THE REVEREND BEN POOL

This might be characterized as a 1940 Passing of the Third Floor Pack, a bit more realistic and less symbolic in the handling, but a warm representation of an individual quest in the story of Ben Pool, likeable, sympathetic, sincere. His is a comfortable berth in a small community when he comes to New York to lose himself in the anonymity of a bit city, there to minister to all types of his fellow men. In the boarding house where he lives, he finds the good in his fellow-boarders, and gives them at least momentary help through his simplicity, his sympathy and kindly humor. He saves a girl's life and reputation; he is the loadstone for sundry uncompanionable personalities. And he returns to his isolated community after his experience, without the woman he wants, ignorant of the fact that she is carrying his child.