Evening star., 1935-05-08
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cernond.


the scene of this realistic story, in
which q courageous woman, the
mother Of two children and the foster
mother of a third, becomes the out
standing character in a five-cornered
tangle Of lives involved in the eternal
drama of human relationships.
Lucia Is a young and attractive
widow, the proprietor of book shop
and circulating library in the busi-
ness section of the college town OF
New Lime, popular in the exclusive
social group Of faculty wives, devoted
alike to her own children and her
foster child and enjoying In the lat
ter a warm-hearted companlonshlp
that has in measure made more
bearable the tragic death OF her hus-
band
Jane Carmon's acquaintance with
love and friendliness began when
Lucia took her from the New Lime
children's home into the affectionate
warmth of her own family. In re-
Sponse to Lucia's maternal devotion
and influence Jane has almost for
gotten the twelve years Of starved
childhood and has grown into a beau
tiful and talented young woman.
Except for the ever-present financial
clouds that necessitate a ceaSelesS
struggle for survival no other shadow
of serious proportions has dimmed
the lives of Lucia and her family.
But now Jane is twenty, and through
her there descends a blackness that
is almost impenetrable, threatening
to Danish for all time that atmosphere
of contentmeht and happiness that
has made life so much worth while,
and placing upon Lucia the respon-
sibility of the keeping not only Of
her own soul, but the souls of her
friends and of those nearest and
dearest to her heart
New Lime prides itself upon its
broad minded modernism and its
tolerance toward the changing social
standards. When faced with fact
instead of theory. however. its New
England conscience has difficulty
bridging the wide gap between puritan
conventionalism and modern freedom.
Armed with an unshakable faith in
the teachings of her church. courage
lildO ID odulltlCoso a W1odoul LA4ot
comes near to being divine, Lucia
presents facts to these friends upon
whom the future of herself and those
she loves depends, and in such way
that only through admitting the mar
rowness and the smallnesS of their
own souls can they forsake her.
A remarkable woman. indeed is Lucia
Rue-a woman worth knowing, worth
cultivating and worth studying. If in
the beginning of this highly organized
civilization there could have been
woman with sufficient courage to face
the situation which confronts Lucia
and to meet it with the same wisdom
and honesty, how different place
this world would now be! But even in
this day she is unusual, for enlightened
humanity has not yet learned that
mans reversal of the status of divine
law has not defeated. nor can 1t ever
weaken, the power of that law.
A wiser, Saner and more godly in
dividual will be the one who reads
Her Soul to Keep" The novel has a
dignity and hnesse that compels q
broader knowledge of the reality and
the beauty of the souls of men and
women who possess the spiritual cour-
age to meet life's problems with
understanding, honesty and love.
OR ELSE-A PARK BENCH. BY
Edwin Bateman Morris. Philadel-
phia: The Penn Publishing Co.
In view of a number of the highly
questionable schemes fathered by the
New Dealers and proclaimed to be sure
cures for the economic disease from
which the country is suffering, the
bread-line relief plan upon which this
novel is constructed is neither better
nor worse than the failures now
labeled and shelved, perhaps for the
enlightenment Of future generations
A prominent newspaper man, the
owner, in fact. of the seventh largest
daily paper in the country. proposes a
plan that will take care of all Of the
unemployed population within the
territory of the Midwestern section in
which his paper circulates. 1t re-
quires only the cooperation of real
estate men. They are to lend to the
editor with the Pollyanna vision all of
the country shacks, houses, farms and
estates that are idle and singly or in
groups the unemployed will be trans
ported, penniless, to these havenS,
where they will wrest from the soil
sufficient food to keep them alive No
money is involved. But If by chance
some lucky beneficiary of the editors
self-SuStaining project should have the
good fortune to grow more food than
is needed. it may be sold and the
money kept by the grower-or
growers.
Unattached men are herded into
groups and sent to some Of the houses,
and unattached women are sent to
others. the women, of course, provided
with a supervisor. Weekly visits are
made by representatives of the news
paper and interest in the project Is
kept alive by glowing accounts of the
prospering mendicants.
BY some slip of management in the
newspaper Office man and woman
of widely separated heritage are sent
to an island farm as man and wife.
In different parts of the same city
CdI1l OllC kldu bCCl ICouCCu W q CliOlCc
between accepting the opportunity of
food and shelter under the auspices Of
the newspaper or starvation on park
bench. Paul Dodge is transported to
the island by one representative of
the editor and Donna Bell Is escorted
to the same island some hours later
by another.
Hostilities are Immediately declared
between the two, who have no means
of leaving the island and who have no
choice but to live in the same house.
They have nothing in common except
their poverty, and their temperaments
clash at every turn. To both of them
the sordid position in which they have
been placed by an error for which
neither of them Is responsible is OBJ
noxious. But the uplifting stories in
the Evening Blade telling Of the hap
piness and hope that its editor has
brought to MIR. and Mrs. Paul Dodge
make it impossible for them to reveal
their true relationship.
And so they live in this drab asso-
citation, separated by far more than
tho doorc thou noyor nrtor Grl,<;,,~