Evening Star Newspaper, October 17, 1936, Page 16

SCHOOL MISTRESS IS AUTHOR Convent-Trained Paula Grogger Takes Place With Great Woman Novelists of Her Time—Man’s Loss of Laughter Is Regretted by Agnes Repplier—Other Books Reviewed. By Mary Carter Roberts.] THE DOOR IN THE GRIMMING. By Paula Grogger. Translated from the German by Caroline Cunning- ham. New York: G. P. Putnam’s 8ons. ERHAPS the most troublesome problem of all those connected with the reviewing of books is the neatness with which most works in these days fall into types. ©One supposes it has always been true of lesser works, books written de- signedly for popular sale and directed with intent toward whatever fashions may at the moment be pleasing to the generality. But it has not always been true of the works of greater merit. ‘Today, however, one finds, to an em- barrassing degree, among the books of | our better writers an unmistakable tendency to conform to well-defined patterns. One does not know whether | to put it down to a sophisticated be- lief in the essential paucity of human possibilities or to a disenchanted lack of originality. One only sees that it is there. To come upon a completely original manner of book, therefore, is almost & bewildering experience and one which | mrouses suspicion even as it moves to | delight. The reaction inevitably is, “There must be a trick in it. Sooner | or lateF conventionality will appear. Hollywood will rear its ugly head—or, if not Hollywood, then the Book of the Month Club. This is too good. It cannot be true.” It is true, however, of the book now under review, “The Door in the Grimming,” which comes to us from Germany, from the pen of a village school mistress, the convent-trained Paula Grogger, who, in the opinion of the reviewer, has taken her place decisively among the great interna- fional novelists, the Lagerlofs, Und- sets and Cathers, that magnificent fra- ternity of genius. Fraulein Grogger, to be sure, is well known in Europe. “The Door in the | Grimming” is the first of her books to be translated, but, we are told, it has already gone through 40 editions | in German and has been hailed by German students in this country for the masterpiece which it is. She has slso written four other novels, which | have not been translated. It seems unlikely that she will enjoy great popularity in this country on the basis of the present book, however, for “The Door in the Grimming” is not obvious. Inquiries at a leading local bookseller’s elicit the news that it is selling only “moderately well” It is not a best seller. It has now been on the stands three weeks. It is a great peasant epic. The écene is the village of Oblarn in Styria, the author’s native land. The! time is the latter years of the Napoleonic wars. There is a legend in Oblarn of a “door” in the Grim- | ming, the great peak which dominates | the village, behind which door lies fabulous treasure. A wicked hunter | his soul burdened with deadly sin, elimbs to the door, finds the skull | which opens it and goes in. He is hot seen again but his curse lingers over the village. The book tells the story of Mat- thaus Stralz, son of a rich peasant. ‘The evil hunter had loved Matthaus’ mother. Matthaus comes to believe _that he is the hunter’s son, leaves his home and inheritance and becomes a rogue. Pursued and proscribed, he goes at last to the Grimming door to give his soul to the devil. His sweet- heart follows him and prays for him and a miracle occurs. One who seems to be a poor outcast peasant woman, but who must be.believed to be the Mother of God, brings him only water and enters the cavern, closing the dreadful door behind her for all time. Matthaus dies uttering a prayer for the hunter whom he had come to curse, Thus what, for lack of a proper word, may be called with horrible insufficiency, the plot. But the book is not a book with & “plot.” It is the unfolding of dally life a century eago, in a community of earth- enchanted peasants. It is the life of the fields and the &oil, not as writers of modern “novels of the soil” interpret it, but as it belonged to men and women in whom Jpagan blood still flowed and in whom pagan superstition had left its in- delible brain patterns and to whom the calendar of the Christian religion, interwoven inextricably with pagan memories, formed the year, seedtime and harvest, May day and Advent, saints’ days, holy days, while the older gods moved behind the images and a witch was called in to cure the cow that had foundered herself. It is the life of the beasts, in their lost intimate and friendly relation to mankind, It 1s life in a time when legend and rite cloaked all observances, and when hu- man nature nevertheless showed its perennial changelessness in humor, malice, cowardice, goodness—and sometimes courtesy. What need is there for “plot” with such a sweep of material? Yet, with all its scope, “The Door in the Grimming” does not go beyond the legitimate artistic confines of the village. Its people are villagers, shaped by village existence. They are not prototypes; they are, with the utmost simplicity, themselves. Their lives are conditioned by awe of the Archduke, reverence for the priest and & companionable fear of the great dark inexplicable influences of nature. Their interests are small, even tiny. Fhey live under a8 stone—the great towering menace of the Grimming. They are “humble” people, in an un- exceptionable sense. The book has universality in so far as these characteristics stir recog- nition in all peoples. But it is, too, deeply German. Fraulein Grogger herself makes use of & phrase which best describes the flavor of her work. ;. . only and always,” she writes, “the childlike German faith which at twilight longs for its fairy-tale.” Her method of writing has the quaint de- tachedness of children innocently tell- ing a grim and dreadful legend. And the fairy-tale is always there. It emanates from her book as scent from a flower. She does not draw her line between reality and potentiality sharply. Out of her earth or streams anything might rise, and down from the great peak of the Grimming any- thing might come. While her scenes of village gossip and intrigue are de- lighttully human, she hangs enchant- ment over everything. How beautiful a thing a great book | manity in pursuit of laughter. PAULA GROGGER, Author of “The Door in the Grimming” (Putnam’s). mistress’ work is translated, and to hope that it has the offices of so excel- lent a translator as this one—for that should not be lost to sight. IN PURSUIT OF LAUGHTER. By Agnes Repplier. Boston: Houghton Mittlin Co. N THIS new collection of essays the gifted pen of Miss Repplier is given to tracing the sad course of poor hu- For Laughter, who once lived with us on intimate and constant terms, suffered banishment at the end of the Middle | Ages and, bereft, we have pursued him ever since, sometimes grimly, some- times extravagantly, often foolishly, but always without success. Or so Miss Repplier says, at any rate. Her essays consider the case of | human mirth in the hard medieval times, in the wishfully named “Merrie England” of Elizabeth, which, she says, was never merrie; in the scan- dalous days of the Restoration and the succeeding reigns of the eighteenth century, when Sheridan, Byron, Hood, Hook and Sydney Smith were its min- isters, and down through the days of Artemus Ward and Mark Twain in this country to the twentieth century. She finds the pursuit continuing and still unsuccessful. The robust mirth which was part of life in the Middle Ages has never been recaptured. The collection is completely delight- ful. You will want to read it at a sitting. THE STONES AWAKE. By Carle- ton Beals. Philadelphia: J. B. Lip- pincott Co. AMONG the many novels which have been written about Mexico, one by Carleton Beals must be received with respect, for Mr. Beals has proved himself an authority on that country. His record as a witness of revolutions south of the Rio Grande is impressive and his past works have been widely acclaimed for their scope and accuracy. His present work attempts to set forth the whole revolutionary struggle which has taken place in Mexico since 1910 through the medium of the people of a single typical village. He accord- ingly presents peons, the land owners, the straw bosses, the American capi- talists and the church in definite types. The desire for land, freedom and edu- cation he makes the issues. Through the adventures of one girl, Esperanza, he carries his reader through the vio- lent scenes of social upheaval which are now history. Through Esperanza’s own life he typifies the rise of the peons, for she is introduced as an illiterate child and ends her career as the enlightened head of the school in her village. The book is designed to cover so much territory that it reads at times almost like a scenario. Viewed as his- tory, however, it would seem to be a good sympathetic picture of the late trouble. BRIEF KINGDOM. By Gerald Breck- enridge, Garden City: Doubleday Doran & Co. THE “brief kingdom” of this book is the time spent by a young city man as owner of a weekly newspaper in a little town in Virginia. Driven by depression, he undertakes to eke & living out of editing this publication. He does not stay long, but while he is there he becomes acquainted with the village life, and the book is a record of this acquaintance. ‘The printer who works for him, the local merchants, the mayor, the post office crowd—all these are duly painted in. There is a tragic episode with & young woman who, similarly, is an alien to the town and who gives the young editor companionship and understanding. When she dies, he feels that he can no longer stay in the place. He relinquishes his “brief king- dom” and turns back to the city. It is essentially & book of character portraits. The author is a former Washingtonian and undoubtedly knows his rural Virginia background. TO MY FATHER. By Charles Werten- baker. New York: Farrar & Rine- hart. THIB book, by & former Washing- tonian and writer for The Star, has been chosen by fts publishers as one of the finds of the “Discoverers.” ‘The Discoverers, lest you have not heard, are a department of Farrar & Rinehart given over to bringing out first novels. “To My Father” is a third novel, but, the publishers in- form us, the Discoverers have now broadened their fleld to include dis- tinguished work by authors who have already published. Possibly brilliant firsts are harder to come by than was anticipated. ‘The present selection of this enter- 18! Away with reviews. They are only nonsense. There is nothing to do now but wait until morglof this school prise is & good, lucid work of & con= ventional sort, the auf novel. It tells the sfory ¥ man evolving. This story has been told before and somehow, to prac- ticed readers, one young man evolving gets to seem very like another in time, but that ought not to be held against the individual book. The present work is of Charles Chastain, Virginian, who grows up in Wilmington, marries the wrong woman, meets the right one and finally comes to peace. «It is well written and contains some excellent character drawing. THE NEW HOUSE, By Lettice Cooper. New York: The MacMillan Co. THIB 1s one of those novels which is designed with & definite phy- sical pattern. It is set within the limits of one day, the day in which the Powell family moves from the Vic- torian mansion it has occupled for many years to a cottage, the change being dictated by what the English call “reduced circumstances.” The memories and hopes involved in this move, as they stir in the different members of the family, make the book. It is & sufficlently estimable piece of work. FAREWELL ROMANCE. By Gilbert Frankau. New York: E. P, Dut- ton Co. 'HIS is what used to be called a “problem mnovel.” One problem is shall a man whose charming wife has been crippled in an air raid resign himself to the fate which has changed her to an invalid? Another is shall the physiclan who is in love with the wife save her life by an operation which will leave her blind? And still another involves the behavior of the woman with whom the husband of the fnvalid falls in love, And all of them are solved! A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. By Dudley W. Knox, captain, U. S. N. New York: G. N. Putnam’s Sons. ‘HE hand trained to wield the sword usually loses its potency when it picks up the pen, but not the hand that belongs to Capt. Dudley W, Knox. In this new and comprehensive story of the evolution of the United States Navy from its dramatic beginning to its development into one of the world's great maritime fighting machines, he has adhered to fact—as one of his training would—without sacrifice of one particle of the drama of his sub- ject. One does not expect so much of the technician when he drops the instru- struments of his profession to tell its story. It is to his credit as an author that Capt. Knox has turned out a volume which will have a popular appeal without having resorted to those literary devices by which tech- nical subjects so frequently are popu- larized. In thus maintaining that integrity which so many professional men seem willing to sacrifice when they venture to write, Capt. Knox has widened the market for his book. While the layman will find it in- structive and entertaining, the stu- dent of military and political affairs will discover in its pages much of | especial value to him. One familiar with the classic, spec- tacular chapters in United States na- val history picks up Capt. Knox's volume with a deep curiosity to learn what change in flavor is wrought when & Navy man narrates them. There is a change, in that one finds the stories of famous conilicts enriched as told by one with an appreciation of their technical aspects. Capt. Knox's history, which treats ? ANNE SHANNON MONROE, ‘ Co-author with Elizabeth Lambert Wood of Cascades” (MacMillan). Country” a volume which should be read and relished by every one who lives more than 15 miles from town, contemplates doing so in the near fu- ture, or entertains any curiosity as to the motives of those who speak so highly of rusticity. Mr. Farnham's book is an urbane, helpful chronicle of his own experi- ence in buying, remodeling and im- proving a 10-acre farm in Connecticut. Seeking to suggest how the trick may be done inexpensively, healthily and with & maximum of amusement, this exceedingly literate home-owner dis- cusses the perplexities and delights of his task with a mixture of shrewd understanding humor. As the jacket "“Mansions in the do the house over in purple with chocolate floors. Attached to the volume 1s & com- plete bibliography of books the author and his wife found useful in their career as settlers on the soll, but it is doubtful if any of them will prove more complete or diverting than the story of the Swiss Family Farnham. R B.P,Jr. HITLER, s Blography, by Konrad Heiden. Translated by Winifred Ray. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 390 pages. $3. R. HEIDEN, 88 & student of na- tional socialism and author of & history of the movement, is splendidly From the jacket design for “A Prayer for My Son,” by Hugh Walpole (Doubleday, Doran & Co.). IN THE CURRENT MAGAZINES Literary Digest Discusses Its Presidential Poll While News-Week Grows -Sardonic Over Activities of the Major Candidates. French Convicts Prefer Their “Hell.” By M.-C. R. HIS week, for the frst time since it began its much dis- cussed poll, the Literary Digest publishes figures from 48 States. “Out of the 1,811,489 votes” it says, “Gov. Alfred M. Landon is still leading. More than one million per- s0ons—1,004,086 to be exact—appear in his support; President Roosevelt is backed by 728,088 ballots. “The Kansan leads in 32 States; the present master of the White House in 16. There are 370 electoral votes belonging to the States now in the Republican column; 161 to those with & Democratic lead. “Still to be counted in, however, is much of the big city vote * * *” ‘The report then takes up the widely-discussed question as to the fairness of the poll in representing actual sentiment. “According to an official statement from Washington,” it notes, “there were, as of September 1, 3,250,000 per- sons on the rolls of the various New Deal relief agencies. Since 1933, it is estimated that there have been ap- proximately 16,250,000 beneficiaries of doles, A. A. A. benefits, etc, On the other side of the pic- ture, there are 63,000,000 life insur- ance policy holders, 45,000,000 gainful workers over 21 years of age, 40,000,- 000 savings bank depositors, 24,000,000 security owners, 22,500,000 passenger automobile owners and 10,650,000 residence telephone subscribers, ac- cording to recent surveys.” Noting that there is a tendency to place disproportionate emphasis on the relief-getting mipority, the report continues. “As a matter of fact about one- eighth of those now on relief * * * will not be eligible to vote at all And judging from some of the farm State returns, a considerable number of beneficiaries will none the less vote for Gov. Landon.” That the President is gaining is shown by the fact that for the sixth consecutive week he has “nicked the lead captured by Landon in the ini- tial scoring. Landon's percentage this week is 55.4; Roosevelt's 4G.1. For the Kansan, this is a loss from 56.9, seven days ago.” JEWS-WEEK, the Digest's young competitor, devotes some slightly ijronical pages to comparing the ac- tivities of the two candidates on their stumping tours. At the top of one page it publishes & strip of Roosevelt pictures with the caption, “Candidate Roosevelt worked on speeches, talked with V. F. W. Commander Kearney, then took to the stump.” At the bottom of the same page there is a Landon strip with the cap- tion, “Candidate Landon worked on speeches, talked with Legion Com- mander Colmery, then took to the stump.” Comparative samples of the ensu- ing oratory are published side by side in the same article as follows: “Roosevelt: The matter is learn- ing that all its parts are interdepend- ent, that prosperity in rural section induces prosperity in the cities, that when the West hits hard times its de- creased spending hurts the East. Modern times demand co-operation between localities, States and the Fed- eral Government—and co-operation with the world. When large-scale spending produces large-scale profits, it is justified. «Landon: As long as we have 8 crew of habitual free-spenders in Washington, we are going to have extravagance. I do not object to pro- gressive ideas and progressive policies. I object to helter-skelter administra- tion, waste and excessive centraliza- tion.” Thus our Nation's choice. THB Literary Digest also devotes space to the recent opening of the Supreme Court. “What the upshot of (their) de- cisions will be is far more predictable than the upshot of the election. For the nine men in black silk robes are the same nine who knocked the New Deal back on its heels with their ad- verse decisions in the N.R. A, A.A. A, Hot Oi], Guffey Coal Act and other “When the court crier banged his gavel last week, these nine men . . . had been asked to consider and decide 435 cases. New Deal legislation is already involved in 17 of the cases and may be involved in more before the session ends. Experts say it is & mere coincidence that no importan: decision in these New Deal cases is expected before election day.” OTH News-Week and the Digest dis- cuss at some length the recent convention of the Co-operative League of the United States of America which | was held in Columbus, Ohio and was attended by 1,000 society members and 300 consumer co-operative executives. Says News-Week, “Included . . . wer2 | 800 farmers, businessmen and other willing to sacrifice his personal honor for what he considers his “destiny.” “A foundered man leading a found- ered nation.” It is incredible to an American about how a dictatorship might arise contradictory es was the Nazis’, could in a country wrecked by the war. Mr. Heiden observes, and sagely, that it is the misfortune of Germany that people so trained to obedience had been unable to produce a man fit to {rule. But it was true. The impover- | ished, beaten, famished nation turned to & bully with a whip in his hand. | Mr. Heiden believes he cannot last. boasts, he lists among the “Valuable | equipped to write the life of Hitler. | He still believes in the German peo- Secrets Divulged in This Book” the items: How to locate areas in which real estate bargains may be found; how to circumvent the plumbers’ union; how to tune a waterfall; how of its subject philosophically as well | to get rid of skunks; how to keep from as chronologically, is quite as thor= | falling out of French windows; how oughly documented as one would ex- |to operate an “estate” with half a pect of a writer trained in the tra- dition of the service. In this feature, however, the author has chosen wisely, in that his selection of official papers pleasantly illumines as it authenticates the story. —F. J. C. A PLACE IN THE COUNTRY. By Dwight Farnham. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. WIGHT FARNHAM is neither an gardener, and other hints Indispens- | able to the novitiate countryman and "perhnps novel to many who have | dwelled these many years In the ! serenity of the land. The list of admonitions and ad- vices even embraces such highly tech- nical subjects as the elimination of undesirable week end visitors, the planting of flower gardens for color scheme and durability, methods of architect, & real estate salesman, | parking guests’ cars at cocktall parties an interior or exterior decorator nor & professional dispenser of domestic ad- vice. A financial writer by trade, he has nevertheless created in “A Place in the so that they will not rip each other to shreds on departing, and the proper tactics for subduing interior decorators (friends of the wife’s) who want to! It is this complete knowledge of mod- ern Germany which distinguishes this biography. Hitler's life is told in de- tail as a parallel to the forces which allowed his rise and have kept him in command for three years despite actions which have shocked the world. There is no attempt to gloss over Hitler's dictatorship and no attempt to accuse falsely and unjustly. There is an air of impartiality, but it can- not be other than incriminating to Hitler. The book is long and de- tailed; incidents remotely connected with Hitler's rise are dwelt upon at length in & complete account of the complex political structure of post- war Germany. Mr. Heiden puts no new interpretation on the personality of this man who has stooped so low to rise so high. He steers clear of snap judgments and generalities. He sees him, as have others, as & man who is oblivious to inconsistency and ple; but the light of such books as this is hidden by the shadow of the whip. —E. T. COMPROMISE. By Royal Wilbur France. Dorrance & Co. of Phil- adelphia, publishers. JOT in many a moon has an author | written such a well-balanced | novel, blending fact, idealism and fic- | tion, as has Mr. France in his story, “Compromise.” “Compromise” presents the picture | of an American youth, who, invig- | orated with the spirit of idealism and upon the sea of life with the intention of seeing that impartial justice was | given to the weak, not only by him- self, but by those in power as well. From this time on until his death, Mr. France traced with glowing words the youth's political and financial Brief Reviews of Books on Various Topics Non-Fiction. SPENDING TO SAVE. By H. L. Hop- kins. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. Boondoggler No. 1 tells what he does with the money. INTELLIGENCE IN POLITICS. By Max Ascoli. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. But the author takes his theme serl- ously! COVERING THE FAR EAST. By Miles Vaughn., New York: Covicl Friede, An analysis of the Sino-Japanese situation by a former foreign corre- spondént of the United Press, Very good. GERMAN SPY. By Bernard Newman. New York: Hillman Curl, Inc. The story of Ludwig Grein, German spy in England through the World ‘War. THE NEW DEAL ENGLISH AND AMERICAN. By H. J. Whigham. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. A comparison of America’s present government with the policies of Eng- land 30 years ago, by a man who knows both countries. MEN OF DANGER. By Lowell Thomas. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. Stories of men in hasardous oc- cupations—sandhogs, life guards, fire- men and the like. Taken from life. THE YELLOW SPOT. A documentary study of the extermination of the Jews in Germany. “With an intro- duction by the Bishop of Durham. New York: Knight Publications. Very complete. BE GLAD YOU'RE NEUROTIC. By Louis E. Bisch, New York: Whittlesey House. * The autor, & practicing psychiatrist, sees no reason to regret belonging to the ciass which has consistently produced genius. JEDEDIAH SMITH, TRADER AND TRAILBREAKER. By Maurice S. Sullivan. New York: The Press of the Pioneers, Inc. the discoverer of the the Rockies t0 Author: of “Be Glad Youre MEXICO TODAY. By Col. Irving Speed Wallace. Boston: The Meador Publishing Co. An amiable account of the manners and customs of the sister republic. FAREWELL TO MODEL T. By Lee Strout White. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. The plaintive elegy of a vanished institution, formerly published in the New Yorker, now in book form. LISTEN, GOD SPEAKS. By Arno C. Gabelein. New York: Our Hope Publications. An assertion of the existence of God in reply to atheists. LOUIS E. BISCH, M. D., Ph. D Neurotic” (W)':lttlenfl House). Fiotion. THE LAST ENEMY. By L. A. G. Englishman, through and after the World War. ‘Well enough written, but without Ppoint. PEGGY COVERS THE NEWS. By Emma Bugbee. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. Burgling stuff about a girl reporter. MANSIONS IN THE CASCADES. By Anne Shannon Monroe and Eliza- beth Lambert Wood. New York: out in search of peace, Or something. Very bucolic. GORGEOUS. By Laura Lou Brook- man. New York: John H. Hop- kins Co. Romance of working gal. WITH ALL MY LOVE. By Mary Raymond. New York: John H. Hopkins Co. Romance. Mysteries. DEATH IN THE DEEP SOUTH. By ‘Ward Greene. New York: Stack- pole Sons. Murder and its consequences in a modern Southern city. Dramas. THE BEST PLAYS 1935-1936 AND THE YEARBOOK OF THE DRAMA IN AMERICA. Edited by Burns Mantle. New York: Dodd Mead & Co. The annual Mantle collecton. DIVINE TREASURE AND THE FOR- GOTTEN SONG. By George Portnoff. Boston: The Meador Publishing Co. Two plays of no particular merit. THE SOUL'S QUEST. By Alice Fay. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Religious poetry of no particular merit. Juveniles. THE SWORD OF THE WILDER- NESS. By Elizabeth Coatsworth. Tllustrated by Harve Stein. New York: The MacMillan Co. Story of & white boy and Indians in 1689. .| MADEMOISELLE MISFORTUNE. By Carol Ryrie Brink. Illustrated by Kate Seredy. New York: The MacMillan Co. Amusing story for girls and boys about life in France and on the Riviera. KEEMA OF THE MONKEY PEOPLE. By Walter J. Wilwerding. Illus- trated by the author. New York: The MacMillan Co. Pleasant tale of & blue monkey. TURNING NIGHT INTO DAY. Translated from reader who hasheardmu ch of late | that a movement so nebulous and | have grown to such proportions even | success, accentuated at each mile- stone the battle between his idealism and his ambition, which invariably resulted in a compromise, to the sub- sequent loss of both. Whether one believes that the aver- age young man's character is subject to such demoralization, whether one | believes that such problems arise in the average youth's life, whether one believes that the average youth has such high ideals, or whether one be- lieves that the only fashion in which such ideals can be put in effect is by first climbing to the heights by such compromises, nevertheless the book is worth reading both for its earnest- nes of purpose and its fictional ap- peal. “Compromise” clearly is an unusual book, for its theme is woven so cleverly with woof of social moralization that | it is as easy to take as a sugar-coated pill. Its plot, too, is unusual, for it is not so well worn as are most of the plots in use today by the modern au- thors. Starting when the young man is befriended, after graduation, by a | judge who is not only a successful iawyer, but is also something of a political power, the plot moves swiftly from climax to climax patronage the youth quickly enters politics, where most of his compro- mises were effected. By the time the armed with & college degree, set out | PO drew to & close he had been State's attorney, State Governor, cabi- net member and United States Sen- ator. The love affairs of the idealist were quite in keeping with the rest of the book, for he was physically enamoured with his wife and spirit- ually chained to another woman. First one and then the other of these women dominated his life and thoughts, in such a fashion as to keep | the reader guessing which one he really loved and which was the greatest influence in his life. All in all, this book is one of excep- tional merit. F.L.C. Trees Tested 20 Years. 'WENTY years of experimentation have brought about knowledge as to the relative value of various types of tree for shelterbelt planting, which is proving of great assistance in planting projects in the drought areas. Out at Mandan, N. Dak,, the first test trees were planted in 1914. Eighteen types of tree were set out. Seven survived the extremes of tem- perature and the periods of drought. Of these, the Chinese elm, the ash and the box elder were found most effective. Under this | co-op enthusiasts from all parts of the eountry. With evangelical earnest- ness they discussed the movement's rapid growth during 1934 and 1935. According to Warbasse (president of the League) 12,000 co-operatives last year served 4,000,000 people and did & total business of more than $400.- 000,000.” It notes that this figure represents one and one-half per cent of the Nation's retail business, A new “knock knock” comes out of the convention which seems worthy of repeating. Edward A. Filene, Boston department store owner, was the chief speaker at one fieeting, and in the course of his address brought forth this: ““Knock, knock’ . . . ‘Who's there?’ ‘Filene’ ‘Filene who?' ‘Filene one way the business leaders get dovn on me. Filene the other, you (the co- operatives) do."” Mr. Filene announced that he had gone over to co-operative “idea” com- pletely, but did not intend to sever his present business connection. THE Digest records a thought-pro- voking rebellion in the sinister French penal colony, Devil's Island. It seems that the present Leftist gove ernment of France, feeling that a ges- ture toward the forgotten man was indicated, announced that it would send a commission to Guiana to stucy the advisability of bringing the cor- victs home again. They would, of course, finish their sentences, but they would have the pleasure of so doing in nice French prisons, behind “high | stone walls.” The result of the announcement in the penal colony was an outburst of | protest. It seems that the convicis vastly prefer their famous ‘“hell” There they are out of doors most of the time, there they have always be. fore them the prospect of escape. There, in other words, they have hope. | They were highly wrathful at the | humanitarian offer emanating from | M. Blum's Socialist government. ... Just another case when publicizing of the forgotten man involves forgetting | to ask him what it is he really wants. But a graceful gesture. Annoying of the rude convicts to interfere with itd Election (Continued From Page B-1) ing their caucuses with prayer and | dismissing them with the doxology.” T EXACTLY 4:10 o'clock on the moriing of March 2 the issue was decided. Hayes was declared victor by the electoral vote of 185 to 184. The | electoral commission had voted 8 to 7 for the Republicans on each cone tested point. The two houses of Congress met in | joint session to ratify the verdict. | “A large number of Democrats® says the New York Times, “with neither respect for themselves nar | their associates, left their seats in ace cordance with a previous agreement | and stood outside the bar of the House | to protest by their action, as they said, | against the consummation of the | fraud committed by the electoral commission. | “With a trembling hand, which | demonstrated plainly the high state of excitement under which he was la- boring, Senator Ferry (the presiding officer) took the black eagle’s quill which was sent to him for the purpose and signed the declaration of the re- sult. Then the houses separated and shortly after adjourned. The flag was hauled down from the Capitol after fiying continuously for 29 days.”" The decision was acquiesced in peacefully by the whole country, ale | though the Democrats honestly be- | lieved Tilden had been elected. They | have never ceased to denounce the | whole affair as a fraud. Germany will plant 11 times more flax in 1937 than it did in 1932. T (oL ) OUR LENDING LIBRARY has all the latest books . . . fiction, non-fiction and mys- teries. |} “Gone With the Wind” “White Banners” “Drums Along the Mohawk” “lI Am the Fox” “Steps Going Down”’ “Live Alone and Like It” Lending Library . .. First Floor