Evening star., 1949-07-15
This and That
Bu Charles E. Trdce1rell

Many of today's readers still like the old
stories, such as any or all OF Charles
Dickens, Charles Reade's "Cloister and the
Hearth" etc.
z, We gather this from letters which have
arrived since mentioning some of the stories
by Mrs. Henry Wood. particularly East
Lynne" and Roland Yorke."
"I am reading Little Women" writes an
Arlington correspondent, land enjoying 1t
for the same reason that you are enjoying
East Lynne"
The truth is, we were rather bored by
EAST Lynne"
It was Roland Yorke" that intrigued us.
Here is story completely modern. though
written 80 years ago, with a real live de-
tective who believes in hard work, pave
ment pounding. If you will.
In the central character, Roland, the
reader has type of which at least one
specimen is known to every one.
This is the happy, bubbling person who
is always on the go. always merry, always
bumbling his way into and out of trouble.
Roland is big happy bubbling. He is the
one who is not held down. He is not in
the least repressed.
We have heard so much in recent years
of repression, and what it does to one, that
we tend to think it something new.
1t is very old. There always have been
are those who can be repressed by word
Modern psychology has not discovered
anything unknown to the old writer's. It
simply has given new names to old concepts
It is good thing to dip back into the
older novelists, now and then, to discover
that they were not in the least odd, as some
persons today think of them.
They, and the people they wrote about.
were much the same as we are.
<t.1 ell TIaa M 70
of life had not quickened. Whether this is
q good or bad thing is difficult to say.
Folks in the old days had more faith in
the teaching of morals Not only did the
church inculcate this, but each household,
as well.
They were not ashamed of talk about being
good They had discovered that human ma
ture is such that little good talk does no
harm.
They knew that admonition was some-
thing to be cherished not be afraid Of, as
so many are today.
In the old stories, there was real respect
for writing, as such. The story tellers had
no idea of telling all they knew. They be-
lieved that some things in life are better left
unsaid. Fortunately for them they had no
fear of not meeting the approval of certain
groups. They wrote as they saw. and if
they left much out, they put much in, too.
least that of etiquette. They knew that the
civilized rules of conduct are not strange
and arbitrary. as they sometimes seem, but
are based on the best ways of getting
things done. All normal persons. they felt,
would arrive at the same solutions. If given
chance.
This left them unafraid of depicting good.
# they sometimes rather overshot the mark,
this is no more than so many of our modern
writer's do in the other directions.
Summer evenings, some will think are
particularly good for dipping into the old
novelists. They are good for the spirit,
cooling to the soul. They have in them
much that we have lost. and it. is good
thing to remind ourselves Of it, now and
then Fortunately, the individual is able to
do what group cannot do. A mass can
not go backward. The individual can. He
is able to see what he has lost and to some
extent, at least incorporate some good por-
ton of it in his daily life. We believe 1t
impossible for any one to read novels writ
ten between 1900 and 1900 and not realize
good from them. They hold q mirror up to
saner life than we live today. They show
us not only what we miss, but possibly what
we may go back to. If we have enough sense
and determination and are not led astray
by the will-o-the wisps crying in the mod
ern wilderness.