Evening star., 1936-01-15
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
STOKER BUSH. BY James Hanley.
New York: The Macmillan Co.
Margaret Cermond.

New York: The Macmillan Co.
In one Of Londons mean streets, where
long rows Of ramshackle dwellings shelter
the dock workers. coke stokers. sailors and
others Of the common labor type, a family
that ought to be as happy as it is possible
for unde-paid men and underfed famil-
les to be lives In incessant turmoil. There
had been contentment in haphazard,
futile sort of way for long time, as
time is measured by youth, until an
intruding Irishman introduced a long
ing for romance into the heart of the
wife Of the humble stoker.
Chris Bush is a fine, huge young man,
honest, working, SLOW -witted and
endowed with unlimited patience. He has
q deep love for and an abiding faith in his
wife, a tolerant affection for his old father
in-law and q natural parental adora-
tion for his two children. The father
in-law is rather likable old character
and would perhaps have been kind and
devoted father If his only daughter had
not only always hated him, but also
resented having to feed him and give
him a home in his old age. All her life
she had hated him, yet less selfish girl
could have found many qualities in him
to love and respect.
But Anne was not that kind of daugh-
ter She liked finery, cinemas of the
melodramatic variety and money to
spend. Perhaps 1t was fear on the part
of old Harry Of her passion for the things
beyond the limits of his meager earn
ings that prompted him to rush her too
soon into matrimony. Chris was husky
stable fellow good looking in his clumsy,
gentle fashion, a steady worker. not much
of drinker and holding to strict code
of honor in respect to women. His own
family was a grade or so above Annes,
and the knowledge that he would be able
to provide a permanent home for the
failing old man probably had Influenced
his decision to hurry Anne into marriage.
Anne Is twenty-four when this story
opens. She is pretty in her cheap finery,
restless, incompetent and entirely selfish,
and she has been married to Chris for
seven long years.
A breezy, engaging Irishman named
Rooney has fattered her. made love to
her and filled her with a desire to desert
her husband, her children and her old
father and cast her lot with a man whose
brass buttons and gold anchor sleeve
decorations place him above Chris in
rank and in money. Throughout the
neighborhood and in all the pubs Annes
behavior with Rooney while Chris is at
sea is a lively topic of gossip. Then
Chris comes home. Nobody tells him ex-
actly what is going on, but he senses
a changed atmosphere through Anne's
attitude toward him and through the
half-told stories which his slow mind
cannot entirely grasp. Something tells
him that Anne is not so well respected
as she formerly had been. The old man
hints at things but lacks the courage
to tell Chris what he wants to know.
He wants to know the truth, yet is afraid
to seek 1t.
And so the little family group poor
in worldly goods and so warped by hard
ship and privation that its sense of pro-
portion is ali awry, rushes toward ruin
in flood of angry passions and stubborn
willfulness which Chris is unable to stem.
Belief in his wife, patience with her con-
slant nagging and determined faith in
her integrity push Chris to greater ef-
forts to make her happy, and this is the
story of how the kindly, pathetic, lovable
stoker struggles to keep her love and to
save his family from the disastrous con-
sequences of her contemplate temper
and headstrong selfshnesS. Events
climb to a heroic climax in the collision
at sea OF a palatial ocean liner with an
iceberg as Anne reaps her coveted re-
ward.
The story is told in the English OF
London's back streets, and it gives
realistic inside picture of the lives and
the passions of these poor families, whose
miserable plight has always aroused the
sympathetic interest of American readers.
THE STRING GLOVE MYSTERY. BY
Harriette r. Campbell. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf.
An attractive woman calls upon noted
psychiatrist to seek advice concerning
her husband whom she believes to be
in danger of death by violence. Danvers
Carne is an erratic scoundrel who has
no conscience about money. about debts
or about morals. He has dynamic per-
sonality which attracts and holds the
devotion of those who do not know him
and that exerts hypnotic charm upon
those from whom he thinks he can ex-
tract money to satisfy his extravagant
whimS. That he Is a victim OF mental
unbalance is borne out by the fact that
his admirers worship him for a short
time and then desert him.
Dr. Jerrold does not understand just
how he can give advice in such case,
but he promises to respond to call for
his services in case matters become worse.
The next day during fox hunt through
the country adjacent to Marpen Hall a
chalk pit at the edge of thick woods re-
ceives into its bowl the dead body of Dam
vers Carne. Evidence in the vicinity indi-
Gates that Carne had been thrown from
his horse by the dangling branch OF a
fallen tree, dragged short distance by
the startled beast and finally loosed from
the stirrup too close to the rim OF the pit.
It might easily have been an accident,
for the afternoon was rainy and instead
Of the string gloves which he should have
been wearing on such q day his hands
were encased in chamoiS gloves, which
are slippery when wet and make the
management of horse impossible.
But several members of the hunting
party are doubtful and DR.. Jerrold Is
called to Marpen Hall. He soon reads the
situation to be all and more than the
wife of the dead man had on the previous
day described, and he promptly discovers
that murder has been done. Every per-
son connected with the household either
adored or hated Danvers Carne. Even
those who worshiped him had sufficient
cause to wish him dead. With the con-
sent of the family the pSychiatr1St Sc