Atlantic Narratives Part 59

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. What purpose does the opening dream serve, besides that of arousing immediate interest?

2. Besides his ability for quick decision, what is the outstanding feature of Ruggs's character?

3. How is the character of the Meter drawn? Is there any advantage in not naming him?

4. Are you prepared for the Meter's decision in regard to the Duke? Is the latter introduced into the story for any purpose other than to amuse?

5. What are the author's chief means of keeping suspense?

6. What ends do Squirmy's nightly exercises serve?

7. Would it have added to the interest of the study to have Alice more fully characterized? Why is she introduced?

THE WAY OF LIFE

LUCY HUFFAKER is a short-story writer of distinction, who has recently been devoting her princ.i.p.al interest to the drama. She is connected with the Was.h.i.+ngton Square players in New York City.

In the short s.p.a.ce of a May evening, Emmeline Black, mother of eight children, a good wife for a farmer, careful and industrious, lives through her girlhood aspirations and the complete shattering of her dreams. Finally, there comes to her the greater tragedy of the realization that, in spite of what she can do, her daughter faces the same career of fantasy and disillusionment. For the first time in twenty-one years, Jake Black finds his wife different, almost a bit untractable. Yet he can find no solution for the problem. 'Em' has been a good wife, their marriage has been successful, his daughter's possible engagement augurs well for the future; but 'Em' is worried about something. It is the daughter herself who sets their small world aright.

Her grat.i.tude for the dreams her mother has given her brings to Emmeline the realization of the value of inspiration where accomplishment proves impossible. The years of hard work before her, and the prospect of a similar life for her daughter, grow insignificant before the new consciousness that dreams do last.

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. Comment on the general atmosphere produced by the opening paragraphs.

2. What descriptive details contribute particularly to the realism of the scene?

3. How is this realism more fully brought out in the conversation between the wife and husband?

4. What feelings prompted the lie which Mrs. Black told? What can be said in extenuation of this lapse?

5. What contrasts were prominent in her mind?

6. What in Victoria's character, makes the strongest appeal?

7. Do we feel that Victoria is more likely than her mother to keep the youthful dreams and visions?

8. What is Mrs. Black's greatest consolation?

9. Comment on the author's way of ending her story.

A YEAR IN A COAL MINE

JOSEPH HUSBAND has, since his graduation from Harvard in 1907, been engaged in industrial pursuits. He has, however, found time to contribute frequently to The _Atlantic Monthly_. At present Mr. Husband is an ensign in the United States Navy. The first account of his naval experience is published in the May (1918) _Atlantic_.

For vividness of sense-suggestion--color, sound, smell, feeling--Joseph Husband's smooth-flowing narration of a year's experience in a soft-coal mine is worthy of study. The blackness which is 'absence of light rather than darkness,' the submerging silence, the seeping gas-vapors, the nervous consciousness of lurking danger--all these give indisputable atmosphere. What grim tragedy, awful in its heavy brutality, might not here be grimly enacted! Instead, there is work--the grimy, sweating work of the underground; hard muscles, and senses not too alive to material forces. An occasional superst.i.tion gives life to the blackness--a strange white phantom that dazzles the sight and blinds the understanding with unreasoning fear. But most vivid of all is the blackness and the work.

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. How does the author's preface add to the interest in his narrative?

Are your expectations of his added power borne out?

2. Do you find Mr. Husband more able in his descriptions of large scenes, ma.s.ses of buildings, groups of people,--or in the individualizing of the single person or thing?

3. Is the setting for the work, or the work itself, the chief purpose of the narrative? Which do you find the more interesting?

4. Can you explain the author's feelings of mortification as he first enters upon his duties?

5. What are some of the elements that make for the vividness of the scenes?

6. Why is the occasional mention of color so effective?

7. Contrast the mental occupations during a period of temporary leisure in a coal mine with a similar rest hour in the upper world?

8. From reading this narrative, can you offer any reasons why the ancient peoples believed mines to be inhabited by a race of gnomes?

WOMAN'S SPHERE

S. H. KEMPER'S short stories reveal a genuinely sympathetic understanding of child-life. Mr. Kemper's present home is in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

The plot itself is slight: the presentation of a ball--a _worsted ball_--as a birthday present to a boy of nine! The comic element immediately suggests itself; Wilbur discovers that it may come very near tragedy--not for him, but for Aunt Susan. To be so inconceivably old that one cannot understand what a ball of gay worsted would mean to a boy who had already practised imaginary curves with a magnificent white sphere bearing the proud blue label of the American League! All Wilbur's chivalric nature is called out to keep his great aunt from knowing how great is her misunderstanding, and how keen his aching pity that age could be so terrible.

Is there, perhaps, a suggestion here of refined propaganda?--Education for women--higher, broader, what you will?

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. Contrast Aunt Susan with Wilbur's grandmother.

2. Mention certain significant items that contribute to the realism of the various situations.

3. Comment on the way in which Wilbur's fancy works, as he views the ball in antic.i.p.ation.

4. What was there in Aunt Susan's conversation that reveals her lack of understanding of boy nature?

5. Is there any element of surprise in the way Wilbur takes his disappointment? Comment fully upon his varied emotions.

6. What is the marked contrast between Aunt Susan and Wilbur's father?

7. Which paragraph is most interesting from the point of view of setting? Why?