Evening star. [volume], May 15, 1937, Page B-3, Image 19

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

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LIBERALS PICTURED IN BOOKS
Work Shows Pathway by Which Leading Family Arrived at Place
of Leadership — Writer Gives Critical Estimate of Present
Russian Affairs.
By Mary’Carter Roberts.
THE AMBERLEY PAPERS. By Bert
rand and Patricia Russell. New
York: W. W. Norton Co.
THIS is a two-volutie work, made
up of selections from the let
ters and journals of Bertrand
kussell’s parents. The ma
terial has been chosen for the pur
pose of showing the path by which
Lord and Lady Ambedey arrived at
their position as champions of liberal
ism. It begins with p^)ers written in
early childhood and ends with letters
dated only shortly be fere death. The
period covered is. of course, one in
which liberalism was a conspicuous
Issue, not only in politics, but in relig
ion and in the intellectual world. As
Lnrd and Lady Ambadey were lnde
fatigably active in their efforts toward
furthering any cause vhich seemed to
them to Include the gvnn of emancipa
tion, their papers contrin an excellent
panorama of the issues which animat
ed their day—freedcm of women,
anti-slavery, tempeiance, peace,
trade unionism, social reform as em
bodied in various bills and as outlined
by various leaders, vsrious forms of
dissenting religion, scientific advances
and yet others. In the freedom which
their own wealth and established posi
tion in a conservatiie society gave
them, these two peopfc were able to
look on the world as a patient suffer
ing from a multitude >f diseases, and
they turned all the towers of their
minds to diagnosing tie ills and med
itating cures.
This, substantially, ic what the book
Shows. Its material is divided into
chapters, at first accorhng to periods
of development—as yoith, schooldays,
courtship)—and later arcording to the
years. As both Lord aid Lady Amber
ley died young, in their early 30s, the
actual time covered bs this record is
not long. But there is a detailed
comprehensiveness in t and it must
stand as one of the exellent pictures
of nineteenth century intellectualism.
More than this the work contains a
full and living picture tf relationships
In the two families. Nost of the let
ters are to or from rdatives and in
their accumulating lhes, the reader
will see appearing tie life of the
English noble family olthe period—its
movements from city to country, its
excitements over eleaions, its con
cern for “good" marrages, property,
success, the placing <f younger sons
and all the rest of it. lady Amberley
it should be said, was >f the Stanleys,
a family not less prominent than her
husband's, and simila in interests.
Against this crowed background
the two young people siow themselves,
by their own written rords, unflinch
ingly conscientious in their efforts to
better the world, but stnewhat heavily
laden by the weight of the responsibil
ity. They present a social paradox
that is by no means ner in human his
tory. They were, by vir.ue of their own
economic and social pivileges, able to
aevote themselves selftssly to righting
the wrongs out of wlich, in part at
least, their own favoed position de
rived. Clear-minded as they were,
they must have preceied the basic in
consistency of their pod works. It is
obvious, at any rate, that they were
never so happy as t*ien they found
time to escape briefly.’rom society and
politics, and read tgether in their
country home the moe congenial sub
jects of philosophy aid religion.
A host of contemprarv eminences
fills the book's pages-to name a few,
Carlyle, Browning, lurne-Jones, Sir
Richard Burton, the Prince of Wales,
Gladstone, Lord Grey Emerson, Low
ell, Longfellow, and, of course. Lord
Amberly's father, Lori John Russell,
who was briefly prine minister. Of
some of these there are clear word
pictures; the most arrusing perhaps is
that given by Lady Anberley, when a
child, of Thomas Caryle.
"He talked a great deal in the eve
ning," she wrote n her journal,
"abused Mill’s book ci Liberty & said
we did not want librty & it was all
nonsense, he talkd too of the
wretched state of Scotch land from
which ht had just :ome, & said the
Scotch would be qiite right to rise
up and drive all tie Irish into the
§ea & he talked abut running peo
ple through with a red hot poker and
then laughed very nueh at the idea.
He held forth till 11 all of us listening
to him. The next noming at break
fast we asked him what it meant to
perfect the theory Df defective verbs,
a phrase he uses very often in his
French Revolution he explained it to
us & said it was ofas little importance
to fight about the constitution as to
•ettle the theory o defective verbs . . .
. . At. luncheorhe said he thought
all novels stupid k he did not know
any good ones witten by women, he
abused every one in turn which was
mentioned—& he said it was such a
pity that every oie wrote now it was
no longer a distnction, he thought
women had bettfr not meddle with
those things bu be quiet darning
stockings, a very different idea from
Mrs. Mills in he Enfranchisement of
Women; he tailed of her & said she
was a silly wopan, at least not so
clever, but thi Mill admired her
because she wis kind to him. He
thinks that tailing is the great fault
of the age & tint people had far bet
ter not talk.
. Talking of the Rifle Corp6 he
approved of it for a wonder & said it
was an exceliat thing to bring every
one under dlaipline & much better
to send them ft cat-o’-nine tails & a
drill sergeant ihan Maurice’s Lectures
and Ruskin’s drawing, it would do
them more god. We did not agree
"I enjoyed his visit here very much
A I always Ike to listen to him one
always learru something—.”
The visit yhich the couple made to
America in 867 is to some extent a
condensation of their entire range of
preoccupations—they wanted to know
what was wong in our country and
what we wet doing to make it right.
They traveld fairly widely and were
brilliantly eltertained, but this was
their true inerest—what was there to
reform, ant how were we going
about it?
The book an make the reader sad,
respectful oramused. It will depend
on how he reacts to sanguine cru
saders for terfection. It of course
furnishes a >ery cample' - ground for
understand^ Bertrand Russell, who
has so earnstly carried on the task
which his eually earnest young par
ents began.
I SEARCH DR TRUTH IN RUSSIA.
By Sir filter Citrine. New York:
E. P. Duton & Co.
HTHE chief point of interest in this
book is: its author: he is the
general secrflary of the English Trade
Union Congtss, a national organiza
tion which embraces practically all
British trad/ unions and has a mem
bership of <000.000 workers He went
Is Russia, therefore, not with a pollti
cal partisan’s Interest In the Com
munist state, but with the practical
object of finding out what communism
has done for bettering working and
living conditions among all kinds of
workers.
In substance, he reports that the
Russians, under their new government,
have planned well and executed badly.
He finds that their aspirations for
the workers are excellent, but that
most of them remain, even today,
in the state of being aspirations, and
that those which have been carried
out have, quite often, been bungled.
Particularly in illustration of this he
refers to the so-called "model’’ tene
ments built for working class families.
They are constructed from cheap
materials, he says, so that even those
which have been up only a few years
are in a state of marked deterioration.
More than this, he finds that these
buildings are badly planned for family
living and hardly maintained at all.
There are. of course, some exceptions.
He notes and names these duly.
He also round in working conditions
that the promises of the workers’
state have not yet been fulfilled. The
work day is long, the speed-up system
is carried out in the government
factories to a degree that shocked
him, there is a deliberately fostered
system of spying among the workers,
and wages are so low that only the
fact that mothers as well as fathers
contribute to family support, makes it
possible for the ordinary working class
to keep alive. The top weekly wages
which he found, indeed, for a factory
worker, was only 27 shillings. As
against these facts, however, there
are plans and ideals which he found
admirable. He could only express
his hope that time would bring them
to fulfillment. At present, he agTees
with most authorities that the people
are better off than they were under
the Czar, but worse off than the work
ers in any other Western country'.
The book is almost devoid of gen
eralities. It is written in diary form
and simply relates how the author
visited this or that factory, creche,
tenement, park and so on, and lists
the conditions found in each.
At the end of the journal, however,
Sir Walter permits himself to comment
a little. He clearly would like to be
enthusiastic but he has the English
democrat's love of freedom too deeply
ingrained in him. He cannot stomach
the suppression of criticism, the spy
ing, the great inequality, the demand
for utter conformity. He hopes, how
ever, that these evils are only a phase.
His criticism is at all times generous,
and the most sensitive Communist
ought not to find fault with the pure
objectivity of his book.
ANGELS IN UNDRESS. By Mark
Benney. New York: Random
House.
/"\NCE in a while one does really get
a book which falls outside recog
nizable types. The present one does
that. It is, to be sure, an autobi
ography. but it is an autobiography
with a difference. Its writer is a prose
artist and a poet who knows how to
use prose as his medium. His life
story therefore shines with a light.
But as it is a terrible story, quite
apart from any manner of telling, that
light becomes a beacon of terror, a
nightmarish flashing, throwing shad
ows which are sinister and repellent.
It is the story, in brief, of the life of
an English lad whose mother was a
prostitute, whose home was the un
derworld of London, whose mentors
were criminals, whose ambition it
was to become a “wide” man, by
which he understood one whose wits
were superior to work, and whose fate
was finally prison. It is all this and
it is a piece of splendid writing. The
question has already been raised as to !
how a man with so little education
could write as this Mark Benney writes.
It has not been answered satisfac
torily, in the reviewer's opinion, but
the authenticity of the volume has
been abundantly vouched for. It is
no literary hoax. On the contrary, it
would seem to be a literary miracle.
The book offers no apologies. It
tells of the only life which the child
Mark Benney knew. He had no stand
ards of comparison In his boyhood;
therefore he makes no subsequent ex
cuses. He had a -normal boy's love
of adventure, he admired his pretty,
gay young mother and found the fev
erish existence that surrounded her
no more shocking than any child finds
the home of its parents. He grew
naturally into crime; It was not want
that drove him, although he did have
some lean days. Instead, he even de
scribes stealing for the love of it.
His book, therefore, is without the
self-pity which characterizes so many
crime confessionals; yet neither is it
swaggering. It is a record of a sordid
existence, as seen by one who had
no knowledge of sordidness, by one
who found beauty in his surroundings,
even as do the rest of us. Coming,
later in life, to understand that the
basic material of those surroundings
was hideous, he has had the rare dis
crimination to write a book of hideous
beauty, of repellent fascination, a book
that is like a serpent with a gleaming
skin—a book such as only a very
rare talent could have produced.
It is not recommended, however, for
general reading. The lover of inspired
writing will give it its proper value.
Other readers, it is to be feared, will
find it either unw’holesomely sensa
tional or unbearably shocking.
PIONEERING IN AGRICULTURE.
By Thomas Clark Atkeson and
Mary Meek Atkeson. New York:
Orange Judd Publishing Co.
'J'HIS simply written work by Wash
ington authors is one which ought
fo be read with great interest today.
Agricultural problems are not the least
of the current news, and farmers and
their spectacular plight are to some de
gree holding the political stage. We
think of their present ill condition as
something altogether new. We read
of their disasters in the drought and
dust stricken regions and conclude
hastily that these are representative
of all agricultural districts. This his
tory of agriculture in America over a
hundred years will go far to correct
such an impression.
There are farm districts in the
United States which have been culti
vated since long before the dust bowl
was ploughed, and which are good
producing lands today. Thomas Clark
Atkeson, writing in collaboration with
his daughter, tells of such districts
here. He has a right to speak with
authority too. He was the first dean
of agriculture in West Virginia Uni
versity, where he developed such new
projects as an extension course, a
home reading course, a student grange
and rural betterment schools. He was
master of the West Virginia State
Grange for 25 years, and has held im
portant offices in the national grange.
He has been the national grange legis
lative representative in Washington
and was particularly active in bring
ing about post-war legislation for the
benefit of farmers. His story of his
experience as a practical farmer on a
Great Kanawha Valley farm and of
his work in the above named capacities
is a record of sound conservative land
cultivation In America, and of the pro
gressive movements which have been
undertaken to preserve our land re
sources and better farm conditions
generally.
The book is not for the technical
reader alone, however. It is written
with great humanness. Mary Meek
Atkeson is herself one of the foremost
woman writers on farm subjects to
day; she is a contributor to the Coun
try Gentleman and author of the
standard work, "Woman on the Farm.”
In collaborating in the telling of her
father’s story she has used both her
knowledge of the subject and her skill
as a writer. The book can be read
for its narrative of pioneer conditions
alone. The story of agricultural de
velopment is the theme around which
a whole era of American life is very
STOYAN CHRISTOWE.
Author of “Mara" (Thomas Y. Crowell Co.).
SIR WALTER CITRINE,
Author of “I Search for Truth in Russia” (E. P. Dutton & Co.),
[ naturally built. From the point of
view of American tradition, too. the
book has a special interest in these
particular times.
I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLE
SALE. By Jerome Weidman. New
York: Simon & Schuster.
'J'O ANY ONE who has read Mr.
Weidman's short stories, his pres
ent work—his first novel—will be
wearyingly familiar, and this despite i
the fact that it comes out bearing on
its jacket a wild blurb from that happy- j
tempered young man, Burton Rascoe.
Mr. Rascoe, be it said, having reviewed
books for only a decade or so, still
possesses a welLspring of pure en
thusiasm which enables him to blurb
incomparably when he lets himself go.
And in the case of this book he does
let. himself go. He writes—nay, he
publishes—that he reacted to this j
novel with “shivers of pure esthetic
delight” and finished it with “an in
voluntary” exclamation. What verve
he has, to be sure! What wide-eyed |
rapture! Then, having gone so far with
revelations of his critical ecstasy, Mr.
Rascoe tells us wrhat his throbbing
“exclamation” was. “Great J. Pier
pont Popocatepetl!” He confesses that !
these were the syllables wrung from
him by the emotional purge of Mr.
Weidman's work of art. “Great J.
Pierpont Popocatepetl! What a
writer!” And then he innocently
glanced at the clock and accidentally
noticed that it was 4 in the morning.
So spellbound had his discoverer's
frenzy held him.
Well, if you don't believe, take a look
at the back jacket. It’s all there,
over Mr. Rascoe’s name. Hits, no
doubt, is literary criticism.
Now surely, when a book is intro
duced with such flagrant gushing, a
reviewer may be pardoned for feeling
a certain hostility toward it. Un
happily, with the present writer, in
stinctive hostility works on the con
science to produce a more lenient no
tice than ordinarily would be accorded.
No, it is not fair to blame the book
for its publisher's method of advertis
ing. It is not fair to blame the novelist
because a critic has made of himself a
sideshow barker. Let us see, then, what
with the utmost charity, may be said
for “I Can Get It For You Wholesale.”
It is nothing in the world but a
portrait, and the portrait is complete
by the end of the first chapter. After
that it is all repetition and, as Mr.
Weidman writes with extreme monot
ony, both as to his thought and to his
style, the repetition lacks somewhat in
interest for its own sake. The portrait,
however, is a good one. It is the
portrait of a modern manner of human
rat, a cheap, coarse, dishonest man,
who makes a fortune in the New York
garment trade very quickly. He is not
pleasant certainly; he is not even In
teresting. He is loathesome, much as
the animal mentioned above is loath
some ; that is to say, having recognized
a rat as a rat, one does not particularly
care to investigate its individual char
acteristics. One's reaction is to kill
it or forget it—and to do one or the
other quickly. So a full-length novel
devoted to demonstrating a rat’s
rattinecs, and to no other thing, to
announcing triumphantly and without
the slightest variation of tone on page
after page that this animal is—look
you—a veritable rat, as you yourself
had seen on first glance, falls, there
fore, in this reviewer’s estimation at
le%st, something short of artistic
sublimity. At any rate, finishing it,
she cried out no great J. pierpont
popocatepetls. She did look at the
clock, however, and noted that she
had been three hours reading the
thing, and admired her conscience.
For a perfectly adequate review of it
could have been done after a 15-min
ute examination. Let Mr. Rascoe
choke on that.
Now this does not mean that the
reviewer would look adversely on any
work in which the characters were
scoundrelly—if there be any so simple
as to suppose that she might. Subject
MAUD AND DELOS LOVELACE,
Authors of “Gentlemen From England.” (Macmillan.)
matter is no material for criticism—
does that need to be stated? It is quite
possible that Mr. Weidman might
make a real novel about his ghastly
little beast if he were to learn to use
a style that is not cheaply facile, an
irony that is a trifle more delicate than
the fall of a granite mounment and
would take time to endow his work
with some depth and variety. As it is.
he has produced only a portrait, as
has been said. It is good, and in less
than 400 pages it is repeated S.000
times.
FLOOD LIGHT ON EUROPE. By
Felix Witmer. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons.
'T'HIS book, subtitled ‘‘A Guide to
the Next War,” is one of those
surveys of conditions in Europe which
have come out in great numbers in
the past year. ‘It is, however, more
detailed than most works of a similar
nature; it is not only concerned with
politics, but with race, population,
natural resources, exports and im
ports. Also it offers the reader the
additional enlightenment of an out
line of the history of each country
under discussion. It combines, there
fore, somewhat the features of an
atlas, a history text and a political
manual. It is largely factual; it deals
but little in the drawing of conclu
sions. The author seems to feel that
his title—or his subtitle—is signifi
cant enough of those. That there
should be more than a dozen nations
and several dozen racial groups cher
ishing divergent aims in a restricted
territory is in itself, apparently, to
his mind, Indicative of what is to
come. He is occupied simply in show
ing what these divergent aims are
and by what steps they have come
to be important to the governments
which hold them. The book is im
mensely informative, but unfortun
ately dry in style. An exception to
this latter condition w’hich should be
mentioned, however, is the section on
Spain. That is richly interesting.
GENTLEMEN FROM ENGLAND. By
Maud and Delos Lovelace. New
York: The Macmillan Co.
'J'HIS is a pleasant little novel about
the life lived by the members of
an English colony which settled in
Northern Minnesota shortly after the
Civil War. The "gentlemen from
England” have been badly persuaded
to buy estates there by a sharp Yankee
land agent. They pay five pounds the
acre, when the true price is one.
But, having arrived, they decide to
make the best of it. They build in
English style, they ride to the hounds,
they give hunt balls and in every way
they can maintain the traditions of
their class. One, Richard Chalmers,
hero of the tale, becomes involved
in love affairs and scandals. Event
ually the air clears, however, and
Richard finds himself. That is all,
but it makes unexceptionally pleas
ant reading.
MARA. By Stoyan Christowe. New
York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
J^JARA is a story of the Macedonian
revolt against Turkey. In effect,
it portrays two themes, the passion
for life and fecundity as exemplified
by Mara, the mother, and the passion
for freedom as exemplified by Paul,
the son; and the futility of both.
Told in a quiet, unhurried manner,
with here and there a conscious at
tempt at stylistic effect, the story car
ries one along to the inevitable end in
spite of a halting plot at times.
Mara is the peasant widow of a
Macedonian rebel and hero. In spite
of her attempts to raise her aon Paul,
with a love of the soil and of propa
gation and. with no knowledge of
revolt, Paul early becomes implicated
in the Macedonian revolution. Neither
home, nor mother, nor wife can keep
him out of the revolutionary plots and
counterplots. With a group of young
rebels known as the "Boatmen,” he
engages in a conspiracy to blow up
two Of the principal banks and many
of the business houses, a steamship
and a railroad train in Salonika. The
■'Boatmen” are successful in their
wholesale destruction, but at what ex
pense! Every one dies either at his
own hands or by execution. More
over. the outrages are followed by re
prisals at the hands of the Turks.
Whole villages are wiped out, in
cluding the home of Paul's mother
and wife And Mara, who worshiped
every grain that grew, who debased
herself to seek a charm to ensure the
fecundity of Paul's wife and glorified
in the knowledge that she was with
child, was witness to the burning of
her fields and the destruction of her
daughter-in-law before she, herself,
met death.
There are parts of this book that
are especially noteworthy, bits of de
scription that are particularly vivid.
Among them is the chapter on the
drouth, the making of a “doodoole,”
which sounds much like the rain
dance of the Hopi Indians, and the
following, tragic hail storm
R. R. T.
MIRABEAU. By Pierre Nezelof.
Translated from the French by
Warre B. Wells. New York: Live
right Publishing Corp.
y ESTFULLY, the biographer takes
his reader with Mirabeau on a
personally conducted tour of the
boudoirs and bastilles of France. Sor
rowfully, he leads the way through
tribulations. Somewhat reluctantly,
he heaves himself up to the revolu
tionary level. It is, you sense, not
so much Mirabeau for Mirabeau as
Mirabeau for Nezelof who goes through
these pages.
Nezelof makes the most of the
strange contrast Mirabeau presented—
the wild youth whose multitudinous
and scandalous love affairs were in
terrupted only by prison and the
statesman who became the balance
wheel of the early French Revolution.
He shows us the Mirabeau who staved
off the Terror and established the
foundations of a constitutional mon
archy which crumbled only because
he died.
Three-quarters of the volume
breathe little but the Casanova
atmosphere and it is only the final
pages of the work in which the reader
who expects to find background for
the French Revolution will encounter
that which he seeks. Nevertheless,
the book is worth reading from the
standpoint of serious biography and
history. J. S. E.
V’HERE THE WEAK GROW
STRONG. By Eugene Armfield.
New York: Covici, Friede.
ANY ONE who has lived in a small
town in the South will find many
things to set off sparks of recognition
in this novel. It is a careful and
detailed picture of a North Carolina
town in 1912. The locality and the
time play an important part and lend
notes of authenticity. The town is
the hero and a multitude of characters
seem incidental to the larger picture.
Mr. Armfield’s style is impression
istic, something of a novelty in full
length fiction and not without its
drawbacks. Emphasis is a constantly
shifting element, turning from person
to person and event to event in the
minute span of a paragraph or even
a sentence. This makes for confusion
and lack of point when the book is
considered as a whole. There are a
few, a precious few, persons whom one
remembers when they are reintroduced
and there are a good many moving
scenes, but the maze of fact, fiction,
description and narration remains al
ways the maze.
Mr. Armfield likes to use words
which were banned before the legal
admission to this country of James
Joyce’s Ulysses, and, while apparently
he has every legal right to use them,
they detract from his book. —E. T.
CHANGES AMONG MAGAZINES
Clown Revives Spirit of Ancient Publication, and One Other of
Latest Vintage Shows Improvement—Touching Story of
Former King and Another of Coronation.
By M.-C. R.
Reminding one equally of lost,
lost youth and chances of re
finding it, St. Nicholas is here
with a brand-new circus cover
—a clown of the old-fashioned kind,
covered with red paint and wearing a
baggy suit. Nostalgia results—nostal
gia for the taste of pink lemonade.
And a ride on the back of the elephant.
'T'HE second issue of the co-opera
tive magazine, the Yellow Book,
is to hand and the reviewer must give
praise to the editors for their sports
manship. She w as pretty hard on the
first issue—it was arty and clearly a
case of performance outrun by desire.
It might have been expected that its
sponsors would shield their child from
possible repetition of these hard words
by refraining from sending more num
bers, but they have not done so. They
seem to be whiling to cover their bets.
They send their second issue and that
amounts to daring reviewers to do their
worst.
Well, the worst will not be so bad
this time. This second issue is much
I
better than the first. The improve
ment is really startling. The Yellow
Book is still definitely in the "little
magazine" class, but coming up. There
is. in particular, one series of short
stories in it which seem excellent—
they are, however, by the editor, Jo
seph Baker, and not from contribu
tors. Mr. Baker writes well. His stor
ies have a faint taste of stereotyping,
but only a fajnt one. Their movement
j is first rate. They practically read
j themselves.
The co-operative feature of the mag
! azine lies in this—that contributors
help bear the production costs and
then, if there are any profits, they
share in them. If the little paper keeps
on improving at its present rate, it
will look as if these co-operators have
something and no mistake about it.
J^AST week the reviewer mentioned
j that the Nation, through the pen
of Mr. Dwight Macdonald, was hold
ing up to criticism the Luce publica
tions—or, specifically, Time, Fortune
and Life. Time was considered first,
this week comes Fortune. Mr. Mac
donald's article is pretty predictable.
When he finds that Fortune's editors
have been in agreement with him.
then he says they have done well.
When, however, they have praised in
their pages some one whom he dis
likes they are wicked old reactionaries.
They have both pleased and dis
pleased him in times past, and so, now,
attempting to sum Fortune up, he
is frankly puzzled and concludes that
the magazine has no policy. He seems
to find this reprehensible. "In the
class war,” he remarks, as if in exas
peration, "its forces have deployed
with magnificent impartiality on both
sides of the barricades.” Well, but
what is the matter with impartiality?
Just when, in America, did an open
mind become contemptible? Some
one ought to record that date for
his tors’. It could be put alongside
the burning of the Alexandrian li
brary, for example.
QNE of the most touching stories
about former King Edward which
has yet been published is contained
in an article in the current Liberty.
The article itself is tripe; it is a sup
posed compilation of Edward's rules
for a happy marriage—if you please.
But the little episode with which
it gets under way is worth repeating.
“While I was in London,” says the
author, Helen Worden, “some people
very much in English society gave a
dinner party and invited Mrs. Simp
son without the King. Half an hour
late she came rushing apologetically
in. ‘I am so sorry,’ she said. 'I know
I am late, but I am going to ask a
great favor. The King is outside.
May I bring him to the party?’
"The hostess was distressed. She
explained that British nobility couldn't
ask their King to dine informally. It
would set a precedent which might
ruin them.
“Mrs. Simpson said nothing more.
Long after the dinner, when the guests
were leaving, they saw a car parked
outside the house. The King was in
it. He had been waiting there all
evening for Mrs. Simpson.”
That is an extremely pretty story—
if true.
'T'HE coronation of George VI is the
subject of a witty article by that
not always witty writer, Rebecca
West, in the current issue of Stage.
Miss West is pessimistic. She says
that she will not be in London to
look at the King or at the Queen
either; she is going to the Balkans
and look at the Easter services in the
orthodox churches there. She does
not wish to see the coronation.
“It is going to be,” says she, “the
rummest occasion on record. London
is going to be the strangest place in
the world for the first few weeks in
this May . . . . ” ,
And the reason for that, she says,
is that practically all the Londoners
have done a* she is doing—let their
houses to visitors and rushed oft to
the country or to lands across the sea.
But not, she says, because the English
are disloyal to their new sovereign.
On the contrary.
“Our hearts are all turned to King
George and Queen Elizabeth,” she de
clares, "but somehow simultaneously
the becks of many of us are turned to
them.This is not so in
consistent as it seems. The English
are tired. Very easily one can have
an excess of Drama. Also it is dif
ficult to take an interest in pageantry
where there is, black across the sky;
the threat of war. Also we know that
we are going to be poor again pretty
soon; this little boom will not quite
compensate for the effects pf the de
fense loan.”
And so, she writes, the English
themselves will have gone away be
fore the great day, and, if we are
to believe her, the city which witnessed
the great event was populated chiefly
by Americans and Colonials. She
gives a very quaint notion of how, in
her imagination, the coronation crowd
probably would conduct itself.
“They must leave their houses at
3, 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning; but
the coronation procession will not
pass until between 2 and 4 o'clock in
the afternoon .... My firm con
viction is that when their Majesties
emerge from Westminster Abbey they
will drive past row upon row of sound- !
ly sleeping subjects.
“The cool of the evening will no ’
doubt waken them. They will come
to with a start, and in view of the
time and money and energy they have
spent getting seats for the coronation,
they will never confess what happened
to them, but will avow The Procession
Was Pine. Nor will the embarrassed
Royalties ever mention it. But there
I am probably wrong. Little Princess
Elizabeth, that entrancing mixture of
Shirley Temple and James Cagney,
will, I feel, constantly allude to it at
unseasonable moments.” And so Mis#
West ripples on .. .
pROM the Conning Tower, New
York Herald Tribune, and called
Connecticut Spring song;
“Lost—White swan, orange bill, very
tame, cannot fly. Last seen Thursday
evening on Still River by cement
bridge in Brookfield. Reward. Robert
Peschko. Telephone 619-4, Danbury
News-Times.
“White swan, orange bill,
Floated on River Still;
Very tame, cannot fly;
Never even said goodby’;
Robert Peschko thinks it went
By the Brookfield bridge (cement);
Last seen Thursday—then no more;
Reward. Tel. 619-4.”
Rather nice, isn't it?
JOHNSTON D. KERKOFF, In th*
New York Evening Journal, offer*
us the following item
“The earth is degenerating in thee*
latter days. There are signs that th*
world is coming speedily to an end.
Bribery and corruption abound. Th*
children no longer obey their parents.
Every man wants to w^rite a book, and
it is evident that the end of the world
is speedily approaching ”
And this, says Mr. Kerkoff, “is not
a viewer-with-alarm writing in 1937.
It is a quotation from an Assyrian
tablet dated 2800 B. C "
^ND J. E. Doyle asks in the New
York American: “Remember the
time when we were taught to STAND
UP for our rights?"
Brief Reviews of Books
THE WORLD. j
THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD
AFFAIRS IN 1936. By Whitney
H Shepardson in collaboration with
William O. Srroggs. New York:
Harper & Bros.
SURVEY of world affairs in the
past year in relation to our own
participation and situation. Authori
tative.
GENEVA VERSUS PEACE. By Comte
de Saint-Aulaire. Translated from
the French by Francis Jackson.
New York: Sheed & Ward.
A work devoted to the proposition
that the League of Nations, being a
diplomatic alliance between France
and England, has forced a balancing
alliance between Germany and Italy
and hence is endangering European
peace. By a former Ambassador of
France to England.
OURSELVES.
SOCIAL SECURITY. By Maxwell S
Stewart. New York: W. W. Nor
ton Co.
What the new pension system has
to offer American citizens and how it
compares with similar systems in o' her
countries.
THE COURT DISPOSES. By Isidor
Feinstein. New Yorfc: Covici
Friede. j
How the bad old court aids the op
pressors of the American worker. By
an associate editor of the New York
Post.
MEN WANTED. By Frances Maule. !
New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
Advice to those looking for work as
to how to get the new jobs now
opening up. Comprehensive.
BIOGRAPHY.
THOMAS GREEN CLEMSON. Bv
Alester G. Holmes and George R.
Sherrill. Richmond: Garrett &
Massie.
The life of the first superintendent
of agricultural affairs of the United
States, who was also a farmer in
Prince Georges County, Md. An in
teresting document.
HISTORY.
STORY OF KING COTTON. By
Harris Dickson. New York: Funk
& Wagnalls.
The history of cotton, with a survey
of the problems now confronting cot
ton raisers, as the mechanical picker,
the boll weevil, the share cropping
system and Government intervention.
Interesting.
PLACES.
A RICHMOND ALBUM. By Earle
Lutz. Richmond: Garrett &
Massie.
The most vivid happenings in the
city's history, briefly told and illus
trated with old prints.
THE ARTS.
THE NEGRO GENIUS. By Benjamin
Brawley. New York: Dodd Mead
& Co.
A comprehensive and interesting
outline of the work done by Negro
artists in America. By a professor of
English at Howard University.
WATER COLOR PAINTING OF TO
DAY. By Adrian Bury. New
York: Studio Publications, Inc.
A survey of contemporary water
color painting and painters. Profusely
illustrated.
NOVELS.
BRAVE YEARS. By William Heyliger.
New York: D. Appleton-Century
Co.
A love story based on advocacy of
the co-operative movement. If you
can find any connection between the
two.
The most entertaining,
mo6t dynamic story ever
written about the city
where money meets power!
Washington
CALLING!
A Novel bv
MARQUIS W. CHILDS
author of
-Sueden: The Middle Way"
$2.50 and publiihtd by MORROW
BRIDE TO BE By Vida Hurst. New
York: M. S. Mill Co.
Love.
MYSTERIES.
IN LOVE WITH A T-MAN By Rob
Eden. New York: M. 6. Mill Co.
Treasury man gets the counterfeit
ers and the girl.
MURDER HALF-BAKED. By George
Bagby. New York: Covici Friede.
Murder at Coney Island.
JUVENILES.
IGLOO STORIES. By Clarence
Hawkes. Boston: Christopher
Publishing House.
Tales of the Far North. Interesting.
Huge Map Sought.
'y'HE Soil Conservation Service U
turning to aviation to complete
the greatest erosion map ever devel
oped. It will cover 362,000 square
miles—more than 12 per cent of the
area of the United States—and will
provide basic maps for use in erosion
control programs.
Contracts for aerial surveying have
been let to 14 aviation companies,
H. H. Bennett, chief of the service,
announced. Work is now going for
ward in 44 States and aerial survey*
of all but 1 of the 156 erosion-con
trol projects of the service already
have been completed.
BEST SELLERS OF THE WEEK
ENDING MAY 8
FICTION.
THE YEARS. Woolf. Har
court Brace.
THE OUTWARD ROOM. Brand.
Simon and Schuster.
THEATRE. Maugham. Double
day Doran.
OF MICE AND MEN. Stein
beck. Covici Friede
WE ARE NOT ALONE. Hilton.
Little Brown.
BUCKSKIN BREECHES. Stong.
Farrar and Rinehart.
NON-FICTION.
CORONATION COMMENTARY.
Dennis. Dodd Mead
HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND
INFLUENCE PEOPLE. Car
negie. Simon and Schuster.
PRESENT INDICATIVE. Cow
ard. Doubleday Doran.
THE WOODROW WILSONS.
McAdoo. Macmillan.
SOMETHING OF MYSELF.
Kipling. Doubleday Doran.
ANGELS IN UNDRESS. Ben
ney. Random House.
Stuart Chase says
“This book is a unique and val
able document on the most inter-,
esting social experiment in the
United States. It is short, packed
with information and can be read
| in a couple of hours ... After
A FOREIGNER
LOOKS AT THE
T.V. A.
By Odette Keun
burning up the Utilities. Madame
Keun burns up the capitalists of|
the Northeast who have sucked
dry the South and West. Then
she burns up the farmers of the
South as a shiftless, ignorant,1
barbarous breed ... Indeed, by!
the time she gets through, the
whole Republic is in flames. But
the book is indited to ‘America,*
with whom I have fallen in love’
and...one believes her.”—From
a review in The Nation.
“a superb piece of journalism.'
She startles the American reader^
out of his complacent lethargy
with her blend of white-hot writ-j
ing, dramatic use of statistics,'
and simple summary.” —Wiu\
consin State Journal. Illustrated
with photographs.
At All Bookstores. $1.25
LONGMANS, GRIIN A COMPANY
N4 Fifth »*•.. N.V. mVkUrltlt .Ttnit*