New Utrecht High School - Comet Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

Page 12 text:

L- 672 I Ruth Q. ' Goldberg S- Editor Q la of ' Pri . M V11-zr ' X si W I - Lirfef-am X . some new books . F LAMENCO Lady Eleanor Smith came to us last year with a vivid story of circus called the 'iRed Wagon.'l Now she brings us Flamenco a somewhat sympathetic theme. She writes of the gypsies with genuine authenticity, insight and under- standing. She does not paint them in the glorious gay colors of fantastic romance. The Romanies are a wild folk, dirty, dis- reputable, and dishonest, and as such she paints them. Lobo, the gypsy, and Richard Lavell, the gentleman, are both exiles. The one for violating the stern, Romany law of leis prala by killing a fellow gypsy, the other cheating at cards. He shelters the gypsy for a night, and buys the gypsy baby, Camila, who grows up as one of the Lavell children. Mrs. Lavell, who is quite insane and drinking herself deeper into insanity as a flight from bitter reality, hates Camila from the beginning. Richard makes ad- vances to the grown-up Camila and is repulsed. For revenge he sends her off to the gypsies. She returns, ragged and worn, with a tale of horribly brutal treatment, She marries the younger son, Evelvn only to discover that she really loves the elder, Harry. Finally she goes to him, and has a son, Robin. TlflHAiIS

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Verse and Worse Rnln Pnnl and Monroe Ackernmn TRAVELING by Monroe Ackerman Josiah Brush was a traveling man, Who sailed the briny main, He was Mr. Brush in England, And Senor Brush in Spain. The Frenchman called him Monsieur Brush, But the German's were his baneg For they always called him Herr Brush Which filled his soul with pain. The farmer in the dell, Bad people go to dash- And since its hot They like it not But what can you do about it? joe passed the cop without a fuss, He passed a load of hay, He tried to pass a swerving bus- And then he passed away. HAPPINESS Last night I held a hand So dainty and so neat, I thought my heart would burst with joy So wildly did it beat. No other hand Into my heart could greater solace bring, Than that I held last night, which was, Four aces and a king. A man who lived in Adarn's days, Who lived in days of yore, Could not say when he heard a joke, I've heard that one before. I stood on a bridge at midnight. A thought came into my head, Why should I be standing there When-I could be home in bed? Eeny meeny miiny moe, Stand the people in a row, Politicians steal their dough, Eeny meeny miiny moe. FORGOTTEN Ah, well I remember the bleak rainy day When you bade me farewell and departed. You hastened away through a shower in May And left me behind heavy hearted. Full many a May have I seen pass away In the years I have waited and sorrowed. Still hoping that you might remember some day To return the umbrella you borrowed. Nine i r I

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Glibe Qlumet This is enough of the intricate plot to show the pasionate intensity of the story, with gypsies and outlaws moving against the strange background of a dark, wild and gloomy country, a tempestuous, bit- ter household, hopelessly entangled in the meshes of their passion. One .feels throughout like a watcher at a play not as a part of a moving fiction, but it is a good play, not easily forgotten. One leaves it with the wild clash of savage, gypsy music ringing in his ears. A CHILD IS BORN If you were to board the Hamilton Avenue Trolley, at some point along Third Avenue, it would take you across a bridge over the Gowanus Canal and you would find yourelf in Red Hook, the scene of Charles Yale Harrison's latest literary ef- fort, A Child Is Born fCape and Smith, S52.00j. If you got off the trolley and looked around you would see the slums of Brooklyn, crowded, dirty streets full of children and over-crowded tenement houses rotting with age. Upon opening the book by Mr. Har- rison you would read a story about the dwellers in these unkept streets and bug ridden tenement houses, of longshorernen striking, of betrayal by union leaders, of street fights with hired thugs and police- men, of death, of juvenile delinquentsf' of hypocritical judges, of tyrannical reform schools and of stark misery. The last is the outstanding characteristic of the book, stark misery. Each page adds a list to the drawn out sufferings of the Roberts family. But the Roberts family is only a type and throughout Red Hook there is nothing but suffering. Charles Yale Harrison weaves the tale in a style which resembles Ernest Heming- way's and is therefore very effective. Har- rison presents a series of contrasts and leaves the reader to draw conclusions. Per- haps the sufferings are exaggerated? If you think so close the book and look at the bedlam about you. Enter one of the tene- ments and walk up the dark stairway. Look at the shabby clothes of the tenants. Enter an apartment and look around and notice the old furniture, rickety beds, crowded quarters, small dimly lighted rooms and then judge the book. You would agree that the book is all realism, frank and morbid, but still a truthful realism which cannot fail to make you an ardent supporter of the cause for social justice-at least for a while. COLD BLUE MOON Mr. Edwin created a Black Ulysses in the character of Left Wing Gordon whose reminiscences of his own adventures as he traipsed around the world, filled two pre- vious books - Rainbow Round My Shoulder, and Wings On My Feet, Al- though those first tales related the adven- tures of the Black Ulysses himself, in Cold Blue Moon, fBobbs-Merrill, 352.501 he tells of a vanished South in his delight- ful negro dialect. He repeats the histories that he has heard, and each character be- comes a symbol of the post-war southern life We get a broad view of the old planta- tion, the sweet music of the chase, fox by day and 'coon by night, all told in the rhythmic phrasing of Black Ulysses. The story itself is of a stern old colonel, his sweet upright wife and their four children. Inevitably of course the beloved daughter attracts a young northerner to the scene. The story is filled with gay fes- tivity, fox hunts, disappointed love, and tragedy. The plot is not too important. There is a good deal of philosophy, and Eleven V-ff ' 4 1 l l l i 4 i i .......d