Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-08-25

is to say for them that they are highly
readable.
A TIME OF PRESERVATION. BY
Francis Parsons. Boston: The
Stratford Co.
THIS book is a distinct relief among
many of its kind. 1t is the &C
count of an fasteners holiday in the
Southwest. Some one has remarked
that the Island of Bali is a paradise
for boys of 20 and women of 40,
meaning, of course, that it offers a
satisfaction to romantic hankerings
which, to those who feel them, seem
destined to be untitled. There are
many Balls, changing all the time
with fashion and discovery, and in
recent years the Southwest has taken
its place among that wistful category
of Islands of the Blessed. Hence the
relief of this book
The fastener who wrote it was a
Yankee, and, while he appreciates the
charm Of the country, he does not
splash over. His appreciation is
quantity cautious and dignified, and
so wholly characteristic and sincere
Not many of the emigres to the desert
have so retained their self-possession.
And not many of them, after brief
visit, have written so charming a
book.
VALLEY PEOPLE. BY Francis Ma
rion. New York: Reynal g. Hitch
cock.
THIS is a collection of stories of
= rural life, the scene being laid in
a farming valley of California. The
writer is famous for being one Of the
highest paid authors of scenarios for
the screen; considering which, it is
not a bad book. 1t shows the hand Of
a competent journeyman, If not the
vision of an unconventionaliZed
thinker. But one cannot help wonder
ing, reading it, why Miss Marion,
with her great commercial, success.
should have taken the time to write
it. Has she, perhaps, in looking at
her handsome royalty cheques Cor
whatever it is that they give scenario
writers) heard the devil whisper, Its.
pretty, but is it art?"
For these stories are obviously ar
attempt at something above CONNER
cial levels. They are pretty mucn
written to the formulate by which our
serious" writer's guide themselves
when they turn their interpretative
capacities to the problem presented
by human being living in the country.
They contain, that is to say, young
woman characters who go mad be-
cause of repression, old maid charac-
tiers who drown themselves because of
repression, young man characters who
become eccentric because of repres-
sion, patient wives married to brutal
husbands, patient husbands married
to domineering wives, and few
chosen spirits who are not going mad
for any reason at all and who do not
suffer from repression, but who are
cordially hated and prosecuted by
their low, repressed relatives and
neighbcrs. You have met them all
before
You have, that is, if you have read
about the country instead of living in
it. While no one would deny that our
rural districts furnish their quota Of
inmates regularly for the mad houses
and prisons, still it is only the ex-
tremely callow or sensational mind
that would take such inmates as sig
nificant of the society from which
they have been removed. Contrary to
the opinion of our serious" writers.
rural America is not populated chiefly
by degenerates, maniacs or criminals.
One hates to assault an honored lit
erary convention, but really tie facts
bear the statement out.
On the exact contrary, it would
seem that in ordinary times the
country dweller has q better chance
for happiness than the city man Of