Evening star., 1937-05-22

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families who lived beyond their means
In the remembered faith that good
times would keep up forever.
Good times do not keep up forever,
OF course, and the children Of these
families 1bave to give up their cars and
college and take Jobs. One young
man engages in the easier profession
OF selling liquor-and goes to Jail. He
IS contrasted to second boy whose
family has virtuously resisted the spec
ulating fever, and who brings the
wholesome outlook to bear on his
friends trouble. In the end, they pull
out OF their difficulties, not without
loss, but still with q chastened state
OF mind,
The book Is q good superficial pic
ture OF the late trouble and should
make entertaining light reading.
PATTERN OF THREE. By Mary
Hastings Bradley. New York: D.
Appleton Century Co.
H1s Is a love story of the wom-
ans magazine variety-so, If YOU
like love stories Of the women's' mag
azlne variety, you ought to find it sub
lime. 1t tells how Eve and Dick get a
divorce 30 that Dick may marry Kay.
and then it tells how Kay and Dick
have two babies and make a home
while Eve dies. 1t Is harmless. The
triangle without the points, in other
words.
FOUNTAINS OF YOUTH. By Dor
mer Creston. New York: E. P,
Dutton & Co.
THIS is the biography of Marie
Bashkirtsetf. AS its source is
almost wholly the famous Bashkirtseff
diaries and indeed as the book itself
consists In q large part of excerpts
from these diaries, there would seem
to be little. if anything, new in it. It
Is, however, the first life Of the young
1conoclast Of the 70s that has been
written-probably because Marie her
self wrote her story with such copious-
ness; 1t has that value at least, and it
also serves to get between the covers
OF q single volume the chief happen
lngs Of Marie's brief career.
Whether this is kind service to
her, however, is debatable. The story
OF her life, as she wrote it, is moving
thing because it is self-revelation, and
because self-revelation in Marie's day
was for young woman a thing un-
heard OF. Her own story, therefore,
as the world has admitted. had the
value OF an essay in forbidden honesty.
But when the events and emotions
which she recorded are told by q
second person that value is lacking.
and the story becomes pitiable, and
the teller, in spite of obviously perfect
. intention, becomes cruel.
For the hard fact about Marie
Bashkirtseff's life is that it contained
little OF sufficiently intrinsic in
terest to merit telling for its own
sake. Equally inescapable is the fact
that it contained much that was
foolish, vain and crude. Told in
Maries own words, the record of her
career has the dignity of any effort
OF a human being to be honest with
himself about himself But the actual
materials of her honesty-the longing
Tor fame, the efforts to attract famous
people, the unsuccessful love affairs
have none of this merit. They become
in the bare record, stripped Of her
personal intensity, dangerously near
tawdry. Miss Creston reiterates that
Marie deserves her fame, although
she accomplished little in her life
and died at the age OF "a; but ap-
parently she has not noted that that
fame has rested since the early s0s
on Mar1e'S own account Of herself:
Her only real achievment was her
autobiography. The one thing she
has never needed is historian.
Marie Bashkirtseff was born In
Russia in 1860, of a well-to-do but
harum-scarum family Her people
were minor nobility. When she was
child her family moved to Nice and
later to Paris. Marie was obsessed
by a desire for glory; she did not
particularly care what the source of
acclaim was to be, but acclaim she
was determined to have She also
longed for approval; she discovered
that the unconventional manners of
her family we're considered scandalous
to her French neighbors and made
pathetic attempts to set these points
right. She undertook to study singing,
she studied painting, she thought of
q brilliant marriage. she tried to
establish a salon. She put into all
these efforts the anguished intensity
Of genius, but genius itself she did
not possess. Except for q brief success
in her painting, she failed in every
thing. She kept journal Of her hopes
and despairs; it was unabashed revela-
tion. It was published after her death
and, by its franlness, its vividness
and its shrewdness, it established her
posthumously as . personality. It
seems curious thing to write the life
of a person whose only recognized
accomplishment Is self history, but
that Is what we have here. As has
been said, the book has the merit of
compression. The diaries, on the other
hand, are very long.
PYRAMIDS OF POWER. BY M. L.
Ramsay. Indianapolis: Bobbs
Merrill Co.
THIS is the story Of Samuel insults
one-time great utility empire, its
rise and fell. It Is a vividly written
thing, obviously put together with an
eye for popular appeal, with many
word portraits OF notorious person.
ages, anecdotes and epigrams. 1t has,
of course. an astonishing story to tell
and one which the public probably
has never understood in its entirety.
The insult empire, as Mr.. Ramsay de-
scribes it, was the greatest organiza-
ton ever held in the hands OF one
man. Its growth and development
are an astounding piece Of history.
There is reason, therefore, In writing
that history, 50 that the generality
Of US can follow it.
The book Is built up on the idea
that the light for publicly owned
llti1itieR was irnnenan1v forward nv