Growing Pains*

The Education of Julie Cane

The Story. "The doctor . . . was holding up, like a butcher, by the hind legs, a little animal the size of a sucking pig." Thus Julie Cane makes her appearance in Findellen.

Her father was an unsuccessful grocer. This business he had acquired by the misadventure of matrimonial union with Annie Sowers, whose hair was red, even as had been his mother's. Their faith in each other suffered early dissolution due to an ill-considered assertion on his part to the effect that hot bricks do not burn bedclothes. Resultant smoldering sheets and mattress consumed with them the Cane's insecure romance.

Cane's chief interest in life was not groceries. It was science. Through the long suburban evenings, he burned the oil of his lamp over Flammarion and Darwin, mentally roving the ages and the heavens, weaving complicated theories of Alan and his motives, Science and its future.

Father and daughter entered into conspiracy against the mother, a religious maniac with none of the other basic instincts of humanity. Father taught daughter to read, to figure, to think. He untaught her all that her mother tried to teach. Above all, he taught her to keep her own counsel, to retire into the castle of her own intelligence, safe against the shafts of her neighbors.

Julie was forced to leave Sunday school, owing to certain injudicious queries respecting the relative dimensions of arks and mastodons. Coercion by Mrs. Cane of the Misses Perrin obtained her admittance to those spinsters' exclusive school.

Here Julie, precocious and solemn, became acquainted wi,th Alan Birdsall. Ensued stormy romance. Alan called her "Sugar Cane." She retaliated triumphantly with "Birdseed." Alan, spoiled, tempestuous, self-centred, alternately persecuted and fondled her, all of which she received with grave interest.

Due to an ill-considered expedition to a bedroom occupied by Julie and her wealthy friend, Alice Carey, Alan and his mother left Findellen. Julie was relieved. She began to grow up, still under the devoted guidance of her father. Her friendship for Alice Carey continued. An almost hysterical love sprang up between her and old Martha Perrin, mistress of her school.

Then Alan, 21 years old, came back to Findellen, matured, attractive, humorous but with all the unbalanced egotism of his childhood. With him came Bayard Van Schoeck, friendly patrician. Alan's reawakened passion frightened Julie. She found protection in the steady strength of Van Schoeck. The climax came in a meeting between Alan and her father. Sparks flew. The old man hit the boy with her parasol, then collapsed under stress of emotion.

Julie refused to see Alan again--ever. Van Schoeck spanked him. Old Mr. Cane died of double pneumonia, despite efforts of a distinguished physician called by Van Schoeck.

Alan married Alice Carey, in a petulant rebound from Julie. Julie married Van Schoeck. Everyone lived happily ever after--demonstrating the possibility of the impossible.

The Significance. This volume is a study of the post-natal creation of a human personality. Old Mr. Cane looked like what he ostensibly was-- a suburban grocer. Beneath the white apron and the shy, dull face, he had made of his intelligence a realm of power and beauty, impervious to human contempt. His neighbors could not touch the essential power that was in him and which he passed on to his daughter.

So, by shrewd, devoted guidance, he made of Julie a fine, proud spirit, capable of coping with the problems of her mature life--self-sufficient, free.

A student of psychoanalysis, Mr. O'Higgins lays gentle, never pedantic, emphasis on the "secret springs" of conduct. Mr. Cane's red-headed mother is the explanation of his union with red-headed Annie Sowers. The red hair of Alan's passionately beloved mother is again accountable for Alan's curious mental attitude toward Julie Cane.

The book is about as notable a piece of work as the autumn has produced. Mr. O'Higgins' style is eminently readable, his vision penetrating. He has created in Mr. Cane a winning, living picture, full of pathos and triumphant dignity. His portrait of Julie is no less a finished study of a strange and intriguing personality.

The Author. Harvey O'Higgins is a man of 48, tall and slender, with keen, sensitive features and a quiet grey eye. He was born and educated in Canada, of British parentage. A legal career had originally been planned for him : but the lure of the pen led him into newspaper and magazine work which, in turn, took him to New York. The Youth's Companion was his first literary medium. His chief previous publications are Prom the Life, Some Distinguished Americans, The American Mind in Action, The Secret Springs.

* JULIE CASE--Harvey O'Higgins--Harper ($2.00).