Evening Star Newspaper, March 17, 1929, Page 40

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON. D. C, MARCH 17, 1929—PART 2 REVIEWS OF NEWEST BOOKS Author of “Giants in the Earth” Writes Another Story of Immigrants—All Sorts of Fiction Ready for the Spring Trade. IN A LOCAL EXHIBITION An Exhibition of Work by Chi&ren Is Especially Interesting— Several Important Showings Listed for the Month—Portraits in Wax. BY LEILA MECHLIN. ] gw Ngw zo;;k ‘Water Color Club and th:v Hoffman, and that .mqn'bm.hk“épn' ‘e work | NEW York Society of Painters, as well | rary exhibitions set forth by the Cor- HE exhibition of children's work | 5 of the Barnard Club and other well cotan " Gallery was & comprehensive —drawings and paintings re- | ynoun organizations. In short, this cently made in & class con-| ,romisas to be an exceedingly interest- ducted by Jean Negulesco— | broiC,Ho which opened at the Yorke| Gallery March 11 to continue to March | 323 is of exceptional interest. Here we| that she so fill her life as to regain many things lost along the way of being s}mplyhl good dr:ot}}lg;. a 1g;ond 0 housewife. *She succeeds. There is no | Earth.” New York: Harper & Bros.| comment either by this wife or this | HE second generation of foreign- | author upon the fact that when she speaking immigrants presents to | becomes a vital factor in the town life, stnrfi but the reader comes right up to the expectation for that is the kind | ] o ? . BY IDA GILBERT MYERS. | : § of marvel that he simply eats whole, | PEDER VICTORIOUS. By O. E.| wax | RECNp Ot ininiatires itncolored We Rolvang, author of “Giants in_the | by Lthel Frances Mundy, a cotempo- | rary artist; and at the same time this | historic miniature of Washington by Patience Wright has been generousiy e e BEGINNING tomorrow, Mildred Gid- BOOKS RECEIVED see art which is sincerely naive, child- | like, and cffects such as the sophisti-| cated modernists endeavor to secure but ragely with success MY, Negulesco, who, it will be remem- bered, i a Roumanian painter, follows in his teaching the methods of Prof Cizek of Vienna, who has attained in his work with children results so Pphenomenal that it has become world- renowned and epoch-making. And yet these methods are by no means revolu- tionasy. They follow. though perhap: at some distance, the principles enunci. ated by Froebel and later stressed b Mme. Montessori—{reedom of expri sion, guidance rather than dictation “The child is led. through encourage- ment, to express him or herself freely with' pencil or brush and is found extraordinarily grap! The work of child schools here and elsewhere has demon- strated the f: to the time that self-consciousness d ariis pression with children is al versally spontaneous and The interesting fact concerning. th works of the pupils of Mr. Negulesco is | that this period has apparently, under | his inspiration, been extended. ‘Some of the best works in this exhibition have | been done by boys and girls from 8 to | 11 and 12 years of age. These works take varied form and are | ren in_our public ©of many kinds of subjects. For the most | yalue by their rendering in color. Paint- | rt they have in common &n obvious lustrative purpose, and the underlying | object is subjective. The child has had | Something to say and has said it with | naive directness, thus demonstrating | Kinship between eternal childhood and | race infancy. Primitive art or the art| of & primitive people and the untutored expressions of children in this field are Dot dissimilar. | And yet one cannot say that none of these children has been untouched by esthetic emotion. ‘There are ceriain flower paintings here which undoubtedly were inspired by the child's desire to | glve expression to admiration &nd in- tuitive love of beauty, and there are two | or three water colors of mountains and | sky by children of 11 years of age done from memory which are extraordinarily pathetic and beautiful. In the little introduction to the cata- of this exhibition Mr. Negulesco| ‘My role before the pupils is t0|er jts rough surface will not prove cs~; say open their eyes” He does not permit | them merely to see the material. but| points out to them, makes visible to| them, latent beauty, the play of lights| If a pupil asks him, “What | color shall I put here?” his reply in- variably is, “Any color you like.” He| does not say to his students, “It is good” | or “It is not good,” “You need a little | red here” or “a little more green there.” Rather, does he encourage the children | under his direction to adventure and to | experiment, to discover their own faults and to correct them. To be sure, some of the results are ; ‘crude in the extreme. The drawing in | many instances is faulty, the color in-| harmonious, but it is a frank blunder- ing, and, what is more, knowing no fear, the child often leaps to a con- clusion which is extraordinarily skill- ful. But there is a great gap between the childish work of children and the tended childishness of those of ma- years. “When I was a child I ht as & child.” It is all right when one is & child to think as a child, but sad would it be, indeed, if we were con- dings Burrage of Boston will eet forth a unique exhibition at the Dun- thorne Gallery—an exhibition of maps done in gesso and decoratlvely framed. A number of these exhibits are copies of historic maps. others are modern and original in method of rendering. Among the historical maps is & copy of Capt. John Smith's map of Virginia, engraved by William Hole and first published at | Oxford by ph B: map now in the possession of the New Historical Soclety. Belonging to ms period is a pictorial repre- fon of the adventures of Capt ohn Smith among the Indians, from he Generall Historle of Virginta, New England &nd the Summer Isles” by “Captaine John Smith, sometimes Gov- ernour in Those Countryes and Admiral of New England. London, 1632, taken from the original, in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. A map of the Atlantic Coast is from in the collection of the bhical Soclety, and one of nd Coast, a copy of part manuscript map, 1607, is from the original, in the Librery of Congress. Among the modern maps is one of Cape Ann and another of Cape Cod. These maps, accurately copied from the originals, arc given, as the catalogue truly says, new interest and decorative nes in 1612, a ed on a gesso ground, they represent the revival of a very old art. Gesso is the Ttalian word for a preparation of whiting and glue on which the decora- tion is painted with water color and given a waterproof wax finish, With this medium one can work in low re- lief and create rface which has the interest of projection. Such painting has great permanency, 2s witnessed by the freshness of color of the Italian primitives. Miss Burrage, who had made extensive experiments along these lines, also shows a screen painted with a waterproof paint recently invented In France for purposes of mural decoration, which is thought to be a rediscovery of the process used by the Egyptians. This process is technically known as “Stic B” and has very much the appearance of gesso. A practical question in re- rd to the use of this process for mural decoration in this age and day is wheth- ecially hospitable to the smoke and t with which much of our city at- mosphere is laden. Mildred Giddings Burrage had her rtistic training in Paris and has work- ed much abroad. She has exhibited at the Salon d’Automne and at the Inter- national Art Union in Paris, and her work has been shown in the Pennsyl-| vania Academy and in the exhibitions of the Architectural League of New York, the Chicago Art Institute, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and elsewhere. A collection of her maps was shown as & one-man exhibit at the Jessup Memorial Library, in Bar Harbor, and incidentally one of her works in this exhibition is a conventional represen- tation of the Garden at Aldersea, Bar Harbor. = Miss Burrage's exhibition opens to- morrow afternoon, when teaw will be served from 4 to 6, Mrs. Archibald Hopkins serving as hostess. * ok kX TMULTANEOUSLY Gordon Dun- thorne will place on view in his gallery, 1726 Connecticut avenue, March 18 to 30, a collection of etchings, litho- i| graphs and water colors by Joseph Pen- simplicity in modern art. The child fivs promise, but that promise must be Ifilled. 0 Neither the modernists nor the tra- ditionalists have all right on their side; and in the same way the best teaching methods, if carried to extreme, may prove detrimental. For supreme suc- cess we must have freedom with re- straint. The child’s eyes must not only be opened to beauty, but the child’s hand trained in order to give adequate ‘umullm:. Half truths do not get us ar. Every one will admit that the sim- plicity and the sincerity of children’s drawings and peintings such as these is infinitely preferable to the over- elaboration and weak affectation of | some of the art of the past; and it is ‘worth remembering that the great art of the past has almost invariably been both simple and sincere, even when pro- duced in the midst of a civilization al- most as complex as is thati of our own * k% % 'O of the exhibition rooms on the main floor and one on the second floor at the Yorke Gallery are given over at present to a collection of figure m‘lnunu by Pasqual Monturiol, & Span- painter who exhibited here, it will be remembered, a year ago. ‘There is a strong nationalistic note in this artist’s work, but it seems at times a studied pose rather than heredi- tary influence. The art of Spain for centuries has been vigorous, virile and full of color, characteristics reflected in Pasqual Monturiol's work. But some of the Spanish artists have not escaped the deadening influence of the academy, an influence which has tended to lessen individuality, to reduce to formula. Pas- qual Monturiol would seem to be one of these, His drawing is vigorous and | fine, his color elemental, but he cnrrles] his subjects beyond his own power of expression, and therefore in many in- stances the spirit is Jost and they leave | s the observer coid, * ok * % E will also open at the Arts = Club this afternoon, to continue for two weeks, an exhibition of oil Elinllnz! by Ruth Osgood and Tom rown, both Washington artists. The hosts at the opening tea will be Charles A. R. Dunn and Miss Eleanor Parke Custis. * ok x * SEVERAL new exhibitions are opening today and tomorrow, among them an exhibition of paintings by artist| members of the Pen and Brush Club| of New York City, which is to be seen | from today for two weeks at the Arts Club, 2017 I street. Arrangements for this exhibition have been made by Miss Anne Abbott, Mrs. Susan B. Chase and | Miss Fleanor Parke Custis, and is brought here under the direction of Mrs. ! Gladys Brannigan, a2 member of !h-} Arts Club, of the Penn and Brush Club | and of both the Soclety of Washington | Artists and the Washington Water Color | | Club. The exhibition will include works by Rose Hawthorne, the wife of Charles | W. Hawthorne, who was, it will be re-| membered, delightfully represented in the Corcoran Gallery's biennial exhil tion by a painting of pond lilies. An other exhibitor of note will be Rachel; Hartley. daughter of the sculptor, J. Scott Hartley, and granddaughter of | the great American George Inness, Miss Hartley landscape painter. has been painting for & number of years and | at one time made a specialty of little | portraits of children, cleverly rendered. A third exhibitor of note will be a daughter of the late William M. Chase. L. Scott Bower, who is to be repre- sented in this exhibition, has exhibited in Paris and London and in the leading American cities. Kathryn Cherry, whose name is also in the catalogue, has won | envisble reputation for herself by her paintings of flowers and still life. Emily Nichols Hatch and Ruth Payne Burgess, present exhibitors, are both past presi- dents of the National Assoclation of Women Painters and Sculptors, and nell, many of which have lately been brought to this country from England. Included in the collection are such well known subjects Hampton Court,” “The Long Palace, “San Maclou, Rouen,” “Flower Market” and “Butter Tower, Rouen,” and sev- eral Washington subjects, such as the “Waiting Room, Union Station,” a view of the Capitol from the station, etc. ‘This exhibition will pleasantly sup- plement the Pennell Memorial exhibi- tion at the Library of Congress and will efford lovers of etchings and admirers of Joseph Pennell to see and ibly procure additional examples of dis- tinguished work. * Xk x Tm! is now on view in the Library of Congress, in the hall given over for exhibition purposes to the manu- seript division, a miniature in wax of George Washington, of great historical and at the same time considerable artistic interest. This, it is understood, 1s the work of Patience Wright, one of the most interesting characters in the history of early American art. It is in white wax, yellowed by age, on a dark background in a gold frame shadow box lined with green, and was given, accord- ing to tradition, by Gen. Washington to his personal friend, Col. Hartley, a Revolutionary officer of York, Pa. At Col. Hartley's death his effects were sold at public auction and the minia- ture was purcl d by Dr. John Morris of York, by whose direct descendants it is still owned. Among those descend- ants and present owners is Luther Mor- ris Leisenring of this city. Patience Lovell was born in Borden- town, N. J., in 1725, and in 1748 miarried Joseph Wright, who died in 1769, leav- ing her with three children. As a means of livelihood, she took up model- ing in wax and acquired a really great reputation. In 1771, after having held exhibitions in Philadelphia and New York and executed numerous commis- ns both for busts and life-size effi- , she went to London, sailing on the Snow Mercury Packet. She wes known and generally referred to as “the in- genius Mrs. Wright,” and certainly both her work and her conduct of her worldly affairs merited the appella- tion. The guccess that she had secured in this country was more than repeated in London, where she received commis- sions to model in wax portraits of the King and Queen, with whom she is said to have been “on intimate terms,” and of other celebrities. A description of Mrs. Wright and her studio, given by Mrs. Adams at the time that Mr. Adams was our first minister to the court of St. James, is entertaining but far from flattering But “the ingenious Mrs, Wright” un- doubtedly had a way all her own. Her son, Joseph Wright, studied under Ben- jamin West and became a painter of very decided merit. After returning to this country, he made a life mask of Washington for the purpose of paint- ing his portrait, and it was from this life mask and from her son's portrait that Patience Wright modeled her wax miniatures of Washington, of which the one in the Library of Congress and two others alone are known to still exist. One of Mrs. Wright's daughters be- came the wife of John Hoppner, the distinguished British portrait painter, and from all accounts took her place in London sociely with great grace and charm. | Mrs, Wright continued her work and her successful self-exploitation until the time of her death, in the early part of 1786. In private ownership in this city is a miniature by Mrs. Wright in colored | wax of Gen. Abercrombie—an exquisite ! work. R. T. H. Halsey of New York and Ananpolis owns one of her wax miniature portraits of Benjamin Frank- lin, Copies of her correspondence with ical collections. 1t is interesting that during the pres- ent season the Corcoran Gallery has purchased a beautiful head (mask) in Harriette- Bowdoin is a member of both .colored wax of Paviowa by Malvina A Jefferson and Washington are in histor- | its lent to the Library of Congress. i According to authorities, colored wi has been used ‘medium for portrait- | ure since the days of the early Egyptians, | and has proved extremely lasting. That Patience Wright and others of her gener- | ation who had almost certainly no know- ledge of tradition should have employed | it with such great success is remarkable indeed. 1 | * ok K % | THE National League of American | Pen Women is holding its third an- nual exhibition of art at the Barnard | Galleries, in New York City. This ex- hibition, which consists of paintings, pastels, sculpture and miniatures, opened by | March 9 and will continue to the end | of the month. The chairman of the committee under whose charge this exhibition is set forth is Mrs. Ethel Heaven Hamilton, who began her art studies here in Washington and has ex- | hibited in this city many times. ey | DAUL BRANSOM, an erstwhile Wash- | ington boy, has attained consider- able distinction as an {illustrator of | animals. In an article by Lillan M. | Cromelin in the current issue of Ameri- can Forests it is said that Mr. Bransom gave his first and last chalk talk when a student in the eighth grade in the | old Blair School in this city. His first drawings of animals were made in our | National Zoological Park. On the | strength of his work done here, Dr. Hornaday secured for him the privilege of a studio in the New York Zoological | Park, where for a number of years he executed commissions. He works chiefly | in charcoal, and his illustrations have appeared in some of the leading maga- zines. He has also shown work in the New York Water Color Club's exhibi- tions, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, and has exhibited with the Society of Illus- trators, of which he is a member, and in exhibitions held by the Architectural League of New York and the T-Square Club of Philadelphia. In this conection it is interesting to recall the fact that Charles-Livingston Bull, who has made a great reputation |in this same fleld, began his artistic | career in Washington while working as a taxidermist at the National Museum and studying at the Zoo. | | | THE PUBLIC LIBRARY | _ Recent accessions at the Public Libra- ry and lists of recommended reading | will appear in this column each Sunday. Travel. Adam, G. J., and Pearl. Paris. 1927. G39P-Ad 12. Belloc, Hilaire. Towns of Destiny. 1027, G30-B413t, Bercovici, Konrad. Nights Abroad. G30-B457n. Eberlein, H. D., and Richardson. A. E. ‘The English Inn. 1926. G45-Eb37. m‘:;_«’,’ J. F. Reverse English. G45- Forbes, Mrs. R. T. Adventure. G-PF74. Huddleston, Sisley. Paris Salons, Cafes, Newman.E. M. -Seclng Eeypt and ¢ ewman, E. M. he Holy Land. G71-N46. Robson, E. I. A Wayfarer on the Seine. 1927. G39-R57w. Antiquities. Baikie, James. The Glamour of Near East Excavation. FF71-B 144g. Louis, Paul. Ancient Rome at Work. FF36-L92.E Quennell, Mrs. Marjorie and C. H. B. Everyday Life in Anglo-Saxon, Vik- ing and Norman Times. FF45-Q3e\ Stoddard, T. L. The Story of Youth. FF-8t63. A Book About Biography. Boas, R. P. and L. S. Cotton Mather. E-M422b. Burr, Mrs. A. R. B. The Portrait of a Benker: James Stillman. E-St527b. Cotter, Arundel. The Gary I Knew. -G 199c¢. Holland, Maurice, and Pringle, H. F. In- dustrial Explorers. E-8H715. Janitor, pseud. The Feet of the Young Men. E-9J254. Lewis, C. L. Matthew Fontaine Maury. 1927. E-M447 1. Newcomb, Rexford. In the Lincoln Country. E-L63ne. Ottman, F. C. Herbert Booth. E-B6451 o. Repplier, Agnes. Pere Marquette. E-M345r. Rosslyn, J. F. H, fifth earl of. My Gamble with Life. E-R744. Ports. Hampton Roads Maritime Exchange, Norfolk, Va. The Ports of Hampton Roads, Annual, 1929, HJW-H 18. United States Engineer Dept., Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors. ‘The Panama Canal and Its Ports. HJC-Un3. United States Engineer Dept., Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors. The Port of Portland, Me. HJW- Un342b. United States Engineer Dept., Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors. The Ports of Southern New Eng- land. HJW-Un342c. 3 Physics. Crew, Henry. The Rise of Modern Physics. LH-CB868r. Drisco, W. J. Mechanics and Light. LI-D83m. Gipprich, J. L. Laboratory Manual, LH-G44 1. HM&, 1’; . The World of Atoms. LHP- Killen, A. H. Physics. LH-K555. Knowlton, A. A. Physics for College Students. LH-K765p. Little, N. C. College Physics. LH-L72. Nernst, Walther. The New Heat The- orem, 1926. LL-N356n. Richtmyer, P. K. Introduction to Mod- ern Physics. LH-R418. U. 8. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Physics. Physics Manual. LH-Un34p. 1 Food. Balley, E. H. §. and H. 8. Food Prod- ucts. RU-B 153fa. cnlgvlvétm B. Pood and Health. QN- Magarrell, D. F, and O'Grady, B. E. The International System of Food Control. RYH-M27i. Wellman, M. T. Food Study for High Bchools. 1926. RU-1W46fa. China’s Political War Re-enacted in Hawaii Though Hawaii is many thousand miles from politically wrecked China, these islands have the Chinese political situation in miniature. Save for the clash and fatalities of the Chinese civil war, there is being waged a political contest of marked vigor and consider- able bitterness between the old order and the new. There is an active branch of the Kuomintang or Nationalist party s0 nearly resembling its progenitor in China that it even has splits between dicals” d “conservatives.” There are a few old-time Chinese mon- archists and a few whose political com lexion dates back to Gen. Yuan Shih. al and the first Chinese republic re: |gime. Each faction has its newspaper “MACROOM CASTLE—-EVENING.” BRANNIGAN, WHICH 1S INC! A PAINTING BY GLADYS LUDED IN THE PEN AND BRUSH CLUB SHOW AT THE ARTS CLUB. Is Autocracy Returning —(Continued From First Page.) language, arise. Fidelity to France was their answer to the bully. If we examine with perfect objectivity the astounding episodes of Bismarck's dramatic career we see that under all his immediate successes is hidden the fatal seed of sure future disaster. Strong and rare type of man as he was, he might have been more at home in the Crusades or with the Spanish conquis- tadors. Confronted with modern liv- ing entities, he was not at home. He knew how to destroy his opponents, but after all that is easy when one is in power and has no scruples, when one neither cares nor understands what is bound to follow. ‘To the political responsibilities of the titanic evil genius of nineteenth century Europe two more may be added, of ;hxlrh cnly one is directly Bismarck's oing. He reduced the Germans to a sort of mental servitude; he degraded them into experts (wise and clever as they may have been) without any desire or possibility of taking their share in litical life. Personally he had the selfish excuse that he was a sort of genius, and daily events were masterly treated by him while he remained in power. But. when Willlam II, a weak, vain man, not content with his imperial crown, became his own chancellor, his subjects, who, under Bismarck's iron rule, had forgotten how to raise their heads, went meekly behind the blind pastor. Held Back Even Today. Even today the shadow of the gigantic Prussian chancellor is holding back his countrymen in the road of conscious civic responsibility. Nothing is more disquieting for the future develonmmt of the German political mind than to see the quantities of books on Bismarck which are published each year—with none of them daring to call the hero to account. On the contrary, the Bis- marckian cult is but a pretense or a praver for the coming of the super- man who is going to regain her former prestige for Germany. Bonaparte, with all his military glories, put France on the path of a demographic decline. Bismarck sowed the seeds out of which came the re- cent German disasters. ismarck never believed in a free na- tional effort; he made his own people —the people who had given Luther to the world, the mentally freest people in Europe—into a crowd of admiring mer- chants. Officlals used to say: “Our great man of genius .knows; let us be guided by him.” Bismarck had one excuse, and only one; as a statesman he felt embarrassed by certain natural tendencies of the German soul and wanted to have them changed. There was an excess of romanticism which gave to the German inner spiritual life a sort of dangerous penchant for ecstasy, for “ivresse.” Bismarck, like a hero of the old Ger- man Valhalla, decided to call back his ‘Teutons to a sense of practical life; he rallied them around a formula of con- crete action, of material conquest, of organized obedience. He made a great Germany—but at the cost of the Ger- mans. A vulgar happiness developed in the new Pharisees, so glad and satis- fied and proud of their prosperity. Once in his life, I said, did Bismarck see far into the future; when he re- fused to take away even an inch of ter- ritory from vanquished Austria. One might add perhaps another moment in his life. It was in 1892, when, removed from power, he chose purposely to de- liver with elaborate eclat a speech to the students of the Jena University and told them that absolutism was a poison for the moral life of a nation, that to save Germany it was necessary to strengthen the force of Parllament and of public opinion. Vision Came Too Late. But this vislon came too late. To many it seemed only the outburst of a politician furious at having been dis- missed by his sovereign. They may go on building their new aristocratic theory, the French gentle- men who have invented the so-called doctrine of nationalism as opposed to the liberal conception of human rela- tions; but these hard facts remain: That the war was won by the peoples imbued with democratic traditions, and that the only autocratic state belong- ing to the democratic coalition—Russia —was the only one to fall to pleces. Germany, the only one of the great European states which Lad reached unity by military force and by “raison d'etat,” after despising and rejecting a previous opportunity of unification on a democratic basis—Germany alone, powerful as it was, showed itself in the days of trial far weaker than it ap- peared to be. This, indeed, is not a arty opinion, nor is it the opinion of ormer enemies. It is what is now openly recognized and admitted by many of the keenest thinkers of this same German people. To this formidable bundle of ex- amples another one might be added: Austro-Hungary, the only one of the great European states which was bound by its very nature to suppress national individualities, has fallen to pieces, History’s Experlence. ‘The bitter exgmmce of history is more eloguent than any philosophical generalization. But if we decide to look Inl? the ceptions constituting the i organ, and there are in fact more Chi- nese newspapers than those of any other language. Most of the Chinese papers, however, are exceedingly limited in cir- culation and influence. Fortunately, the political differences have not reached the point of physical combat, except for a few glight disturbances. Honolulu, though home of many thousand Chinese, has been singularly free xroml “tong WAIs.' ideals of liberty in all those ideals now advertised as possessing a miraculous efficacy which they pretend is not to be found in the ideal of liberty and democracy, what do we find? Let us go into the matter as dis- passionately as we would make a chemi- cal research. As an intellectual ideal we find only the principle of the struggle for life and the survival of the fittest. It ought to make even the most enthu- siastic doubt this principle when it is seen that it inspires and justifies alike the communistic dictatorship and the opposite, or apparently opposite, dicta- torships. In Moscow they say that the working class is the only producing class, and that therefore they have the right to rule and decide. In the capitals where the nationalistic and autocratic “verbe” is preached they apply this thesis to states and races instead of to social classes, which shows, incidentally, how easily the hardest lessons are forgotten. Germany fell because she had invented the slogans of the “pure race” and the “chosen people” and the “predestined country.” The same lamentable, fool- ish bragging is now heard from what used to be the other side of the trenches. How is it, one may ask, that such a vulgar and bloody doctrine and such a mental depression have become possible? As there is an explanation to every- thing, there is an explanation to this— and, in my opinion, this is it: The prin- ciple of democracy has become so evi- dent and so generally admitted that, perhaps, too many consequences were drawn from it. As a result there were bound to be some fallacies, some exces- sive generalizations. Obstacles Encountered. 8o it happened that we were bound to realize that in some flelds, such as economical, the religious and the colo- nial, for instance, there were traditions and facts and dangers which could not be disposed of simply by the laws of democracy. There were partial failures. These and analogous problems are partial, special, historical and practical problems which cannot be quoted as faflures of democracy. Great as de- mocracy is, life has mysteries and diffi- culties that no political credo may solve, But, for a glerious century this credo had seemed 5o high and infallible that a certain amount of discredit was felt when partial failures became apparent. All the same, and -dmmmr that, and in spite of that—the only principle still governing the world is the principle of democracy. For my part I am convinced that democracy will prove true even in the flelds where it now seems most trampled upon—I mean in Russia. Who can dare to deny that out of the move- ment of the Russian peasants a new democracy, & peaceful one, may blossom one day i give at least to old Czar- istic Russia, and to new Boleshvik Russia the human dignity it never had? For my part, I almost feel that the very exaggerations of the hatred for democracy are really the travails of the birth of a surer and larger democracy, and that all the rage against her is merely the last effort of a defeated army. But on this point I do*not want to say more. A decided adversary as I am of the political experiments which are actually taking place in Italy, I do not, at the same time, wish to discuss abroad the things of my country. But it matters little. ‘When one comes to the hardest prob- lems of our social and political life one soon realizes that, for all the differences between us, from both sides of the ocean, only a few allusions and remarks are necessary. We Westerners, indeed, living around this Atlantic, which is bound to become smaller and smaller, have noth- ing extraordinarily new to tell each other in the fleld of abstract ideas; to mentlon these ideas briefly is enough to evoke analogous reflections on the other side, And this fact—if we think of it—is a new argument against the rather con- ceited hopes of those who advocate the | return to autocratic regimes. Autocratic regimes are essentially con- ceivable only with barbed wires from | country to country; in fact, they are Invoked to strengthen a country agatnst her neighbor. The very fact that even their theorles assume the pace of a fashion and rapidly spread everywhere, shows that there is no more place in the world for selfish national creeds, concelved as antithetical to other creeds. We are already much more of a whole than we are yet able to realize, Berlin Tenorf Helps Himself and Charity In a large, elegant department store in Berlin huge crowds flock. Pa- tiently they stand, ranged one behind the other, slowly advancing toward the | goal of their desires. Richard Tauber, one of the most popular tenors, sits there and bestows his autograph on his enthusiastic admirers for charitable purposes. For days he sat there and signed his name, many thousands of times, from morning till night, and countless Berliners contributed some- thing for the starving children in ‘Waldenburg, & slum district in Silesia. How wonderful that this popularity is utilized for a benevolent purpose! But there is a hitch to it—Richard Tauber does not write on ordinary paper. It hes to be special paper, his own paper. For everybody has to buy a photograph of the great tenor, or, better still, the autoblography, entitled “Richard Tau- ber, How I Became What I Am.” And the heard-earned silver pleces of en- thusiastic Berliners spring into the strong box. Hundreds continue to stand in line to bring home the self- wrought_signature of their benevolent, businesslike hero—with an autobiog- raphy or a picture. It is truly inspir- e how one hand washes the! ty and good business. I the onlooker an impressive and | touching drama. It points back- ward- toward the parents—dumb | before & strange speech, confused in| the whirl of unfamiliar ways, homesick for the dear face and the beloved cus- toms of the fatherland. A tragic turn to the drama, this. But, the chief con- cem of the drama is with the present, with the young ones, the children of | these bewildered aliens. In love with| this new and shining world are they, | disdainful of the speech of their fa thers, rejecting it in a glib seizure of | American words and ways, setting up barriers between parents and children in this young zest for adventure for daring, doing, winning—perhaps. Ex- | citing and full of promise is this part | of the drama of Americanization. Such | is “Peder Victorious,” the story of Per | Jansa’s son, and a sequel to that splen- | did novel of Scandinavian settlement in | “th Middle Northwest of the United| States, “Glants in the Earth.” In spirit a pioneer like his father, is Peder | —young, bold, outspoken. An imagi- native lad, withal, making himself thereby a puzzle and often a vexation to the family and companions round- about. The novel runs a level course. It would. Nothing to do but to carry on in the way of Per Hansa, now gone, for the sake of the sowings and har-| vestings, for the sake of turning the| miles of prairie grass into the now famous wheat lands of the Dakotas. Just plowing with his hands and feet, just feeding the stock and such like. But the mind’ of Peder was, through these dull doings, off and away, or holding deep communion with the fields and the sun and with God. In those early days Peder was on most friendly and intimate terms with God, talking to Him, counting Him as part of his simplest acts. But there came a change —when Per,Hansa was found dead out on the prairie. That was unfair, clear- ly—his father such a good man. And soon Peder became a doubter and a secret rebel. But the days were lived in many other kinds of emotion so that, | in fact, the youngster could hardly be| counted present at any time. Fllled,| packed rather, with the homely incl- dents of farm life in this Norwegian settlement, the story does not lift so high as it goes deep down into the feel- ings and wonderings of these sober, heavy-thinking farmers. It comes to a close with Peder, very young still, but in love for the first time and dazed with the miracle that is holding him. It is important tg know more about Peder, | and I hope we shall. ‘The manner of the story is direct, blunt, everyday in clipped phrases, and a curfously effective vernacular. Under | this manner is a clear poetry of feeling that comes out in some beautiful picture that no one has read before anywhere. Mr. Rolvaag has a poetry of his own, unmistakable and beautiful. An inter- esting man, this Rolvaag, coming to America and crossing out to Minnesota. He might have stayed in Norway, where he would most certainly have become the captain of a fis] boat in time. But, no, nothing but the United States would do and, so here he is, up at St. Oh; College, in Northfield, Minn. Professor of Norwegian literature in that institution. The first seizure to take him upon his arrival here was that of learning things, of studying, getting an education. Professor now, in a col- lege, too—but better than that even is the fact that he is writing surpassingly fine and substantial novels on the real business of the Viking spirit in America. * x % X HUMDRUM HOUSE. By Jeannette Phillips Gibbs, author of “Portia Marries.” Boston: Little, Brown & Co. NNUMERABLE counterparts of the house, humdrum, provide bed and board for half the families of Christen- dom—more than half. Once inside this particular “Humdrum House,” there- fore, every woman is at home and deeply interested in the situation of Margaret Underhill, its mistress—a wife and mother and caretaker. Efficient routine and boredom of spirit are in full possession. And this is, in effect, the story of Margaret Underhill's revolt. No, she dldn’t run away. She didn’t fall in love with another man. She did nothing scandalous, though, of course, the neighbors thought her behaviors queer and upon the whole to be con- demned. They would. What she did do was to take the frank stand before her domestic problem that she would have taken before any other deeply momentous business. Then she went away—not to “run away,” but to get out and far enough, off for a better seizure of the situation. She worked— wonked with children and other needy ones. In time, naturally, she realized the possession of children of her own. needy, too. And so, finally, her mind cleared and her purpose set straight, she returned to her home to throw herself into the real interests of the town where she had always lived. Sounds reprehensible, doesn't it? One can hear the censure of good mothers over such an experiment. But following along with this woman brings its own justification. For, you see, Mrs. Gibbs has written a story whose main point is to state the case of a great majority of women in the home. This she has done without a single remove from the decencies of life. The novel is as far ‘ffom sensationalism as “Pilgrim’s Progress.” It is the record of an intel- ligent woman's accounting with herself for the loss of her husband's interest. She admits to herself that she isn't interesting. Therefore it is important . Yodke Gilley 2000 S Street N.W. Exhibition of Paintings BY {| PASQUAL MONTURIOL | Spanish Artist 1th to March 30th | March 1 YOU pay a small rental fee while the book is in your pos- session. You start and stop when you choose. You read the latest fiction and non-fiction, if new and popular. Prompt service, new and clean books, trained, courteous attendants. WOMRATH'S 588813 | BOOKSHOPS 1 P st anin 1 X h St N.W, becomes an efficlent aild in many direc- | tions, that this husband comes to, so to speak,-in a realization that his wife is | a blamed fine woman and that, if he | can, he is going to get acquainted with | her. It is a beautiful story because it | is so well conceived, so well projected. There is here none of the emotionalism | that requires misunderstanding and | reconciliation for its support. Rather is this the story of marriage approached | with reason and good intent, with deep | | concern and genuine desire to make it the going concern that this particular marriage was capable of being. There is a confidence in this book, in the purpose and treatment and outcome of it, that passes from the author into| the enthusiastic acceptance and inter- | est of the reader. No wonder that it is moving so quickly out into the tide | of popular novels. Fine in tone, high in outlook, definite in intent, it deserves all that comes its way. | * Kk % X MOTHER OF KINGS. By Norval| Richardson, author of “The Cave Woman,” etc. New York: Charles | Scribner's Sons. [HE story of Letizia * Bonaparte, mother of Napoleon. A book that | belongs, clearly, with the great body of literature on the subject of Napoleon, since it is historic in outlook and treat- | ment, historic also in its bearing upon | the life of the great Corsican. On the other hand, this is the good story for general readers who enjoy romances that are based upon facts in the lives of famous men and women. It is pro- jected in the mood amd in the manner of romance with incident, action, indi- viduality upon it. Beginning as a pic- ture of the life of the Corsican peasant it soon draws from this immediate setting the commanding personality, the dominating traits of Letizia Bonaparte. These are the qualities by way of which this remarkable woman moves into the larger sphere of influence that bears directly upon the career of her remark- able son. The two together determine the destiny of every other son and daughter of the family. Estrangement comes, as it would with two masters in the field, but at bottom there was al- ways the influence of Letizia over Napoleon, a force greater than that exercised by any other woman, certain- ly. It is a romantic story, a romantic chapter of history, its end defeat and tragedy and loneliness. Its moods tally with the varying aspects of the theme itself and this is one of the reasons| why it is a romance of high adventure and stirring interest. * ok kK PRETTY SINISTER. By Francis Beed- ing, author of “The Six Proud ‘Walkers,” etc. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. ] order to make good the promise of its title this book makes use of two separate sets of crooks, both working for a single end, each working against the other is so far as the plans of each come within hailing distance of the other. The common villainy is that of securing a great fortune inherited by a Russian girl of high degree. The Rus- sian Grand Duchess has surely been a god-send to the inventor of the mys- tery tale. However, the business in hand for each of these gangs is to come into ion of the documents declaring the conditions of the in- heritance and discovering the where- abouts of the loot. The girl herself is hidden away in “Sham Castle” in the north of the British Islands. Maybe she herself has the fortune in hand. ‘To discover her retreat, to settle this point becomes at once the motive force of these two groups of desperadoes. Well, you can see what the girl is in for, what you, as reader, are in for, too. For Francis Beeding is an inventive fellow, able to turn and twist on him- self like the mental acrobat that he 50 clearly is. He does every turn here, never ‘misses a one. And, if you can keep track of the involutions and con- volutions of his mind and body during | this performance you will come upon a very exciting matter. That Col. Granby of the English Secret Service, who helped so remarkably in “The Six Proud ‘Walkers,” is on hand again it is & good thing, that he is. For no one man, not even so adroit and slippery a man as the author of this mystery yarn could have brought the matter off without him. =Yes, there's a lover after the girl, too, and, more by the grace of a shrewd writer than by the stripe of the fellow himself, there is an affec- tionate moment at the close of the whole tumultous affair. Such a lot is pected of the reader of the crime | GOODSPEED’S BOOK SHOP ‘ ,600 tit) ree;’ print catalogu exhibiti announcements free. es__an When in Boston, browse in GOODSPEED’S I;‘l?l‘:'fll'.“ Park St S THE BLACKER THE BERRY: A Novel of Negro Life. By Wallace Thurman New York: The Macaulay Co. THE DRIVEN. By Alberta Stedman Eagan, author of “Absolution.” New York: The Macaulay Co. THINGS SEEN IN MOROCCO: A Land of Enchantment, of Perpetual Con- trasts and of Absorbing Human In- terest. By L. E. Bickerstaffe, M. A., B Sc. With many {llustrations and map. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. THE. LABOR MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES. 1860-1895, A Study in Democracy. By Norman J. Ware, Ph. D, associate professor of economics in Wesleyan University, author of “The Industrial Worker, 1840 to 1860.” New York: D. Apple- ton & Co. MIDGE. By Mary Frances Shuford. New York: D. Appleton & Co. ° THE CRITICISM OF LITERATURE. By Elizabeth Nitchie, Ph. D., associate professor of English in Goucher Col- lege. New York: The Macmillan Co. DOUBLE TAXATION AND INTERNA- TIONAL FISCAL CO-OPERATION; Being a Series of Lectures Delivered at the Academie de Droit Interna- tional de La Haye. By Edwin R. A. Seligman. New York: The Macmil- lan Co. ROYAL ELIZABETHS; The Romance of Five Princesses, 1464-1840. By E. Thornton Cook, author of “Their Majesties of Scotland,” etc. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. PLUNDERED HOST. By Fowler Hill New York: E. P. Dutton & Co,, Inc. THE RETURN TO LAISSER FAIRE: The Foundation of Prosperity. By Ernest J. P. Benn. New York; D. Appleton & Co. THEY HAVE BODIES. By Barney Al- len. New York: The Macaulay Co. THE SPLENDID SILENCE. By Alan Sullivan, author of “In the - Z;m(",o etc. New York: E. P. Dutton TWENTY -8IX ADVENTURE STO- RIES; Old and New. By Twenty- Six Authors. Edited by Ernest Rhys and C. A. Dawson-Scott. New York: D Appleton & Co. ROGUES IN CLOVER. By Percival ‘Wilde. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 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