Evening star., 1935-09-01

Oh CcILAlU OI Ills uelSIlDOIb ulltluo nc
would never have been suspected.
So one feels, in q dutiful sort Of
way, that the book Is an indictment
Of society, and so on. But 1t does
leave one blank. Society gets indicted
so often!
SCHOOL HOUSE IN THE FOOT
HILLS. BY Ella Enslow, in collab-
grafton with Alvin F. Harlow. New
York: Simon g. Shuster.
TT WAS feared. when this book was
announced, that 1t would be one
more of the interminable number Of
accounts by bright young ladies from
the East who, in the interim between
finishing college and getting married.
dash down into those awfully quaint
picturesque Southern mountains and
teach enlightenment to the grateful,
wondering hill billies-those purest de-
scendants of our old Anglo-Saxon
stock, who have been preserved by
providence from contamination these
800 years in order that the aforesaid
young ladies may make money writing
books about them. This was feared,
as has been said. And q welcome
correspondingly warm was prepared In
advance for the opus.
However, the worst part Of this fear
was unfounded. Miss Enslow, to be
sure, did penetrate into q backwoods
district of Tennessee, but 1t was In
the county where she herself had been
bon and where her family had lived
for many years. She was already an
experienced teacher at the time: she
was not prospecting for local color.
She has been able, therefore, In her
book to interpret her school commu-
nifty with serious perspective, rather
than with the giggling Joy Of the
greenhorn.
She did not find her mountaineers
singing seventeenth century English
ballads and dancing the maypole, as
so many Of the Eastern college girls
have done. She found them living
very much in the current Of modern
world events, for 1t was q community
of coal miners. She found them poor
to wretchedneSs, as the direct result
of the crash of 1929. She found the
proud independence that once char
acterized them being vitiated by this
forced contact with the superior out
side world.
She worked among them without
accomplishing miracles, without re-
making the entire population from
ingorant, unhappy. dirty people into
literate, radiant worshipers Of hygiene
again falling short Of the mark set
BY the Eastern girls. But she gained
the love of her people, as they showed
in many ways, and she succeeded in
making her school o reality in their
lives. Her story Is tragically realis-
tic reflection of the horror OF the LIE
Of the industrialized rural community.
In that sense 1t Is o genuine social
document.
STRANGE PASSAGE. BY Theodore
Irwin. New York: Harrison Smith
and Robert Haas.
IN THIS novel, by the device OF
putting his leading characters
against q bizaree background the au-
thor has attempted to make some
thing unusual out Of q very ordinary
story. The only thing that happens
really is that young man and young
woman meet love, are separated and
then meet again. But these not too
startling events are cast against
setting that has seldom been used IN
he ~ hrnfr0hf t1fn
play in the deporting Of undesirable
aliens.
Because deportation is at present
question which has called forth con-
siderable comment both ways, one
feels that the author hopes to make
his tale pregnant with social signif-
canoe. But he has not done SO. He
has given an tmpressionistic picture
C the conversation and thoughts OF
a trainload Of criminals, degenerates
and madmen, and has shown that the
laws which operate to remove them
from our society occasionally catch
individuals who are, in themselves.
entirely acceptable. Maybe he thinks
otherwise, but to the average inteli-
gence this Is not news.
BOLD BLADES OF DONEGAL. BY
Seumas MAcmanus. New York:
Freedrick A. Stokes Co.
CURELY the reader may be par
doned If he feels occasionally
that the Irish, in writing books about
themselves, are Just q trifie more Irish
than is necessary Such qualms, once
experienced, are not easily forgotten.
And they may assail their erstwhile
victim afresh on sight Of this book,
with its green jacket and its aggressive
title. Be 1t said, therefore, that It is
not only an inoffensive performance,
but q highly agreeable one.
BOLD Blades Of Donegal Is the
story Of an Irish country boyhood Of
almost q hundred years ago. 1t Is
good reading and, in so far as boys
anywhere are boys, entirely probable.
As to the authenticity of the particu-
lar breed, it Is impossible to say at
this time and distance, but the book
has all the qualities that we like to
attribute to Irish youth-pugnacity.
imagination, ingenuity and rapid wit.
Perhaps that does Just as well. any
way.
PERSIAN coNoUERoR. BY George
S. Hellman. New York: Dodd Mead
& Co.
THE title Of this novel may lead one
to hope that Mr.. Hellman has
invaded the realm so pleasantly oc-
cupied W to now by Mr.. John Frs
kine-that is. the realm Of the his
torical satire. But perrsal Of few
pages viii destroy the anticipation.
Mr.. Hellman, 1t Is true, has written
q romance on the life Of q character
Ia history-the Persian King Cyrus. |
But it Is in no sense o satire. It is |
deadly serious. It begins seriously |
and 1t gets seriouser and seriouser |
with each succeeding page.
The characters are the King Of the |