Evening star., 1937-09-18

lovers, OF, IL you please, tWO nuSDan0S
and one lover since sne eventually
married Maurice Sterne after some
time spent as his companion. In the
present work she Is likewise preoccu-
pied with a love affair-and how true
to form does the search for Reality
and a Soul run among those who
search, as it were, professionally. The
man in this case is Tony Luhan. the
Pueblo Indian who is Mabel's present
husband. The book is substantially the
history OF the developing necessity
which she came to feel for Tony's
sheltering arms.
Readers who struggled through the
last volume of this woman's deafening
and pointless condolences will remem-
Der that Tony's adven, was mys-
tically foretold to her, for in that
book she wrote of dreaming one night
of strong, bronzed face which seemed
to express an irresistible authority over
her spirit. At ABOUT the same time
her then husband, Maurice Sterne,
wrote her from New Mexico that her
mission from that moment on must be
to save Indian culture Though just
why she was so apostolized has never
been quite clear to the present realis-
tic reviewer). So she packed up and
came West, filled with Great Long
ing To Get Away From 1t All really)
and-children, what do you think
Why, there was big, strong man, and
he had the very same strong, bronzed
face OF her dream! Now, isn't that
simply wonderful?
Tony looked at Mabel and Mabel
looked at Tony and they Knew. Ma
bells husband, it would seem, also
shared this mystic knowledge to some
extent, for he slapped her in the face
and went back East OF this she writes
aggrieyedly that she had IN the past
sometimes wistfully longed for ilan
to beat her, but now that her wish
had been fulfilled-alas, it meant
nothing. Poor little girl! But just
how Tony's wife was eliminated from
the situation (for he was married to
an Indian woman) is never clearly
explained. The reviewer wondered.
Together with this high romance
the book contains long, wandering
passages on such MabellIan bsnalities
as the Spirit OF the Tribe, Psychic
Release. the Soul of the Indian, the
sense OF Utter Fulfillment to be had
from the landscape, the pathos of her
own Empty Past-and What Have
You. The writing in these digressions
would do little credit to third rate
is stuffy conventionality of purest ray
serene.
Yet, as has been said, there is q
sincerity in the work, a crude, below
ing sort of sincerity that makes the
shallowness and dullnes OF its think
ing somehow pathetic One feels, As
one reads, that one must bear with
this woman, embarrassing as she is
For she moves one to pity. She has
obviously tried desperately all her life
to convince herself that she is i'm
portant. she has tried too to learn
enough to make herself important
But she has never possessed, apparent
ly, the cold courage necessary to face
the first fact of any self education
which is that nobody is important and
that importance is the most unim-
portant illusion wherewith humanity
is plagued. Consequently she has
remained frantic exhibitionist. And
as she is, apart from her exhibtionism.
nothing but an energetic female OF
completely ordinary gifts, the themes
which have attracted her, and her
efforts TO express these themes in
writing have been utterly insignificant
save, of course, as they awfully
demonstrate the processes of preda-
tory. self -indulgent, ignorant. conven-
tional woman whose existence she
apparently does not even suspect.
Well, there it is. Fundamentally,
one can say that Mabel is bore. Her
book is offensive, pathetic and utterly
pleased with itself To what do these
qualities appertain, if not to the
boring? But this is only volume ~
of her condolences. There will prob
ably be others. She is healthy. One
can only hope for the best
A LETTER TO ROBERT FROST
AND OTHERS. BY Robert Hillyer,
New York: Alfred A. Knopf
THESE grave accomplished poems
have already had publication.
They appeared in the Atlantic Month
ly and the Saturday Review of Litera-
ture. The first, as the title indicates,
is TO Robert Frost, letter" The
others are TO Charles Townsend Cope
land, TO James B. Mum, TO Peyton
| Randolph Campbell, TO Bernard De
Voto, to Queen Nefertiti and to the
authors son. They are philosophical
works in rhymed couplets, expressing
the sentiments of poet grown Older
as he looks at changing world
They are peaceful, sad and humor-
[ Gus. What, aAks the poet, after com
menting on the change in literary
fashions,
i III gold gets rusty, what shall iron do:
! II poets, prophets, critics. are untrue
Why blame the statesmen, who ir
turn reflect
/ On dusty mirrors the uncircumspect
When poets laugh at metres, with
applause,
Why punish citizens who laugh al
laws?
All follies regimented are akin
Free verse and Bolshevism and bas
gin"
And again, speaking of the darl
outlook for the future OF the nations
The things that make outlive tn
things that mar,
Rome and Byzantium crashed-bu
here We are,
And even the dark spectre OF darl
ages
Calls forth old warriors who sham
our sages:
Which would you choose, 10 put
IN word
To die with Arthur? Or TO live wit
Ford?"
A like mellowness runs through a
the verses, as the poet reminisces {