Evening Star Newspaper, September 9, 1928, Page 28

AS HIS SON SEES TOLSTOY Wife Nursed Count’s Writing Genius and Constantly Inspired: THE SUNDAY STAR. WASHINGTON, Him to Greater Things——Personal Glimpse of the Great Novelist and Reformer. BY LEO TOLSTOY. NE hundred years ago. on Scp- tember 10, 1829, Count “Tolstoy wae born, and now th world ‘acclaims that date. Of o4 i that acclatm. some is deserv- | fainly. he continued to love her all his| my | edl.“h due oiher. mTfllF!ny': wife bors h!= 14 children. reared them herself and conducted h own hcusehold. Surely that is a “ca- reer” enough for any woman as a wife and 2s a mother. emanuensis, helpmate and inspiration To be all that successfully—to be an fdea] wife and devoted mother and a perfect literary collaborator as well—is, perhaps, more than one may expect of any mortal woman. But she filled that to hiz loyal helpmate, Leo | | word by word. | was trémendor to read and What, in ‘Tolstoy's feeling toward his wife? lay the pizo. life. and I had frequent occasion she returned she brought the light back Constantly Tormented. Nevertheless, Tolstoy was constantly contradiction of his | 0f revolutionary history unrolled. | Preaching the | It %as done and he hed not the strength | tormented by the life and his preachings. to | observe how contrite and unhappy boih | | were whonever. after a more serious dis- ! pute. my mother would go away for a few days o stay with friends. He would | tell her, at such times, that when she She. also was his | 'eft all became dark for him and wh-n | Her capacity for work | the newspapers of my father's sudden Still_she found tme | flight from his home. | It was October 28 that he fled. On| { is innermost heart, was ' the evening before he had had a sharp Cer- | attack of illness. again with convulsions and with a high fever. Perhaps a pre- senttment of death was one of these mysterious impulses that prompted his action. He now had nothing more in common with his wife—after 48 years of living together. He had given away | all_the fruits of his life. i Perhaps he felt the injustice he had | done to his family—depriving them of | |the material good of life which he | scorned in his old age and which they | | were to miss so sadly when the course | But | difficult task with a self-sacrifice And a | greatest austerity and asceticism, he |0 undo it. So why not now realize the | sympathetic understanding tha her to some niche of honored peace that Heaven must reserve for the wives of restless genius. Married at 17, she lived and worked with him for 48 vears. At the end, by & trick of fate, she lost for hersel for her children, to whom she had de- voted so much of her life, the worldly essessions she had helped to accumu- | ate. | | nobleman. Often he thought of a flight | to live the humble life of a peasant or | to wander unknown among the pees- | ants as a holy man or pilgrim. One day he did write a farewell letter to his flight was found after his death. His health was delicate despite his robust frame. First it had been tuber- t entitle | continued to live the life of a country | dream of his life—to rest in a quiet| plece away from the world. Tho: | thoughts may have come to him in the state of his abnormal, feverish health. | When my mother awoke and discov- | | ered he had gone, her despair was so ! f and | family, telling of his plans for such a | &reat that she threw herself into a lake | But he stayed, and the letter | With the intention of ending her life. | | She was rescued and, dazed, she did | not know what to do. To rejoin him was her only thought—but where was As a gir] in Moscow she was reared in | culosis that threatened him and caus~d | he? an atmosphere of culture and wealth in the home of her father, Dr. Andrew Later in his life it was stomach and | VYears of devotion. Bers, court physician. who lived in an | apartment of the palace in the Krem- lin. Dr. Bers was of German descent. | the son of a German army officer who | had been invited by the Russian gov- ernment as a military instructor and | had stayed, marrying into the Russian | nobility. Home Artistic Center. "The family of Dr. Bers. entertaining | frequently among the highest ranks of | #ociety, attracted also the literary cir- | cles of that day 2and in their home | would congregate the writers and artists | of Moscow. Ivan Turgenev was fre- uently a guest. It was natural that| gnto this circle was drawn one of the younger. coming writers, Leo Tolstoy who soon became an intimate membe! of the family. It was thus that Tolstoy | met Sophia Andreyvna, the second of | three daughters of Dr. Bers. | Tolstoy had already passed through 8 stormy youth. living the life that was typical of a young and wealthy noble- | man of his time. At 34, as he himself | told. he had given up hope of ever| realizing his dream of a great family happiness for himself. For a time a| romance seemed to flower between Tol- | stoy and Sophia Andreyvna's older sis- | ter Lisa, but that romance turned to Sopnhia Andreyvna, whom her parents had thought too young to think of mar- . There came the day when Tol- stoy proposed marriage to her and she accepted—an event which Tolstoy later described autobiographically in “Anna Karenina,” in the betrothal of Levin and Kitty. Immediately after the wedding, Tol- stoy took his young bride to his country estate, Yasnaya Polvana, about 200 miles south of Moscow. There was no railroad at Yasnava Polyana at that time (1862) end the trip was made by a horse- drawn diligence. There they lived for 48_years. PFrom Yasnava Polyana, Tolstoy wrote fo his friend, Fet, therPoet: “I have been married about three weeks. I am so happy that I feel that this happiness cannot end with my life.” Undoubtedly Tolstoy meant by this that he believed that from this new- found happiness would flower some spiritual or literary work that would live after him: in other words, that his own great happiness would overflow into eternity. Needed a Helpmate. He understood that his genius, already manifest in his early writings, would not develop without a real helpmate. ‘We can imagine what the young wife felt, torn from her family and placed in this lonely count:y seclusion. Her love for her husband was her own great recompense and she showed it by a lifetime of devotion, self-sacrifice and continuous help. She bore him 14 chil- dren. Every two years and sometimes every year came another baby to which the gave her fullest mother's love and care. She cond-cted the entire house- hold, directing the servants, teaching her children - :d herself, sewing clothes for all of them. Still she had time to be her husband’s amanuensis, copying his manuscripts sometimes all night. Only her extraordinary vitality ard physical strength enabled her to en- dure such a strenuous life. Sometimes she fell ill, hut always quickly recovered. | More frequent were the illnesses of her | husband and at such times she was his | constant nurse. ‘When Tolstoy's health required a change of scene and air, she moved the entire family away from Yasnaya Poly- ana to the steppes of Samara bsyond the Volga. Life in these distant steppes was extremely difficult and even dan- | erous for the children. But to care for er husband's health and to help him, no sacrifice was too great for her. To gratify all his Jit' - whims, to adjust herself to the changing moods of his tumultous soul and. with a sympathetic understanding, to be a true helpmate— that was the task assigned to her in their long life togsther. Devotion Not Enough. But there came a time when this de- votion was not enough. After 16 years Tolstoy had reached the pinnacle of his literary fam» with his great work, “War and Peace” and “Arna Karenina.” Then came his religious-moral crisis. He had fame, wealth and a family—but he turned his back on them. His soul struggled for “moral perfection” and for the truth in the meaning of life led him to forsake litera.uic to become a moral teacher. Naturally, his wife, burdened with the care of her numerous children and the material affairs of a domestic life, could not follow him in his spirit- ual development. Both sensed the rift | | to_the public. th journey to the steppes of Samara, liver allments that afflicted him. His heart. too, weakened gradually. In his last Summer (1910), when he was 82, his memory began to faill and at times he would not even recognize members of his own family. It was during these last months of Tolstoy’s life thet he was induced to sign a will giving to the public all the royalties and rights to his writings. Be- fore this will was drawn up and signed. it had been the agreement that the rights to his novels should go to the family and that the rights to all his later religious works should go to the | But now the rights to all of Tolstoy's writings, novels and all, were to be conveyed to my youngest sister, Alexandra, who was to ‘reconvey them This will was Tolstoy's | only secret from his wife. | Relations Now Strained. | This secret seemed to cast a pail | over the houschold. The relations of | my mother and Tolstoy became still | more strained. Both were suffering im- | mensely as I could see when I came to | visit Yasnaya Polyana, but for the first, | time my efforts for a reconciliation be- tween them failed. n early October of I was obliged to return to Paris, I had been residing. (Continued from Third Page.) _ Oriental commerce as among one of the great milesiones of its development al- most as significant in a way as the opening up of Japanese trade by Com- modore Parry, the promuigation of that first American-Chinese treaty of 1844, or John Hay's historic pronouncement It should, therefore, be & matter of pr found gratification to us that America once more has taken the leadership in bridging the Pacific with the bonds of effective, mutually helpful commerce. Great Transition Period. The confusion of Chinese affairs in recent years probably has filled many of us with a more or less bewildered dis- couragement as to the general outlook for that land of pagodas, mandarins and missionaries, of ~seemingly endless “Changs” or “Chiangs” emong its gen- erals, of secret subtleties and crafty for- eign intrigue, all bound up in a welter of unpronouncable geographical names. ‘The “changeless Ori=nt” and “impas- sive East” have cerlainly passed into history in the course of this truly mo- mentous transition period, which with startling vividness has wrought profound transformations in many basic social and economic elements. Time-worn incrustations of custom, age-old shelis of traditions are “eginning to crumble under the vibrations and pressure of the new life; modern methods and modern viewpoints are certainly penetrating the ancient molds. The commercial history of the world has been a story of frontiers, of pioneer traders adventuring ever westward in search of new lands, new raw materials and new -narkets. This movgment siarted from China, the oldest highly developed civilization of history, strug- gled: through into Persia and the an- cient empires of Asia Minor and Egypt, started Macedonia and Greece on their | careers, made Rome the m! s of the | world and established Europe as the center of western civilization. But the urge was steadily westward and always | with the pressure of the search for new trades. Finally the hazardous gap of the | Atlantic was spanned and America be- | came the great frontier of the merchant adventurers. Then came the westward march across the continent, with traders in the van, culminating in the construction of the transcontinental railways and the Panama Canal. ' Circle Now Is Complete. Now the circle is complete. The last great frontier has been conquered and we come (0 a new era of- world history, | 80 dramatically prophesied by Sewaid | at the time of his negotiations for the purchase of Alaska. | At last western civilization is inti- mately and ¢ :ctly in contact with the goal of Marco Polo, of Christopher Co- lumbus and Magellan, of the Cabots and Henry Hudscn and of scores of other valiant snirits. striking developments have been quite between them and both were unhappy. Tolstoy did not tell her directiy: “Give | away all your propert: to the poor. Go | and live with your children in a simple in keeping with the traditions of the past. cevclopments of our post-war com- i T always | | That was the tregic climax to 48 Dies in Wife's Arms. ‘ In a little railroad station lay Tol- | stoy. Becoming desperately ill on the | train in his flight he had been forced | |to descend at an out-of-the-way spot. | | His family was notificd. Doctors and | | nurses ware there when my mother ar- | rived. She was told that her presence | might be too great a shock for him, so | | she was not permitted to enter his | sick room. It was only when he was | breathing his last that she went in. olstoy died in her arms. for Tey r her and when he was put off with feeble, suffering voice: “How is it you do not understand? This is the most important—what concerns her.” To the doctor he would say: “All my arrange- ments must be destroyed.” halting painfully over the word arrangements as if groping for the right word. Back to Yasnaya Polyana. Sophia An- dreyvna. now a widow, went alone with her children. She died 10 years later, in 1920, at the age of 75. When her body was carried to the grave, in every little prasant cottage in (Copyright, 1928.) China Trade M gnet for U. S. 1910-1914, but the average for 1921-1925 was 4.1 per cent. Clearly, therefore, ths China trade has taken on a new and relatively far more significent spect. Even with liberal allowances for price changes, these figures represent one of the record increases in our commerce with any land during that or any com- parable period. This would seem to be an effective answer to the false assumption that the conflict in China has destroyed com- merce. Naturally there have been countless obstacles to trade as a resylt of the disturbances but, as in the case of Mexico and other economically “new" lands, the very backwardness of China's commercial and transportation organ- ization has been an advantage in this respect. Troubled zones have been effec- tively “insulated” and trade elsewhere has gone on very much as before, New Demands Awakened. The causes of this extraordinary commercial revolution, for such, in- deed, it has been, are various, but chief | among them has certainly been the awakening of new demands, of new commercial vitality and aspirations for better living standards among China’s millions. Their war-born nationalism, stimulated by their economic_isolation during 1914-18, has been reflected in these truly impressive transformations. Then, t0o, on the import side there has been of course the vigorous impulse given by the tremendous increase in the needs of our new and extending industries for additional raw materials and the demands of our increasingly prosperous people for more exotic products and Oriental specialties—silks, laces, furs, perfumery ingredients and other luxury and semi-luy which China has long s But this truly amazing advance should not blind the far-sighted ob- server to the glaring defects in China's general economic organization. Trans- portation facilities are, of course, primi- Uve to a degree. She has less than 8,000 miles of railway as compared with our 265000, and those are far from satisfactory as to equipment and main- tenance as the result of the rigors of wartime abuse. ‘There are about 40 radio stations in the country, some 31.000 miles of telegraph wire and about | 100.000 telephones, as compared with ! 1,850,000 miles of telegraph lines in | this country and 15.000.000 telephones. | She has but 20,000 automobiles, a: compared with our 20,000,000, and her highways are, with a few exceptions, | but primitive trails, save for a narrow network of metal roads near the treaty ports. War Indirectly Helpful, In this connection, however, the war has indirectly been decicedly helpful. The acquisition of enormous quantities of motor vehicles for military purposes has brought home the imperative neces- sity of better highways and the good With such a truly dramatic setling|roads movement is already well under it is not surprising that the recent|way. China is favored with an exten- ive river system and many connecting {links of canals. In fact, it is likely Indeed, one of the outstanding that the development of this valuable | | system of waterways will be in im- cottage and take part in the work of the | merce. so far as its general accelera- bortant feature of the first stages of peasants.” He di’ not advise her how to reconcile her life with his new preach- ings. She felt lost, almost abandoned. Tolstoy himself, to make his cwn | tion 15 concerned, is the literally astounding growth of our trade Wi China in spite of all civil disorde | disruptions and general uncertainty. ; rehabilitation. China’s per capita com- merce of iron and steel is about one one-hundred-and-eightieth of that of | the United States. For cement her fig- manner of living conform with his de- | Among our 15 leading markets abroad, | ure is three pounds per capita. as com- nunciation of material forms and con- | China has registered, since the opening | ditions, would sometimes go out with the peasants to plow the fields, mow of gain in our exports, having been R 3 But, as| exceeded therein only by Japan and|Of her supposedly boundles the hay or try to sew shoes. ‘William Jennings Bryan once told my father in Russia: “I like to read your books but I wouldn't care to wear your &hoes.” That Tolstoy was sincere in trying to adjust his life to his teachings cannot be doubted. These attempts, however | of the war, the third largest percentage Australia | Our sales to the Eastern republic | including, of course, the ports of Hon | kong and Dairen, averaged 31.4 millions | of doliars each year during 1910-1914 they reached 130 millions in 1926 (though they fell off somewhat last pared with 85 for Japan and 450 for the United States, Much has been said in_recent years mineral esources, but these statements after carcful scrutiny proved to be consider- ably exaggerated. Her coal and iron deposits, however, are far superior to those of any other Far Eastern country, Her chief importance as a mineral | producer, so far es her trade with the ‘holehearted, never really got beyond | Year). an increase of 310 per cent. With | Test of the world is concerned, is in the experimental stage. Certainly Sophia | Such a record in spite of constant dis- | the field of those rare substances, anti- | approve of them | : . did their old friend, Turg-nev. Well imagine what will be the develop- Manufacture of bearing metals. Andreyvna did not Neithe: Wife Continued to Help. Sophia Andreyvna did not. however Jack either int t or appreciation of some of the writings of his religious- philosophical period. Wh-n h» finished “On Life.,” which is more philosophy than religious ideology. she not only uragements and disruptions, one can | ment as soon as conditions become more | nearly normalized and pub'ic order more | widely maintalned in that region. Picture Not One Sided. | _Nor is the picture entirely one sided China’s sales to the United States have grown even more rapidly in this time mony and tugstein. so valuable in. the type {and high-grade steel. She supplies {about 75% and 507, respectively. of tha . world’s stock of these two alloys. ! " Formerly China was an important source of copper. but production is | now negligible. as is also the case with !silver, sulphur, phosphates and sev- eral other lesser minerals. No import- admired it, but herseli translated it into | having increased from 38.5 millions to| ant deposits of petroleum have been FPrench. Thus, it was not any inability on her part to understand her husband’s 158 million { exports, m: or, as in the case of our than 310 per cent. This | discovered within her borders. Salt is i one of China’'s most important products philosophical preachings tnat led to| has given her ninth place in the list of | and the tax thereon is a valuable source their domestic discord 10 help him just as she had helped him frem the Lrginning of their married sife. The older children were now grown up and scme of vs were in_universiti at Moszow. At Vasnaya Poiyana mother’s worries grew withdrew {rom all material cares. The conduct of the household, bringing up the younger chiloren and all the finan- el end material r-sponsibilities of their Jife were hers. She herself brought cut reveral editions of her hushand's works, eciting the proofs of 20 volumes ahead of such important trading na- tions as Italy, Argentina, Indla, Mexico, | Australia and apain. Equally significant with these rather is the fact that the | striking ~ figures ;| relative importance of China in our s her husband | commerce in both directions has regist- | produces about 400,000,000 bushels of ered a substantial gain. She took only 1 per cent of our exports in pre-war years, whereas her average share during 1921-1925 was 2.4 per cent. Similiarly, in the matter of imports she supplied us with slichtly more than 2 per cent of our total incoming commerce during She continued | our foreign sources of merchandise, far!of revenue. Large quantities of it are | exported. | "In other lines her resources are sub- istantial. She is the world’s third pro- ! ducer in cotton, her output averaging | about 2,500,000 bales, or about & fifth as | much as the United States. She also ! wheat and about a billion of rice. One of her most interesting vegetable prod- | uets is the soy .bean, which is valuable as a source of vegetable oil, as a fertilizer and for cattle feed. Her resources of silk and tea are, of course, well known and scarcely require | In his dying days, Tolstoy had asked | assuring words that he should not be | anxious over her, he demanded in a | . | he RUSSIA’S 'GREATEST D C. NOVELIST COUNT LEO TOLSTOY. (A wood cut from the portrait by Ri; comment. Of tea she exported 112.000,~ 1000 pounds in 1926—certainly an ample | supply for brewing a vast sea of that {universally popular beverage. The us 1 of silk are steadily expanding and cr ing new outlets for her increasing pro- duction, not only for wearing apparel, | but for numerous new industrial pur- { poses which range from radio set insula- | tion to pnrat‘ules for aviators. Her trade in raw slik last yvear mounted to more than $100,000.000. ‘There are many other exotic specialties of china which figure in the worl trade—bristles for hairbrushes, the ex- port value of which exceeded $8.000,000 in 1926: human hair—though the fall- ing demand for hair nets has steadily impaired this once prosperous industry: musk, which is the basis of so many of | | our expensive perfumes: camel’s hair for | our smart sports coats; gall nuts or “oak | | apples” for the manufacture of high | grade writing inks: firecrackers, rugs, | ! jad> and countless others. China is one | | of the largest exporters of eggs and egg | { products. Much of our import trade in | “Irish” lace—in fact, nearly all of it— | now originates in the mission schools of | China. { Question of Industrialization. This brings up the question of the { possibilities of industrializing this hith- rto predominantly agricultural people. | With a vast population of 400 millions, nearly equal to that of the whole of Europe, with an area greater than that | {of the United States and Mexico com- bined, and with corresponding variations in -climate, topography and, therefore, resources, the possibilities of indus- trialization would seem .to be very promising. It was not, however, until 1890 that the first smokestacks of modern factories appeared on the Chinese horizon among the quaint pagoda roofs. There are now hundreds i of industrial plants, largely cotton mills, | with sorhe 3,600,000 spindles (one-tenth | as many as ours), about 160 modern | flour mills turning out 120,000 barrels a day, more than 400 electric light and | power plants and hundreds of lesser | establishwents producing various fine 'htubrics, glass, porcelain, paper, matches, ete. At first thought, this movement might | appear to threaten seriously our export trade in certain competing lines of gocds, notably textiles, hardware, etc. The broad commercial effect of such a curtailment, though evident in some commodities, is apt to be overestimated. In the first place, the output of the Oriental factories is largely of lower grades, which compete more with Ger- | man or Japanese exports than with our town. Secondly, the outstanding merit of American industry is the speed of | its progress; and the rapid advance- ment in technique, with consequent | cuts in production cost and improve- {ment in quality of output, have been (and will continue to be sufficient to maintzin a substantial margin of ad- vantage for our trade. It is worth noting in this connection ow our sales of raw cotton to China | | have increased because of this indus- | trialization. They totaled about $530,- 1000 in 1913, but advanced to $19,000,000 | last year. ! An Increasing Market. | Furthermore, there is the resultant | increasing market for machinery, re- | | placements and supplies, which we are | {1n an excellent position to provide. She | bought $4.200,000 worth of machinery | of all types from us last year—nearly | six times as much as in 1913, Even more important is the fact that this in- | dustrial development involves the pay- {ment of wages which yield a much higher income to thousands of natives | than they would otherwise enjoy; it has already had a marked effect upon their | purchasing power. | The old industrial order in China wa: 'of the primitive household variety—ax | intimate adjunct of the barter stage of | trade. the lowest form of commercial life. With the newly stimulated buy ing power of industrial pay rolls | market for many classes of American | 2oods hitherto unsalable in China has |come into being. For instance, the| American cigaretle has come to displace | Chinese tobacco and those picturesque {little metal pipes. In the period just before the war we were selling ihat | country about 650,000,000 cigarettes a { vear: the sale last year was about seven billion. The smoke of factories seems | propitious to the smoke of “fags. For the same reason—the improved living standaids—there has been a riking growth In recent years in our | ports to China of wheat, flour. espe- | cially from the Pacific Coast in yeais of rice crop shortages, Similarly, dried fruils (notably rai- sins). fashlights, radio sets, canned | vegetables. toilet requisites and even chewing gum are beginning to figure in | our transpacific seles. As yet some of these represent individually only mod- {erate values, but they are straws indi- { cating the direction of the trade winds of the future. These imported lux: are certain to be more and more in de- mand as the standard of living rises in China and our share in supplying them should be a substantial one, Fortunately for us perhaps, the pur- chasing power of China has increased so rapidly that these gains of ours have been only to a moderate degree at the expense of our competitors; they have been made up largely of sales of charac- teristic specialties of American fac- tories. - But the time is certainly com- ing when we shall have a real struggle on our hands as the rehabilitation of the republic gets under way and creates more and more lucrative opportunities for imported wares. Widespread illiteracy will long qualify the type of trade effort which can be made in that country. It makes the motion picture film a valuable adjunct to selling. It stresses the necessity of very careiul observance of the “chop” —not China’s favorite pork chop, but the generic term for a trade mark or brand which serves as the invariable indicator to millions of purchasers throughout the country, The inclusion in the ‘“‘chop” of certain colors di tasteful to the Chinese for various rel gious or traditional reasons, or such innocent devices as pictures of dogs or turtles or rabbits. will completely nullify the most aggressive type of sales cam- paign. They have meanings for the Chinese mind which we do not assoclate with them. The Chinese showed an | aversion at first to a certain gnome- like figure used in a well known brand of chewing gum. It was viewed with superstitious fear as a “bad joss.” or bad luck imp. But this attitude has been gradually overcome by various means and the little goblin is now looked upon with favor. A well known type of con- densed milk immediately cstablished its good repute by picturing its trade mark eagle carrying a boy baby in its beak, which promptly commended the article to the son-loving Chinese, Wandering Story-Teller Used. Many for-sighted and shrewd Ameri- can sales executives have availed them- celves of that ancient institution, the wandering story-teller. He now en- trances his village audiences with sun- dry embellishments to his tales of mighty warriors and savage dragons by including occasionally more touches alluding to magical new patent medicines, cigarcttes and such Amer- ican specialties. And co0 it would seem that there is still much of the old in the new China, but it is by no means impossible for American commerce to take advantage, quite legitimately and properly, of that mingling of the ancient with the mod- ern. The opportunities are there, We have already capitalized them abun- dantly, Our task is now to maintain our present rate of progress, to be sure that our trade keeps pace with the new | China as it emerges from its ancient shell. (Copyrizht. '1928.) THE PUBLIC LIBRARY Recent accessions at the Public Library and lists of recommended read- ing will appedr in this coiumn each Sunday. Child Care. Aldrich, C. A. Cultivating the Child's Appetite. QPB-A 127c. Gllbreth, Mrs. L. M. Living With Our Children. BP-G372 1. Minnesota _ University. Child Welfare. Training. BP-M666. Institute Richardson, F. H. The Nervous Child | and His Parents. QPB-R397n. Radio. Brown, O. F. The Elements of Radio- Communication. TGC-B816e. Haan, E. R. Radio Trouble-Shooting. TGC-H 112, Manly, H. P. Drake's Radio Cyclopedia. (Reference book). TGC-5M3. Poetry. Davies, M. C. Penny Show. YP-D284p. Duncan, Edmonstoune, editor. Lyrics From the Old Song Books. YP- 9D913, fibbard, C. A. The Lyric South. YP- 9H52 1. Marineni. R. Z. Behind the Mask. YP-M335b. Masters, E. L. Jack Kelso. YD-M393j. Morgan, Angela, Selected Poems. YP- M82. Musser, B. F. Untamed. YP-M977u. Parker, Mrs, D. R. Sunset Gun. YP- P228s. Wylie, Elinor, WoT5tL. Trivial Breath. YP- Furniture, Frost, C. W., and Fullerton, Margaret. Furniture Inlaying. WT-F92, Hjorth, Herman. Reproduction of An- tique Furniture. 1924. TLS-H64r. Madsen, A. S, and Lukowitz, J. J. Problems in Furniture Design and Construction. TLS-M26p. Production. American Academy of Political and Social Science, Philadelphia. Stand- ards in Industry. HE83-Am37Ts. Butler, O. M. The Philippine Islands. HEG811-B97. Dies, E. J. Solving the Farm Riddle. HE83-D563s. Forman, S. E. Sidelights on Our Social and Economic History. HE83-F76. Marvin, D. M., and Van Buskirk, J. E. Canada and the Twentieth Century, HEG#2-M36. Parsons. F. W. Everybody's Business. HE83-P25e. Plavter. Harold, and McConnico, A. J. Nicaragua. HE966-P69n. Rankin, E. R.. Compiler. The McNary- Haugen Farm Surplus Bill: Debate Handbook. HE83-R 184 South Africa Department of Mines and Industrles. Industrial Development in South Af HET74-S08. SEPTEMBER 9, - | with one another. modern | of ' Child Care and| 1928—PART 2. REVIEWS OF SUMMER BOOKS | A Forecast of Pacific Affairs—Some Interesting Adventures in American Diplomacy—Fiction From Several Writers. this whole in that country. Indeed, down by road of adventure, as set Prof. Denn pitfalls and short gerous sidings all the way. Adventure? All of that, and maybe you do not know how absorbing. even exciting, the supposedly plain tales of diplomacy can turn out to be when they are presented. alive and kicking as it were. straight from the documents that, in effect, embody the personalities and the problems that were at the time enlist- ing the best powers of those who were representing one or another of the great nations of the world, set up facing one another in an effort toward understanding and a continuance of working relations. A chapter of spe- cial study that any student, or serious reader, of American history will be much the richer for its possessicn. x ok E % ADVENTURES IN ALASKA: And Along the Trail. By Wendell Endicott. suthor of “Adventures With Rod and Harpoon Along the Florida Keys." Illustrated. New York: Fred- erick A. Stokes Co. THE mood of this adventure is such a fine mood. Here is a keen, out- breaking enthusiasm. Here is a deep- seated conviction that America holds natural wonders that are worth the time and effort of the most ardent giobe-trotter. And here is a disposition, all along the way of this out-faring, to stress every advantage and to ignore such trifling inconveniences as may ap- pear. Oh, bless you, no! This is not “Pollyanna on a Journey"—not by & long shot. Instead it is a traveler who is full of zesi and go—one who refuses to entertain a grouch at any point along the trail. So. in such good company, we set out with him and his crowd, go- ing across country in the best of trains, manned by the best of attendants, through fine scenery, till, on the West Coast, ship is taken for Alaska. Right here it may as well be said that the definite character of the account at cvery point enlists this book as an ex- ceptional guide for those who are fired to take the trip, just as it makes a vivid story of travel for the one who sees the world by way of books. Scenery looms large here, naturally. Hundreds of pictures of this objectify the text. The contacts with animal life ere, in the main, friendly—as they should be. To be sure, upon occasion the old Nimrod - ps to the fore, but. happily. these possessions of a peaceful man by an old scalawag of an ancestor shoot- ing up things is rare. The whole is a robust communicable adventure that runs from actual experience to the spin- ning of yarns about the doings along the trail. Understand, a “vyarn” is not a fable. It is the truth, or may be. The meaning lies in the length to which the old ters went in their re- citals, “spinning yarns” out into long threads of entertainment. The “yarns” here are all of the reliable sort, au- thentis stuff gethered along the way by a zealous adventurer into new places. The spirit of the book is its crowning distinction. curves and dan- E R A FOOL IN THE FOREST. By An- thony Pryde and R. K. Weekes, authors of “Rowforest.” etc. Now York: Dodd, Mead & Co. AHTHONY PRYDE and his tribe con- stitute a true rescue league for a host of novel readers who are, so to speak, at their last gasp of endurance under the smothering tide of fiction that sets out upon the sidewalk the intimately private concerns of the men and women who carry on in these cur- rent inventions. Barry Benefield .is another one of these. So is Jeffrey Farnol. And there are others—a few. ‘These come to the succor of readers who find themselves cool and incurious over the suppressed desires that are for- ever breaking out, stark naked, into the open—a wearying exhibition. The “Fool” here is no fo On the contrary, he is an interesting and com- petent young man, out for purposes of his own on a masquerading adventure. It is he who organizes and superintends the romance between himself and a beautiful, upstanding girl whose prime concern is, with the aid or her two brothers, to coax a living from their English farmland. Sounds dull and workaday. doesn't it? It isn't. For the characters. all of them, entertain thoughts now and then—an almost obsolete power. you will agree. They have personality and individual ways of their own. This makes them of in- terest to the reader. An English countryside gives setting to the romance—a setting made plausible by way of labor troubles between tie farm- hands and their employers. The story opens with a picture—a beautiful pic- ture that gives good promise for the rest of the romance. “The Forest, as all good Forest dwellers know, is not all oak, ash and beech. Greet tracts of it are moorland, pink with heather or yellow with gorse: there are hills and windy ridges of fir and pine; dark waterheads of bog where sundews grow, and myrtle; wide river valleys, hamlets set in orchards and water meadows, beneath tall pastoral spires.” A lovely picture from which emerges an inter- esting adventure, one of competent a rocky one, beset by | projection and of throughout. poetic Insight * o on BIRDS AROUND THE LIGHT. By Jacob Paludan. Translated from the Danish by Grace l:abel Colbron. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. | QANDHAVEN on the coast of Den- { mark places this story. It is. in | substance, a record of modern ent | prise, a chronicle of effort and fail {of fresh beginnings sustained ever by |new and higher hopes, To bui'd at Sandhaven a great harbor to invite commerce, making of this scant strip of seacoast one of the markets of the world—something like this the vision ran. And the work was begun. Eight years went into the building of the | breakwater alone. In the meantime the | small shop-keepers and the poor fish- | ermen of the hamlet became land mad, as credulous people do under hyp- nosis of a “land boom.” So, thev put their scanty savings into this pateh of sea-sand or into that ons, rather ds- spising the slow ways of saving that | held before the fine harbor that was to convert Sandhaven into a metropolis | was conceived. Then. at last, came the \day for celebrating the completed en- | terprise. From every quarter for miles |around the people came to take part in the birthday of the hamlet as a world center of shipping and commerce, | It turned out that on that same day the North Sea itself had an adventure |in hand. A great emprise—nothing less | than sweeping completely’ away this | trifing structure. these futile hopes of | mere ‘men deluded by the fiction of their own power. Such is the heart of this romance. Beside it runs, in a clear | realism. t| small daily life of that | coast hamldt. Over it broods the im- | plication of man's weakness in the face | of any one of the real powers of na- | ture. Like moths around the table lamp are men. like migrating birds | beating themselves to death in the blinding glare of the light-house tower at Sandhaven. so man in his ambition dares forces that are unconquerable | and goes down in defeat. At least, so this story says. Strong. straight-for- ward. single in purpose and effort, this tale of allegorical slant is one of d¢ |y interesting substance. Clearly of t! Scandinavien school of literary crafts- {men. this author is truly fortunate in a translation that leaves unimpaired the clarity. the simplicity, the austere artist conscience of the imnortant writ- ers of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. * ok kX MEN ATWHILES ARE SOBER. By Stephen Raushenbush. New York: Albert and Charles Boni. That may be true. In this novel, however, there is no evidence that it is true. On the contrary, the central fig- ure, the representative character, is every minute. day and night, dead |drunk with following his own will, which is the wind's will. Attractive?— Oh. yes. he has to be to fill the role. And women—well, every little girl is rassessed with a passion for nursing a bundle of rags, her baby. That's | what's the matter with women in re~ spect to men, many men. They are rsing bundles of rags, in a mother- inz passion. So it is here. hopeless | business followed with a tenacious hun- | ger for getting this fellow out into the |open just es he is. A most disquisting | eccupation for the reader, to follow the clear truth about a man of this sort. The trouble is that the story engenciers the suspicion, or confirms the opinion, that this case is not an isolated one. Reading. this one and that from the actual life roundabout, stand for the picture here in one and another of the | situations that make up parts of the story. Well, it is a miserable business, from start to finish. The most discon- certing feature of it is that it s so hopelessly well done. Let's talk about the author instcad. Pleasanter. Only a little over 30. Maybe that is what 1s the trouble. College man—Amherst at | that. With the French army for twn vears. Explorer in Venezuela, acting | American and French vice consul af Maracaibo. off in Mexico with an oil * company, in Washington in 1924 with Senator Couzens, secretary to the com- mittee on coal and giant power. has written “The Anthracite Problem,” “The People’s Fight for Coal and Power” and other articles of like substance and im- portance. “Men Atwhiles Are Sober” is the story of a man lost in a stran land, a romantic, lost in the rock age of the sophisticate present. A terrible story—probably a product of the clinie under the hand of an expert. Jazz I\iakés Inroads Into Gypsy Music | American jazz is driving the Hungar- ian gypsy musicians out of business. In Budepest they are complaining that the coffee houses and the hotels empioy them no more, turning down the cymbals in-favor of the saxophone. In a protest meeting, where jazz was reviled, the gypsies declared that a bare 7 per cent of their 2,500 musicians are warking. Sixteen of the largest hotels and coffee houses have just discharged their gypsies and have hired the hated | jazzmakers. D B B B & & & 4 { ) AND REFLECTIONS IDA GILBERT MYERS. THE PACIFIC: A Forecast. By Lieut Col. P. T. Etherton and H. Hessell Tiltman. Tllustrated. Boston: Lit- tle, Brown & Co. ERE is a study that presents the new geography at its best. As i matter of fact, the most in- { clusive of subjects, geography is only now emerging from its | narrow treatment which stopped with | Iatitudes end longitudes, with boundaries {and place names, and a sketchy gesture | | added that pointed vaguely upon the | | starry heavens. Today the great sub- ject has come into its own. Today it is conceded that geography includes his- | tory, netural products and resources of the earth, racial development and dif- ferentiations, all human progress in | science, inventions, industry, social or- | Jganlzmons. forms’ of government, the | arts—indeed, the earth and the fullness thereof are gathered in by this out- | reaching. in gathering subject of geog- | raphy as it is now conceived and ac- | cepted. | ™" So, here, these authors sketch briefly the history that has caused the two | great oceans to change place in' im- | portance. The Atlantic is now a plain highway, its probicms in the main thos> {of simple addition and substraction. Across the United States, however, | | spreads the vast uneasy plain of the | Pacific, whereupon are to be posited | | and solved the problems of the future {1t is to give to readers who are inter- | ested in the exciting and amazing world | of today some conception of the nature | of those oncoming problems. —sore plausible forccast as to the results that | will ensue when the various mathemati- cal calculations have ended, that this | i{book has been written. Col. Etherton has been officially engaged in China. | Therefore, his point of view for the | Orient is’ important, since here is one | | of our own race trying to show us the | Orental mind by way of his own cx- perience with it. Here is set down the present international status of the Pacific, as this was determined by the International Conference on Disarma- ment in Washington in 1921. Bayond | this point the authors outline, suc- cinctly, the present and the immediate future ‘of each of the nations vitally interested in the Pacific as a field of | national _support and international jamity. This is a valuable part of the study. From it each of the interested | countries stands in outline, its main | purposes and necessities, as these bear upon the point under consideration, | making an uninvolved pattern to the eye of the reader. Beyond this basic | point there follows a discussion of | points at which these national designs | approach one another, touch one an- other, are in certain ways identified It is here that the | forecast makes itz appearance. On | strictly clear lines of fact, supplemented | by the logic of future plans for this | country or that one, future plans for | further development, for a fuller par- | taking in world shares of progress and prosperity, the authors follow the ra- tional future of the various countries | that _are <o vitally concerned in the Pacific. War? Maybe. War between the United States and Japan? Not likely. Less likely all the time as the years pass by in a growing desire on the part of Japan to emulate the West- | ern world. not only in a growing desire, {but as an accomplished fact on the | part of this clever and progressive and highly imitative race. War even less likely than it was a month ago, since i when so many of the governments of the earth, have openly and officially come out against warfare as a means of settling understandings among civi- {lized peoples. But, that is_ another story. The point here is that this study leads almost up to the door of such a conclusion as that of peaceful measures for the solution of the surpassingly in- volved, and exciting. problem of the | Pacific. One can hardly praise too much the clear and robust projection of the problem from its every point of view that these authors have given to it. A most readable discussion, in addi- tion to its other excellencies. * ok %k % | CREATION BY EVOLUTION. Edited " by Frances Mason. New York: The Macmillan Co. X plain speech that all may under- stand. leading authorities on the sub- ject of evolution have here contributed to the making of this book. About 25 scientists, English and American. have co-operated in the general plan of pre- senting to the common understanding |a theme that has been the subject of much confused, and confusing. inter- pretation. The extended, expert stud- ies of zoologist, botanist, geologist, psy- chologist, are setting straizht the earlier misleading banalities, seized upon by | religionist and charlatan in so-called | explanation of the research and_tenta- tive conclusions of Charles Darwin. | The book in hand, compact of knowl- { edge, both deep and broad, animated by the zeal for truth which is the stamp of scientific study, expanded to cover all phases of the evolutionary processes, | comes without question under the term, | “invaluable.” From every point of life, | from every period of existence, from | every true source of information, the { facts gather here to round out a chron- icle of growth, development. adapta- | tion, new form rising from the readi- |mess of old form "to accommodate themselves to conditions upon which their continuation depends—a most convineing story, but even more amaz- ing. more thrilling, than it is as simply |a true statement of astounding facts. | This book, so high in authority, so ].nmprchrnslvc in its lesson, is not a book to read. ‘That is, it is not one to read as books are commonly read. Rather is it a book to cherish for a thousand readings, wherein every chapter is a revelation of truth, of such truth as! makes this story of creation by evo- | lution & thing to command wonder of | that degree and nature that lies at the | foundation of all the deepest feelings | | that humans possess. Worship, I sup- | | pose, is the name for this feeling. But, | to _move away from such a nervous | topic, let us say that here i a source | of information ‘upou the most vital of themes from which one is able to draw | knowledge and inspiration at the same | | time. A'list of the names of these con- | tributors is warrant for the sterling sub- stance of this distinguished ‘“consen- | sus” on the theme of “Creation by | Evolution.” i * ok ok K ADVENTURES IN AMERICAN DI- PLOMACY: 1896-1906. By Alfred .. P. Dennis, author of “Foreign Poli- cies of Soviet Russl etc. New | York: E. P. Dutton & Co. (CULLED from unpublished docu- | ments, this book covers 10 years |of American diplomacy, a fleld that ' among all nations is barred against| public exploration. However, this pro- | fessor of modern history in an Ameri- | can university is certainly a privileged | person when it comes to matters per- | | taining to his own subject. By virtue ! of such privilege, the general reader here is permitted to partake of some- ! !thing like 20 of these adventures in | diplomacy at first hand, so to speak. | | Beginning _ with “The Venezuelan | | Boundary Dispute” in_the Cleveland | administration and ending with “The | | Algeciras Conference,” with Theodore | | Roosevelt President of the United | States, the whole period, as you see, | [covers a particularly senitive, even a | | dangerous, period in the diplomatic | activities of this country. The Span- | ish-American War brought its mfl\i l} | culties to this field. as did also our relations with England at more than one point of approach and disagree- ment. The Alaskan boundary dispute addsd to the tension of our interna- tional relations. So did the “open door” in China and the Boxer uprising 5 By THE EARL Secrets of the } Wartime Cabinet Revealed } U Aug. 1, of bed for bel of Rus: Cabinet meeting—Lloyd Gearge all peace, Winston Churchill very 1927 OF OXFORD AND ASQUITH, K.G. Prime Minister of Great Britain, 1908-1916 Brief Extracts from Lord Oxford’s Diary i 1914: Hauled g George out at 1:30 A.M. on receipt of news n mobilization. Cabinet resembles “a gang of bethan buccancers.” N } Diaries, Letters, Journals Hither- to Kept Secret Sepr. 29: Aug. 31: Would submerge troublesome Ireland under waves of Atlantic for ten years. Americans became disagreeable over seizure of cargoes. Oct. 1: Belgians need starch infused in their backbonek. b 4 Jan. 8, 1 Most Important RecentContribu- tion to History of World War nsparing Private Comment on WarLeaders A 4 ’ LITTLE, Apr.1: LI Foreword by The Countess $10.00 at all Publishers, shoot all the German Mar. 10: Russia wants Mar. 13:"Lloyd George damn for the Jews. drink trade for £250,000, BROWN & COMPA 915: Admiral Fisher wantg to isoners. | onstantinople. does not carea 4 buy 6ut tH .OOO.Y Be loyd George woul of Oxford and Asquith Two Octavo Volumes, Fully Illustrated, In Box Booksellers , Boston NY‘ IA*AAAAAAAAI.