Evening star., 1937-09-25

vague impression OF hitherto uns,ls-
pected world OF newt lovers began to
elaborate itself-for, obviously, il the
newt trade supported business with
ofilces in Asia, Europe and America,
then there must be newt lovers in
some abundance. There was prob
ably, thought the reviewer dazedly,
somewhere in the world a whole popu-
lace of newt fanciers, old gentlemen
and ladies who specialized in certain
breeds of nevis, who hated one an
opinion as to the beauties Of their
favorltes, who wrote scathing letters
to the New York Times about the
superiorities Of the longmaned newt
over the short-haired variety, who
exhibited their nevis at strange shows
held, no doubt, in submarines; who
sat up all night holding the nevis
little I'm when 1t was sick, who had
newt cemeteries wherein they buried
their dumb friends when they passed
on, alas, to better world-and so
on. And revelation Of all this, the
reviewer asserts, would be enough to
unsettled any mind.
For now, apparently. her own un-
deserving name had been listed
among those OF the authentic newt
lovers of the world. How could that
have happened, she asked herself?
Was there-but of course there was
q newt literature? OF course. There
must be, somewhere, magazine
called the Newt Lovers Evening Star
and Breeders Companion, and in
some inscrutable fashion HER name
and occupation had become entan-
gled with its mailing list. Was the
ENHANCEMENT necessarily permanent?
The reviewer asked herself that So
berly. The plain course open to her,
naturally, was to write to Prague,
New York or Singapore-or, better, to
all three-and explain, regretfully
but firmly, that there had been
Mistake. But somehow this reason
able procedure simply was not pos
sible. The delicate mad courtesy Of
the letters, the earnestness of their
insanity, made any objection un-
thinkable. The reviewer felt that
to interpose any kind of fact in the
face Of this well-bred but clearly
maniacal trade was simply out Of
the question. She resigned herself to
getting letters and, worse, to getting
a shipment Of nevis some time in
October
And so the next question was what
I do with them when they should
arrive. Now what would you do if
your otherwise perfectly ordinary ex-
istence was threatened with the possi-
bility-nay, the certainty-of the ad-
vent of tank full of nevis? How
would you bear up under that? The
reviewer struggled to deal with the
business reasonably. She divided the
possible courses open to her into two
parts. Either shall keep these nevis,
she said, or I shall not Well. l shall
not. What then? Let the little crea-
lures, which obviously could not have
heard so much as an unkind tone of
voice up until they came into her
keeping, die? Yes, said the reviewer
brutally. 1 shall let the - -
things die. Have you no feelings?
her conscience asked her reproach-
fully. No, she answered harshly, not
feeling. But at that point she be-
gan to waver. She was not sure. She
certainly hoped that she had no feel
ings-feelings for nevis, that is. But
maybe, when the trusting little crea-
lures arrived, and looked Imply
into her eyes with expressions of affec-
ton and love. and began to engage
with innocent merriment in their
newtian games and sports-maybe
she would develop feelings Horrible
thought! just try to imagine your