Evening star., 1935-08-28
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
THE OXEN OF THE SUN. BY Irving
Bachelor. New York: Frederick A.
StOkeS Co
Margaret Cermoud.

an empire mas Deeu erected Dy the
gentle analyst and philosopher whose
wisdom has for many years been an in
spiration to millions Of people. Mr..
Bachelors life has spanned the era Of
the most stupendous development in the
history of the world. From the COM
manding tower of journalism" he has
witnessed the evolution Of the most
powerful nation on earth. 1t has been
his privilege to number among his in
innate friends the mighty builders whose
brains and labors wrought from natures
raw materials the miracle oxen that to-
day serve mankind the commonplace
necessities and convenienceS OF civiliza-
ton.
Oil Is the first OF these oxen of the
sun In the dramatic pageant OF Americas
fantastic ride to world leadership and Of
the effect upon the American people Of
the phenomenal wealth that poured
into their laps while the empire was in
the making. More and better railroads,
sound banks. electricity, telephones and
many other oxen Of the sun pass in the
procession Of history-making events,
with descriptive word pictures and in
innate human interest stories OF the men
who created and developed them.
1t is the Honorable Socrates Potter
who sketches the men and women who
rode to fame and fortune on the oxen
of their time, and who relates in simple,
pungent narrative the social, political
and economic changes Of thought that
accompanied the rapid growth Of the
Nation. But these are not stories OF the
multimillionaires of later days. They
are the stories of Jim" Hill in shirt
sleeves and muddy boots amid a gang
OF laborers laying railroad tracks across
lonely stretch Of prairie; Of TONY"
Brady acquiring within few minutes q
handsome tea store in order that the
father Of the girl he sought to marry
would not find him tending bar; Of
Tom" Edison lying awake all night try
ing to muster enough courage to follow
his wife's advice to name twenty thou
sand dollars as the price Of an invention
for which he was offered a hundred
thousand before he could humble the
fabulous figure proposed by his wife;
Of Maria Scott, Chambermaid, whose
wealth and grammar never matched; of
Alexander Graham Bell being denied
hundred thousand dollars for patents
that two years later the same people would
gladly have paid him twenty-five mil
lions; OF A. Barton Hepburn, who turned
the compilations Of New York'S corrupt
politicians a greeniSh, SeaSick hue: Of
Grover Cleveland, who accomplished the
same effect in the Democratic party: of
John d. Rockefeller earning twenty five
dollars month as bookkeeper in q
wholesale produce commission house; Of
Andrew Carnegie, uninterested in the
sons of millionaires, but seeking always
the "undeveloped riches under the skulls
of a lot of country boys"
All these and a host Of other giants
Of Americanism are woven into this
romance of the oxen of the sun and
the love story Of Bill Barrett and Irene
Purcell. And, in contrast to that
men and through them building an
empire, the Honorable Socrates Potter
presents a clear and concise analysis
Of the money-mad era which followed
it and from which the Nation is still
suffering.
This latest novel of one Of America S
foremost journalists, authors and philoS-
opherS is one that contains rich material
for thoughtful citizens to mediate upon
and to profit by. 1t is big in its moral
and spiritual significance.
VEIN OF IRON. BY Ellen Glasgow.
New York: Harcourt, Brace d Co.
The tiny village of Ironside, tucked
| away in the hill country between the
Blue Ridge and the Alleghenies is the
scene of this new story by Virginia S
most prolific woman novelist. The set
ting is picturesque and the characters
are true types of the hardy generations
of men and women in whose veins flows
the ancestral blood of conquerors of the
wilderness-stalwart defenders of home
and of faith against the forces of nature
and the evil deeds of man.
In the life of Ada Fincastle is retold
the story of the ages. worn threadbare
and made trite by the would-be realists
of ultra modernism, yet one that is
always new when 1t comes from the
finely balanced pen Of a romanticiSt
with sympathetic understanding Of the
vagaries of human nature and q fair
sense of proportion in judging its frail-
ties. All of these qualities are success
fully blended in this warm-hearted mar
rative of family and community life
among the almost isolated people OF the
hill and mountain regions of Virginia,
where the clan spirit is tantamount to
a religion and where the poor can always
provide food for a poorer neighbor.
Rock-ribbed PresbyterianiSm and q
false concept Of honor are the Snags
which, rip and splinter the craft that
dogma has rendered too frail for success
full navigation with its cargo of human
souls in quest Of happiness. John Fin
castle. brilliant young preacher whose
sermons have won the praise Of two con-
tinents, has returned to the home of his
ancestors in disgrace, unfrocked and
convicted of heresy because his vision
of better and cleaner world penetrated
beyond the boundaries of orthodoxy.
BY an equally corrupt definition Of
righteousness it is an honorable and not
a sinful act for the elders of two IRON
side families to separate Ada Fincastle
and Ralph Mcbride and force the young
man to marry the village liar and cheat,
who has tricked him for the sole selfish
purpose of preventing his marriage to
Ada.
1t is of these two lives in their struggle
toward happiness, and of Grandmother
Fincastle; impregnable against time and
hardship; of Aunt Meggie, of the scholar
ly John Fincastle and other noble char
acters in the village of Ironside that the
story deals as it unfolds an intimate
pattern of life among the hill people
of Virginia from the beginning of the
century to the present era Of economic
aolrana aud ctraSc