The Library Page
8. C. GIESEY Editor
R. L. HERBERT Asso. Editor
P. A. RODGERS Asso. Editor
(Staff not yet completed).
This page is intended to serve as
a means of expression for things
literary produced by the students of
this college. Anyone wishing to con
tribute to the column should see one
of the staff, or write the editor at
box 475 S. E.
CLARK’S FIELD by Robert Herrick
Reviewed by Robt. L. Herbert.
A forlorn, underfed, undereducated,
fourteen-year-old orphan whose care
and guidance has been left to a
shiftless, drunken uncle and a more
enterprising aunt who eked out a mis
erable subsistence for the trio by
operating a dingy, last class board
ing house, became the sole survivor
of the Clark . family and inciden
tally the heir to Clark’s Field, a
large tract of land for fifty years
so badly entangled legally that its
sale was restricted by order of
court.
During this fifty-year period the
property had increased in value from
almost nothing to an unknown num
ber of millions. Adelle, the last of
the Clarks, was descended from
forefathers whose character and
achievement would lead one to be
lieve that little or nothing more
than the very ordinary could be ex
pected from her. At fourteen she
showed no more signs of womanhood
than a nine-year-old child. She was
a backward, shrivelled little figure
whom the girl of her age today would
characterize as being hopelessly
“dumb.”
This was what she was when she
became the ward of a trust company
to which the care of her more than
four million dollars had been en
trusted. But as the officers of this
company fattened their purses, Adelle
attended a fashionable school, where
she learned the one weapon with
which to defeat the intolerable tor
tures of snobbery to which she was
subjected, the power of money. Once
discovered, the weapon was wielded
right and left to carve the social
niche she desired.
Study in Europe obtained her a
husband, a young, aristocratic but
penniless Californian who imagined
himself an artist. With Adelle’s
money to spend, the young man saw
no need of becoming an artist, and
they returned to America to squan
der her fortune. A son was born—
accidentally—but with its birth Adelle
became a new person, losing all
love and respect for her macaroni
like husband and centering her af
fection on the child, always plan
ning for its future.
Discovery of an unknown cousin,
working as a brick mason in her
yard, brought to Adelle’s mind the
thought that all of her fortune was
not rightfully hers though legally
no other person had a claim to ifc.
Fear for the future of her child caus
ed her to keep her discovery to
herself.
Their home, still unfinished, burn
ed to the ground. The infant son
suffocated when his father proved
too much of a coward to risk his life
to save it, the brick-laying cousin
entering the blazing and crumbling
structure to retrieve the body be-
The
Greater Palace i
Thursday . Friday |
Saturday
' FrBfiS
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fore it was cremated and made him
self a hero to Adelle, who informed
him of his supposed right to half of
the estate. A visit to the trust com
pany and ancient probate judge re
sulted in their discovering that no
court would consent to reopening the
case. The cousin refused his share
of the money as a gift, and upon
the advice of the judge, they decided
to use the remainder of the fortune
in uplifting the thousands of people
residing in CT'rk’s Field, now a
dirty industrial and tenement sec
tion.
Such is the story told by Robert
Herrick in CLARKS FIELD as he
lets loose a tirade on the “most
sacred object of worship that the
race has—the holy institution of
private property,” the type of women
produced by the age of private prop
erty, the system of education among
the millionaire class, that class of
Americans who prefer living in Eur
ope, the modern measure of success,
and all the other evils of the money-
mad age.
“You can utter Herrick and Gals
worthy in‘the same breath, and then
forget about Galsworthy,” said
Stuart P. Sherman in commenting
upon Herrick. But Mr. Sherman in
trying to give Herrick his proper
place as a writed and impress upon
his readers this place, stepped a lit
tle out of bounds. Herrick has suc
cessfully criticized America and
Americans in the very way that
Galsworthy has England and English
men but in comparison to the far-
reaching works of the English au
thor, those of Herrick appear to
have scratched only the surface.
When one completes one of Her
rick’s criticisms, he knows that
something about the American peo
ple does not please the author but he
is not absolutely certain what it is,
so general has been the discussion.
There seems to be something lacking
which would cause cou-viction—pos
sibly force. Probably if Herrick had
a little more of Galsworthy’s power
of scathing satire, his books would
have some of this force. A greater
development of the knack of story
telling—the grace of prose fiction—
would also add much to his work.
One of the things that most weak
ened the book was the ever-hover
ing fear on the part of the author
that the reader would realize he was
reading fiction after all. So much
does Herrick want his readers to
understand that the book is not “an
idealistic or romantic story, striving
to present the world as it ought to
be rather than as it often happens
to be” that he constantly reminds
them of it by telling just how the
story would proceed from a certain
point if it were not realistic. So
overworked is this machination that
it takes away from, rather than
adds to, the realism of the tale.
Yet the book is not without merit.
It criticizes capably the money-mad
ness which has drawn the fire of so
many contemporary writers; the sa
tire and irony of Herrick—-when he
chose to use it—is very effective,
and his attacks on the present in
stitution of womanhood would war-
want the publication of the book if
it contained nothing else.
Herrick sees the Aemican woman
as Ibsen saw the women of his
country, as parasites dependent up
on someone else for all serious
thoughts and for care—virtually de
pendent upon others for conscience.
The woman of today is judged by
a set of false standards—by the
amount of money she has, by her
grace, her physical charm. To quote
the author, “She must have good
manners, an attractive person, and,
less clearly, some acquaintance with
literature, music, and art, and one
modern language to enable her to
hold her own in the social circles
that it is presumed she will adorn.”
Her object in life is to marry a man
of social standing and to become a
parasitic adornment—a doll.
During the months of September
and October there were over 6,200
Telegrams that went through the of
fice here at school ?
JC PENNEY CQ
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The Campus Cleaners and Tailors
HENRY LOCKE, Manager
Alterations, Cleaning, Pressing and Repairs
Hats Cleaned and Blocked.
Caps Cleaned. Ties Cleaned and Pressed.
OVER THE EXCHANGE STORE