The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-21
A Revolutionary
Hero To Thrill
The DebntanteS
LEAN MEN, by Ralph Bates, New
York: Macmillan Co. $3.50.
Reviewed by
JAY GERLANDO
by del

3A& oLANA@fAANDO
I SUSPECT that the reason why
: the bourgeois reading public has
not taken yet to revolutionary
novels is because of the rather I'M
polished character of its heroes.
What hero in what revolutionary
novel, for instance, can balance a
tea-cup, or a cookie for that matter,
and talk blithely of beautiful
nothings; or take part in a dem
onstrstion without ruffling his hair
or his sense of hunor; or speak to
you about the revolution and his
soul in almost one breath? Not one,
I'm afraid. And that has been the
trouble Our heroes have not been
Leslie Towards for one thing. For
another, they haven't worn the cor
rect kind of cravats, or had suf-
ficient amount of social standing, or
worried enough about their golf
game, Their accent has smacked of
the factory rather than of the
boudoir. And, horror Of horrors, I
don't believe that a single one of
them would ever think of dressing
for dinner.
Mr.. Bates hero is no such slob.
He is what is called a perfect gen
tlemsn, accustomed to the drawing
room atmosphere, the club--oom
atmosphere, and especially to at
atmosphere, and especially to at
a revolutionist, yes-but what can
you expect of these clever young
men. Youth must have its fling,
you know, whether the fling be rev.
olution or a Follies Girl. Francis
Charing almost as neat a nomen-
clature as Leslie Howard Ell what?)
is Mr.. Bates idea of revolution
airy" hero. Park Avenue will adore
him, especially the younger set, for
Charing is really quite a revolu-
zionist and isn't Revolution a really
progressive Off you know what I
mean idea? Charing is gentle
manly and charming, but Mr.. Bates
definitely makes you understand
that he is member of the Third
Internationale, which is not the
name of new baseball league but
a much more dignif1ed term for
Communist Party"
When Francis Charing felt that
life in England was simply becoming
too much with two women pulling
him this way and that, telling him
to make up his mind as to which
one he wanted, Charing did the
sporting thing and got Away From
1t All by going down into Romantic
Spsin--just as his fellow-country-
man, Lord Byron. had gone down
into Romantic Greece some years
ago when his woman question be-
came too acute. Most everybody
tells us that Byron went for the
sake of an ideal; well, so did Char
ing. The blurb says he went to
Spain ito lead and direct the rev.
! dictionary movement there"
In Spain Charing did a great deal
Of thinking, particularly of England
and the two women he left behind.
Occasionally he did mix in with
some Of the dock workers and be-
come quite friendly with some of
them. He even struggled arms
across the Pyrenees for workers and
on one occasion, helped sneak a
liberal, wanted by the authorities,
across into France. And he also
almost had an affair with a Com
munist girl Cor rather, with girl
who belonged to the Third Interna
tlonale). But most of the time he
was thinking of his soul. of the
two women home. and Of his hobby,
music. No revolution or strike could
really interfere with any of these.
for Charing was a cultivated gentle
man first, a revolutionist afterwards
and a hero always, of course.
Mr.. Bates, according to the bio
graphical data he himself furnishes
is not really a drawing man
He has worked in factories. asso
ciated with all sorts of common
folk, and taken an active part in
Spain "in revolutionary strikes of
recent years. But it is hard to de-
duce such frightful facts about him
either from his manner of writing
"a manner that resembles a long,
rambling, well-polished monologue
spoken with smoke rings-nor from
/ the heh vio,. ~ b{e r,vs,,.o ~ i