Evening star., 1939-04-05
New Books at
Random
BY Margaret Germond.

HERE CONES A CANDLE. BY Storm
Jameson. New York: The Mac
milan Co.
Almost the entire action in this ex-
ceptionally fine story takes place within
the confined atmosphere of ramshack!e
old tenement house in the heart of Lon
don. New Moon Yard, like uncounted
dozens OF other buildings that through
time and change have sunk to low estate,
had not been built for tenement housing.
Erected on three sides of square, with
the fourth side giving way to a stately
wall joined by set of fine old iron gates
and inclosing grand courtyard, 1t had
been erected as handsome home. Per-
haps as many as hundred years before
the telling of this story the old wall
and the gates disappeared and were re-
placed by a narrow archway through
which the tenants Of New Moon Yard
pass in and out on their daily routine
of activity.
Even in its present state Of decay the
two long wings and the narrower main
section Of the house reflect something
OF the architectural splendor Of its late
18th century character, but the old
building is flretrap which every hour
of each day and night invites disaster.
A wealthy man whose eye for business
sees in the old place an opportunity to
grab bargain and erect large modern
structure on the site wants to buy 1t.
Also one of those characteriStically futile
societies for the preservation of one
visibility OF making drive for funds
to buy and restore the place as matter
Of national duty. But neither plan is
destined to succeed.
Unaware of the doom which in two
days will overtake them-knoWledge Of
which is withheld by the author though
sensed by the reader at the beginning Of
the book-the odd assortment of tenants,
who for the most part are better &C
quainted with defeat than with victory,
are barely conscious of the minor breaks
in the monotonous routine that has made
life a habit rather than an experience.
Only one of those who live at New Moon
Yard is consciously aware Of the danger
of fire.
On the ground floor of the section
connecting the two long wings there is
a cafe and bar operated by an Italian
named Pizetti, who with his wife and
daughter live in rooms back of the
cafe and whose ambition 1t is to earn
their beloved sunny home in Abruzzi.
One wing Of the building is occupied by
a low-grade night club known as the
Screech Owl and owned and operated
by Capt Ashton, whose sole claim to re-
spectability is that he once wore the uni
form of John Bull and as service man
lived for while the sort of life that ne
craved. In a section OF the opposite
wing there is wineshop and also there
is the establishment Of George Barley,
q cabinetmaker who lives with his wife
and three children in rooms over the
shop.
Inside and outside stairways, some Of
them good and belonging to the original
design and others merely makeshift
structures, lead to the upper floors where
a motley collection of human victims Of
defeat find refuge from the days toll or
bemoan the futility Of existence. A hard
working, sincere young woman who has
come from the small home town to seek
a career AND independence, and an at
tractive young aviator whose ambition
it is to make prize winning transoce-
anic flight give the story its moderate
share of romance. The beautiful daugh-
ter of the wealthy man who wants to
buy New Moon Yard and patron OF
Capt Ashton's night club appears In the
foreground as possible rival for the
affections of the flyer.
OF especial Importance is old Pop, who
makes nightly pilgrimages, by light OF
candle stubs, to the garbage cans to for
age for food scraps thrown out from
the cafe and the night club. Among the
other occupants of the nearly uninhab-
table upper rooms are two prostitutes,
an old German woman who in her youth
and active womanhood had been an
energetic anarchist; Negro evangelist
who experiences visions, an unscrupulous
physician, the cook and other employees
of the Screech Owl. Also there is an
old woman whose claim to once having
belonged to the theatrical world is based
upon the slender thread of having been
a dresser.
AS a group, the characters drawn to-
gether under the roof Of New Moon
Yard are related merely on the common
ground of misery. Only the Pizetti fam
lily is prosperous and hopeful. 1t is the
nagging wife of George Barley who Is
constantly in fear of fire, fear kept
active by the repeated dreams of one
of her children, and the knowledge that
her husbands S shop is filled with inflam-
mable materials. But the cabinetmaker's
shop is not the sole fire menace that
threatens the lives and the possessions
of the despair-ridden tenants of the
ancient structure. The wavering flame
of the stubby candle held in the uncer-
tain hand of old Pop seems as dangerous
to the reader as the pile of oily shavings
in George Barleys workshop. And Capt.
Ashton, bankrupt, frequently drunk and
usually falling asleep with a lighted ciga-