Evening star. [volume], April 24, 1937, Page B-2, Image 18

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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FEMININE PIONEER IN LAW
Ellen Spencer Mussey, Known to Many Washingtonians, Entered
Upon a Career Through Necessity, Biographer Says—Italian
Surgeon Writes "Life and Death.”
By Mary-Carter Roberts.
FATE RIDES A TORTOISE. By
Grace Hathaway. Philadelphia:
John C. Winston Co.
THIS is the biography of Ellen
Spencer Mussey, a lady well
known to Americans generally
for her work in welfare and in
women's organizations, and especially
known and honored by Washing
tonians, in whose city she long
made her home. Mrs. Mussey was a
pioneer in many fields and brought
to all of them the courage, cheerful
ness and persistence which character
ized the pioneers. She was one of the
first women lawyers. She founded the
Washington College of Law, which was
the first law school in the world
created primarily for women. She
fought consistently to secure legisla
tion for equal rights for women. She
was active in the Red Cross in war
work. She won honors in all these en
deavors and time has vindicated her
rightness. She was also a wife and
mother.
It is perhaps the one really strange
thing in her career that she entered
on the duties of wife and mother
thinking that they would be her whole
life. She was not a feminist from
arbitrary conviction, but grewr into
one gradually as her widening view
of social conditions impressed upon
her the need which women had for
Independent position. She took up
the study of law only through the
circumstance that her husband's ill
ness made it necessary for her to help
him in his practice. When he died
she found it obligatory to take over
that practice for the sake of her chil
dren. She was by then a competent
lawyer, but she could not get admis
sion to the bar because she was not a
man. It wras only after long pleading,
and then by the special Intervention
of her husband’s friend. Gen. Eaton,
that she finally was vouchsafed an
examination. She entered at once
upon a consistently successful prac
tice.
Her venture in opening the College
of Law came about as the result of
many applications which she received
from young women who wanted to
study for the bar, but were denied
admission to all schools except Howard
University, amazing as that seems to
day. Some determined young women
did enter the Negro college and take
their work there, but others felt that
the discrimination of the white schools
against them might be met in other
ways. They applied to Mrs. Mussey
and she, with Miss Emma Gillett, un
dertook to train six of them. When
her students were ready for their
examinations she was once more con
fronted with the problem of getting
them admitted. She appealed to
various oolleges to accept them, with
out avail. Such obstacles would have
ended the matter with most women or
men, but she persisted. Finally, on
the advice of eminent lawyers who
knew her ability and sympathized with
her, she opened her own school. With
typical sportsmanship and liberalism,
she made it co-educational. It had
difficult times, but succeeded in get
ting through them and becoming one
of the city's outstanding Institutions of
legal training.
Among tne stuoenrs muncu
are former Judge Mary O'Toole, Miss
Caroline Griesheimer, first, woman to
be detailed as civil service examiner;
Miss Pearl McCall, first woman assist
ant district attorney in the District;
Miss Agnes O'Neil, first woman assist
ant solicitor of the Department of
Etate: Mrs. Flora Warren Seymour,
first woman on the Board of Indian
Commissioners; Miss Annabel Mat
thews, first woman member of the
United States Board of Tax Appeals;
Miss Alice B. Birdsall, first woman re
porter of the Supreme Court of a
State; Miss Katherine Pike, first
woman of the law in the Customs Serv
ice and first woman to go to sea as a
customs officer.
From this brave piece of pioneering
it was inevitable that Mrs. Mussey
should go on to yet other fields in se
curing recognition for women, and she
did so. The story of her battles and
victories is ably and quite simply told
in Miss Hathaway's biography. It is
written from the viewpoint of the pio
neer in feminism whose reason for her
pioneering was not careerism or to seek
an outlet for the crusading spirit, but
was rather a solid respect for Justice
and common sense. Mrs. Mussey never
approved extreme measures and her
victories were founded on the sound
ness of her reasoning and not the sen
sationalism of her tactics. This picture
of her is presented admirably in Miss
Hathaway's excellent book.
THE DU MAURIERS. By Daphne du
Maurier. Garden City; Doubleday
Doran & Co.
'T'HIB biography of three genera
tions of the Du Maurier family,
written by a member of that family,
may not wholly convince readers that
Its author's forbears were as fascinat- I
Ing a group of people as she herself ;
seems to believe, but that is nothing j
against the book she has written. It
is fascinating. It is that without
qualification. From the standpoint of
holding attention, it is one of the best
biographies yet published in this high- !
ly biographical year.
Miss du Maurier, it would seem, is i
at her best when writing about her
family. As a novelist, she is compe
tent. but unremarkable. One has the
feeling, reading her fiction, that she
writes it because she has decided to
and is conscientious about self-prom
ises. But when she undertakes a bit
of the history of her people—as wit
ness her previously published biog
raphy of her father, "Gerald, a Por
trait"—she uses an unmistakable love
for her theme and blends with that
an astonishingly intimate understand
ing. She wTltes books then that are
alive, and, however insignificant may
be the particular Du Maurier about
■whom she Is telling us, she endows him
with the roundness of life, and its
plausibility and implausibility in life
like proportion.
Her present work begins in the
early nineteenth century with the
progenitress of that du Maurier line
In which are to found George du
Maurier, the author of "Peter Ibbet
son" and ‘Trilby,” and the famous
actor-manager, Gerald du Maurier.
This maternal ancestor was no other
than Mary Anne Clarke, who spent
her life as a courtesan, but in the
grand manner of courtesanship which
was a fashion of the eighteenth
century.
At the opening of the present ac
count, in 1810. she is shown as about!
to retire and giving her mind to the j
problem of securing the well-being of
her two children, Georap and Ellen, i
To this end she entered Vrt a contract
MRS. MARY S. GRIFFITH,
Author of “Gardening on
Nothing a Year,” which has
just been published by Hale,
Cushman & Flint of Boston.
with the Duke of York, receiving from
him an annuity, which on her death
was to go to her daughter in exchange
for the assurance that she had de
stroyed all of the love letters which
he had written her. It would appear
that the noble lord was somewhat
over-trusting in his part of the agree
ment, for Mary' Anne, as her present
biographer tells it, cheerfully kept
one packet of the missives from the
fire and departed for France with the
first payment of the annuity and this
same packet cuddled together in
highly improper propinquity in
her muff.
It is a completely realistic portrait
which Miss du Maurier gives us of
this ancestress in her entrancing
beauty, her frank wantoness, her love
of luxury', her Impulsive generosity,
growing from a young belle, whose
high spirits and gay wit saved even
her broadest innuendoes from offen
siveness, into a shocking old lady
whose conversation was such that her
grandchildren frequently had to be
hurried from her presence. Whatever
her morals, Mary Anne clearly was
hearty and healthy and in love with
life and impatient of sham, and its
is not the first time in history that
a race of artists has sprung from such
a progenitress.
There is an authentic breath of the
eighteenth century about Mary Anne
and similarly there is the spirit of
the times in Ellen, her prim, intel
lectual daughter, w'ho married Louis
Mathurin Busson du Maurier and
who believed all her life (though
mistakenly) that she was the daugh
ter of royalty, since it had been
whispered to her as a child that her
father was the Duke of York. That
Mary Anne did not meet the duke
until after Ellen was bom is the fact,
says the author, but apparently Ellen
never knew' this and her life was
lived in the light of the romantic
illusion.
The realities of her existence were,
however, sadly at variance with her
dream, for her husband was through
out his life incapable of acquiring
money by any means except borrow
ing, and her days were spent in count
ing small sums and wondering how
she might afford the education for
her sons which their royal blood, as
she imagined, demanded. He, too,
had a dream; with little foundation
he believed himself to be scion of an
aristocratic family which had lost its
wealth in the revolution. He also
thought of himself as a brilliant
scientist and squandered his slender
means consistently on “inventions”
which were to revolutionize all in
dustry, but which with monotonous
regularity generally turned into liabil
ities or lawsuits.
Yet both he and Ellen had culti
vated tastes and minds; a love of good
literature and music was one of the
great realities of their existence to
gether, and similarly they shared a
passionate attachment to the idea of
intellectual freedom. In their most
impecunious days their home was a
place of culture and they possessed
that manner of good-breeding which
may not be lost. They were in many
ways typical ninetenth century mid
dle class intellectuals.
These were the parents of the author
of “Trilby,” George du Maurier. They
had a second son and a daughter, but
of the three only George achieved a
famous name. The book ends with
his marriage at the age of 29 to Miss
Emma Wightwick. daughter of a pros
perous English merchant. He as at
that time a rising young artist, doing
illustrations for Punch.
There are other characters in this
richly human book—Louise, the sister
of Louis-Mathurin, who had a blight
ed romance and lived a life of religious
contemplation thereafter; George, the
son of Mary Anne, who became a
solid conservative English gentleman;
Georgina, his flirtatious wife, who, on
being left a widow, joined the Salva
tion Army; “Gyggy” the ne’er-do-well
son of Louis and Ellen; Isobel, his sis
ter, a young lady who could play a
“50-page piece” of piano music at
sight—and still others. There is an
astonishing quality of real acquaint
ance in Miss du Maurier's treatment
of them all. She writes of them not
as subjects of research, but as if she
had been in conversation with them
half an hour before. As has been said,
she makes a fascinating book. The
least of her ancestors takes on com
pelling interest in her understanding
and accomplished hands.
LIFE AND DEATH. By Andrea Ma
jocchi. Translated from the Italian
by Wallace Brockway. New York:
Knight Publications.
'T'HIS is an autobiography, coming in
a year when autobiographies are
no novelty. But it is of that kind which
is always able to command respect—
the unassuming, profoundly clear writ
ing of a man of science whose achieve
ments are established. Dr. Majocchi is
one of the leading surgeons of Italy. He
has seen military service. He has been
honored by most of the international
medical associations. His life is writ
ten here with simplicity which comes
from minds whose realities are fraught
with constant grave responsibility. The
fact that his autobiography is written
in a time that 1s producing many in
ferior life histories need not even be
considered.
He tells how he came of poor people,
how his father, a physician, died of an
Infection in a day when science was
still unprepared to deal with such
eventualities. He tells of his struggles
to gain his own medic^ education, of
his early service as puQo obatotrttaa
/
in Milan when his calls took him to
the poorest and most depraved sections
of the city. He tells of his military
life, when he sometimes performed 20
operations in a day. But chiefly he
tells, between the lines, of his attitude
toward his work, the dedicated atti
tude that is utterly without cant, pre
tense or self-interest, the attitude that
has more than once caused the physi
cian to be likened to the priest.
His book is plain but full of this
manner of personality. When, for ex
ample, he writes of a "villainous cere
bral tumor,” one feels that he is speak
ing without the slightest facetiousness.
Tumors are villains to him. It is his
mission to destroy such evils. It takes
him into grim places, but he goes
carrying cleanness and knowledge.
A book written in such a spirit is
more than a life history. It becomes
a part of the literature of science.
A BOOK OF HOURS. By Donald
Culross Peattie. Decorations by
Lynd Ward. New York: G. P. Put
nam's Sons.
JT SEEMS absurd that in a collection
of 24 essays one should be unable
to pick a favorite. Yet not many col
lections of 24 essays are all good, and
that on a level of written goodness
which seems likely to meet all tastes,
whether one is seeking beauty of lan
guage, subtle perfection of the essay
form, sententiousness of expression,
compactness of thought or whatever
virtue. Miraculous as it seems, this Is
true of the present collection. If the
reviewer were to make any suggestion
at all of change in it, it would be sim
ply that the group should be bound
separately, for each separate piece of
the two dozen is so fine as to be, of it
self, a little masterpiece. This is a
rarely lovely book.
its essays are ranged around the
clock, beginning with "Three, Ante
Meridian,” and ending with "Two, Ante
Meridian.” In the rounding of the
cycle Mr. Peattie treats of nature,
man, religion, philosophy and any
other matters that might come into a
naturalist’s mind in such an under
taking. There is a disarming quality of
spontaneity about the work, but it
will hardly deceive any one. It is only
the seeming spontaneity of the perfect
performance. Mr. Peattie may be a
naturalist, but prose such as his is not
a product of nature. It does not grow
on any mental bush. It is the result
of sifting, grinding, polishing and
planning, down to the last syllable.
So, it would seem, as an artist this
essayist has emulated his science well.
His prose flowers, its tendrils take hold
upon the mind, its outline has the sym
metry and balance of a natural growth.
His book ought to go into the shelves
of every reader who values these at
tributes in writing.
A nature column written by Mr
Peattie ran in The Star for many years,
and he has. as a consequence, numer
ous local friends and admirers.
FORTY YEARS ON MAIN STREET
By William Allen White. Com
piled by Russell H. Fitzgibbon from
the columns of the Emporia Ga- '
rette Foreward by Frank C 1
Clough. New York: Farrar &
Rhinehart.
JN THIS book are collected the edito
rials of the famous Kansas writer
on leading questions as he has seen
them from 1897 to the present. The
work Is divided into chapters covering
the various subjects. There is a
chapter on Kansas politics, one on
national politics, one on the 1936 cam
paign, one on the World War, one on
international questions and one de
signed to show Mr. White’s personal
development from the reactionary Re
publicanism which he professed in the
nineties to his position as a liberal
today.
There are also chapters on his per
sonal background, on Emporia as he
saw- it. and samples of his humor and
his miscellaneous writings. The fa
mous editorial, "What’s the Matter
With Kansas?” ig included, as is the
almost equally famous one which he
wrote after the death of his daughter
Mary.
It makes really a rather wonderful
book. It reflects with almost un
believable versimilitude the growth of
middle class American thought. To
read it was for the reviewer (at least
after she came to the parts which are
within her memery) to live over recol
lections of almost every political con
versation which she has heard between
intelligently conservative people. There
has been a great overproduction of
works lately on “interpreting’’ Ameri
can change throughout the century,
and. while many of these works are
luuie periormances in tnemseives,
their number would Indicate a genuine
interest in our drift. Mr. White’s
book. then, taken as it is out of the
actual time under examination, and
not from the vantage point of some
individual's desirous thinking, would
seem to give the clearest picture yet
as to where we have come from where.
For his opinions can be accepted
as a mean. They are neither re
actionary nor radical. They incline
no more to lonely intellectualism than
to rabble rousing, which is not at all.
They show with uncanny precision
the views of the average middle-class
American, the business man of intelli
gence and keen political Interest, the
man who believes in the American
ideal of individual liberty and private
ownership of property, and is not
without humanity toward the in
evitable mass of mankind which has
to be assisted if it is to live. The
problem of how to carry this mass
without wrecking the system—since
the mass, he feels, will be there what
ever the system—is the central pre
occupation of Mr. White's political
thinking.
In 1896 he was outspoken against
the doctrine that “the users are para
mount to the owners.” By 1906 he
had reversed himself on this point.
In 1912 he was a Bull Mooser. He
greatly admired Woodrow Wilson, al
though he oriticized him freely on
certain Issues. He went the way of
all flesh during the war period—we
were not fighting the German people,
but the Qerman government; we were
fighting a war to end war; we must
not stop until imperialism and mili
tarism were eradicated from the earth
—he went through all the phases. He
had no hysteria, however, but only
reacted as intelligence and our over
strained Idealism seemed to indicate
to all of us in those troubled times.
He rebuked the extremists w'ho banned
German music and the like. He cried
out against the 20s as a “sordid
decade.” In 1920 he said: "Socialism
is a vast stupidity.” But somewhat
later he approved the incorporation
of certain socialistic principles into
legislation, saying that we accept the
substance but “gag ft the form.” He
•aw In Roosevelt's voood election a
DR. ANDREA MAJOCCHI,
Author of “Life and Death.” translated from the Italian by
Wallace Brockway (Knight Publications).
Brief Reviews of Books
GENERAL NON-FICTION.
THE POWER TO GOVERN. By Wil
liam H. Hamilton and Douglass
Adair. New York: W. W. Norton
Co.
A study of the meaning of the Con
stitution, based on the times in which
it was written.
GARDENING ON NOTHING A
YEAR. By Mary S. Griffith.
Boston: Hale. Cushman Sc Flint.
A book of gardening instructions,
which takes the Income into consid
eration.
THE BIRTH OF CHINA. By Herrlee
Glessner Creel. New York: Reynal
Sc Hitchcock.
A survey of the formative period in
Chinese history, its government and
culture, based on the most recent
archeological discoveries. By the In
structor in Chinese history at the
University of Chicago.
THE SHANGHAI PROBLEM. By
William C. Johnstone. Stanford
University Press.
A most comprehensive study of
the city of Shanghai and the inter
national problems associated with it.
Ey the associate professor of political
science at George Washington Uni
versity.
OUR PERENNIAL BIBLE. By Helen
Nicolay. New York: D. Appleton
Century Co.
A study of the Bible in the light of
new researches made since the be
ginning of the century.
SEARCHING FOR YOUR ANCES
TORS. By Gilbert Harry Doane.
New York: Whittlesey House.
A book of instructions for the indi
vidual who has always thought that
he would like to look up his family
tree but has never got around to it.
Simple and informative.
BIOGRAPHY.
A COMMONER MARiRIED A KING.
As told by Baroness de Vaughn to
Paul Paure. New York: Ives
Washburn.
The story of the life of the com
moner, Baroness de Vaughn, who
married Leopold II of Belgium.
TRAVEL.
THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT.
By Michael J. Leahy and Maurice
Crain. New' York: Funk & Wag
nails.
An account of the exploration of
New Guinea which resulted In open
ing the hitherto unknown interior.
FICTION.
THE MARRIAGE OF NICHOLAS
COTTER. My Nellie M. Scanlon.
New' York: Hillman Curl.
Conflict between brother-and-sister
love and marriage. Unremarkable.
PECOS BILL. By James Cloyd Bow
man. Chicago: Albert Whitman
<5c Co.
A cowboy extravaganza in the Paul
Bunyan vein.
JUVKMLLS.
KINO RICHARD'S SQUIRE. By
Regina Kelly. New York: Thomas
Y. Crowell Co.
A tale of Chaucer’s England for boys
and girls of the teen age.
COPY KITTEN. By Helen and Alt
Evers. Chicago: Rand McNally
Co.
A kitten story for the very young
Black and white illustrations.
WHISKERS By Marjorie Barrow.
Photographs by Harry Whittier
Frees. Chicago: Rand McNally
Co.
The story of a naughty kitten;
illustrated with photographs. For the
very young.
TERMITE CITY. By Alfred E. Em
erson and Eleanor Fish. With a
foreword by Wililam Beebe. Illus
tration by Keith Ward.
The story of the ant. For young
and not so young.
DONALD CULROSS PEATTIE,
Author of "An Almanac for Moderns," “Singing in the Wilder
ness’’ and "Green Laurels," has just been awarded a second
Guggenheim felloivship. His “Book of Hours,” a companion
volume to "An Almanac for Moderns." is just out. A newspaper
column written by Mr. Peattie ran in The Star for many years
(C. P. Putnam’s Sons.)
totally new kind of American Gov
ernment in prospect, but bowed to
the idea, since it had been voted in
by a majority. He concentrated al
ways on issues and hated the issue
clouding tactics of professional politi
cians. He has made a book for all
intelligent Americans who have neither
the weight of great wealth to shape
their political hopes nor the spur of
conscious Inferiority to accomplish the
same end for them. A book, in other
words, for—or even, for that matter,
about—most of us.
JUAN BELMONTE: KILLER OF
BULLS. Translated from the
Spanish, with an introduction by
Leslie Charteris. Garden City:
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
^NOTHER individual success story,
but with a gratefully different
aroma, appears in the autobiography
of Spain’s foremost exponent of the
bullfight in the heyday of that sport.
Juan Belmonte’s origin was as close
to the fallow elements of a Spanish
street as any one’s could have been,
and his eventual ascent to the place
of king of the professional bull-fighting
world very nearly approaches fable.
He was bom in one of the poorest sec
tions of Sevilla and departed from
that region of vice and waywardness
only after reaching his 20s, when he
began to gain some hard-won recogni
tion as an apt student of matadoring.
Until the fire of matching wits and
strength with fighting bulls settled In
his blood hi was content to shift
around, aaurV with a laek-vMm
gang of similar urchins, whose main
tenance came from stealing and whose
pleasure was coarsely to affront the
unfortunate residents of the vicinity.
When the urge came to try a hand
at the sport, an apparently Inborn urge
in all Spanish youth, Belmonte
promptly felt that he was a cattle-kill
er "with a message,” as the saying has
it. With this conviction he forgot vir
tually all his previous interests in his
zeal to test his skill and practice on
any cow, bull or calf available.
In time, despite a fragile physique,
which created some doubt as to his
ability, he arrived. He brushed with
some of the "right” people, who, realiz
ing a likely investment, promptly ad
vertised him loudly as a revolutionizer
of the art. And he actually did make
over the art by his new and daring
tactics of handling the bulls. The
sensation he created is seen in the
records of his appearances all over
the country, day after day without
respite. A scomer of vacations and
rests, he made most of his appear
ances while he was ill enough or dis
abled enough (by virtue of numerous
gorings) to warant "bed with doctor's
care.” Ample compensation was of
fered in the wild acclaim habitually
awarded him as well as an opportunity
to travel—so he felt.
Truly an idol, he now rests in re
tirement and waxes sad over the de
cline of that which he firmly believes
an art comparable to music and paint
ing.
The auth* surprises with his can
did treatment* of tte vigorous, ribald
IDEAS ON DOMINANT WOMEN
Magazine Writer Contributes Sensible Comments on This Present
Subject of Debate—Story of Kipling’s Anger—Again
the Share Cropper’s Plight.
By Af.-C. /?.
THE reviewer has had occasion,
several times in recent months,
to comment on articles given
over to lamenting the passing
of privilege and authority from the
possession of American men to that
of American women. Scribner’s Mag
azine has had one such article, and
later published a reply to it. The
American Mercury has also mourned
in its pages for man's vanishing glory.
And there have been other stories on
the same theme. The reviewer, on
reading mast of them, has put them
down as appeals for popular reading,
since, as every one knows, there is no
argument so intriguing to most people
as one which raises, in light and in
offensive form, the question of rela
tive sex merits.
Now, in the May Forum, Struthera
Burt takes up the subject once again,
and it may be that the Forum’s edi
tors are being no less canny than
those of the Mercury and Scribner’s.
But it seems to the reviewer than Mr.
Burt is a great deal nearer to talking
sense.
He finds that the prestige of the
American male is in no way endan
gered by the bestowal upon woman
of certain elementary human rights,
and admits frankly that the com
placence which derives from this
prestige is even thicker In America
than in countries where women do
not have these rights. This opin
ion, he admits, is not generally held,
but in its support he says he will
have “one multiple element, the in
telligent women of the United States.”
And he continues: “Take them
aside sometime and get them to tell
the truth (they won't do it, Mr.
Burt)—those, that is, who are not so
completely enslaved that they are to
tally unable to separate the letter of
the law from its reality. Ask them
what is the response of the average
American man, Intelligent or other
wise, to their opinions, unless these
happen to coincide with his. Ask
them what is his attitude and tone of
voice if they happen to contradict
him. . . . Ask why it is that all
business and professional women, ex
cept those who have definitely arrived,
and wives and mothers and fiancees
as well, have to bear in mind a tech
nique utterly unknown to the male
consciousness. Ask any woman in
business what, at all events, her earlier
experiences were. Ask any of these,
and if the ladies are at all truthful,
they will tell you that every apparent
proof of feminization in the United
States is, in reality, a proof of un
conscious male domination.”
And Mr. Burt has said a great deal
with that little three-syllable word,
•'unconscious.” For it is quite true
that men do not deliberately ‘‘domi
nate.” That takes a kind of force
which few people want in their per
sonal and domestic affairs. It is too
tiring The truth is. and Mr. Burt
tells it. that women, from the cradle
up, so encourage men to this ‘‘domi
nation” that they are in it without
knowing it. It is the old domestic
technique that dates from the first
cave household. The modern compli
cation is that men have gotten so ac
customed to it in home relations that
they expect it in the new relations
of business and the professions. A
woman who, coming into a profession
as an equal with its men. speaks her
mind Impartially and without false
reverence becomes an object of down
right Impropriety: she is "unwomanly."
But why should she be “womanly"
in business or professional conduct?
Why introduce sex there? Is that
proper—really? The reason is not
that very many professional or busi
ness women want to. but that they
cannot get on with their man asso
ciates unless they do.
Mr. Burt is lucid on these points
and still others and Is throughout
amiably amusing. And while he is
much more encouraging as to the fu
ture of men than other writers on this
subject have been, it is curiously likely
that fewer men will agree with him
than with those others. But, as he says
himself, Intelligent women will.
'T'HERE is an interesting article on
the late Rudvard Kipling in the
May Harper's Magazine. It deals with
the famous feud which the writer had
with his American brother-in-law,
Beatty Balestier, the feud, which,
the article says, was the reason why
BEIRNE LAY, Jr.,
Author of "1 Wanted Wings”
(Harper & Bros.).
Kipling left America and why he kept ;
so profound a dislike of all American '
things as part of his life to its very
end.
That he did cherish this hatred
deep and long is unquestionable. His
last work, his autobiography, written
after he was 70 years of age, contains
more than one blustering sentence de
voted to American institutions, man
ners and habits. And he makes no
attempt to be rational about it. It is
plainly pure hatred, emotional and
! unrelenting. The Harper's article, by
Frederic F. Van De Water, undertakes
to trace this hatred to its cause.
Whether it is accurate or not, it makes
highly interesting reading.
According to Mr. Van de Water,
Kipling was in a fair way to adopt
America when the trouble occurred.
He had built a home in Vermont,
and it was a large, substantial house,
far beyond the immediate needs of his
family. It looked as if he meant to
stay. He was. cautiously and al
most timidly to be sure, making
friendly advances toward his Yankee
neighbors; he had struck up an In
timacy with one Joe Gilbert, a log
ger, and also with David Carey, the
baggage master of the Brattleboro
station. Then his cantankerous broth
er-in-law involved him in a legal ac
tion which brought upon him such a
flood of publicity and entangled him
in such unfair (as he felt) representa
tions that he lost all kindness for the
land where he had so suffered, and
precipitately fled.
The ins and outs of the law suit are
gone into in Mr. Van de Water's piece,
in about as much detail as is possi
ble after so .long a time. If all that
he writes is true, then Kipling did
have a bad time in our country. But
it was hardly the country's fault, and
it seems curious that so isolated an
instance could have brought from ao
clear a mind such a wholesale con
demnation. Anyway, the piece is well ;
worth reading.
^ MEMBER of The Star staff com
mented to the reviewer recently
| that the best title given to any
travel book in recent years was, in
his estimation, the one bestowed upon
a record of a trailer tour, it being,
' neatly, “Folding Bedouins."
The reviewer has forgotten who
| wrote this little book—it was a Chi
cago newspaper man, if that helps—
but remembers the work as the first
of a growing family, all devoted to
the joys or pains of trailing.
Now in the May Harper's no less a
literary man than Konrad Bercovici
comes out with a piece on the gentle
trailing art. Mr. Bercovici, as the
world knows, is a literary gypsy, and
wherever he goes he runs right into
gypsies, and then whin he has run
into them he sits down by their
campfire and shares a delicious meal
with them, a beautiful young gypsy
maid dances for him and finally the
old, old man of the tribe tells him a
wonderful story, which he remembers
later, word for every word.
This has always seemed to the re
j viewer a perfectly grand method of
getting material, but somehow or
j other she does not run into gypsies
in Just that way. She never met but
one gypsy encampment, and in that
Instance while the old, old woman of
the tribe was telling her fortune the
young, young children were taking
her rear tire quietly off its rack.
But then all of us do not have Just
the same experiences.
Anyway, Mr. Bercovicl tells in this
Harper’s story how he went to the
land in a trailer and traveled 10,000,
miles, keeping his family of four and
the trailer, too, on less than *7 a day.
This story, like the “Folding Bedouins”
book, marks a new mark in trailer
literature. It is the first account of
the new mode of travel to be written
by a writer who also is what is known
as a man of letters.
Well, some way or other, Mr. Ber
covici, man of letters or not, does not
seem to be quite as much at home
among the truck drivers, hitch hikers,
tourist campers and other quaint folk
figures of the American highways (or
folkways?) as he is with his native
Rumanians and their colorful czardas.
Not quite. He tells us how he listened
to three chauffeurs talking in a gaso
line station lunch room outside Rich
mond, and was impressed with the
rich, American quality of their talk.
That is grand, of course. What if
they had talked Senegambian?
“Mark Twain,” he says, "and Rabe
lais and Homer and all the fraternity
of robust tellers of stories would have
given their right ears for the privilege
of hearing them with their left.”
Not a bit of it, Mr. Bercovicl. As
an American, the reviewer declines
to speak for Rabelais or Homer, but
Mark Twain would have been right
In there with the boys, going them one
better. If you can forget, sometimes,
that you are a man of letters, it
doesn't hurt your style a particle.
Anyway, it never hurt Mark's.
Mr. Bercovici is writing in install
ments, and this is only the first. Per
haps in the second he will run into
some gypsies, and then we will see
what happens to his rear tire.
J^AVID L. COHN, Mississlppian,
wrote last year an intelligent and
sympathetic book on the Negroes of
the Delta country, a people whom he
has known most of his life. He called
it ‘‘God Shakes Creation," which, he
said, was a phrase he picked up from
a Negro preacher who was discoursing
on the providence of God in ordain
ing the seasons. It was a mighty
speech and its climax was when the
minister came to the waking time of
the year. Then he said. ‘‘In the
Spring. God shakes creation."
In the May Atlantic Monthly Mr.
Cohn writes again of the Delta peo
ple, dealing particularly with the
share croppers, of whose problems so
much has been heard lately. Mr.
Cohn, from the vantage point of long
acquaintance with these people, con
siders the New Deal proclamation
that something must be done for them.
He then sums up:
"Share cropping has continued for
70 years because no one has found a
better system to take its place. No
sudden change could safely take place
within a capitalist democracy. Pro
viding land ownership for millions of
landless and unprepared people Is a
vast and enormously complex prob
lem . . .
"It must be remembered that the
Negro was ruthlessly delivered in
1862 into a freedom for which he was
not prepared. And once the Gov
ernment had achieved the ideal of his
freedom he was abandoned and for
gotten. It must also be remembered
that the growth of large plantations
and farm tenancy is not an isolated
phenomenon. In industry the con
trol of the instruments of production
and of distribution has tended ever
since the close of the Civil War to be
concentrated in fewer and fewer
hands . . .
"It will not be enough for the Gov
ernment to buy land for them (the
share croppers) and regard the prob
lem as solved. Not only must they
have land, but they must have un
remitting supervision for many years
. . . They must, in short, be recast
and re-created. That is a problem
for the years.”
He does not say so. but it would
sound also like an addition to the
alphabet of bureaus. That would
seem to be what happens to most of
these problems in practical applica
tion.
The article is excellently impartial.
It sounds like sense and not senti
mentality.
incidents of his youth and his own
characteristics and impressions.
Though you may be opposed to bull
lighting on the grounds of cruelty to
animals, you will still get a clearer
Insight into the sport from reading
about Belmonte, besides the fact that
the subject matter is off the pounded
paths of narrative.
Leslie Charteris, tfho translated the
work, contributes an introductory
treatise on bullfighting . J. S.
IN THE AMERICAN JUNGLE, 1925
1936. By Waldo Frank. New
York; Farrar & Rhinehart.
'T'HIS is a collection of critical
essays devoted to our ways and
customs in these United states. They
are selections which have been pub
lished heretofore in various periodicals,
ranging from the New Yorker to that
unfailing catchall for bright pieces,
the New Masses. They are pungently
1 written abd stimulating reading. Mr.
Frank Ls attacking, as a general thing,
and a good attack is always readable.
Of course, in this day we have heard
most of the/ arguments on both sides
of everything American; we have been
analyzed, yve have been synthesized,
we have been psychoanalyzed, we have
been instructed, berated, encourageu,
patronized and damned. It doesn’t
positively surprise us any more when
a writer comes out with another book
of strong, bracing whacks, all designed
to do us no end of good if we can
take it. But here it is, and, as among
others of its kind, it is all right. There
will be another one next week, or
maybe there will be two.
I WANTED WINGS. By Beirne Lay,
Jr. New York: Harper & Bros.
XJEKE is a book which should be
read by any young man who
dreams of going into aviation, either
as a military or commercial pilot.
Very frankly, sparing neither himself
nor others, Lay tells of his experiences
in the Army Air Corps Training Cen
ter at Ban Antonio, Tex., and of his
active duty service at Langley Field,
Va. He paints the hardships, trials
and the transcendental thrills which
await the student flyer.
He confesses that the first time he
flew a highly sensitive, powerful Army
pursuit airplane he felt like an im
postor, "a-lrnortal with a magic wand
1b his hazy g."
Returning to civilian life after three
years of military flying. Lay finds
that, no matter what lies ahead, he
has "no proper grounds for com
plaint.”
"I am already too far ahead of the
game. I can't lose, because I have
already won more than I can ever
lose. I have a bottomless three-year
I treasury to draw from. Not that a
man can live on memories. But there
I are other dreams and other fulfill
! ments.
"I am the man in a million who
has had a dream, his own particular
; dream—to hint unattainable—and
| lived it."
There are copious notes for the lay
man, which makes the work of some
value as a text for beginners. Whether
or not you are in aviation or intend
; to be, you will find entertainment and
excitement in this volume. For those
who, like Lay, hav gone through
"hell month" at Randolph, the book
must arouse the keenest memories,
for it is based upon the life stuff of
which aviation careers have been
built. j. S. E.
THIS WAY TO BEAUTY. By Hel
ena Rubinstein. 188 pages. New
York: Dodge Publishing Co.
^ NEW book dealing with the va
rious means by which physical
beauty may be acquired becomes a
"must have" for every woman who
sees it. Such a book is Helena Ru
binstein's latest publication. "This
Way to Beauty." in which she sets
forth her knowledge of this subject
as gleaned from a quarter century of
successful experimentation.
Mme. Rubinstein, internationally
known as an outstanding beautician
and also as a chemist with a back
ground of medical training, makes her
own formulas and continues to im
prove them from season to season.
Her book presents short, concise
chapters in an engaging and modern
' form with sketches and helpful dia
grams. It is easy and pleasant read
ing, and from the very first chapter
Mme. Rubinstein creates in every
reader a determination to "lift her
self above the plain or mediocre and
become a vita! and lovely person."
She says: "So few women have the
slightest conception of their possibill*
tlef to keep young and lovely.”
ggie emphasises the necessity of an
intense desire for beauty, and believes
that the lack of sufficient will power
to “carry through" 1s the greatest
stumbling block for mast women.
Self-indulgence, false unselfishness
and complacency with a big “C" are
considered the arch enemies of suc
cess on the road to beauty.
Having awakened a soldier spirit in
her reader, she outlines a well-plan
ned beauty regime, then takes up the
various phases of beauty culture in
detail, beginning with the care of the
skin, the use of cosmetics, continuing
with the care of hands and hair.
Different diets are described both
for increasing and decreasing weight.
Exercises for posture and better pro
portions are given with accompanying
diagrams. In fact, you will find that
this little book contains just about
everything a woman needs to know in
order to make herself lovelier.
Mme. Rubinstein leaves you this
comforting thought: "At 40, and even
60, a woman should be at her best,
and can be. The brave stay young."
M. W.
BEST SELLERS FOR THE WEEK
ENDING APRIL 17.
Fiction.
THEATRE. Maugham. Double
day Doran.
THE YEARS. Woolf. Harcourt
Brace.
OF MICE AND MEN. Steinbeck.
Covlcl Friede.
PARADISE. Forbes. Harcourt
Brace.
WE ARE NOT ALONE. Hilton.
Little Brown.
THE LATE GEORGE APLEY.
Marquand. Little Brown.
Non-Fiction.
HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND
INFLUENCE PEOPIE. Car
negie. Simon & Schuster.
PRESENT INDICATIVE. Cow
ard Doubleday Doran.
AMERICAN DOCTOR'S ODYS
SEY. Helser. Norton.
RETURN TO RELIGION. Link.
Macmillan.
SOMETHING OF MYSELF
Kipling. Doubleday Doran.
WE OR THEY. Armstrong. Mac
millan.
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