Evening star., 1938-06-22
NEW BOOKS AT
RANDOM
BY MARGARET GERMOND.

HOUSE OF ALL NATIONS. BY Chris
tina Stead. New York: Simon 4
Schuster.
Wading through the bulk Of House
Of All Nations" Ii something Of an ordeal.
And, having survived the ordeal, the
immediate reaction is respect for the
ability OF the author to accomplish q
work Of such unusual character and
size. Beyond that, the verdict is that
the novel is overloaded with scenes
and characters and is heavy In many
spots. The story is one that could have
been told in half as many words and
been the better for it. Despite the
timeliness Of It's theme and the fact that
1t is the product Of nve years Of study,
1t fairly reeks with the peculiar brand of
immaturity that is reflected In the
theories and practices of q generation
that will doubtless be recorded In later
years as the most illogical generation
In history.
Miss Stead was born in 1902 in Aus
tralia. She was therefore but young
ster when civilization was overwhelmed
by the Great War. Reaching maturity
after those four black years OF human
slaughter, she flts naturally into the
generation that believes itself to be
capable Of judging all things and solving
all problems. Since 1928, when she went
to London In search Of employment, she
has lived and worked in England, Ire
land. Wales, Holland, France, Italy,
Belgium. Spain, Austria and the United
States. A definite quality Of brilliance
attracted attention in her earlier novels,
and the same talent is evident in the
present story, but a style that may be-
cause Of its popularity be acceptable in
popular fiction falls considerably short
Of suitability in study Of international
finance.
A private bank in Paris, headed by q
crook, is the hub to which the spokes
of money mad world leads. The inner
Office of Jules Bertillon is the sanctum
in which he receives an endless chain
of callers Of every conceivable social
caste. blackmailers and crooks, mil
lionaires Of all nations. countesses,
gamblers of all hues. shysters, poten-
tates, playboys and schemers of every
type. Actually there is no bank. It
Is q one-man institution which sup
posedly functions as q repository for the
stocks and bonds of trustful clients
True, Jules Bertillon has surrounded
himself with brainy men and sometimes
he accepts their advice. Oftener, how
ever, he Is governed by his own colossal
ego.
The time Of the story is the period
between the struggle over reparations
and the collapse OF world economics
that climaxed in 1882 Jules Bertillon
runs his bucketshop on two principles
The bedrock Of his belief is that no
one ever made enough money" His
main objective is to gamble on disaster.
Out Of such catastrophes as the Spanish
revolution, the dumping OF Russian
wheat, the collapse of the pound, the
Kruger and other laWless enterprises
he reaps fortunes. Eventually, of course.
he is the victim Of his own criminal
activities, but like most men OF his ilk,
he manages to escape from the scene Of
his grandstand play and flee to Estonia.
taking with him the gold of his clients.
Assuredly an enormous amount Of
study and work has gone into the making
OF the novel, and Miss Stead is to be
commended for the interesting insight
into the intricacies of international
finance on large scale and under the
direction Of unscrupulous and question
able characters. Had she told her story
in straightforward narrative, however,
1t might have been a greater book.
SEVEN SHIFTS. Edited by Jack Com
mon. New York: E. P. Dutton l. Co.
In preface to this unusual publica-
ton Jack Common explains that it is
the result Of an urge that had been
staying by him for some time. His
friends range the whole length Of the
social ladder from the literary bourg-
eolsie to the lads from the imprinted
proletariat." The urge" consisted of a
desire to have the lads from the un-
printed proletariat' write stories about
themselves and their jobs, which he
would edit and submit for publication.
When the opportunity came to temp,
these hard-bitten workers with his
scheme. he found the task more difficult
than he had anticipated. He sent out doz-
ems OF pleas to these friends of the labor
ing class without receiving much in re-
turn. Some Of them failed to reply, others
old not understand what he wanted
a lew tried and admitted failure, one
man turned in a semi-fictional manu-
script that was useless and another man
wrote that he had written three thousand
words when the baby got hold of the
manuscript and destroyed it.
1t took long time to gather in the
seven stories which now appear between
covers, but 1t was worth all the anxiety
and labor which Mr.. Common devoted
to 1t. The first story is by Jack Hilton,
plasterer, aged thirty-seven who en-
tered the working world as a lather-boy
IN barber shop when he was nine years
old. Story number two Is The Steel
Worker" by James Stirling, who shows
the inside and the outside OF a big mill
IN operation and tells Of the days follow
ing the coal strike of 1921.
VIII Oxley, who was a hero once for
four years. but the war stopped" tells
the story Of the large army of unem-
ployed that tramped the streets and
roads seeking work after the system
which had catapulted them out of their
jobs and into war failed to find work
Tor them when their services were no
longer needed to save the world for
democracy. The story of life as a lahore,
IN gas works is told by Herbert Man.
Mon and Simon Blumenfeld recounts the
nleak LIE OF stall keeper In a market
that has gone dead.
When j. H. Watson was twenty three
years old he went to work at the blast
furnaces near which he had lived since
he was little boy. He had been a grocer
dairy boy. laundry collector, sailor, plat.
er's help and number of other things
besides being on the dole. He preferred
the blast furnaces to the dole, and he