Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

 

Long Meadows. By Minnie Hite Moody. (New York, Mac-

millan Co., 1941. ⁶57p. $3.00.)

Genealogy as genealogy makes mighty dry reading to any

but members of the family treated; history may be, but often is

not, written with suppressed excitement, but when both genealogy

and history are molded in the form of fiction by the hand of an

artist, then we get a masterpiece transcending both genealogy and

history. That is the result Mrs. Minnie Hite Moody has achieved

in Long Meadows, which is the story of the Hite (Heydt) family

in America, and the story of America as the Hite family lived and

in part created it.

Baron Joist Heydt fled the Huguenot persecutions of Europe,

married, and with his wife came to the New World in the eight-

eenth century. Here he established a family which was prolific,

and, ever imagining "the Lands further off, . . . still better than

those upon which they are already Settled," the men pushed from

New York to Virginia and westward across the mountains to

Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, fighting Indians, clearing lands and

taking part in local affairs. The story is brought down to the

close of the Civil War.

If there is a fault in the plan of the story, it is that no one

central character commands the stage throughout. The narrative

covers too long a span for that, resulting in a series of characters

whose lives overlap. One must allow successively the fire of inter-

est to grow cold toward one character, and be kindled into flame

by yet another younger one. The family, therefore, must become

the "hero," in whose fortunes the reader's interest must be sus-

tained.

Mrs. Moody, a member of the Hite family, was born in Ohio,

and now lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

C. L. W.

(243)

• 1
 

244    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Bitter Honey. By Martin Joseph Freeman. (New York, Mac-

millan Co., 1942. 297p. $2.50.)

The small town where this story unfolds may be Ada, Ohio,

the birthplace of the author, an English professor in Hunter Col-

lege, New York. However, it could as easily be any other mid-

western American town of similar size. The emphasis is centered

not so much on locale but on that universal and unending happen-

ing--the impingement of the limitless, enticing world upon the

consciousness of a small boy. Life for ten-year-old David Ward

could so easily be unalloyed honey, if only there were no grown-

ups who expected him to do the milking, to keep himself clean

and to comb his hair.

The author succeeds admirably in delineating David's

thoughts and feelings. Looking at life through his eyes, we are

shown how puzzling the actions of his sharp-tongued grandmother

seem, and how strange is the liking of Pewee Egan and his gang

for smoking. This novel which presents the child's point of view

in so refreshing and natural a way should appeal to a wide audi-

ence.

E. B.

-------

Men of the Mountains. By Jesse Stuart. (New York, E. P. Dut-

ton & Co., 1941. 349P. $2.50.)

Jesse Stuart, a poet, makes a first-rate fiction writer. This is

a collection of 21 of his short stories about the people of the

Kentucky mountains. Since the author is one of them, we know

that his characterizations are authentic, that his presentation of

their peculiarities of speech and thought are true to life. That

they are peculiar is all too apparent to the reader unfamiliar with

the mountain whites.

While as a whole these stories have been related with distinc-

tion, the first one, which gives the volume its title, seems to be the

least interesting of the lot and less well done than the others.

This, if the reviewer's judgment is correct, is unfortunate since

• 2
 

BOOK REVIEWS                   245

 

it may turn some readers away from enjoying the remaining

stories.

One of the most memorable in the volume is "Fern," the

story of a tuberculous girl who is farmed out to live with a family

who neglect her and leave her to die alone. The story is related

touchingly through the person of a youngster who had fallen in

love with her.

The poet is present on nearly every page of the book in such

descriptive and picturesque expressions as these:

"He has heavy eyebrows like ferns on the edge of a rock

cliff."

"I am afraid to cross the hill at night. I am afraid to meet

the man I wanted to be. I think, 'What if he would meet me on

the path and laugh and shake my hand and ask me how I am . . . .'"

"It comes to me fresh as a buttercup in the dew."

"Her blue eyes stared sightless from their dark sockets. They

was set still as a picture under glass."

"I dreamed about Lima that night. She was in my arms. I

kissed her. She was in the trees I'd seen in the moonlight. She

was in the wild flowers I saw--the flowers on the yaller bank.

She was in my corn and my terbacker. She was in the wind that

blows. She was my wife."

It is a book to be enjoyed for its warmth and human interest.

C. L. W.

----------

Who Fought and Bled. By Ralph Beebe. (New York, Coward-

McCann, Inc., 1941. 329p. Frontispiece map. $2.50.)

This is a historical novel of the Ohio country and of Michi-

gan Territory at the time of the War of 1812. The heroes are a

young and gently reared Bostonian, Roderick Hale, and his rough

and ready frontier partner, Buck Stark. The campaigns of the

Western Army against the British at Detroit and later at French-

town and the unsuccessful attempts of the Americans under the

inept leadership of Hull are described in a style attractive to

readers of the teen-age group. Mention of such points as Cin-

• 3
 

246   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

cinnati, Dayton and Chillicothe give the tale local color and re-

marks such as the following, made by Hale's rugged partner on

their arrival into Ohio, furnish a proper flavor of the fervor and

faith of the Ohio pioneer:

"There's a hundred men crossing the mountains every day

with nothing but a wife, a wagon load of children, two axes, and a

bag of salt, bound for the Congress Lands. They're all as poor as

Job's turkey; and they're going to make Ohio the richest state

in the United States; and we're going to help. In our spare time

we'll kick the redskins west of the Mississippi and the redcoats

north of the Arctic Ocean; and we'll build schools bigger than

Harvard College, and cities bigger than Boston. We've got the

richest land in the country; the most rivers, the thickest trees, the

strongest men, and the handsomest women. You can't beat that

combination."

Though the speaker and his fellow-adventurers found it much

more difficult than his bragging expectations in the opening chap-

ter of the book, nevertheless, his partner could conclude after a

long period of bitter struggle and many hardships that Ohio was

"home" where "we would work--work for ourselves, for Ohio.

and for the Western country, which would gloriously survive all

military stupidities, treacheries, and temporary reverses."

B. E. J.

---------

 

They Saw America Born: Adventures of an American Family

Pioneering from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 1638-1938. By

Dora Davis Farrington (Los Angeles, Times-Mirror Co.,

1941, 188p.)

This book, written by Dora Davis Farrington, associate pro-

fessor of English (retired) in Hunter College of the city of New

York, traces the adventures of an American family pioneering from

the Atlantic to the Pacific between 1638 and 1938. The heart of

the book is a romance of 1805 in the Ohio wilderness when Ne-

hemiah Davis, II, a young man from New England, married

Mary Allison, the daughter of a Virginia family. The first part

• 4
 

BOOK REVIEWS                   247

of the book, entitled "From England to New England," traces the

family from 1638 to 1798. The second part, entitled "Bound for

the Ohio Country," carries the story down to the marriage in

1805. The third part is entitled "On the Ohio River: 1816-

1839." The next part describes activities in Illinois, Iowa and

Ohio from 1839 to 1879. The family story includes a section

concerning "Kansas," "On to Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma and

California" and the last section treats of "Out-reaches of the

Pioneer Spirit." The frontispiece is a picture of Campus Martius,

Marietta, in 1791. The book is cloth-bound, illustrated and

contains 188 pages.

H. L.

 

 

 

----------

 

Ohio Composers and Musical Authors. By Mary Hubbell Osburn

(Columbus, Ohio, F. J. Heer Printing Co., 1942. 238p.)

Ten years ago Mrs. Edna Maria Clark gave us Ohio Art

and Artists and now Mrs. Mary Hubbell Osburn gives us Ohio

Composers and Musical Authors. Beginning with a historical

sketch of the development of music in Ohio, Mrs. Osburn gives

brief sketches of Ohio composers and musical authors. This is

quite complete and furnishes the bulk of the book covering over

200 pages. Two pages are devoted to a listing of Ohio songs,

one page to the Martha Kinney Cooper Ohioana Library and two

pages to the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs. There is an index

to composers. All in all the book will be of value not only to

people interested particularly in music, but to all interested in

Ohio's history. Mrs. Osburn is the author of the chapter on

"Twentieth Century Music in Ohio" in Volume VI of the History

of the State of Ohio.

H. L.

• 5
 

248    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

An Old Doctor of the New School. By James C. Wood. (Cald-

well, Idaho, The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1942. ^398p. Illus.

$3.50.)

Born in Wood County, Ohio, in 1858, the author of these

reminiscences relates in succinct yet adequate fashion the history

of his eighty-some years. The son of an outstanding pioneer

family he received but a common school education and in 1877,

began the study of medicine at Monroe, Michigan, with a local

physician. Later he graduated from the Homeopathic Department

of the University of Michigan in 1879, where he won a surgical

prize for the best examination in surgery. For five years there-

after he practiced medicine in Monroe with Dr. A. I. Sawyer, a

well-known physician of that vicinity. In 1886 he became a full

professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michi-

gan. There he remained for eight years, after which time he

went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he practiced for the remainder

of his career. During these rich, full years he won many honors

for his work in the medical field and published widely in scientific

journals. He now resides in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleve-

land.

The volume reads easily and, except for some scientific dis-

courses, which are of greater interest to the medical man than to

the lay reader, indicates that the writer not only enjoyed writing

his life-story but also took great zest in living his life-experiences.

There are a number of quotable passages in the autobiography

and the title is an apt one, for Dr. Wood is very much aware of

the rapid obsoletism in the field of medicine and is thoroughly in

favor of progress and improvement. His volume, of course, up-

holds the homeopathic point of view, but aside from its medical

discussions it presents a vivid picture of life in these parts about

three-quarters of a century ago. It should be of interest to the

general reader and even more so to the physician.

B. E. J.

• 6
 

BOOK REVIEWS                    249

 

Sherwood Anderson's Memoirs. (New York, Harcourt, Brace

and Co., 1942. x, 507p. $3.75.)

This is an unconventional autobiography of an unconventional

Ohioan. The author of Winesburg, Ohio and other plain tales

about plain people spins here the warp and woof from which he

designed the patterns for his twenty-some books. To the man

who asked that his grave be inscribed "Life, not death, is the

Great Adventure," this book was his final expression of life as he

saw it. Through these pages saunter both the great and the

nonentities with emphasis on the peregrinations of the latter.

Though the book was unfinished at the time of Anderson's

death, completion was arranged by Mrs. Anderson with the assist-

ance of Paul Rosenfeld. Portions of the work appeared inde-

pendently in various periodicals. The volume is divided into six

Books: I, What a Man's Made Of; II, American Money; III,

Robin's Egg Renaissance; IV, The Literary Life; V, Into the

Thirties, and VI, Life, Not Death. The locale of Book I is Ohio.

The other Books deal with Chicago, New York and various

points. Some of the stories are unforgettable and etch themselves

into the reader's memory; others are not so good; a few smack of

smuttiness; but all are undeniably Andersonian. If you are an

Anderson enthusiast you will say, as the blurb does, that this is

"The genius of Anderson at its highest." If you are a more

objective reader you will sift the wheat from the chaff and pro-

nounce the resulting grain a typical collection of memoirs of a

writer who, after all, told his best life-story through the mouths

of his characters, leaving for his last contribution but a rewording

of these same sentiments and realistic expressions in more personal

terms.

B. E. J.

 

---------

Reveille in Washington. By Margaret Leech. (New York, Har-

per & Bros., 1941. 483p. $3.50.)

Praise of a book that has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize

for the best historical volume published in 1941 may seem like

• 7
 

250    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

excellent hindsight. Still, it is pleasant to applaud the good judg-

ment of the committee and to call additional attention to a really

fine work.

Every American will find interest in this account of life in

Washington during the Civil War--though not much of it is about

the "little people," the clerks who, then as now, flocked to the

city to get jobs. The closer you are to the Capital the higher

your interest.

Most of the material came from revealing sources, the items

and articles in newspapers.  Not much chance for a hero to

emerge that way. Yet Mr. Lincoln stands up pretty well. The

war hurt him terribly, mentally and physically--before he began

his second term he was 30 pounds under weight and his hands

and feet were always cold--but he appears to have kept a quiet

cheerfulness and geniality. He seems to have respected and

trusted many persons, among them Secretary of War Stanton,

whose personal ambitions and peculiarities must have been trying.

In those days the President took more chances than he does

now. Sightseers wandered into the White House and souvenir

hunters hacked out pieces of the draperies; nowadays guards shoo

pedestrians to the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue opposite

the mansion. Mr. Lincoln seems to have been downright careless.

His height of rashness was reached when he--with other civilians,

including women--was watching the Confederate thrust at Wash-

ington in the summer of 1864; he stood on the parapet and didn't

take to cover even when an Army surgeon a yard away was shot.

Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver Wendell Holmes, afterward Supreme

Court justice, shouted, "Get down, you fool."

The war itself is described mainly in its effects on Washing-

ton, with the Capital as a sort of indicator. Whenever the Union

fortunes were low the Washington "secesh" were jubilant; when

the tide of battle turned the other way the southern sympathizers

subsided.

Life in Washington must have had an unreal quality, with

receptions, theatrical performances, social climbing, and other

business-as-usual activities going on while the Nation was in a

struggle for survival. Habits are persistent. Women shopped

• 8
 

BOOK REVIEWS                     251

 

and streetcars rattled above the roar of artillery in the suburbs.

Much the same attitude prevails today, though the sound of

battle has not come near Washington.

A long list of references--though no footnotes bother while

you read--and short biographical sketches of many of the people

mentioned round out the book. The only bad feature is the name;

it's hard to see that the history is a "reveille," and you don't know

whether to pronounce it in the French fashion to rhyme with

"I'll pay ye" or soldier style which is almost "revelry."

Washington, D. C.                      MERRILL WEED

 

-----------

 

Washington Is Like That. By W. M. Kiplinger. (New York,

Harper & Bros., 1942.  vi, 522p. $3.50.)

A number of books have been written about the Capital City

of the Nation, the mecca of tourists, politicians and lobbying favor-

seekers, but this latest effort seems to be the most inclusive and

detailed "Baedeker" of them all. Authored by the editor and

publisher of the Kiplinger Washington Letter, which according

to his own explanation is the oldest of a dozen or more such serv-

ices existing today in that city, this is the work of a native Ohioan.

Born in Bellefontaine, Ohio, in 1891, he was educated in the State

and graduated from Ohio State University. His first newspaper

job was at Columbus on the Ohio State Journal. The lure of

greener pastures took him to Washington in 1916 where he has

lived ever since.

He has seen, therefore, from the bird's-eye-vantage of the

newspaperman, World War I, the succeeding boom and its suc-

cessive depression and now he is an eye-witness to the city and

its inhabitants in the throes of another and even more gigantic

World War. A vast amount of detail is crowded into the book.

The very make-up of it breathes with crowding, for the Old Style

No. I type used is none too large (especially for somewhat

myopic readers) and the margins are so narrow as to make the

inner edges almost give the effect of the bleed format of modern

• 9
 

252    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

illustrative material. Perhaps there is method to this and the

publishers as well as the author wish to impress the reader with

the crowded conditions in Washington today. However that may

be, the content is, nevertheless, sprightly and written with the

journalese technique which, together with its timeliness, should

result in making it a best-seller.

The blurb tells that the assembling and correlating was made

possible by the help of the Kiplinger staff plus outside researchers.

The result, however, is not dry and factual. Sufficient synthesis

has been applied to digest properly the statistics and recreate them

in more popular form. Toward the end there is a DWB (Diction-

ary of Washingtonian Biography) which includes "fifty-five big

men"; a series of Washington anecdotes; a glossary of Washing-

ton dialect (Molotovs and Dukes of Windsor please note) ; a list of

the "alphabet soup," or commonly used abbreviations; a popu-

larized condensation of the Government Printing Office list of pub-

lications; a collateral reading list; an explanation of how the book

was written with due credit to the thirty-one men and nine women

who assisted in the process; and last but not least, a too brief yet

fairly workable index.

In his closing sentences the author says: "The aim of this

book is to help people to look Washington square in the face, on

the level, with both eyes, and see inside it as it really is." That

is exactly what he had tried to do and what he has, to a fairly

successful degree, actually accomplished. Though some may criti-

cize the order of arrangement and feel that there is considerable

"jumping about" from topic to topic yet the chapters do result in

vivid glimpses into very private corners of our fountain-head of

government. Not only does the interested readers learn what

FDR eats and how long is his work day but how much it costs

to run the White House, what sort of people are Sidney Hillman,

Donald Nelson, William Knudson and Leon Henderson; what lies

behind the scenes in the various departments; all about govern-

ment officials who are neither dumb nor omniscient; what a log

of the city for 24 hours might contain; the status of women work-

ers and what that means to us; who the Negroes in the city are and

the problem of equality; the inside stories about the farmers'

• 10
 

BOOK REVIEWS                    253

 

marriage with government as well as labor's courtship of the New

Deal; how Uncle Sam functions as a fond papa; all about the

nine men on the bench; the ways in which politics is a job rather

than a game; lobbying and what it means; what is the influence of

women and the influence of lawyers; who are the brain-trusters;

all about some provocative postwar plans; a little about G-men

and T-men, etc., etc. But why tell more? The book merits read-

ing rather than commenting. It is a veritable encyclopedia in

sugar-coated form. One wishes the index had not been skimped,

for the volume is so heterogeneous in character that a point once

read is difficult to find a second time. Yet the headings and sub-

headings do help some. Anyhow, one lays the book down

slightly dizzy, somewhat exhilarated and genuinely satisfied that

there are other cities than Washington, D. C., in which to live

and work. Though it is a grand place for tourists, and excellent

for those who revel in its tempo and its grind, one seems to sense

the nostalgia of the erstwhile small-town Ohioan who, for all the

glamor of the Nation's Capital, still probably pines for the peace-

fulness of Bellefontaine.

B. E. J.

 

 

The Admirable Trumpeter: A Biography of General James Wil-

kinson. By Thomas R. Hay and M. R. Werner. (Garden

City, Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1941. xii??383p. Frontis-

piece. $3.00.)

This work is a series of narrations of intrigues, as indeed any

life of Wilkinson would almost have to be. It is a detailing of the

intrigues in which Wilkinson was a participant, and intrigues by

others against him. Wilkinson was apparently no sooner escaping

from one intrigue than he was getting into another. The authors

make the point, however, that "neither the United States nor

Jefferson ever did suffer from Wilkinson's intrigues with Spanish

officials; the treasury at Madrid seems to have figured as the only

loser" (p.294).

These intrigues are told straightforwardly, but with either

• 11
 

254    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

little ability or little desire on the part of the authors to make the

reader understand Wilkinson. After finishing the book this re-

viewer felt that he knew a lot of facts about Wilkinson but that he

understood the man little better than before. This book is a good

example of the kind on which much work has been done in re-

search and in writing and which, nevertheless, results in sterility.

Upon finishing it the reader is likely to find himself asking: "So

what?"

In the year 1792 Wilkinson became a Spanish pensioner. In

1794 he requested of Baron Carondelet, Spanish governor of

Louisiana, the $12,000 due him for his pension. Six thousand

dollars were sent by one Owen, Wilkinson's agent, but he was

robbed and murdered. Wilkinson's other agent, Joseph Collins,

was sent from New Orleans with $6,330 for Wilkinson, but he

speculated (badly) with $2,000 of it, and Wilkinson wrote later

that all he received of the $6,330 was $1,740.

Wilkinson was on the commission that received the Louisiana

territory from France. In 1806 Wilkinson wrote to Jose de Itur-

rigaray, viceroy of Mexico, that he expected him to reimburse

him for 121,000 pesos that he had arranged to spend in order to

thwart the plans of Burr and his followers to conquer Mexico.

The viceroy told Wilkinson's agent, however, that he could not

pay without orders from his king.

During an adjournment of court in the Burr trial, Federalists

in Philadelphia proposed the following toast: "Our Navy and

Army--the first sold or rotten, the second commanded by Wil-

kinson" (p.278).

The authors state that Wilkinson had a strong belief in the

manifest destiny (a phrase not used about the United States until

after Wilkinson's death), but they declare their belief that he

usually expressed that destiny in terms of his own personal wel-

fare.

The title is attributed to that section in Diedrich Knicker-

bocker's History of New York in which Washington Irving, in

lampooning Wilkinson in the person of General Jacobus von Pof-

fenberg, "lamented that military preferment had spoiled 'an admir-

able trumpeter'" (p.viii). Wilkinson had, it is true, some of the

• 12
 

BOOK REVIEWS                     255

qualities which the uninitiated in military matters are possibly

prone to think of as going with a trumpeter: pomposity, air of

importance, dash--and noise. His language was ornate and exag-

gerated. He was self-confident, self-assertive and egotistical. He

had an unlimited belief in the force of his will and in his ability

to deceive unsuspecting men.

The book has a bibliographical note and an index.

Columbus, Ohio                     JOHN H. McMINN

 

 

William Henry Harrison, His Life and Times. By James A.

Green. (Richmond, Garrett and Massie, Inc., 1941. 536p.

$5.00.)

This volume, from the preface to the interesting bibliograph-

ical note, is the product of a labor of love and the result of much

study over a long period of years of the life of William Henry

Harrison, carried on as an avocation. The author has traveled

widely in search of materials and has built up one of the finest col-

lections of Harrisoniana in existence. The gathering of nearly

2,000 items, including many rare contemporary sources, represents

a major contribution to the history of the United States during the

early nineteenth century. Included in the author's library are

approximately 120 Harrison funeral sermons and orations, beau-

tifully rebound for permanent preservation. It is hoped that this

collection will be left intact and eventually find its way into a

proper library, for permanent preservation.

The author has written from the point of view of the West,

whose people "brought something new and something precious

into the life of the nation." A trained historian as editorial critic

would have tempered quite a number of the author's statements,

but he would also have robbed the manuscript of some of its zest.

Mr. Green's volume is well printed and his beautiful illustrations

add charm to it.

William Henry Harrison was a child of the Revolution, born

at "Berkeley" on the James River in Virginia, and the son of a

signer of the Declaration of Independence. In 1791 young Har-

• 13
 

256    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

rison came to the wild and dangerous Ohio country as a new

ensign of artillery. From then until his death in 1841 he belonged

to the West. In many an official capacity he voiced its hopes and

needs, and fought to achieve them in legislative halls, executive

rooms, and on battlefields. His decisive victories at Tippecanoe

and the Thames protected the homes of settlers in the Ohio Valley

from the redskins and redcoats. As a result, Harrison became the

most popular and respected leader in this region, and, in a cam-

paign unmatched for ballyhoo, was elected president in 1840. The

merciless enthusiasm of his friends shortened the old warrior's

days and he died after only a month in the White House.

America was on the move at the beginning of the nineteenth

century to a greater extent than ever before. "Westward the

course of empire," characterized it during this period of lusty

vitality. Harrison played one of the leading roles in this drama.

Its spirit the author presents well.

Ohio University                       A. T. VOLWILER

 

 

 

 

The Sun Dial. By Richard Austin Smith. (New York, Alfred A.

Knopf, 1942. ²⁶4p. $2.50.)

This is the tense, rapid tale of a restless Viking, Soren, set

on a grim stage and danced weirdly through to a sudden over-

whelming curtain. Yet, for all its grimness, the tale has an excit-

ing philosophy, thrilling naturalness and very real beauty. Mr.

Smith strikes a delicate balance of temperament in the first chap-

ter and maintains it happily throughout--making the story not

overly somber reading but, rather, a satisfying unit of many emo-

tions.

The sea is the destiny of Soren, as it is of anyone, says

Suzanne, in whose veins runs seawater. As a child, Soren is

thrilled, yet affrighted, by its mystery and beauty; as a man he

loses his Suzanne to it and is empty in his loneliness; in mid-

years, he seeks and finds dramatic comfort in its adventures; as

an old man, he waits out his last years on three abandoned old

• 14
 

BOOK REVIEWS                    257

 

hulks; and at death, with Viking visions, goes down on a bombed

destroyer.

The author knows his sea and paints it in vivid poetry--

poetry at once full, yet precise and simple. Occasionally, in his

zeal for straight talking and thinking, he loses force in characteri-

zation by putting his own words in alien mouths--and even,

sometimes, twentieth century sophistry in a nineteenth century

setting, but what he says is always so interesting that perhaps it

is unimportant that he doesn't hold to the unities.

Here is a living picture of America by Suzanne, lovely island

bride of Soren: "America has no dark-rooted history. There's

nothing here to lure us back to a past we can never regain. . . .

Our's is a history of doing. . . . Look at your hands and this

house, look at the fields and the cedar forest, that's our history.

We make more of it every day and we can always go back to it,

for the stiff muscle will remind us how the tree fell, and the moist

earth on our shoes how the garden flourished."

Wonderfully wise is Suzanne, and old Christenson, too, her

father: "In peacetime, a man's mind is soft and pliable like purse

leather, didn't feel anything lighter'n a silver dollar. But in war-

time it tightens up, gets taut as a drumhead and the impact of

even a pin sounds like the crack o' doom."

The symbolism in the title of the book is itself a philosophy--

but that's part of the fascination of the story, and is perhaps best

left up to individual discovery. Mr. Smith, in neat, precise prose,

has told a full story well. It is indeed a small book worth big

reading.

Columbus, Ohio             ARDIS HILLMAN WHEELER

• 15