Starrett School for Girls - Starette Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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by word, he translated the inscription around the idol's base: Iam Jade God- contentment. Death to him who succumbs to my spell, for perfection is a god's state to which mortal man may not aspire. A clammy fear gripped the collector and he hastened to the bedside. Scott Kenedy was dead. Mary Brueshaber, Senior SUSAN SPRAY by SHEILA KAYE-SMITH Susan Spray is the first of Sheila Kaye-Smith's novels that I have read, and I. immediately felt that it is worthy of being known as the climaxing novel of her career, as so many of the reviewers have termed it. The book is written with skill, beauty, and a great sense of the dramatic. In reading the book, one gets the impression that the author thoroughly enjoyed writing it, and found in Susan Spray a character whom she could pity, understand, ridicule, and admire. Susan,s career is presented as the portrait of a masterful woman who makes religious enthusiasm her means to power. Still, this cannot be called a story of a religious fanatic. Susan is not a fanatic, she is a half- educated peasant girl, who by some irony of fate was endowed with an imagination, which she discovered in her early childhood when she found that displays of religious hallucinations, if firmly adhered to, could save her a well-earned whipping. From then on she made those her weapons and never hesitated to use them in her climb upward, nor did they ever fail her when her ambitions were threatened. There is no satire in this book. It is intensely human and the background of the coun- try life is beautiful, and only and naturally does one become aware of the powerful character which is presented. Susan Spray lived in the eighteen thirties, although the book, had it been written then, would not have been understood, for I believe that it is even hard to gain the full significance of it in this day. The full comprehension of how the mind constantly combines and confuses its instincts and ideas, how such a strange combination of greatness and pettiness, of commanding imagination and almost petty ignorance is seen as pure humanity, is at times hard to grasp. The episodes of Susan's life, as a starving child, her first preaching to the Colgate brethren as a child, the pilgrimage to Horcham as a leader of an orphan family, her adolescence as a farm-worker, her Hrst marriage with Strudwick, the hop-drier, her first widowhood, her surrender to sheer passion and the flashy Clarbut, her emancipation and her ruthless imposition of herself upon Pell, her third husband, all show that she was perplexed by higher and lower impulses. She always wanted to command and impress, and feel the Beauty of Holiness. However, when the impulse to make love and the desire to have Bne clothes got the better of her, she left her followers disillusioned and deserted. She is neither a hypocrite nor crazy, but only a woman struggling with her desires, with impulses toward egoism and religious exaltation, which in the long -run proves to be the strongest. She is a better preacher, a stronger woman, and a finer spirit at the end of the book, when she is married bigamously to a man she needs but does not love, and is happier because she has a congregation to fear her, than when she was young and merely a religious enthusiast. Jane Gilbert, Col. I. fContinued from Page 30.1 dis time? I've been a fool! Beatin' it out on you an' Rose for easy bucks. Where's your ma, kid? How's she, huh, how's she?,' Daddy, a long time ado when we were hungry she went to sleep. The men took her away. They said I'd see her soon. But I haevn't, Daddy. Let's go to her. An, dad, can we take her somethin, nice to eat like this good cake? She never had none, and we was always so hungry. Oh, I know you'll find her, won't you?,' Red, his face strangely white, pulled her close, and asked in a whipped, quivering voice, Tom, when do we start for your shack?', Lois Atwood Forty-Four

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woman-it was a sexless thing, with eyes and facial expressions that were powerful, a mixture of irony and joy, suggestive of untold pleasure and of misery. As Scott gazed at those green, green eyes, the shop and the dust and cobwebs receded and faded into the distance and he saw vague, illusive visions of wonderful creatures and splendor, such as floats hazily in the drugged dreams of the opium smoker. Scott Kenedy passed his hand over his forehead puzzled, confused. Where had he beheld those scenes before? Then the shop closed round him again and the visionsf faded, but Jade God remained. Jade God was hideous yet beautiful, provoking yet alluring. With an effort, Scott aroused himself and laughed nervously, walked to the front of the shop where the Chinese proprietor waited. With an assumed careless air, he inquired the price of jade God. Slowly the old Chinaman shook his head as he said, Money will not buy that god. No, not all the gold in the world. Jade God was my father's and my father's father's, and he may not be bartered nor sold.', Ordinarily Kenedy would have pressed his bargain, but something in the old man's face perhaps, stilled him, and without a word he walked out into the sunshine. He paused and glanced back, feeling that something had passed out of his life, leaving a vague emptiness. Scott was an unusual man. His nervous temperament had never been denied a single thing. His wish was not to be granted. Was he not rich? Was he not influential? The idol interested and fascinated him. He would soon break down the Chinaman's resistance and Jade God would be his! Home to his apartment which he had once called the palace of contentment, he went, but never again would it be so. For from that day on it became a place of vague imaginings, haunted by shapeless shadows and restless dreams. The mere desire to possess Jade God grew into a passion. Scott Kenedy seemed bewitched by the spell. of the idol. Again and again he returned to the shop, bribed, threatened, and plead with the man. He offered him great sums with always the same answer, No, all the gold in the world will not buy Jade God. He was my father's and my father's father's, and he may not be bartered nor sold. He is a heritage. Then Scott would take Jade God into his hands and gaze at those emerald eyes. These were the only minutes when peace was with him while he was sitting with half-closed eyes thinking, dreaming in a veiled world, a world of mystery with Jade God's green eyes. Desperately he tried to cast off the spell, for he knew that therein lay madness, but day by day the desire for possession grew stronger. The doctor called it brain fever. Days of burning pain, nights of wild delirium in which green eyes seared his soul and then yellow lips and weird eyes laughed. Days when friends sighed, and doctors held consultations, for life would not stay where there was no desire for it. Finally, as a last resort, a friend who knew the tale of the idol called at the curio shop. For a long time he argued with the old man, telling him that the souls of his ancestors would place a curse upon his head if he murdered-actually committed murder by depriving one of that which meant so much to him, even life. He said that he was old and had no sons to whom Jade God might be bequeathed, and that Scott would love Jade God with his very soul. At last the Chinaman gave in, and Jade God was carried away. The old man gazed deeply into Jade God's eyes before it left him, and was it merely fantasy that a subtle communication passed between them? At home Scott lay propped up on pillows. He knew of the last attempt to obtain Jade God and some sixth sense told him that it would be successful. He was restless and nervous. Impatiently he waited. That evening Jade God was delivered. Fervidly Scott tore off the wrapping. Never before had Jade God proved so fascinating, never had his eyes been so green! Again he wrapped his subtle spell closer around Scott. Far into the night he dreamed on. The lights in the antique candelabra flickered and died, and peace had come to Scott Kenedy at last. Early next morning, a fellow collector who shared Scott's apartment tiptoed in, and seeing Jade God on the bedside table, examined him curiously. Then! slowly, word F ort y- Three

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Marian Ifrvibzzrgvr Organizations Lou' flu'-1' fzemf before Cuxxiojwiu, ffm Laffy in flu' Cfmir STUDENT COUNCIL Sjmllmr MRS. EIIIZABETH B. SMITH O'wl't'I',Y CiIl'SIfY WYNIAZKOOI' Pm-xiilrzzf Gipsey was eliosen our lC.lLlCl' Ifor liei' Sweetness and friend- liness, too. In every place tlmt we've mei lier, XYe've surely found lier true blue. Nlfx1n'.InNiz DUPU ssis lvffi'-I,7'i'AfilI'IIf IK' depemlnlwilily is wl1.1t you want, Anil .1 disposition like Llle sun. It you w.1nL .ln all-nrouml girl, Vlilien Nlary' -lane is tlie one. limi 'r Ku-11N S1'1'7'i'lIlV'j' AIJIICI l1.is earned lor lierseli .il Nfllllkll A I1lIlHl7,'l' ol' glories to Adel to lien' n.uneg Iiui liei' populnity witli il .ilI, ls wlmr will really luring liei' fame. 15 SOCIAL XVELITARI' FRIENDLY RELATIONS Miss LOUISA MAY, Sjzomm O jivrrs XIIRGINIA GokMAN I'1'm'mlw1l For president of n elulv wlio motto'S To follow llle Golden Rule Virginigfs surely gl fine one I'or slies known .is tlie sw est Ill sclmool Loulsla IJINNIAN Vim'-I'1'i',xiJe11l louise is noted I-or XVe've never seen I'l.ly slie enters wi asm, XVox'k slie Iinislies ANITA Cnossi, lier pep lier szill Lli enlli winlm ,1 Si'1'V1'l41 lj'-'l'1'1'i1xl1 wr AI1II.llS willing lo emeli task keep xx nlli will As long ns lllCI'ClS one to Ive done. And IIICFCIS nlwnys club of ours, Tlmnglm we Also l fun. one in LIVC IUI III S l m'fy-15111