Evening star., 1936-11-28

PREJUDICES ARE SET FORTH
Miss Gathers Thoughts Believed Touch Basic Truths With Old
Personaites-Tragedy of Dancer Revealed in His Own
Words-Laughter and Its Sources

culiar to our day were already exist
ent The last century knew Of the
anomaly Of starving among plenty,
even as we do. It had its labor trou-
bles-with q virulence equal at least
to those OF today. 1t heard Of the
dangerous concentration Of wealth.
And so on. Ourselves, astonished by
sudden hardship, are apt to think our
situation unique. Miss Tarbell's work
makes it very plain that it Is not.
Some irony may be involved In the
constancy with which Utopia eludes
another generation of our saviours.
THE sHIPBUILDERS. BY George
Blake. Philadelphia: ]. B. Lippin-
colt Co.
This is q moving novel Of laboring
man and an industry. 1t tells the
story of q shipbuilder-a riveter-in
the days of England's unemployment.
1t also tells the story OF the whole
social group whose life has been
identified with shipbuilding and gives
a clear picture of what the paralysis
Of the industry meant, in high places
as well as low. 1t Is book done
without q thesis; the author makes
no plea for any ism as a cure for
human ills, but he does show those ills
in objective clarity and the showing
is not pretty. But then, 1t never
has been.
This Is book which Is wholly
readable, although not marked with
any significance beyond the timely.
Among serious timely novels 1t de-
serves a respectable place.
QUEEN OF HEARTS. BY Isaac Gold
berg. New York: John Day
Co., Inc.
MONTN THE MAGNIFICENT. BY
Horace Wyndham. New York:
Hillman-Curl, Inc.
THE HEAVENLY SINNER. BY
T. Everett Harre.
During the first half Of the nine
teenth century, while Victorian
prudery was fastening itself upon
the western world, q dancer whose
stage name was Lola Montez was re-
currently the scandal OF two
continents.
Married four times, the acknowl-
edged mistress Of eight or ten men
Gncluding the composer Listz and the
King of Bavaria) during her inter-
matrimonial interludes, Lola was the
bette noire Of the righteous from st.
Petersburg to Grass Valley. Calf,
during her fast 40 years. She was
not particularly beautiful, her dancing
was so bad that she frequently was
hissed off the stage, she caused q
fatal duel and was the occasion for
two or three suspected suicides, she
wore pants, she carried dog whip
with which she lashed any one who
offended her, she caused the over
throw of throne, she fell upon evil
days and became a devout penitent,
she died in poverty in New York and
all her glamour was hidden at last
under a headstone bearing the plain
name of Eliza Gilbert"
She died in 1861. and for IS years
was almost completely forgotten. Now,
within IL months, her memory has
been revived in three biographies.
There has been a hectic searching
by three men of old letters, news
papers, journals and hotel registers
for any reference to her-a necessary
searching, for Lola herself was q
pathological liar whose accounts of
her own adventures are full Of gross
contradictions.
Mr.. Harre presents her as roman
tic figure, victim Of upkind fate and
designing males, more sinned against
than SHINING, the perfect Magdalene.
Mr.. Wyndham regards her, quite to
the contrary and with very convinc-
ing accumulation of circumStantial
evidence, as a shallow, scheming, con-
scienceless. thoroughly depraved vam-
pire. His account of her is the most
factual and the best documented. Mr..
Goldberg takes a middle course which,
perhaps, is the fairest. There is con-
siderable factual disagreement in the
three books-which is not to be won-
dered at, for, whatever her virtues and
vices, the lady was one of the most
accomplished prevaricators of her day.
T. r. H.
THE TROUBLE I'VE SEEN. BY Mar
tina Gellhorn. New York: William
Morrow g. Co.
The people in these sketches have,
like Robert Frosts Hired Man." moth
ing to look forward to with hope,
nothing to look backward to with
pleasure. They are on relief.
Mrs. Madison, q woman Of indomi-
table will, goes through her cherries
life making the best Of every thing.
Hers is victory worth having. 9th
ers in the four stories yield to advers-
ity. Jim and Lou, the young lovers,
are weak, frustrated, caught by pow
erty and want before they know how
to fight back. Ruby, in the most poig-
nant of the series, Is little girl who
was damned because she wanted roller
skates and candy. Joe and Pete
you'll never know exactly what a
strike means until you read their
story struggle against the system
getting nowhere.
All these people Miss Gellhorn
knows from her experience as Fed
eral relief investigator She tells their
stories with sympathy and without
moralizing. She writes easily, even in
sprightly manner, but the quality Of
pity lies heavy over her pages; for
this drama is tragedy.
There Is an introduction by H. G.
Wells, but 1t is unnecessary. You be-
lieve anyway that these lost lives
should never have been lost. ET.
Air.C'OnditiOninU