Evening star. [volume], July 21, 1940, Page F-7, Image 67

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

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
The Literary World—Reviews of Current Publications in Various Fields
_ ▲
New Travel Volume Gives
Briefest Recognition to
Fast-Changing World
Old City of Peking and Ruins
Of Angkor Vat Features in
Book by Osbert Sitwell
By Mary-Carter Roberts.
Escape With Me—An Oriental Sketchbook
Bp Osbert Sitwell. New York: Harrison-Hilton Books.
Writing polished prose about the exotic spaces of the earth without
even contemptuous notice of politics, economics, military strategy or prob
lems of race, in these times can seem the limit either of futility or signifi
cance according to your own opinion. But Osbert Bitwell, for one, has no
doubts about the question. In an introductory chapter to the present
work, he makes the briefest possible recognition of the fact that the world
as we know it seems on the point of crashing about our ears. Then he
proceeds to write a "sketchbook," indeed, a travel volume in the detached
and sententious manner of the period of the grand tour.
No more attention does he pay to raw materials, imperial life lines
and possible air bases than if he were truly a gentleman penman of the
18th century. And, as far as this reviewer is concerned, it is a good idea.
If Lord Grey was right, and the lights of Europe are not to be lit again
during our lifetimes, the more reminders we have of a period that was
sufficiently secure to allow the cultivation and expression of the spirit,
the better.
Proudly Free of
Political Aim.
Mr. Sitwell made his tour in two troubled lands—Cambodia and
China—and of his attitude toward his journey, he says in the introduc
tory passage mentjpned above:
“I did not go there to observe the form taken by the Social Struggle
(though one could not help seeing the increasing grip in those days of
the Communist creed upon all the younger and more intelligent students
of the universities: a result of despair, of the hopeless position in which
China patently found herself), nor out of pure love of wandering, nor,
alas, in response to a request from my publishers to write a strong left
wing book about that country. Though I have long carried on a private,
one-man campaign against stupidity, and the brutality and greed which
are two of its symptoms. I am no soldier of a cause militant. The volume
that has resulted, therefore, is intended for amusement, for a record and
description, and was not created with instruction for its purpose. It is
proudly free of any political aim (or any aim at all, I might say, except
that of getting itself written): though this is not to pretend that I have
not my prejudices, or will not vent them, but to confess that these, if
lnnumberable, vary, except in one or two variations where they have
grown permanent, from day to day.
“Moreover, when they are political, they remain plain wicked preju
dices, without any need of justification or of being transmuted into vir
tuous aims.” Having thus declared himself, he sticks to the declaration
consistently.
Skilled Imagination Used in
Descriptions.
He gives the first half of his book to the vast, mysterious ruins of
Angkor Vat and the second to the old city of Peking. He tries to
create the visual image of places which seemed to him significantly
memorable and then to invoke in the reader something of the emotions
those places stirred in him. This is, of course, one of the oldest devices
of the travel writer and one which can be killingly dull when used without
skilled imagination. Mr. Sitwell, however, is amply able to cope with it.
He is your “fine writer.” His prose is rich, his speculations are wise and
broad. To read him is to see Angkor and Peking through his eyes and
spirit.
The author speculates on the vanished race which erected the huge
Cambodian palaces and puts before us the little that is definitely known
of it. He provides us with excerpts from the official report of a Chinese
civil servant who, in the 12th century, went to inspect Angkor and sent
his Emperor a detailed account of the customs, government and religion
of its inhabitants. This document has been made available only recently,
, having been for centuries buried in the Chinese imperial archives. All
in all, one gains an impression that the existence carried on in ancient
Cambodia was one of pagan innocence and majestic beauty, of highly
cultivated and artistic leisure lived at the very foot of the Jungle, of a
state which combined the spontaneity of old Greece with the imaginative
richness of the Italian Renaissance—a wonderful picture it is, indeed,
beautifully set down.
Impressions Savor Little of
Routine Travel Book.
And in Peking, Mr. Sitwell discusses the native genius as it has
shown itself in architecture, landscaping, the language, food, domestica
tion of animals, ceremontes, manners and a whole host of minor mani
festations. These impressions are as little like the routine travel book
as an artist’s landscape is like an atlas. They are the playing of a
cultivated and rich intelligence over certain great works of the human
spirit. Pacing a return with hitherto unequaled rapidity to barbarism,
we. the luckless people of this day. can do worse than turn our minds
a little while to the memory of civilization.
The New Noah's Ark
By Andre Demaison. Translated From the French by Eric
Sutton. New York: The Macmillan Co.
Andre Demaison would appear to be the French edition of our own
Frank Buck. He went out, in other words, to bring back wild animals
alive, to be sold subsequently by his partner to pet stores, circuses, zoos
and private collectors. For the accomplishment of his end, he hired an
ancient sailing ship manned by native African officers and crew and set
out to trap, snare, buy and charm the animals of the west coast of Africa
from their native haunts into his crates and cages.
He tells us how he captured a crazy buffalo, a quixotic panther, a
pair of pally chimpanzees, a charming lion which preferred captivity to
freedom, a dwarf hippopotamus, a pair of pythons and Innumerable
monkeys, birds and lesser fry. His stories about these various creatures
are delicately told and speak for a captor with more interest in animal
psychology than in making a commercial success of the hunting.
Eventually, indeed, Mr. Demaison’s old schooner was knocked to
pieces on a reef, and the full cargo, within a day of being delivered to
its shipping place, escaped. The young man writes that he was glad
When he saw the disaster. He had a grand time taking his captives, he
tells us, but he did not want to have to dispose of his furred and feathered
friends to strangers. So he just thanked heaven that he had insured
everything, and called it a day.
It's an interesting work, something in the vein of Gustav Eckstein’s
famous animal studies.
Anya
By Joy Davidman. New York. The Macmillan Co.
Anya is a Jewish novel without a race problem and is concerned
only with Jews. There are no important gentile characters in it and no
influence from without the Jewish community. Such a work has a
somewhat bewildering flavor in these days of renewed race persecutions,
but, when one gets used to it, it proves to be a solid piece of writing.
It concerns the life of a small Jewish town in old Russia in the
middle of the 19th century. The author, herself Jewish, shows up this
community in the light of the classic small town fiction school. Her Jews
are smug, gossipy, puritanical and intolerant. The story turns on the
life of a girl so high-spirited that she finds the village atmosphere im
possible and breaks a series of dearly revered conventions.
Prom that time on she meets only with persecution from her com
patriots. All her efforts to recover her place in their esteem fail until,
a middle-aged woman, she leaves her bitter lot as an unforgiven sinner,
runs away from her stuffy husband and plans to come with her child
hood sweetheart to America. The book is overwritten and strained in its
effects at times, but the authenticity of the background is well borne out.
Girl Rebel
By Hsieh Pingying. Translated from the Chinese by Adet and
Anor Lin. New York: John Day.
This is one autobiography, at least, which cannot be said to fall into
a type. Its author is not likely to be easily duplicated. She is a young
Chinese woman who, in 1927, left her conservative home and joined the
revolutionary army of the Kuomintang, taking regular military training
and fighting as a man. Later, when >the war with Japan broke out, she
joined the anti-Japanese forces on the Shanghai front and continued her
military existence, and is still in active service. Her first published work
was her “War Diary,” which came out in a Hankow newspaper as she
dispatched it in installments from the front. It was at the instigation of
Dr. Lin Yutang that she began her life history, the present work, and the
translators have been Dr. Lin’s two youthful daughters.
The story of the heroic young woman's experiences is divided in two
motifs—the one a struggle against China's enemies, the other a struggle
against the tyrannical mother who would have kept her daughter at
home to endure bound feet and an arranged marriage. At the age of 10
she did actually have her feet bound; she had escaped so long, she says,
because her mother, in binding the feet of an older sister, had used such
real that she had broken the bones, with the result that the girl could
not walk thereafter. So for the younger child there was a longer period
of freedom.
By attempting suicide, the little girl forced her parent to allow her
to go to school. There she threw away the bandages. But a little later
the arranged marriage convention overtook her, and she was imprisoned
in her room as a means of making her consent to a match with a man
for whom she did not care. Relatives combined their powers of disap
proval and persuasion to make the child agree. She held out, however,
and eventually managed to make her escape, when she joined the fighting
forces. Her sex was no barrier there, for apparently girl soldiers are not
• novelty in China’s army. She was required to train as the men trained
and after that assigned to a company on complete equality.
It is a moving thing which, if it lacked the Indorsement which it has
by Dr. Lin, or some one of his reputation, might easily be thought to be a
forgery. But it is well authenticated and must be received as genuine.
• 4
Janet Planner, the “Genet” of New Yorker magazine, com
bines a series of faspitlating reports into her new book, “An
American in Paris.” —George Platt Lynes Photo.
This portrait of the late Richard Halliburton is from the
frontispiece of his autobiography, “Richard Halliburton, His
Story of His Life’s Adventure, as Told in His Letters
Best Sellers
The following list of best
sellers is compiled weekly from
information obtained in Wash
ington by The Star and in New
York, Boston, Chicago and San
Francisco by the North Ameri
can Newspaper Alliance:
Fiction.
“How Green Was My Valley,”
Richard Llewellyn; “Night in
Bombay," Louis Bromfield;
“Stars on the Sea,” F. Van
Wyck Mason; “Quietly My Cap
tain Walts,” Evelyn Eaton;
“World's End," Upton Sinclair;
“Bird in the Tree,” Elizabeth
Goudge; “Kitty Foyle,” Chris
topher Morley; “Cabbage Holi
day,” Anthony Thorne; “Mas
ter at Arms,” Rafael Sabatini;
“Mr. Skefflngton,” Elizabeth;
“The Heart Is a Lonely
Hunter,” Carson McCullers;
“Wild Geese Calling,” Stewart
Edward White.
Non-Fiction.
“I Married Adventure,” Osa
Johnson; “As I Remember
Him,” Hans Zinsser; “Why
Europe Fights,” Walter Millis;
“Failure of a Mission,” Sir
Neville Henderson; “How to
Read a Book," Mortimer J.
Adler; “American White Pa
per,” Joseph Alsop and Robert
Kintner; “Country Squire in
the White House,” John F.
Flynn; “If War Comes—M
Day,” Donald E. Keyhoe; “A
New England Sampler, "Eleanor
Early; “This Is on Me,” Kath
erine Brush; “Mathematics and
the Imagination,” Edward Kas
ner and James Newman; “The
Voice of Destruction,” Her
mann Rauschning; “In Search
of Complications,” Eugene de
Savitsch; “Strategy of Terror,”
Taylor; “Paris France,” Ger
trude Stein; “Forty Years a
Country Preacher,” George Gil
bert; “The Virginia,” American
Guide Series; “What to See
and Do in New England,”
George W. Seaton; “Watch Be
low,” William McFee; “How to
Become President,” Grade
Allen; “Richard Halliburton,"
his story.
An American in Paris
By Janet Flanner. New
York: Simon & Schuster.
Miss Flanner is the “Genet” of
the New Yorker, the author of that
periodical’s brilliant letters from
abroad. Here are a series of her
fascinating reports, covering in
many aspects the period just ended,
the period between the two World
Wars. “Never again,” says the
book’s publisher, “shall we see the
Paris that Miss Flanner • • • has
caught alive in these pages.” Since
those words were written, the Nazi
victory over France has taken place.
Doubly true, then, is the comment.
This Paris is as historical now as
Pompeii and Herculaneum.
It is the Paris of the boom and
collapse, the sky-high merry-making
city of Elsa Maxwell's fabulous
parties and Chanel’s gowns, of public
executions attended by people of
rank and fashion, of nation-wide
scandals, Innocent tourists and a
mob of Americans calling them
selves “expatriates.” It is the Paris
of which the whole civilized world
has heard these past 15 years. No
one, perhaps, is better able than
Miss Flanner to write of that gor
geous town, for she has lived In
it during the whole time and has
made It her career to know exactly
how Its pulse was fluctuating.
Her book Is a series of "proflies.”
She writes of Ambassador Bullitt,
Paul Polret, Chanel, Schiaparelli,
Lily Pons, Stravinsky, Coty, the
murdered Jean De Koven of Brook
lyn, Madame Hanau, Monsieur de
Paris (the Grand Guillotlner of
France), Adolf Hitler, famous spies,
Elsa Maxwell, Lady Mendl and yet
others. The brilliance of her style
makes one feel that she could be
intelligent and convincing on any
subject. M.-C. R.
Joy DavUimaiit author of
"Anya.”
k
Library Offers Adventure
Books for Young People
Summer brings to young people,
freed from the necessity of study, a
powerful urge to travel. It Is not
always practical simply to pull up
the stakes and adopt the foot-loose
life of a vagabond. Yet through
closer acquaintance with some of the
books on travel and adventure to be
found at the Central Public Library, j
Eighth and K streets N.W., and its
branches, it becomes possible to see
new and strange scenes and to be
come for a brief moment part of a
world strangely different from the
every-day life of school.
Richard Halliburton’s life, with its
emphasis on the fun and adventure
of living, has a fascination for all
young people. The most recent story
of his life of vagabonding, giving a
new slant on his 50,000-mile cover
age in two years, is related in "Rich
ard Halliburton; His Story of His
Life’s Adventures, as Told in Letters
to His Mother and Father.” In spite
of his outstanding position in the
brotherhood of vagabonds, Richard
Halliburton is by no means the only
Interesting one. In “I Married a
Vagabond.” Rachel L. Franck writes
of her lifetime of vagabonding with
her husband, Harry A. Franck, the
author of many travel books on dif
ferent parts of the world.
Osa Johnson is another woman
who has spent the greater part of
her life in the out-of-the-way parts
of the world. In “I Married Adven
ture” she tells the story of her mar
riage in Kansas, followed by her
travels and aventures in the South
Seas, Borneo and Africa with her
famous explorer-husband, Martin
Johnson. Humorous comments on
life In Borneo, including struggles
with servants, housekeeping, learn
ing Malay and traveling in the jungle
are made by Agnes N. Keith, the
American wife of an English official
in North Borneo, in her “Land Be
low the Wind.”
Two boys who wanted to travel
were Bruce and Sheridan Fahne
stock, aged 21 and 24. respectively.
In “Stars to Windward,” they tell of
their schooner voyage from New
York to the South Seas, the sale of
their ship in Manila and their even
tual grinding of news-reel cameras
in the Chinese war zone. Their
mother. Mary S. Fahnestock, tells of
her adventures traveling with her
sons and of her own travels in “I
Ran Away to Sea at Fifty.” The lure
of the ocean captivated Dwight Long
when he was a University of Wash
ington undergraduate. By working
summers, he finally managed to buy
a 32-foot ketch, the Idle Hour.
“Seven Seas on a Shoestring” is the
story of his four-ypar around-the
world jaunt with his crew of one
and a dog mascot.
For young people who want to do
some tramping on their own around
the United States, the “A Y H
Knapsack, Handbook Edition,” put
out by American Youth Hostels, Inc.,
is very helpful. Trave- in the United
States is made more interesting by
the books in the Rivers of American
Series, especially Clyde Brion Davis’
“The Arkansas,” Cecile Hulse Mat
schat’s “Suwanee River; Strange
Green Land,” and Carl L. Carmer’s
“The Hudson.” These books are
alike only in writing about American
rivers. Each author treats in his
own way the colorful liie that exists
on his particular river and the part
it plays in making up the real
America.
The Invasion From Mars
By Hadley Cantril. Princeton
University Press.
Only a few weeks ago an em
inent phychiatrist pointed to the
celebrated “Men Prom Mars” radio
broadcast of the fall of 1938 as an
extremely revealing incident for the
light it shed on the state of mind
of the American people.
This was, it will be recalled, a
dramatization of H. G. Wells’ "War
of the Worlds,” localized in North
ern New Jersey. Realistically per
formed, it resulted in a near panic
through the whole region. It showed
how suggestible the American mind
is, and the terror aroused was per
haps analagous to that which has
attended parachute troop invasions
in Europe.
A Princeton University group of
which Dr.' Cantril, assistant pro
fessor of psychology, was one ob
tained a Rockefeller grant for an ob
jective study of the incident. They
interviewed persons who heard the
broadcast and got first-hand ac
counts of their emotions. This ac
count of the study is a valuable
document in days when there is
growing fear of a real Invasion.
THOMAS R. HENRY.
River Out of Eden
By Shirley Seifert. New York:
M. S. Mill Co., Inc.
This is the most fascinating and
exciting of Shirley Seifert's novels.
She has presented her characters so
vividly and painted her locales so
realistically that the reader forgets
the extensive research the novel
must have required.
The scene is laid in the pre-Revo
lutionary era of about 1763 when
the future United States were in the
early stages of development and tne
English and Trench were lighting
for the Mississippi River territory.
Vital and Eugenie St. Dennys,
brother and sister, are the orphaned
wards of the Sleur de Vameil, a
cruel and dour man, who is master
of the St. Dennys plantation, Belle
Chasse. To escape the cruelties of
the Sleur, Vital signs upon a river
boat in a convoy up the Mississippi,
taking his sister to relatives in the
North.
On another boat in the convoy is
Andre Therriot, close friend of Vital,
whose greatest love is the river until
he meets Eugenie. When Andre
finds Vital and hears of his friend’s
troubles, a series of intriguing, ro
mantic adventures follow.
JOHN C. SWANK. Jr.
Andre DemaUon, French edition of America’s Frank Buck,
whose book,"The New Noah’s Ark,” has been published recently.
A A
Brief Reviews
Anthologies.
BEDSIDE BOOK OP FAMOUS
BRITISH 8TORIES. Edited by
Bennett A. Cerf and Henry C.
Moriarty. With an introduction
by Bliss Perry. New York: Ran
dom House.
From Chaucer to Aldous Huxley,
a magnificent collection, the best
thing in the short-story field for
years. Eighty stories in all, with
biographical notes for good meas
ure. Every library should have it.
Novels.
RIDER OF THE MIDNIGHT
RANGE. By Will Ermine. New
York: Morrow.
Western stuff; a mystery angle.
LEGACY. By Charles Bonner.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Warm-hearted little novel of the
rearing of five motherless boys by
their father. Serious intent.
General.
SIEGE. A personal narrative and
photographs by Julien Bryan,
with introduction and captions
by Maurice Hindus. New York:
Doubleday, Doran.
A photographer's experiences in
the Poland of the blitzkrieg, il
lustrated by very good pictures.
Harrowing and eloquent.
HOT IRONS. By Oren Arnold and
John P. Hale. New York: Mac
millan.
History of the development of
cattle brands as used in our own
cattle country. Interesting and
picturesque.
OUR MOVIE MAKERS. By Irving
Crump. New York: Dodd, Mead.
A panorama of the,work involved
in a moving picture—the crafts, the
technical processes, the mechanics,
the human side. Quite thorough.
, Self-Help.
CUES FOR YOU. By Mildred
Graves Ryan. New York: Ap
pleton-Century.
A remarkably sensible guide to
acceptable social usages. For the
young chiefly.
TEACH YOURSELF TO WRITE.
By Elliott Blackiston. Boston:
The Writer.
Book of rules on how to achieve
fame, wealth and no doubt genius.
Education.
NEW AIMS IN EDUCATION. By
Gove Hambidge. New York.
Whittlesey House.
A book based on the results of 10
years of research by the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching. It is directed to stu
dents anfi their parents.
Art.
FRENCH PAINTINO IN THE
XIVth, XVth and XVIth CEN
TURIES. New York. Hyperion
Press.
An exquisite volume of reproduc
tions in color and black-and-white,
with preliminary notes. Thoroughly
worth having.
PERSIAN PAINTING. Twelve col
or plates. With an introduction
by Basil Gray. New York: Ox
ford University Press.
The reproductions are fine, taken
from miniatures of the 13th to the
16th centuries. The notes are by
the officer in charge of Oriental
antiquities in the British Museum.
THE PAINTINGS OF MICHEL
ANGELO. Phaidon Edition. New
York: Oxford University Press.
All the master’s paintings. One
hundred and seventy reproductions
photographed from the originals. A
magnificent collection.
DECORATIVE ART, 1940. New
York: Studio Publications.
The current issue of Studio’s
yearbook of houses containing in
formation on new trends in archi
tecture, furniture and materials,
illustrated by about 500 reproduc
tions. Should be usefuL
Richard C. Gill, author of
"White Water and Black
Magic.
Odd Experiences of British
Doctor Charmingly Told
In His Autobiography
Noted Graduate of Cambridge
Injects Touch of O. Henry
Into Unusual Life Story
By Charles M. Egan.
The Wind of Circumstance
By Harold Dearden. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc.
This is a far cry from what we have come to expect from a "doctor
book,” although Its author confesses that for 30 years he made his living
"by the practice of psychological medicine.” Then he retired to devote
himself to the business of writing, for which he is splendidly equipped.
Born in Lancashire, England, the son of a well-to-do cotton mill
owner, Harold Dearddn went to Cambridge and all that sort of thing, but
somewhere along the line picked up a slant on life more like that of
O. Henry than the usual British medical practitioner. As a result of
this, his keenness for living and his fondness for probing the perplexities
of others. Dr. Dearden has lived an extraordinarily full life in which he
has qualified as a physician, psychologist, novelist, dramatist, traveler,
soldier and man of the world.
Story Begins in
Singapore.
That is a big order, but this unusual Englishman does all these roles
justice. An autobiography which the author describes as merely a "col
lection of the whimsicalities of fate,” his book is frankness itself, a simple
record of odd experiences deliberately sought and charmingly recorded.
For some reason, the book opens in Singapore, where a woman's
scream in the night attracted the attention of the physician-author after
it was too late for him to save her husband from dying on his wedding
journey. The young widow never figures in the story again, so ap
parently the chapter was designed merely to give the reader an idea of
what was to come.
From that point. Dr. Dearden starts his reminiscences In earnest.
He describes feelingly the unhappy marriage of his parents and the
dominance of a father who, while himself having an affair with a servant,
would burn his daughter’s new hat in the grate merely because It had
not been paid for and, consequently, must not be worn. Yet that same
stern father, aware of his boy’s hopes of becoming a doctor, provided
young Dearden with a laboratory of his own when he was scarcely more
than a child.
While at Cambridge the author spent one summer vacation traveling
with a group of carnival performers, joining an act which included a
combination strong man and wrestler, a fortune teller and a comely
trapeze performer. The latter was the lure to the youthful medical stu
dent, who met her after Issuing a challenge to the strong man from
the audience.
The most interesting sections of a book which has few dull spots
are those describing Dr. Dearden’s experiences in London's East End.
There he found a fertile field for a medical man with his passion for
aiding in adjusting human lives. This phase of his life provided the
author with a number of fascinating character sketches.
His Wife Is Most
Appealing Figure.
Next to the doctor himself, the book’s chief figure—certainly the most
appealing—is the Irish girl, Kitty, who later died tragically after be
coming the author’s wife. Her story is told with the greatest of delicacy,
yet powerfully. Part of it was the basis of Dr. Dearden's successful stage
play, “Interference.”
The World War broke out shortly after Kitty’s death and Dearden,
now a full-fledged doctor, immediately joined up as a battalion medical
officer. His chapter on the war Itself is very brief and concerns chiefly
queer reactions and contradictions which he noted among his wartime
comrades.
After the war Dr. Dearden encountered a series of financial ups and
downs, including among these experiences a brief but profitable interlude
as a super-salesman in the United States. Gradually he drifted away
from the medical profession in favor of literary pursuits until he signed
a contract with the late Ray Long, then editor of Cosmopolitan Maga
zine. After his first six stories were accepted Dr. Dearden gave up medi
cine altogether and settled down to a new career.
When the war broke out last September Dr. Dearden, whose name
was token off the Medical Register in 1930, had it put back on again, so
it is probable that he is in service now.
Richard Halliburton: His Story of His Life's Adventures
As Told in His Letters. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
When Richard Halliburton, once again on the road to romance, sailed
aboard a tiny Chinese Junk into a Pacific hurricane eventually to be
given up for lost, it was with great reluctance that an admiring American
public realized one of its most colorful adventurers had passed into
oblivion. For scarce, indeed, are the readers, young and old alike, who
have not followed Halliburton’s trail across all continents into the scenic
and architectural treasure chests of the globe. Through his books, all
classes of armchair wanderers have been and will continue to be thrilled
by his fancy-free investigations into places of beauty and interest, and to
be charmed by his informal, humorous manner of relating experience and
reactions.
This book, composed exclusively of letters to his beloved parents,
might almost pass for a summary of the spectacles witnessed in his
travels. These selected letters form a narrative of his Junketing, event
by event—a recounting marked by the same irrepressible good humor and
perception shown in his books. Readers of our time, alive to the in
domitable personality that has met its final adventures, will always find
inspiration in the words of this noted American. J. W. STEPP.
White Water and Black Magic
Richard C. Oill. New York. Holt & Co.
This is a story of “functional exploration that holds the reader’s
attention from start to finish. Not only adults enjoy this version of the
Ecuadorian jungles and the search for a rare drug, but boys find in it
the thrills and adventure they demand. It satisfies the interest of stay
at-home persons in far places and strange peoples, describes the romance
and the beauty of the tropics, and the strange potency of aboriginal magic.
Yet is tied into the sanity of the every-day world by the exacting demands
of a scientific expedition.
Sometimes the style is rather wearisome. Whether intentional or not,
there seems to be a straining for effect and a lack of continuity that is
irritating. Because of the author’s own experience with spastic paralysis,
which sent him into the jungle for curare, a drug which seems to hold
some promise of relief for this affliction, and because of his emotional
attitude toward his old home in Ecuador, there is an undertone of
emotion that he evidently tries to hide. This may account for the sudden
breaks in style and the substitution of hyphens for sentence endings.
R. R. TAYNTON.
Geese in the Forum
By Lawrence Edward WatJcin. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Next to the delightful question as to whether men or women are more
intelligent (braver, wiser, better-tempered, and so on), the Idle Hours
Club can seldom find a better topic for its long afternoon discussions over
tea and crumpets than whether the Southerners or the Northerners have
better manners, finer sensibilities, more exquisite breeding, more genuine
honor or longer eyelashes. This book should be a boon to the eminent
organization to which all the world belongs at one time or another, for
it goes into all these profound questions with verve and truly fearless gusto.
It is the story of a young man of the South who, after his childhood
sweetheart has married a young man of the North, himself marries a
daughter of New England and brings her back to the little old college
town of his youth where he has a minor job professing. The college is
full of current nonsense about educational theory and suffers from the
usual amount of wire-pulling at the expense of culture. These things worry
the young man of the South, and he would set them right. But the young
woman of the North whom he has married cares little for such Idealistic
goings-on, and tells the young man to play his cards with the aim of
becoming college president.
Characters Change
Marriage Partners.
Then, while these serious differences are bringing tragedy on apace
the childhood sweetheart and her husband of the North come back, and lo
the young man of the South realizes that his marrying the sophisticated
daughter of New England was all a mistake. And he is in a hard place
for a man of honor, suh! But his bride settles It for him by running away
with the aforesaid young man of the North, leaving him free for a
complete change of partners for everybody. So there you are, M.-C. R.
The Wagner Act
By John H. Mariano. New York: Hastings House.
Often called the most controversial of all New Deal measures the
National Labor Relations Act, popularly termed the Wagner Act, is given
most exhaustive treatment by the author, who Is an active labor relations
counsellor and strongly in favor of the law.
The act is deliberately partial to labor, he says. It is a limited act
concerned mainly with discrimination and recognition. It seeks to put
labor up, though not necessarily by pulling capital down, and Is the most
socialized conception of labor justice ever expressed as a Government
policy. •
The author asserts that labor does not seek charity, pity or hand
outs. The working class can have no goal from which the good of America
is divorced, he contends, adding the belief that the Nation can have no
legitimate objectives in which labor does not share a conspicuous part.
Mr. Mariano discusses many of the bitter criticisms against the board
administering the act and calls for enlightened labor leartwhip and
disciplining of recalcitrant employers. He has much to say about labor
and the Judiciary, noting that judges generally are immune to attack,
although court rulings often irk labor.
Citing the Wagner Act’s aim to reduce strikes, the author declare*
that labor cannot afford to condone the "slow-down” method of industrial
agitation. EDWARD C. STONS.