Evening star., 1935-12-29
Bv Marv.CQrter Roberts.

- advertised as coming from a plot
which President Roosevelt devised. He
had the question but without being
able to find an answer. Accordingly
six Well-knoWn authors were asked to
collaborate on putting the idea-both
question and anSWer-into book form.
Each of the six contributed chapter.
Readers CT mysteries naturally will
feel keen interest in a book of such
unusual genesis. Really case-hardened
readers, however, are likely to. put the
volume down with some disappoint-
nent. There can be no doubt that
the President had good idea, but the
execution has been too simple to allow
of much suspense. And what is a
mystery without suspense?
The idea was that a man should
decide to disappear in such a man.
aer as to make it seem that he was
dead-taking with him S5,000,000 and
leaving no traces. After that he
wanted to return, in a new identity,
and spend that s5,0Oo,oO0 in a con-
spicuous way. How, asked the Presi-
dent, could he do it?
The solution involves some financial
transactions of delicate nature, some
facial surgery and a faxed accident.
The plot is successful. The man gets
clear. Then it becomes necessary for
him to return in order to save his wife
from a charge of murder, and he is
hard put to it to undo the scheme
which he had so carefully wrought.
That is all there is to it.
Somehow, one misses the corpse.
One feels Wistful for that horrid mo-
ment when a ghostly hand reaches
through the oriel window and switches
off the lights. One would like to
hear Lady Sybil Whatshername Shrek.
And there is no corpse, no hand, no
Shrek in the Presidents story, as
worked out. 1t is just little too
reasonable. 1t is, in fact, perfectly
possible, provided that you had
S5,000,000 to begin with. So, consid-
ering that point, what's the use?
THE SOUND WAGON. BY T. S.
Stribling. Garden City: Doubleday
Doran & Co.
THIS novel is satire on current
l. political conditions. If it seems
sometimes heavy-handed in its attack
(as it does to this reviewer), it may
still be called a pretty accurate pic
ture. It is fiction, but various recent
works of non-fiction, carefully authen-
ticated, carry out the soundneSS of
Mr.. Stribling'S thesiS-that our NUM-
cipal and national government is not
wholly devoid Of the taint OF corrup-
ton. One can only wish that he, writ
ing a novel about it, had used some
of the deadly ridicule of ironic exag-
geration which would raise his book
above the level of reporting and make
of ii a lasting commentary. Anatole
France has been dead some 10 years,
but the world still misses hinl-when
such themes as this are to be con-
Eidered.
Mr. Stribling takes reform candi-
date for Congress, shows how he was
elected by the boss whom he was
fighting, by the simple expedient OF
having the needed number of voters
repeat for him. From then on until
he lands in Atlanta, and his JEALOUS,
cHrping wife is elected to fill his place
and keep his name alive his career
is one Of collaboration with racketeers,
international munitions sellers, bosses
and like gentry. To be sure, he never
sees himself as a corrupt man. Instead,
he is model of good intentions. But
as such he is the perfect instrument
for the public place which he has to
fill tor so Mr.. Stribling tells us) for
he is always plausible.
The book can be horrifying or
amusing, just as you like it. For Mr..
Stribling does little commenting. He
simply tells his story. 1t is well-con-
structed but the least bit solid. One
feels that the masonry might have
been cemented effectively with some
humor. Perhaps the outstanding
paragraph in the story is where the
boss, an old German, fatherly of ap-
pearance, expresses his idea of tax
alton. He says:
"* The real object of money
has never been its trade value, as
most people think: its real object has
always been in the nature of ransom;
a tax which the people of country
pay to its strong men in exchange for
their personal freedom. That is why
the people can't use their votes to
take the money back again. The whole
arrangement would be Cancelled and
the people would fall into direct
slavery again, just as Germany and
Italy and Russia have done"
On the whole it is a sound book,
If only of possible contemporary in
terest. It misses the heights of satire
by so little, that one wishes it had
been better.
ARNOLD BENNETT. A Portrait Done
at Home Together With ITO Letters
From A. B. BY Dorothy Cheston
Bennett. New York; Claude Kendall
and WIloughby Sharp.
THIS book has quality rare
=. among works of its kind-that is,
among works written by the feminine
associates of deceased male artists.
It is based on the intimacy of the
authors knowledge; it is intimate,
yet it has none of the offensive
irrelevancies which so often strike on
the sensibilities Of the reader In
similar portraits" 1t is, instead, a
rather exquisitely done thing, thread
ing its way delicately and Sensitively
through the course of a complicated
relationship, making plain to the
reader tnss problems which that re-
Iatonshir involves, but committing no
errors of taste and violating no ina
plicit condolences.
: The author, indeed, tells us in her
tnrsGord that she planned the work
with Benefits permission and ap-
proval The suggestion came from
her. but he received it cordially,
adding as his own thought that she
begin keeping a book of notes on
which to base her portrait. She has
written nothing else about him.