Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-09-18
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cerm0nd.

leased today, in which the eternal con-
fiict between family and money, the aris-
tocracy Of birth and the aristocracy Of
achievement, Is the major design, and
the love of cultured woman for man
OF the underprivileged masses forms the
fine tracery Of tiligree separating the two
extremes Of mental attitude toward what
constitutes the equality of man.
The Snob Is a common product, born OF
o common impulse, nurtured by the COM
mon instinct for self preservation. OF
all the traits to which human character
Is subject 1t is the most easily developed.
1t is a screen behind which the weak
nesses Of intellectual or material equip
ment may for time be concealed from
public view, an armor erected as defense
against the uncomfortable knowledge of
a specific grade of inferiority. There are
many varieties Of this species OF the
human race, the most common Of which
is the rich man without a family tree.
And of this steadily increasing product
OF American opportunity only few ever
learn that the screen Is too transparent,
the armor too thin for safety, and that
no earthly heritage or unearned position
can approach the superiority Of a natural
pride in individual achievement.
Mr.. Josephus PrendergaSt is the snob
incarnate. a self-made man entitled to
the admiration and respect Of the coun-
try as a shining example OF success. But
to his wife he ceased TO be a hero when
he emerged from his natural, honest
heritage and with his millions attempted
to kill and bury all semblance of the
man for whom she had forSaken her
family and eloped for life"
Elley Sewell and 10 PrendergaSt were
the ideal couple over whom the ultra
conservative small town loves to wag its
head and predict future that will come
to no good end. Elley had been the joy
of the home OF her adoption and the
idol of the village. She had beauty ami
nation, a lovable nature and an intense
ZeSt for the gladneSS Of life. Her engage
ment to Phil SeWell, her lifelong play
mate and companion, had been an
nounced when 10 leaped over the hedge.
strobe across the Sewell lawn toward
Elley and Phil TO ask direction. At
tracted by the handsome physique and
the crude energy OF the man, and piqued
by Pills inexcuSable rudeness, she in
vited him to sit down. In five minutes
she knew that she loved him. That he
came from Oil City, that his parents
belonged to the 1nder-dog class, that he
had waited on Phil at Harvard and that
his future was uncertain were items of
information arouSing responsive emo
tons and welding bond Of understand
ing between these two extremes OF expert
ence. Within week Elley had forsaken
her family, broken with all Of her tradi-
tons of birth and culture and eloped
with this man OF a strange world.
y L.
married, toiled for each other amid neigh
bors as poor as themselves and been
happy. But that was nearly twenty years
ago. Now they are back in Silverbridge,
richer than any one else in the COM
munity no longer Elley and 10, but
Elinor and JoSephuS, and both Of them
desperately unhappy. They are fighting
for love. but each of them wants love on
a different plane and neither will sur
render to the other. The burden of this
story is the struggle Of Josephus and
Elinor against Elley and Jo Mr.. jose
phus PrendergaSt, with his questionably
earned millions, wants his wife to love
him for his money, for his importance
in the world of affairs and for the adula-
ton heaped upon him for his charities
and philanthropieS. He is determined to
make complete the death and burial of
young 10 Of Oil City. But Elley cannot
love Mr.. Josephus Prendergast, Million
aire, benefactor and Snob. 1t was 10
to whom she pledged her love for life"
and it is the sole purpose of her life to
revive and restore him to a position of
honest pride and true superiority.
Mrs. Colby has done a remarkably fine
piece of work in the Interpretation of
human souls torn by the results of the
colossal egotism which blinds men and
women to the real value of themselves
and of each other. The story Is excep-
tionally interesting and conSpicuouSly
forceful.
VIOLA. BY Katharine Read Lockwood.
Boston: Bruce HUMPHREYS, Inc.
More than seventy years ago Miss
Lockwood was prominently identified
with Washington as q writer whose work
was warmly received in many quarters.
She had spent great deal of time abroad
and had produced numbers OF stories
drawn from experiences on both sides
of the Atlantic when she undertook the
shaping of this full sized novel covering
that particularly stirring period OF his
tory between the early l850S and the end
Of the Civil War. Its revival now is of
importance only because it recreateS for
younger generations a colorful picture Of
the social customs and activities in Off
cial life in Germany and in Washington
three-quarters of a century ago.
Viola Is typical of many beautiful
American girls with ambitious mothers
who lived in an age when it was more
creditable to be a social parasite than to
earn a living. For by some perverted
sense of reasoning, beyond the compre-
henSion of modern minds, young women
who displayed spirit of independence
and became Self-supporting were deprived
Of their social status and ostracized by
lifelong friends and acquaintance. Viola
possessed the equipment and undoubtedly
could have earned comfortable living
for herself and her mother. for she was
an accomplished singer. But she was
easily persuaded by her managing mother
to live upon others as long as possible
and thereby maintain the much-to-be-
desired social status of families of wealth
and culture. And SO they went abroad,
where Viola might study music and
where, they felt sure, they would be able
to move from one place of invitation to
another until hospitality had been
stretched to its limits and until wealthy
husband OF suitable social position could
be safely shared in the carefully hidden
net of ambition.
Mother and daughter are pictured as
constant participators in the social life
OF Dresden and Berlin in the early lS50s,
living from hand to mouth and praying