Peddler's Progress

WHITE BANNERS--Lloyd C. Douglas--Houghton Mifflin ($2.50).

One cold wintry morning pretty, ineffectual Marcia Ward opened her door to a pale, grey-eyed peddler who promptly took charge of the household. Beginning by baking a pie despite Marcia's protests, the peddler, whose name was Hannah Parmalee and who was obviously a cultivated woman beneath her dowdy exterior, launched a series of domestic reforms that saved the harassed Ward family. She cleaned out the basement and sold the unused furniture for $39. She found a cheaper way of buying coal. She persuaded little Wallie Ward to take his castor oil. (She put it in front of him, told him how much his mother loved him, and walked away. When she came back, he had taken it.) She jolted dreamy Professor Paul Ward out of his many irresponsibilities, until he soon became dean of his department. She got the Ward's rent reduced, enlivened their home life, nursed their children, corrected their weaknesses and, after their success, prevented infidelity on the part of the parents and selfishness on the part of the children that constituted the main hazard of their triumph.

Last week this incomparable domestic was made the central figure of the most recent novel by Lloyd Cassel Douglas, whose inspirational works of fiction have made him one of the best-selling novelists in the past six years. Born 59 years ago in Columbia City, Ind., Dr. Douglas entered the field of fiction by "sheer accident in 1929, after having written sermons and essays for 25 years. His first three novels, Green Light (1934), Forgive Us Our Trespasses (1932), Magnificent Obsession (1929), sold more than 340,000 copies. Similar to those works in its fine moral tone, its unabashed sentimentality, and the neat working out of a plot which brings all characters to happy conclusions, White Banners also carries a plea for forgiveness and unquestioning self-sacrifice in the face of the multitudinous tribulations of modern life, and dramatizes the message that patience, courage and service to humanity is conducive not only to spiritual serenity but to material comfort as well. No mere romancer, Dr. Douglas drops Hannah's story from time to time, lectures on the fundamental beliefs that give her poise and wisdom.

Thus when Paul Ward invents a new refrigerator only to have his invention stolen, he plans to sue his swindlers until Hannah dissuades him. When he complains that her advice of nonresistance means hoisting the white flag, she cries "White banners!", shows him that moving on to other achievements, turning the other cheek, is more heroic than fighting. Although few readers are likely to accept her counsel unequivocally, it certainly works out well in Paul's case. He writes a life of Spenser that wins him academic acclaim, later invents a better refrigerator that makes his fortune.

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