells nor Of the
people he creates. Tney are human,
very like the men and women about
me. I see Micawber. meet David, ]
greet Steerforth daily as I 60 about
my business, and like them just as
they are, creatures Of light and
shadow, Of good and evil, struggling
to live in an imperfect world.
Dickens could draw villain and
tell q tragic story, move one to ho'
anger or sorrowful tears, without ask.
ing one to believe that all the world
was bad or sad or doggone. He was
q master story teller, social reformer
q creative artist. He knew life and
he understood psople. He loved youth
and fought in its cause. But he never
wrote q sordid tale without leaving q
scheme of light and hope and faith
through it. To my mind he came
nearer telling the truth about life and
its people than our authors who tel
such dreary tales Of sin and death
The trouble with the realists is thai
they are not really sure about the
youth they tell about. Dickens wa,
sure about Copperfield and, I believe
nearer the truth Of his day, and ours
Children are fundamentally good
They inherit goodness from life, which
the Creator looked at one day and
pronounced very good.
tCopyrisht. 1889