Evening star., 1935-07-31
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cermond.
SEED OF THE LAND. BY Isabel Stew
art Way. New York: D. Appleton

Century Co.
Here is the story of q woman who
found in q raging blizzard what she be-
| 1ieved to be the answer to the meaning
| of her own peculiarly isolated life. The
feeble glow of flaming torch through
the thick curtain of snow gave birth TO
q strange new radiance within the be-
| ing of this odd giant of woman. Always
adversely and heartache had been part
| and parcel of her existence. But
| all that was before she had started out
In this binding, bitter storm to round
up her cows and lead them to safety.
The glow from the burning beacon. kept
alight by the youngest Of her three sons,
had not only guided her feet through
| the treacherous storm, but had shown her
also the plan and pattern of an impreg-
nable human structure. Through the
strength of her big body and the determi-
nation of her iron will, for her three
children and from them, she would found
great family.
Ruhamah-even her name is sugges-
tive of bulk and power-might have de-
| scended from a fine ancestral line, but
she had only an ancient Kashmir shawl
to prove it, the shawl in which she had
been wrapped and carried to an orphan
asylum after the death of the mother
she could barely remember. BY the time
she was eleven she had developed into a
| full-grown woman, and at thirteen, when
the orphanage could no longer keep her,
she was shipped with a group of COIN
mates from New York to the Midwest,
where they were to be adopted by
farmers.
It so happened that Asa Wyatt need
ed a competent woman to care for
his invalid wife, run his extravagant
household and look after his pretty
daughter. Mamie Wyatt and Ruhamah
were the same age, but due to the great
difference in their size and the frivolous,
| irresponsible disposition of the former,
| the result was one of those strange
| partnerships between human beings in
which the stronger Is the dominant
character and at the same time the
games invariable loser.
Losing was not a new experience to
Ruhamah. 1t was in fact the one trick
Of fate with which she was most
familiar. She had lost her battle to
save the Wyatt family from ruin, and
she lost in the contest with Mamie for
| a mans love. Having lost in this in
stance that which she knew she dared
| not hope for, she set herself the task
of making secure the marriage OF Mamie
and Dave Robbins, only to have the
| man-craZy girl run off and marry
| worthless renter, with whom she lived in
! shiftless contentment for the rest of her
life.
Big, handsome and worthy Dave had
turned to Ruhamah in his despair. and
she had married him in the belief that
fhrn,,oh ha calficI, ha
soon forget his passion for the girl who
| had Tilted him. Three husky sons had
been born to Ruhamah and Dave, but
Dave had died Of pneumonia contracted
| while carrying a Group remedy through
| a driving storm to Mamie's baby girl
when his own small son was at the point
| of death and he was needed at home.
Small wonder that Ruhamah had lost
her contact with God as well as her
faith in mankind. PurposeleSs now
seemed those years Of hard work in the
fields by the side of Dave as they ex-
tended their lands, built their home and
made their farm pay. Only necessity
had driven her onward since Dawes
death. But now, through the faint glow
OF sputtering torch in a swirling snow
storm she has rediscovered God, found
the answer to the reason for her power
full body. given birth to the ambition to
found a mighty family, and been in
spired to use her great strength and
her iron will to fulfill it.
The greatness of these three husky
sons of Ruhamah Robbins is not to be
achieved in the world of affairs, but
through the soil. the fertile brown earth
of the rich farming land. And so
she plans for these big. brawny
sons worthy products of her own gi-
gantic form, and this novel is the story
Of her planning and of the soil in which
she roots them. works them, trains them
and educates them to the end of weld
ing into an impregnable unity a family
and farm unsurpassed in agricultural
and cattle history.
Robust, capable farm girls are to be
the wives of these giants of the earth.
Their sons and their grandsons are to
be equally as strong and husky, and the
Robbins family is to go on forever, increaS-
ing in wealth and in fame to the end
Of time. But in all of her planning and
managing and guiding of these splendid
sons Of hers, Ruhamah neglects to pro-
vide for the one paramount factor in
the shaping of human destinieS She
has forgotten the inherent right and the
power of the individual for self de
termination
Many elements enter into this weav-
ing of pattern of decisive beauty out
of the perversities of human nature, the
vagaries of the life-producing soil and
the unceasing spiritual force that drives
on to survival. 1t bears the strong,
wholesome scene of soft, rich soil, an
aroma that pleases and satisfies.
MURDER IN HASTE. BY Garnett
Weston. New York: Frederick A.
Stokes Co.
A. gay party and a returned prodigal
serve to launch an unusual tale of fan
tastic death by violence at the luxurious
ranch of Owen OFerrell in Moon Valley,
California. Phelim O'Ferrell, for whom
worldwide search has been made for
months, appears without the formality
of notification of his pending arrival
at the office of a Beverly Hills attorney
to claim his share of the ancestral estate
which he deserted in his youth Luther
Crone sends him to Moon Valley with
Teresa Browne, where he will meet the
solicitor who is settling the estate and
renew acquaintance with the brother he
has not seen since he ran away from
home. 1t so happens that Teresa is the
sister of Owen OFerrell's wife.
On the road over the mountains Teresa
and phelim give n lift tn a genial violin-