The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 43

SOCIETY- NINE THE DES MOINES REGISTER SUNDAY. MAY 17. Elizabetl1 Clarkson Zvvart, Editor Not a Pretty Story i.fi.. iii uu' 1 j.i .1 www" H'" 1 a I He Saw His Love Beheaded -Zv -i I Watch Your Tongue! WHAT A WORD: By A Herbert. Doubleday Doran.

$2. I'e viewed by Frances Hnjd. D' vou know the meaning ot the words vou ghblv roll your tongue? Mr. llerbc says you do not. With a bugle call to arms, he invites all lovers of good words to "buckle on their dictionaries" and to enter into a ruthless Word War.

Beveling in delightful satire, he deftly at- tacks our careless thinking as well as our careless speech, argu- ing that words are the tool of every trade and that the efficient man will know his tools. 1:1 i If SAI.KA VALKA: By Halldor l.axness. Houghton Mifflin. Reviewed by Ralph Stcphun, Fort Dodge, Iowa. SALKA VALKA, about 12, comes with her mother, Sigurlina, to the tiny Ice-1 unite fishing village of Oseyri on the Axlarfjord one January evening.

Whence they have cmne, nobody knows. Salka is the issue of her moth er's union with an unnamed male, a character who does not appear! except in a direct allusion to him Sigurlina makes at a Salvation Army meeting. Sulka's Vow. The first half of the book deals utmost exclusively with the: struggle mother and daughter must make to exist at all. And! when Sigurlina finds surcease! from, poverty and sin by drown-1 us.

Salka vows her whole life! a defense of, the memory of her nininer. ai an eariy age isaiaa achieves a clear understanding of her illegitimacy. Despite what seemed to be a wanton defloria-tmn of her by Steintor, she withstands the assaults of preda-tury males of the village until she surrenders to Oscyri's most voluble champion of socialism, Arnaldiir. Painted against a back-drop of The dictionary define "Jungle" as "wild, tangled mass." Mr. Her-'0f brrt applies "Jungle English" to i 3 "So THAT'S where, Hannah Will See God ii I 'I 1 I wswit- I i.

Despite Her Morals With a use. i Tin Alhsl c. Iii'it. tho Culiist lilrnso VO'I but This ))' tlw cyliitili'i' Ins own which it is ri'iirot red cdiitiut tillh't's "Tin' SiLMtil "ii'ititt. crnanii llldV Hot THE SIXTH BEATITUDE: Bv Radclyffe Hall.

Harcourt Brace. Reviewed by Kuth K. Friedllch. Tl HE Sixth Beatitude" io Hn important novel for its qua)- i is an I'vuluat inn of Modornism. Ho wi iios of lis artists, (iroductions of L'Tti a hit i arc lin lthlcil.

Why, They Don't Speak Our Language Yet poverty incarnate, people eking out a starveling existence, the is not a pretty thing'. This is realism unrelieved by roman-i' tic fancy. Reading it. one be-! comes so touched by the starved lives of the villagers, so enraged by 'capable thllt ity and also because a book Her sense of the beauty of sea Radclyffe Hall. British author ami s)Vi her intense joy" in toil, "The Well of Loneliness," has her splendid pity, are qualities' value.

strange in a person for whom Il-'3 unfortunate for such a love that is. love-making-seems novelist, as Radclyffe Hall to hold neither poignacy nor her best-known work by the conspiracy of plutocrat and 1 -n-novc ury oi ner sunject Ls-politician to keep poverty that bianism so dominated the public nuA i interest that the excellence of her A IK AN 1 HKXCHM A By Meade Fan.ir Kmehart S'i I'o Viewed hv Marion Louise Bliss, a-hta. low a. Kit since monev lui used to bar.dasre the sores mankind, t'li-'Moiis ir.fef ii been the result Tins voiced dc.n nut debauchery and politic whuh accompanied tl revolution slums how jnfeition ran its eoi: Mimucprode is wcil search on the sutii'-it. Hie Henchman.

But ho sjiri'oJes hist. tail through his story what the same cold ii.il immobility that "('harlot' have shown as he spriukh over the blood beneath the HiUst I bran guillo tine. The reader longs the well Known ways of Zweig, as all sight of the queen among a host of Parisian personalities who between revolution and ionnter revolution in a continuous atmosphere of defeat. de Batz. the "henchman." pulls the wires of finance, learns to control markets, collects fortune, and finally beads the conspiracy to save the monarchy to sae the king, to save the queen, only to see the plotters and thosp whom they Would save go one after one under the knife.

Lonely Jean. In the last "hatch" there ate royalists packed into the calls and trundled away. Jean, a p'gitive and forever In disguise, watches. The woman he lined goes, ami another, said to he the tairest girl in France. AH his friends are dead.

In after years when Jean ha icen the career or Napoleon come to an end and the monarchy re stored, he seeks recognition for oast services. Hut he is an old now anil his deeds are forgot- ten. So he writes) them down: "thump, thump, noise of the guillotine is in Sud- denly wishes that: he had heen in one of the little carts that day with his friends. It is not so lonely to die together hiLdk I Meade V- tins Canaan of Corn-Hog checks and in this quarto anno of the Bie rt th einiit, ij liiv one sees. Social Significance.

I Compressed to its thcSixth Beatitude." ovunua cia it wcic uu mure, iiaiinan cunen, neroine, is the moving reiauonsnip depicted than your ordinary boy-meets-girl pure in heart, who in spite of. "The Sixth Beatitude" is the de-vehicle set, by way of variety, in i considerable promiscuity and three votion of two derelict men, bound. Iceland. But it is too big in its illegitimate pregnancies is prom-'amid unspeakable squalor, by a social implications to be reduced ised a view of God. She is a transcendent love of one another, to any kind of outline.

lusty creature, a domestic servant It would be interesting to know Despite its merit I fear that strongly reminiscent of Fannie whether a reader, entirely Valka" will be one of the 'Hurst's "Lummox," hut drawing ant of Radclyffe Hall's history, year's forgotten books: fur one no such measure of sympathy would perceive in the present work thing, the title has no buyers' understanding. a subtle deviation from ordinary peal; for another, Halldor Laxness; Farthv Hannah i emotional reactions, or simply see is relatively little known in this, Cro(Va 'Lanp; slum in the central character a type country; for a third, the Icelandic EnR)isn SPaside town wl)j not expertly portrayed. nliu1p only an occswional impression, me Weil or tvOnell- ness, regardless of whether jnot it deserved suppression on moral grounds, was a grand hook a far worthier onus than "The Hannah lives amon her indigent family and neighbors, is crowded wan cnaracters. Several of them iuive, at least for this reader, a quality the heroine lacks: they quality the are plausible human beings. of his desire to swell his already u.

i Kuu. uamiai iortunc- right cata- Iowan's Poems Sing CROSS MY PALM: Bv Sadie Fuller Sc.igrave. The Torch Press SI fin. Reviewed by lla Wallace. HK lilting nl these poems anil their fantasies have been fashioned bv a woman who holds a routine job in Ihe nlfiii' ot a tubercular sanatorium, one who walks close to life and close to death, yet uses none of this as her poetic material, When Sadie Sea grave ot Cedar Rapids allows her liimgma- tion to roam.

with vivid brush strokes cyiwn, mountain maids, rag-picker and the old maid gu 1 'f Kar.i. iiee Mrs. Pcagrave poetry xe cerebral kind Sh. the h. aits h.

comes rea cerebral po. tiv ecu come. There is never any oai-stion as to the poet's meaning; .1 reader know feels and undei unds "Cross My Balm." the title poem, tells a vivid story with sm 1 li vi limit- swing that it sings us wav into one's consciousness at unexpected moments, lbr phrases are generally simple ones, hut we find here lilt and grace, beauty and romance, waimth and quick flashes of human understanding. I have yet to find a listener unmoved by these lines: MOORHOl'XD. I met him out on the wmdv moor, Tile clouds hung oer the sea: "I'm a lonely man, with stick nor stone." He said to me.

A chill came up from the windy nionr, black: The mist hung low and "I'm a lonely soul, with chick child." I answered back. nor Over the edge of the windy mom The parson's light hung dim: "We're lonely folk, and your wold." We said to him. need Then out nnd out on the windy moor We followed its biting reach: "It's a shorter way when two go forth." Kach said to each. i 1 Jr r6 Shr If (hir of Even Fish y-v JxCSCt tO 1 1 -Li. lVl UUIlll 1 1 1 THK JIODKRX ANGLFIl Includ ing the Solunar Theory: Hy John AMen Knight.

Sen oners. OHN ALDKX KNIGHT'S "Modern Angler" varies b'tle fomi coi temporary writers on the piscatorial pastime, until he ex-' pounds Ins "Solunar theory" the mixk'in fisherman's tun" table des-' ignat ing the hours when fish aie "on the feed." It is Knicht's contention thai the pull of the sun and moon, which cause ocean tides, exert an influence upon fish, creating a le- sire to cat. The same force, he adds, affects the habits of aquatic-life upon which the fisti feed. The time corresponding to "low tide" for the locality being fished is claimed to be best. Good fish-; ing continues "all other things be-1 Inc equal, such as water ten oera- ture, barometic pressure, and the thousand-and-one things which af fect the life habits of fish," for about, two hours.

Knight says his theory is borne 4 "'r 4' Wii I i he get his plots!" Hannah, for all her earthiness. Wasn't her feet on firm soil; no of intense maternal type feels a marked favoritism for one or another of her chi dren. on ti ring true. Craftsmanship. It's possible that because Rad is Benrally conceded "on wiim-u no uwii aiory into "The Well of Loneliness" one suspects her of viewing life obliquely and looks for weakness in her perception of hetero-sexual situations.

Certainly the most The sound craftsmanship, the lovely graphic pictures are in this book, and there, is such skill with words that Americans must wish more of Miss Hall's talent be displayed in this country. the storv of Nicholas Nieklebv ruined a schoolmaster named Wil- came Flora of Little Dorrit. i Here and there tlie author ven- tures interpretation, but when lie does so. it is eenerallv to correct Sometimes Dull. When the facts are dull, they are dull he does not try to make them otherwise.

But in spite of this, and in spite of the enormous mass of iletail in the book, it is interesting reading, ith but few exceptions. Mr. Wright has made a very val- liable contribution to Dickens lit- erature, and has presented his ma terial in a manner which other hi ographers might well study. "Mr. Pickwick is the first Ro- tarian, and, had Dickens been true jiiisLaKeiny unnn me isle lias nothing exciting to offer.

You will never think that again after mak- ing your maiden voyage thither ieu nv siaika Valka. 1 the "wild, tangled mass" of pompous words which thrive in the speech of business men, public speakers and statesmen. Some Jungle huglisli. A word bom in the last war, Is "redecontamination," hut "second (leaning" would have been easier for the stenographer to spell. After a "Swat the Rat'1 drive in harbors and ships, officials issue 'deratization" certificates.

Ad- vertisers of automobiles emphasize "improved roadability." Mr. Hcr- ix" I wonders what sort of a car is a car which is imf "roadable." Does it leap fences, relusipg to travel on roads, or does it achieve high velocity in plowed fields but show "unstartability" in Main Street Not discouraged, Mr. Herbert again turns to the advertisements in search of simple English and meets "Foot-consciousness in- creases with the coming ot warm i-i iiieir 1.1 mi inn and he promptly makes up hi mind that when next some om bids him to acquire "air-minded ness" he will retoit, "Foot-eon sciousness to you sir, with The Navy Naval officers Does It. report methods of "dewatering" the dock and "de-humidifving" the air. Mr.

Herbert wonders if he now should "de-water" his bath and "dehuniidify" his ears. Of course, we would know what the speaker means who after "reconditioning" his' house, decides to "reposition" his car in the garage and resitua-tion" the cook he had hut the author hopes that would not prevent a Word Warrior from "running a sharp sword through i the ci7.y.ard of the nfiender I "What Word" is not mlv in- i structive and educational, but it1 is also lots of fun! Father essays which constitute this col- lection. "It is obvious that Du k- ens' intention, in the opening pages of Pickwick, was, with the pre- vision of genius, to extirpate by ridicule the first shoots of what is nowadays called Rotarianism." Fourteen Authors. This album of "Pickwick por-1 1 ait urc" was assembled by Chapman Hall, the London publishers, as a tribute to the Pick wick centenary. It was this same1 firm that gave Dickens his com-' mission to write the series of "Posthumous Papers of the Pick-1 wick Club," and it was Kdward Chapman who collaborated with Dickens in the first rough on- i eeptions of some of the earlier characters that ligurcd in the Pa kwickian ensemble.

Kach of 14 major Pickwick per-i sonaccs is dealt with briefly by a dineient modern writer. Among UlP contributors are Alfred Noves, Waugh, and .1. W. T. y.

(Jne (ll most features of the book is the series 14 drawings by Seymour, Phiz anci Buss fa suppressed platei 'from the original Pickwick Papers Freely interspersed in the text are quotations trorn some of the1 juiciest bits of Sam Wellor, Xh- thanicl Winkle, Messrs. Dodson Sound to You? Hi ntcr and Jean Dixon wil! play in Movies are also to be made of David Imson's "We Who Arc Mr. Micawber Was Dickens' CHARLES DICK-' MM Thnmaa rmlil C.lk ouiij- ners. A PICKWICK PORTRA TT GAL-: LKRY: Scrtbncrs. S3.

Reviewed by Ijwrence I'airall. i iogues the day-by-day facts) so un-jliam Shaw whom Dickens copied; emotionally that they achieve! Dickens' first love became Dora of double intensity in their dramatic David Copperfield. and after she cf grown fat in later life, she be- uhi "nindp the honk in fail tn ilu Att Critic C. Mudi-nw" (t'iivici l''tirdo, St) wheie I was to buy nomt heese i 1' it nnd some aorta I'lscinl each ot which I had seen advert Iseil on ImIIIioiihIs." Hut They Will! Why, they dotit speak our Hut thev will, is H. I Mem ken's guess in the latest edition eiioi tiiiiiislv enlarged, en- tew ri! ten of his "The American Language." For Americanisms, aided by lh talkies and by the fact that.

1 persons use them, are foning their way into Hritish mouths at an amazing rate. Writes Mr. Mencken: the F.nglish- num. of late, has yielded so much to American example that what he speaks promises to become, on some not too remote to-iinirrow, a kind of diaici of America Tins is horrifying to many Kng-lisbineii. Mencken, in tracing Americanisms since t'apt.

John Smith, points out- this British re sciifment through the years. Neeesnry Word. But the Knglish need our words. As Mencken has said more graphically in The Yale Review than I 'can find it expressed in his book: "In the modern Knglishman there seems to lie very little of that iecstacy in wind making which so i pr odigiously engrossed his K.liza-jbethan forbears. The ideal over ther today is not picturesque exhilirating utterance, but correct and reassuring utterance.

'Herein lies the fundamental 'rensnn for the introduction of so many Americanisms. Kngland has nothing so apt or pungent to otter Our is alive. And perhaps one of the reasons is because we so enjoy usinu it "(The Anieri can's) polities bristles with pun-gent epithets, his whole history is bedizened with tall talk: his funda-! menial institution" rest far morn upon brilliant, phrases than upon loci, a ideas. And he exer-i eonl iniiiillv an irn-omparnbln ity lor projecting hidden and often relationships into arrest inc. natts of speech.

Such a term as 'nil Imiim k' is almost a complete treatise on American psychology I he I iilure. Mencloli traces the growth ot Ameninn in rititUT from Walt Wlnl man to alter Winched. His chapters on forbidden words, euphemisms, honoriiics. and slang 'arc delightful And. h.iving pointed! out the ri i universal interest.

and use of Kncjish (both British and Afcricani he closes his tirial chapter. "The Future of thu Language." quoting Dr. Krapp: "Suppose the children of this generation and of the next were per mit ted ciil'ivate expressiveness ins' end of fineriess of speech, trn iraoied and promoted for doinif si thing interesting, not. for do ing somethum correct and proper. If this should happen, as Indeed it is already l.cginning to happen, the Knglish language and literature would undergo such a renascence as they have never rnilV IIF i 1I1IS J8 lUl lite VUIl VeiH lUItai I VP" I nanes Dickens marriage, hia touring England as of biography.

It is no smooth- I was as dramatic as any ever an amateur actor, his two trips to. running narrative of the Emil Lud-I lived by the flamboyant char-, America. w-ig type, nor does it seek to prove I alters who stalked the pages of, Dickens a hero or a villain. It Ins books. And Thomas Wrinht The hook als" t'ontains new ma-! states facts simply, sometimes al-i terial on the affair between Dick-! most coldly.

i o.i.i wiuien a oiograpny so tilled with the detail of it that the re- i Milt quite overwhelming. I From the first chapters, in which in Miss Tcrnan's becoming his what he considers a w'rong analv-j the boy Dickens grubs in a factory mistress. sis of a character or situation as to earn money for the, almost1 A particularly interesting fea- presented by another biographer. THR AMKUH'AX I.AMM'AUK By 11. 1..

Mom ken. Fourth edition. Knopf. Hevicwed liy ldla)M'th larlvHim wart. "vHSKKVF.

HSKKVK this sentenee: "1 I at the pillar-box on the way to the multiple-shop. where I was going to buy sonu butter-muslin and some cream crackers, each of which 1 had seen advertised on hoardings. I hat is more than difficult for an Amer- ioui to understand, And an Fiichsliman would be al- most as bewildeied at. its tram-la- tiuii: "I stopped at the letter-box on the way to the chain-store. i Thi This Will Lure You Outdoors GP.KKN' TIIK GAFU'KN: By Margery ihamo.

inilliu. il Ml. Tlie bca 1 1 am of the title, and tie ecs'atic an ticipation 'in the faces of the two winsorne deners who adojn the gay jacket, should suiely make this book a success And that fust chapter: 'Have Von a Gaiden Well, if you haven't you will surely want to start one. i Oh, it is a sir fully seductive book. The pipes of Pan are blowing, luring one away from the breakfast dishes stacked in the sink, to search the woodlands and the pastures for their treasures Yet withal, it is a very useful book, filled with garden lore gained by experience and experiments i successful and otherwise and sage I advice which is no less practical because of its humorous flashes.

But the book would be incomplete indeed without Grace Paull's amusing line drawings scattered through Its pages Klla Barwlow ll.unniand. I iug lanuiy wnne ms lather in a debtor's prison through '-is meteoric rise to fame in 12 months as a result of the Pick-1 (Wick papers to the closing tragedy of the aging authcr speed- his own death in the madness Mli'tmor Salt oT Iow a City. tit I'tihlixli First Sm The author of ''Kvcr our- of two recently published first-novels by lowans, Kleanur is an editorial assistant in the. publications depart in en of he Iowa Child Welfare Research stalion at the I'niveisiiy of Iowa. Frank Luther Mott reviewed her bunk on litis patje a.

lew weeks ago. Karlton K'elm of I bibnqut' is the other lowan who has had a first, novel published this His book is "The Cherry Bed." (The Fogs of Fundy Test iWorthy Seamen's Mettle vtngnt includes details of Dick- OnS IWll Pflt'li! lnvpis hia nnVionrM. I rng and Fllen Tcrnan, which fic-i uied in the estrangement between Dickens and his wife, and resulted ture tor uicKens enthusiasts is the author's care in pointing out source material from which Dickens drew Ins characters and settings. As most everyone knows, Dickens caricatured real people: his father became Mr. Micawber; lhat tlle foSs nf Fundy.

the rocks am' storms of the Maine coast, rniiy tost tnp of as severely as the mists and winds land shoals of far-off seas and climes. Maine is as far from Patagonia as Patagonia is from Maine yet the sea 6ods CiM staSe nasty a pow- wow thp of the State House dome and Bunker Hill mon- um- as oft the promontories of Terra del Fueco. 0 The telling of this talc is a.s re- markablp as Its substance. Unlike is 8n 'aft, not from the quarter-deck through binoculars or from a deck chair through a monocle. Factual Narrative.

The author is one-third of the crew. He does not pretend to write fiction, but merely changing the names of the personnel, he pre- factual narrative. His style is dis- ii miink iU I tu ic.nanes uoaraman nawes and 'Prank Bullen wrote like that, but most of the great sea writers are too consciously artistic for any- thing of the kind. Perhaps that makes Mr. Livinu- to his purpose, would also have and Fogg, Sergeant Buzfuz, Mr.

been the last," says Hugh Kings-' Pickwick himself, and other not-mill in one of the interesting little able characters. 0fAbout t0 Dip'" Sale's How Does It Vou must agree with Ralph in the title, "Salka Valka" It pounds li Uo something to settle the ct.J(.i,. "Tol. I tww irrt.ijiowiinii,') of Salka Valka In a half a glass water. And P.adclvffe Hall's name has always bothered me It sounds like a dormitory.

Margaret Lawrence shares Ruth Kriedlich's opinion of Radclyffe way. In her "The School of Femi- i i tv, miss Lawrence puts Miss Hall wav out in front for style. I was one of those very young persons who. readme 'The Well of Loneliness" because ot its Les- il-VLt. AXD BY: By David Stan- Livingstone.

Dodge. $2. Reviewed by i Hoyal, Iowa. SHE was a poxy, antique drom-1 edary, a hunchbacked Quasi- I modo of the sea. Rodents and luxuriated in her cubby-1 and cracks.

Waterlocced. he took a load of miscellaneous rmU lo 1Jtl il 111 IRT Innhaninpr rnno innUino- i loss fMr 111 111.1113, aiKJI of food and water, the Jason re turned with cargo of water lath to Boston. lugged builders Near Hume. Those of us who have read so many exotic tales that we are prone to think all the remarkable things of the sea must happen east of Suez or south of the Equator relmnuor. You Are Invited Practicing poets, potential writers, and critical readers are invited to the first meeting of the Midwest Literary league at the Unitarian church at 8 p.

m. Thursday, May 21. Raymond Kresen-sky of Algona will preside. Plans will be made for future activities. Jack Conroy, Moberly, novelist, and Joe Jones, regional painter, will speak.

i i Get Mad, Win $5 in Books In a footnote to "The reviewed here today, H. Mencken says something which should inspire pood Iovvar.s to thf Written word. And ti best, answer to his st at I'liieni mailed to the editor of tins pate, will win $." worth of books Mencken quotes Henry P.iadley: develops most freely groups with a strong realization of group activity and interest, and groups without this interest, rii, farmers, rarely invent, slang here is where we get mad; Mr. Mencken then remarks: "The real reason why farmers si 1-dorn invent them, of course, is that farmers, as a are extremely stupid. They never invent anything else." Tally-ho Farmers, farmers' wives, county-seat merchants, city men, all readers should have answers to that Don't write over words -and answers must reach the editoj by Saturday, May 23! loo loo Deep and Barry Bencfield's "Valiant Is the Word for Carrie," all of which have been reviewed here recently.

Stories by two lowans will ap- '-pear in the new O'Brien Best Short Stories collection. The University of Minnesota Prooa hn a nut nnt hnnlr nf Mr-A I'iciuira in imur, in Amrnran Birds," which you simply must I have if you are a parent In most cases the colors are ainaz- true. The book contains large color plates, made by a spe- stone a great stylist this reviewer bian theme, was on such a concen- cial process from original water, out by observations of anglers In; not voting. But this much can trated hunt for the sensational' colors. And It sells for only $2.

parts of h-' country the. be asserted with calm assurance: that I paid little attention to the last two 'eiiI's- If yu are a bc'i without benefit ot flowing purple writing of the book. To "Jalna" fans: you can't help lievcr in signs and such, take a or soaring lyricism, without help 'being surprised at the news that Solunar table on your next fishing: from the loot of sacred Algona's Richard Sherman's Wakefield, Renny's youngest and excursion, check the magic hour! chests of doubloons, pieces of novelette, "To Mary With Love," most harum-scarum brother, is for fishing, and save yourself eight, musk, ivory or ambergris, has been cast for its movie ver- thinking of entering a monastery lot of back-breaking rowing and; he writes a powerful story, and a sion Variety says Warner Bax- -in the next book Mazo de la wrist-paralyzing casting. It; viable one. jter, Myrna Loy, Claire Trevor, Ian Roche is about to put out! K.C.Z., might work! Kies Tut tie.

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