Evening star., 1937-05-26
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
BY MARGARET GERMOND.
THE JOPPA DOOR. BY Hope Williams
Sykes. New York: G. P. Putnam's

sons.
I shall make something of myself and
not always be looking at the dust make
with the steps of my work Shoes Such
wide toes they have. So ugly. My home
spun dress, gathered so full; it has no
color. Only my gingham apron has the
blue and white stripes in it. My hands
are stiff and brown from the binding
OF the grain in the sun. Sure I am like
the OK of the field, while the cow-feed on
my head gets heavier and heavier"
With these thoughts filling her mind,
Katharine Thiel, plodding wearily and
painfully homeward on the long, dusty
road from the field, with heavy load
of hay piled high on her head takes
stock OF herself and Of the life of un-
ceasing hardship which is the disheart-
enlng prospective lot of all German girls
who must work in the fields. The Thiels
are cleaners in section Of Germany
where the farms out from their village
are SO small that every growing thing
must be gathered and stored for use in
the lean, unproductive months when food
Is scarce and money is scarcer than food.
Like an OK I am, but like an OK I will
not always be" concludes Katharine as
she tells herself that she will not stay
"ACAA G4AC 4dAll. Ill OIL
that promise to herself Katharine Jour-
neys many miles farther away from the
farm than she actually desires to 20 and
her life proves to be far different from
her scarcely comprehended ambition to
weld beauty and happiness with useful
ness. Realization of her limited ma
terialistic concept is denied, and her life
as she defines it is failure And with
the SirorljcjtU nf Lot
tinguished Second Hoeing," Mrs. Sykes
does not permit her to know that it is
upon such women that the race depends
for the solidity of its existence.
Let there be no misunderstanding
about the fact that although the story
OF Katharine is that of an Immigrant.
written, as the author explains, ito
glorify life lived with strength and
honor in simple words that an immigrant
woman Of rare understanding and beauty
OF soul might have used" it is also the
story of womankind throughout the
civilized world, and as such it draws a
response from all that is fine in the
human heart.
Katharine has practically nothing to
do with the fashioning of her life. She
goes to work as housemaid, laundress.
nurse. cook and shopkeeper for village
food merchant and baker very soon after
her eldest brother fees from Germany
to avoid military service 1t Is against
the principles Of the devout Thiels to
participate in a government plan which
compels preparation for the deliberate
killing OF innocent human beings. Freid-
erich goes to Palestine
Opportunity comes to Katharine to
serve in the household of a rich man
In Stuttgart and her father compels
her to grasp it. Then her family leaves
Germany and joins Friedrich in Pal
estine. Katharine is again ordered by
her father, whose word is law, to give
up her fine place and meet them in the
Holy Land. And it Is there that fate
changes the whole course of her mod
estly ambitious life and sends her forth
into bewildering land of strangers.
On a short pilgrimage from Sarona to
Joppa she meets at the gate of the
ancient city the man whose image and
whose compelling eyes have remained in
her conscious mind, against her will,
since the days when she sang in the
church choir In the German village He
has promised that he will find her wher-
ever she goes. And Herr Heunsaker, an
ltlnerant German wagon maker who fled
10 Russia to avoid military service, keeps
MS WORD. She does not want to marry
hlm. He is loved and admired wherever
ne is known, but he frightens her Her
father settles the question by accepting
Herr Heunsaker's offer.
From the beginning of his love for
katharlra the wagon maker has PROM
lsed to be faithful to her always. And
then, after numerous ill-conceived
schemes Tor earning money fail, Adolf
Heunsaker becomes a convert under the
persuasive influence of brother of the
Mormon Church and, in spite of all
protest, he takes her and their children
to the Mormon colony in Utah, where a
man is expected to acquire as many
wives and as many children as he can
support Nine children are born to
Katharine and Adolf, but they are not
enough. Pressure is put upon Adolf
Heunsaker even though he is often out
OF work and his many efforts to launch
enterprises of his own result in failure.
In the early years of their life together
Katharine realizes that her ambition to
become singer will never materialize.
In Utah, as her family continues to
increase, she places her hope in her
children. Poverty in a strange land
among alien people falls heavily upon
the pretty German girl whose unspoken
promise to herself had been that she
would make of her life something diff
ferent. Just how overwhelmingly great
that something different" became is
revealed in Katharina's own story, told
In her simple manner from the in
cident OF the burdensome load of hay
until her sixtieth birthday, on which
Adolf presents her with a ng-promised
token OF his love and tells her that she
Is still the loveliest girl he knows
Sure, do not know this day comes
Is katharina's response. Such happiness
never think know Herr Heunsaker
puts his hand beneath my chin. He
uptilts my face. Upon my lips he sets
KISS. Sure, am nothing without him."
X X X X
A CASE FOR THREE DETECTIVES.
BY Leo Bruce. New York: Frederick
A. Stokes Co.
The only interesting factor in this Pc
cul1ar mystery novel is its evident pur-
pose to stamp trio of erudite profess
sors OF criminology as manufacturers of
1diotic theories which contain enough
semblance Of logic to convince an over
awed jury Of the guilt of a suspected
murderer and to play up hick police
man as genuinely sincere represent
ative of the law who gathers facts
without indulging in a lot of fancy work
and who puts his gleanings together
in bllSneSSlike and effeotiva yoopnar