Evening star., 1938-07-13
NEW BOOKS AT
RANDOM
BY MARGARET GERMOND.
CONCORD IN JEOPARDY. By Doris
Leslie. New York: The Macmillan

BY MARGARET GERMOND.
CONCORD IN JEOPARDY. BY Doris
Leslie. New York: The Macmillan
Co.
The poor artist as theme for novel
making has been worn threadbare and
unless his creator endows him with q
compelling personality or some other
extraordinary characteristic he is likely
to be very dull company. It cannot be
said Of Alexander Concord that he is
the dullest Of the dull, but he falls con-
siderably below the expectations aroused
by his introduction and by the three
page cast Of characters preceding book
one. The story Is in four parts, titled
"The River in the Street." London
Canvas" "Florentine Frame" and I'll
Elimination"
Concord was born in humility, of par
ents whose lineage had dropped into OBJ
scurity. He is the posthumous son OF a
worthless father and mother who pre-
fers death for herself and her baby
rather than life burdened with the addi-
tional hardship Of feeding and clothing
a child. Her prayer for death is an
swered, but the Grim Reaper elects to
take her husband instead Of herself and
her baby. Faced with the problem of a
load Of debt and the necessity for a
means Of livelihood, the widow develops
sense Of business that Is both admir-
able and successful.
Calling upon the landlord to whom
she owes four weeks rent, Esther Con-
cord proposes to keep house for him,
cook for him, do his laundry and his
mending. which service will be rendered
in lieu Of cash payment Of the debt. In
addition she requests the use OF one of
his rooms in which she proposes to es-
tablish herself as a dressmaker. The
landlord is not keen about being a
partner to such an arrangement, but he
has no answers to Esther's arguments,
SO he accepts and the first step in a new
life for. all three concerned is taken.
Success, Of course, crowns her efforts
and eventually she becomes court dress
maker.
Throughout his babyhood little Alex
ander occupies a large place in the
thoughts Of his mother. She becomes
obsessed with the ambition to give him
the best than can be had of education
and culture. He is to be lawyer or a
doctor. But when he is ten years old it
Is evident that he possesses a talent for
drawing, and for caricature in particu-
lar. Also, when he is only seven he falls
In love with q beautiful woman for
whom his mother is making a court
costume. The influence of q dominant,
uncompromising mother should have
been sufhcient afaiction for any son to
bear, but poor Concord is doomed to be
dominated by a number of women and
by three in particular, Brenda Foster
and Janet Enderby as well as his
mother.
Concord's teen age runs along with
the years Of industrial unrest in Eng
land which preceded the Great War.
He makes friends in school, but enjoys
real companionship with only one He
falls in with labor agitator with whom
he has practically nothing in common,
yet happy companionship exists be-
tween the two, and in keeping with the
perversity of fate, the radical laborite
proves the most stable source of comfort
and aid when Concord's skies are
darkest.
Belief In his creative ability forces the
artist to develop his talent and he be-
comes great painter. Also he marries
the beautiful lady many years his senior
for whom his mother had one time made
dress. It is mistake and he is un-
happy. Eventually the Great War turns
Europe into a shambles and Concord
goes to the front. A front-line trench is
queer place in which to bring peace to
q tortured soul, but that is where Con-
cord finds the answer to the discord
that has beset his life. A mixture of
art, communism, war and dominant
women, however, can hardly be expected
to contribute greatly to the serenity of
existence.
HISTORY OF THE GAS INDUSTRY,
BY Louis Stotz. in Collaboration with
Alexander Jamison. New York. Pub
lished by the authors.
The history of an industry producing
utility commonly in use and seldom
thought OF as anything extraordinary
would not at glance capture the imagi-
nation, and yet the stories of many of
Americas huge industries contain ro-
nance that is as colorful as is much of
that created by popular fictionists.
1t requires a good bit of imagination
to think about the discovery and pro-
duction Of gas in terms of romance, and
yet a goodly portion of this book tells
story that is fascinating and that gives
realistic picture of the days when
illumination was cropping it's way out of
infancy into hopeful childhood. The
greater section is, Of course, devoted to
the enormous growth of the gas indus
try and to the influence which the prod
uct has had upon the development Of
the great industrial Nation that this
country is today.
There may be some doubt as to the
legitimate father of gas as an illumi-
nant, but it is known that William MUIR
dock, born in Auchinleck, Scotland, was
the first to prove the usefulness of gas
Tor private purposes. In 1892 his expert
ments in the distillation of coal gas had
been sufficiently successful to enable
him to illuminate his home and his
of1ce by this means. Five years later
the first exhibition in the United States
Of illumination by coal gas was in Phil
adelphia. The demonstration was in
the form Of fanciful artistic lights
adorning the amphitheater Of q fire.
works manufacturing plant.
Not until 1906, when David Melville
lighted his house and the street in front
OF his home in Newport, r. l., with gas
produced on the premises did the new
inumtnant assume the proportions of a
business, but from that small beginning
the gas industry in this country took
root and grew until today a capital of
almost $4,000, 100000 is required to pro-
vide service to more than 100000 Gus
toners, with manufacturing and natural
gas plants employing 5000 persons at