ZUSKA OF THE BURNING HILLS

A welcome bit of realism about a little described region, the soft coal district of West Virginia. There is a note of authenticity in the portrait of her heroine, for the author, an artist, is herself the daughter of immigrant Slovak miners, such as those in her story. Zuska Stebina and her family live in one of the shacks of the Pinet Hill mine. Their course of adventures-well backgrounded by the author's true sense of color and keen observation- is marked by the discovery of a gang of coal bootleggers, Zuska's rescue of the mine owner's son, Papa Stebina's leg injury in a mine accident that forces them to look elsewhere for the future, and the wonderful offer from the owner of a farm where they can work and live. This is a seasoned study of the elements of the mining situation- the need to work the mines, the need for better living conditions, the wish to leave the mines, and the actual affinity of the miners for their hard way of life. Slovak family life- bread making, sewing, going to school and church, talking things over- has its share in the description too.