“Experimental Lives”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17947, 26 November 1932, Page 13

“Experimental Lives”

THE five famous people whose lives * Mjss Muriel Jaeger lolls in “Experimental Lives,” seem at first to form a curious choice, but they are connected by one curious and important similarity, for each of them made art experiment with life based on the same idea; they were determined to live their own lives on a definite plan and to resist the pressure alike bi circumstance and of other lives.

The people tyltom Miss Jaeger ha; chosen are Cato, Ht Francis, Lord Chesterfield, Thomas Day and GeorgeHand. The aim of these biographicn sketches is to show that such oxperi ments with life are doomed' to failure and Miss Jaeger makes her point- most effectively, stating her case and giv-

ing the evidence with complete impartiality. Doubtless others might have been added to the live, but Miss Jaeger has, it may be presumed, chosen these particular people because the motive of the experiment in each case differed widely. The. author’s sketch el Cato is likely to ensure for the book a permanent place in literature, and she shows how Cato’s determination to stand for morality when all about him were 1 corrupt, failed because ho could not draw others to him; Ht. Francis because complete altruism defeated its own ends; Lord Chesterfield because it was impossible to please everybody—the favor of some could only be bought at the price of the disfavor of others; and so with these live examples Miss Jaeger makes her point convincingly.

“My gosh, Bill,” groaned the managing editor of the tabloid, “nothing scandalous has happened in 24 hours. What’ll we do for the front pugs'?” “Aw, don’t- get discouraged, Steve,” the city editor comforted. “Something’ll happen. I’ve still got faith in human nature. ’ ’ Norton’s Egg Preservative, Liquid or Paste *