Evening Star Newspaper, May 19, 1929, Page 30

> AT R TR oy st e R THE SUNDAY. STAR. WASHINGTON, D. ¢, MAY 19, 1929_PART 2.’ NOTES OF ART AND ARTISTS Negro Artists Show Their Work in Interesting Exhibition at National Gallery—l.oan Collection at Corcoran—Other Exhibitions. BY LEILA MECHLIN. VERY eraditable showing is made by American Negro Artists in en exhibition opened last Thursday and shown in the National Gallery of Art. new National Museum. Tenth and B streets, under auspic~s of the Harmon Founda- tion of New York and the committee on race relationchips of the Washing- ton Federation of Churches. The eollection. which will be on view until Mav is the outcome of the Jliam E. Harmon awards for distin- guished achievement among Negroes and an outgrowth of the Harmon awards in fine arts. These awards take the form of gold and bronze médals, and have been made for three succes- sive seacons. This is only the second collection, however, of works of art by Negro men and women that has been shown under these auspices, and it is the first time that such an exhibition has been sct forth in Washington, Sisty-four paintings and _drawings And 10 or more works in sculpture are inciuded in the catalogue. The sub- jeete include portraits, figures, still life, marines, boats, genre. The mediums emploved are oil, water color, charcoal, cravon and wash. and the general aver- age is about what one would expect from anv group of carcfully selected works by advanced students or young profescionals. It is extremely intoresting to note that for the moet part those who have painted portraits or produced figure studies and group subjects have por- traved Negroes and Negro life, but that, on the other hand, there i8 compara- tively little evidence in the works, gthown of what might be called racial | characteristics or tendency. That Negro | siubjects have been chosen shows a ten- | dency on the part of these artists to| advance their race. a healthy and hope- | ful indication; but tHe fact that for the most part they still reflect the art of A race not their own gives indica- tion of inherent weakness. The ques- tion is, Will this weakness be over- come? 'There is reason to believe that it may be—reason found in some of | the work shown in this very collection. For instance, three large and well réndered group pictures in black and | white by E. S. Campbell—one entitled “Deep River,” another “The Wake” and & third “Levee Luncheon.” These are wéll composed. strong and markedly in- | dividual. The first is a scene on the| deck of a boat. & man seated with a | guitar on his lap singing, the workmen | around him apparently joining in. | “The Wake" is a typical Negro subject, | rendered with consummate art. “Levee | Luncheon” is less elaborate, but_like- | wise _significant and_strong. E. S. | Campbell shows in these works mas-| tery of megium. an ability to employ art to A significant end. Some of the strength that one finds in Bellows' lith- ographs is found here—and this is high Ppraise, Thé Harmon gold medal award was made this last year to Archibald J. Motley, jr., of Chicago for & painting entitléd “Octoroon Girl.” & painting éseentially in the old tradition, aca- demie, well rendered. More interesting but perbaps a little iéss well painted is a picture by the same artist of an old Negro woman seated by a table mend- ing socks, a theme which has universal abpal, & theme essayed by the great mastars of the past, Rembrant, Whis- tlér, therefore ambitious. To say that it his Been treated in this instance with real dignity means much. “Picnie dt the Grove” and “Sunday uting,” the former again by Archibald Motley, the latter by Albert A. Smith, Aré modernistic fn style and echo quite a little the manner of Guy Pene du Bois, making use—but excellent use— of his well known formula. John Wesley Hardrick's portrait of Judge “X,” Charles C. Dawson's “Quad- roon Madonna” and Henry B. Jones' gelf portrait are all well paintéd, well constriftted, strong, and give indica- tion of good teaching, sound instruction in fundament: Hale W of Indianapolis, who téceived the bronze award in 1926, &hows a number of Frénch scenes— “Old Farmhouse in the Beduce Valley,” “RoAd From Chatéau Neuf" and “Old Housetops, Paris.” Albert A. Smith shows in somewhat the simé manner paintings of houses, foreign subjects found in Spain and in Italy, likéwise &imple and direct in tréatment, évidenc- ing a trained eye and hand, but ho per- #onal message. no indication of either étmotion or discovery. Perhaps it was thé presence of thesé qualities which 1ed the jury of award to vote special honor to Malvin G. Johnson's “Swing Low. Swest Chariot,” 4 painting which poscésses, despite téchnical weakness, gcmé of the spirit found in the works of H. O. Tanner, up to the present :fr]:'!’" the outstanding- Américan Negro s Tanner, it will be remembered, has painted _almbst entirely religious sub- Jects. Perhaps it is his influence, or perhaps it is the religious tendency of | the racé. which has inclined some of the artists exhibiting here at this time to choose for interpretation religious gubjécts, such, for instance, as “Jesus | of Nazareth,” by John Wesley Hard- rick: “Christ Blessing Little Children.” A deésign for a stal Frank J. Dillon; “G " and “Exo- dut.” symbolic compositions, by ¥. C. Alston, and by the same artist “The Gn’l’("g Book Says." ére aré Gloucester subjects by S, Ellis Blount, Palmer C. HJ:u'd(‘u and Allen Freelon which are good of thelr kind; the best of all, perhaps, & pic- ture of “Rocky Neck Road,” by the last-named | Allen Freelon's landscape, entitled | “Autumn,” is an excellent piece of color tapestry. but for the most part the landseapes in this exhibition are less| gflfld than the figures or the architec- | jural themes, There aré two well rendered still-life gubjects. both by Frank J. Dillon, one of which, thowing fruit. & chocolate | pot And a platé, is particularly com- mendable The sciilpturé is all by a local artist, May Howard Jackson, and includes her excellent portrait of Paul Laurence Dunbar in bronze, owned by the Dunbar High Bchool: her portraits in plaster of Kelly Miller and W, T. 8. Jacks well known educationalists, and idea! istic subjects. such as “Suffer Children to Come Unto Me" and Mulatto Mother and Child.” Mrs Jackson received for her sculpture the Harmon bronze award this year, No one can doubt the inherent artis- tic tendencies of the Negro race. In recent years certain members of this race have attained through their own éfforts largely and inherent talent to real distinction in the field of the fine arts—Tanner in painting, Dunbar in poetry, half a dozen or more in music, &' few in general literature, So far no great genius has arisen, but geniuses among all races are few, and they rie from the mass. In all art education in recent years the dpfinition has been too strongly marked between the so-called fine arts and the hanaicrafts, yet the greatest possibilities for cultivation and for joy in production lie in the development of the latter. All cannot be great paint- érs, great sculptors, but almost every one can learn to produce something that is useful and at the same time beautiful, and from such production will come eventually higher and more idealistic achievement. = The Harmon awards have undoubtedly stimulated the development of fine arts among am- bitious Negro artists. 1f this qr some other beneficent fonundation would un- dertake the cultivation of the handi- crafts among young Negro sfudents the movement would undoubtédly be given addiuianal mpetus. 1t is & ) | gave to Washington, | ple, | o | prospect. not only for racial enrichment but In the cause of art. of Art has * ok ox o "['HE Corcoran Gallery lately placed on_exhibition as a temporary loan from Mis. W. A. Clark six painfings of the modernist school Three of the six are by nne. two are by Van Gogh, one is by Manct, all names to conjure with among the ex- ponents of the modernist movement As a condition of gift prevents even a temporary exhibition in the Clark wing of works of art not included in the Clark collection, these paintings have been placed on display in an ad- jacent gallery in the new Corcoran wing, only a portion of which is at present occupled. It is in this series of galleries that one sees again the Euro- pean paintings which Mr. Corcoran ac- quired (some of them through the agency of his friend Mr. Walters of Baitimore) for the collection which he Here, for exam- are paintings by Corot, Frere, Knaus and_other European masters of the 1850s, ‘608 and '70s. How strangely out_of piace in this company appear works by Cezanne and Van Gogh! And yet fo an extent these modernists were Girect descendants of the conservaiives of their youth, with whom they join hands in forming the endless cliain of art. Whether one ltkes the works of the modernists as well as the works of their progenitors i8 to a large extent a per- sonal matter for individual determina- ton; but whether one likes them or not, ‘one cannot overlook the fact that these innovators were serious minded and thought themselves great artists intrusted with a meseage Cezanne, it will be remembered, Was a curlous mixture of modesty and eon- ceit. In one breath he described him- sélf a5 a primitive, only at the begin ning of & long road, and in the nex he ‘averred that he was the greatest | painter of Europe. He had so little | regard for his own paintings that he | is said to have allowed his children to cut them up for their own amusement and to have not infrequently left = canvas unfinished in an open field. He | was never eager to look & second time at any of his productions. But he con- sistently refused to be exploited and persisiently pursued his research. The men of Cezanne’s time were very much dominated by tradition. so much so that it was almost impossible for a painter to bé himself. It was against this restraint that Cezanne and others révolted. Thé form that this revolt took was perhaps unnecessarily violeut No longer, they determined. would they paint merely what they saw but wha' they felt; no longer would they be held | in ‘check by technicalitles, by per- | fection of line, but rather would rhey seek solldity of form, arrangements of color, organization of design. Taking into consideration their courage and Ambition, the works they produced seem perhaps more worthy and less absurd | than they seem to many of us, but the relation of purpose to result is often- times pathetic. And yet it is certain that the revolt was timely and that in | thé énd good will come. ‘ Cezanne Is represented in_this par- | ticular group lent by Mrs. Clark by a I portrait of his wife, Madame Cezanne en Rouge, and by two small still-lif studies. The portrait is ill-drawn, un lovely. The face is distorted, the hand: appear crippled. The figure, supposedly seated, is not at rest. And yet there is about this presentation a terrible solemnity which to an extent carries| conviction. It is not good to be in-, correet, but correciness alone may be insipid. Strength is always preferable to insipidity. In the still-life groups by Cezanne which hang to the left of | this portrait one feels again the intense purpose of the artist, & groping for mn(\):l(hlng desired but not fully under- Lot | Without question, Manet was a less romplicated character, and the works he produced more nearly satisfied his ideal To us today they “are likewise more understandable. There Is something magnificently simple and direct about iall of Manet’s work—something bor- rowed, perhaps. from the great Velas- but made his own. Who car is “Boy With Sgord” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or his charming porirait of Berthe Morisot entitled “Le Repos”? He is representeu in_this litle collection by a still-life painting, a study of peohles in a jar on a durk wood table, very simple in treatment, very skillful in handling, and complete. No careless draftsmanship here, no sloppy brush work: surfaces are beautifully rendered, color well chosen and_harmonious. To the right and left of this up- right canvas hahg paintings by Van | Gogh, one of a bridge at Arles, the other A still life entitled but ap- parently pink oleanders, judging from the shapes of the flowers and leaves. | Van Gogh was a Dutchman, an eccen- tric, fantastic, mentally unbalanced He 'is said to have painted with in- creasing heat and light. e certainly ! painted with extraordinary bravado, and with little or no regard for what Jiad gone before or for commendation. Yet he exerted a wide influence. Whether his art was really as great las it is now supposed by some to b time, and time alone, will tell. To many brain. But both of the paintings now fon view in the Cotcoran Gallery show ! Van Gogh's mastery of material, his in- | dependenes of tradition, his broad con- irenunn beguty. To the uninitiated such works may immature, fool- | izh; there Is évery possibility that fu-( fure generations may discard them as unwor thy, but for the present they hold | a real message, a real meaning to the | effect that artists are not mere copy- ists, and that. whether they succeed or | not. they are ever secking a new and | a better way. As long as this is the cnse we have still a living art. | * % k% | " the Arts Club, street, paint- ings by club members selected by a special committee or jury are now on view. On the first floor are to be scen. | for the most part. water colors; on | the sccond floor the works shown’ are oils The former group is varied and par- ticularly pleasing. Over the mantel in the reception room hangs an admirable | portrait of a young woman in a light vellow evening dress, painted by Miss | Hattic E. Burdette—a subtle and spir- ited interpretation full of personality and charm. In the same room one finds very lovely flower paintings— “Silver Moon Roses’ by Annie D Kelly, and “Roses” by Emma D. Rice, Mathilde M. Leisering shows three ex- cellent portrait drawings in colored crayon. one of her little nephew, Ed- ward D. Mueden: another of A young girl, “Naomi,” and a third of Arthur P. Hall. ! Susan B. Chase has contributed two architectural subjects, very different in character but equally well rendered: a city picture of roofs and chimneys on a snowy day entitled “From the Fourth Story Back” and A sunny picture of “Old Moorish Fortress, Cintra.” Eleanor Parke Custis exhibits in char. acteristic vein “A Street in Dinan." | From Lesley Jackson have come two admirable water colors—one of “Camp- fire Girls,” the other entitled “The Pop- corn Wagon,” both complex compo- sitions. Pearl Potter Etz shows a flower paint- ing. “Dahlias”; Warren Ferris. a care- fully rendered “Georgian Doorway in Old Alexandria”; Fred S. Foltz a study of the King's Highway, Nova Scotia, and a painting entitled “The Grass- hopper and the Ant.” Upstairs the representation is larger, but the works do not uphold so high a standard. ‘They are colorful and | fresh and the efiect upon entrance is pleasing, but almost every artist rep- resented has done better work than is shown at this time here Among_those whose works have been chosen for exhibition are Mary G. Riley, Ruth Osgoud, Lucia B. Hollerith, Alice’ L. L. Ferguson, Clara R. Saun- ders, Marguerite Munn, Rowland Lyon, Margaret ~ Neuhauser and Margaret Zimimele, The works shown comprise | “THE CHURCH OF ST. ANDRES.” A PAINTING BY ALBERT A. SMITH. | landscapes, boats, marines, still-life subjects and one figure, & portrait of | Josephine Hutchison by = Nell F. Binckley. x X % X 7I'HE Ametican Federation of Arts | will hold its twentieth annual meeting this week on Wednesaday, | Thursday snd Friday, in Philadelphia. | The American Association of Museums will meet simultancously in Philadel- | phia, and on each of the three days at | least one of the sessions will be held | Jointly by the two organizations. An’ intetesting and varied program is announced including such well known nd authoritative speakers as Eugene Savage, N. A, professor of painting, Yale University School of Fine Arts; Fiske Kimball, director of the Pennsy vania Museum; Charles R. Richard: director division of industrial art, Gen- , feral Bducation Board; Charles H. Burk- holder of the Art Institute of Chicago, and John D. Willard, research associ- ate, American Association for Adult Education, | Under the heading, “Art Commissions and City Planning,” an illustrated talk ‘um be given on “The Development of | Washington” by Milton B. Medary, fr., | past president of the American Ihsti- tute of Architects, member of the Na- tional Capital Park and Planning Com- mission, | The morning session on May 24 will be of interest, being devoted entirely to the subject of “Art and the Depar ment Store,” with addresses by Samuel | W. Reyburn, president of Lord & | Taylor’s, New York; by Herbert J. Tily, | président of Stawbridge & Clothier hiladelphin, and by representatives bof John” Wanamaker's, Sears. Rocbuck & Co., Gimbel's and other great mer- cantile houses. D | “The Philadelphia chapters of the | | American Federation of Arts have | united in providing a delightful pro- gram of entertainment, including visits { to Bryn Athyn Cathedral, the chapel at | Valley Forge, inspection ‘of the Stotes- bury “and other private collections, An |evening in the new Pennsylvania Museum. luncheons, teas, ete. | “The meetings wiil be concluded on | Friday evening by a dinner at the | Bellevue-Stratford, at which the speak- | | ers will be John F. Lewis, president of | [the Pennsyvania Academy of the Fine | | Arts: Stephen P. Duggan, director, Institute of International Education: James M. Beck, former Solicitor | | General of the United States, now a | {member of Congress, and William | | John Cooper, United 'States commis- | #ioner of education. | The atlendance, which is made up of representatives of art museums and | States, promises to be Iarger than usual. | Every other vear, it will be remem- bered, the American Federation of Art holds ita meetings in Washingion, where it was first formed and where its head- qusrters s logated i l | many was not dis| PAINTING “OCTOROON CIRL. JR. AW 2 PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE BY WINS GOLD MEDAL A PAINTING BY ARCHIBALD, J. MOTLEY, WHICH WON THE GOLD MEDAL OF THE HARMON PRIZE ARD. THE PICTURE IS CONTAINED IN AN EXHIBITION OF ' AMERICAN NEGRO ARTISTS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART. b Ireland’ ___ (Continued From First Page) he took part in the terrible retreat that followed Bullets through went musette, through helmet, through sleeve before | one got him in the fool. He was taken to the hospital at last, after miracles of escape and suffering, to be found worse off from typhold than from his wound. Evacuated to Toul. Before the typhoid | had more than ceased. malaria began. This big frame which tweighed 200 pounds now weighed but 95. Peace saw him emerglig from the hospital—world peace—that is, ot peace for MacWhite. He became liaison officer in Paris for the Sinn Fein. Associated once more, as he had been in his early days in London before so much turbulent water had flowed under the bridge, with George Gavan Duffy when _the ' treaty with Great Britain was debated in the Dial in 1921 and the Républicans contended that ae- would | ceptance of dominion status bring upon Ireland the contempt of othér countries, Arthur Griffith, as chalrman of the provistonal govern- ment in Dublin, received from Mac- White u letter strongly supporting the Free State settlement. Griffith made full use of MacWhite's letter in the final | | speech which secured ratification of the treaty. And MacWhite went to Geneva as first delegate to the League of the newly elected stite. During six years of activity there he took a definite part | In many international conferences andl served with distinction upon several of | the_permanent committees. Doyen of the delegates though he came to be. and competent in League Affairs, MacWhite sacrificed nothing of his originality in the process, Refuses to Use English. He refused consistently to use English in his public addresses. " He had spoken Irish as & boy, played In Irish, learned English only as his second tongue. Now. “There are two of guages,” he sald, “French and English. 1 prefer to use French!” Every day saw | a new MacWhite story in Geneva. He is taid to have originated—he cer- tainly got behind—the movement to | give Canada a seat in the Council. Canada won it by one véte. Then there whs the diy when the icfal lan- | s Envoy to the U S. debates on the oplum question had been amblmg down side tralls, tang- | ling in the brambles of technicalities, | getting nowhere, Bishop Brent and | Representative Porter had gone home in_disgust. MacWhite had been listening, appar- ently half asleep. Suddenly he leaped to his feet in a denunciation of British policy. And he spoke—for the Ars time—in Englich. Correspondents rushed to the wires. | One of them rushed to MacWhite: “Why did you speak in English? “I wanted,” MacWhite answered, “I wanted to be sure the blighters would | understand me!” Appointed Minister to this conntry, he went back to say good-bye to Clanakilty. Times had mensurably changed sinc he had left that village, a boy. The new Ireland had begun fo dawn. The co-operative he had started was flour- | fshing. No more were groups upon the hillside, watching the steamers carrying the flower of Irish youth to America: Ireland last year did not even fill her quota of emigrants. Actorded Great Ovation. ‘There wis & great ovation for the de- parting hero. People came in from miles about. There were speeches and merrymaking and eating and drinking and more speeches. The Com-ity (ac- cent on the frst syllable) took Mac- White aside. They had something pri- vate to sdy. “We're looking to you to mive us & fine cup for the fair,” they said. They ot the cup. And so the boy who, dreaming of the world, of freedom, had watched the ships from the little green hills of Clan- akiity, steamed by those hills himself. | At 1ast on his way to represent an Irish | govérnment in one of the world's great- est_countries. To those of us Americans who keep unto the second and the third genera- ion the memory of the drama and the dreams of Ireland's past, there is some- thing to warm the heart in greeting as Ireland’s Minister a man whose eareer carries on a dash of the old tradition while his intellectual opinion carries on the policies of the present dav. The new Minister is a proof that Ire- nd need lose nothing of that past ‘rumlncr we love in her, while forging the necessities of her present. Man Who Rules the Mark ___ (Continued From Third Page) _ many's remarkablé economic and indus- trial recovery. His policy has repressed inflation, encouraged economy and also sought to discourage excessive foreign lorns. It is no exaggeratiop to say that he has now no rival as a financier ex- ! pert enjoying the confidence of eco- nomie and political Germany. ‘What caused Dr. Schacht's amazing faux pas of April 17 last, almost disrupt- ing the conference of experts on repara- tion adjustment? ‘The German ulti- matum —or what was taken as su the other delegats was a startling po- litical and diplomatic blunder, awaken- ing suspicions the world over that der- | rd to deal with the problem of modifying or replacing the Dawes plan in & reascnable and accom- modating spirit. In its bruskness and unwelcome _introduction of what ap- peared to bé extraneous demands for revision of the territorial provisions of the Versailles treaty, Dr. Schacht's ges ture inevitably recalled the earlier errors and infelicities of German diplomacy— all the more so because the conference had no jurisdiction whatever over the territorial partitions of 1919. Theré Are Many Explanations. ‘There aré many explanations. But the most convincing ones 11é in the chief German delegate’s character. Although an economist, a student of what Thomas Carlyle called the “dismal science” Dr. Schacht 18 highly temperamental. He was not a youthful poet for nothing. He | has boundless self-confidence and an absolute belief not only in his own judgment, but in his own theories. His careér has made him authoratative, and that quality he exhibils in fields alien 10 his experienc He is not & politician with the latter's art of compromise and conciliation. He is not a diplomat, sensitive to the im- | portance of guarded phrases or &live to the reactions of national and interna- tional psychology. He have been on April 17 a sound economist, from the German point of view. But from that same point of view he was a lamentable diplomat and politician. Dr. Schacht has been too isolated from the give-and-take of politics to make a good negotiator. He is inclined to stand alone and to break with others, rather than to give way in minor mat- ters. He left the Democratic party when the latter organization decided to allow its members to vote as they pleased on the question of restoring {he properties of the members of the former German reigning huuses. ‘That was a practical party - compromise. But Dr. Schacht resigned because he thought that the party ought to have stcod solidly for what he considered indisput- able property rights. His Favorite ldea. 1 As an economist he has always em- | it seems the product of a disordered |associations from all parts of the United | phasized the advantages to Germany of | recovering her overseas colonies, Upper | Silesia and the Danzig Corridor. It is due perhaps to his tempéramental en- thusiasm that he has exaggerated the value of the Jost colonies as sou of v = | ton. It could not do so now. Lkt ROLOD. CIAITIAD AL | Ala, rica never supplied Germany with cot- And raw | matertals produced in the former ov | Seas possessions may be bought without | special hindrance. Yet the Reichsbank's | president has had an almost romantic attachment for the expropriated colo- nial possessions. His favorite idea is | “to take the colonies out of politics"— | that is, to persuade the allies and the | United States to form a chartered com- pany, like the old British East India Company, to develop the former Ger- man_ coionies for the joint benefit of | the former allied nations and Germany. The recovery of Upper Silesia and the Polish Corridor to the Baltic has also been one of Dr. Schachts, liveliest hopes. In an interview with one of the editors of Le Journal de Geneve in | 1926, withheld from publication until April 19 last, he said: “The financial reconstitution of Eu- rope 18 impossible so long as the Poles will not give the Danzig Corridor and Upper Silesia back to us.” He has expressed the same idea on mapy other occasions. This Schleswiger, | whose father neft that province after it | had been annexed to Prussia and whose | birthplace has betome Danish again through the operition of the Versailles treaty. has now become an Ardent of the Danzig Corridor and Upper Si- lesia can be accomplished only with the consent. of Poland, and Poland was not éven represented in the reparatiohs experts' conference. To raise such a question there ignored political realities and startled the world by its diplomatic naivete and maladroitness. The British admiralty’s attitude at {the Three Power Naval Armament Limitations Conference at Geneva in 1927 and its negotiation of the Franco- British naval accord of 1928 did much to discredit naval experts matists, Dr. Schacht's “brain storm” at Parls has lowered the prestige of cconomic experts as substitutes for statesmen. In international dealings restraint and breadth of vision are still judgment have gone far toward restor- ing thé credit of old-fashioned profes- sional diplomacy. 1928 Colonial France Trade Is $6! In 1928 France's trade with her col- of $600,000,000, or about 145 per cent [of "the total TFrench trade, which | amounted to $4.151,000,000. France im- ported from her Colonial possessions $270,000,000 worth of goods, or over 12 per_cent of her total impor She exported 8332,000 worth, repre- senting over 15 per cent of the total ex- ports. North Africa, chiefly Algeria, had the greatest share, with a trade valued At $385,000,000. Indo-China was second best as a trading colony, followed by Morotco, West :mu and lastly Tu- PrustAn_irredentist. But the recession | diplo- | required and these fallures of expert | 00,000,000 onies and protectorates reached the sum | IDA GILBERT MYERS. | STRUGGLE: The Life and Exploits of Comdr. Richard E. Byrd. By Charles | J. V. Murphy. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. | O need nowadays for readers of high adventures to hunt their heroes out from some misty past. Pure romance is the prime essence of the present | period. Many a man of the day is | daring so amazingly, achieving so mar- velously, as to make his record, straight and_unembellished, sound like ancient | | myth and legend. = A case in point is the story of Richard E. Byrd. No need | | to go back 700 years and more to find { Richard, Coeur de Lion. For here he is, | intrepid” and unconquerable. ~His 1 | reads like pure fiction, rather over- worked fiction at that. Yet it is every | | word the truth. Here Charles Murphy, mnewspaper | man, tells the story of Comdr. Byrd, | with' the true dramatic grip of the fine { news man. leaving out nothing of im- | portance, leaving out everything that | fails to contribtue to the matter in | | hand. Richard Byrd is a man, a real| man. Yet, fortune has bedecked him so that he looks like & hero of romance, | | almost a stage hero. Birth, ancestry, | (early life, family_tradition. family in- { fluence, personal beauty and & fine up- | standing presence—all these have been, | | must have been, at times, things to be | set aside, a shade hastily and impatient- | ly. It seems absurd for a real working | man to have been so dressed up by fate | | 4s Richard Byrd has been. However, this | | fades in the reader’s mind as he follows along here in the trail of this great modern adveriturer. In spite of these gifts of fortune, Byrd delivers the goods —from_the North Pole, then from the South Pole and from innumerable points in between. The story as it is read here is, in the main, simply a corrobora- tive record. Yet it is, withal, a gorgeous romance. From it there comes also the quality of the man himself, of the gen- tleman always giving credit where it is due. Here is the generous man, curi- | | | | ously free from the vanities that so commonly accompany success. Here is the wisely cautious man—making long and Jaborious preparations for the great project before him. You might expect a hero of this seeming stamp dash out and away, trusting to some favoring god who will not permit & harm to come to the beloved son. Not Richard Byrd. {He is wise. He realizes his job, kno its magnitude and its hazards. uce these hazards is his preliminary | task. Intelligence and character are | | the prime possessions of Richard Byrd, | | these bent upon one of the great under- | takings of the astounding day in which "we all live. A beautiful story. Every ! boy in the country dught to read it, and | {every girl. Another word of appreci-| { atlon is due Charles Murphy for treat- | ing this particular subject with just the | | restraint that he practiced upon it. | * K K K HE PATHWAY. By Henry William- | son, author of “Tarka. the Ofter,” | etc. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. A POET in feeling and expression, & true lover of nature at heart, it is [no wonder that Henry Williamson | storfes of this animal and that one— otter and stag and lonely bird—should be outstanding in their beauty and com- prehension and subtle signticance. The landscape, too, is a live thing to this man. The arrangement of hill and val- {ley, of shore and moor, of sunlight and | shade—all these combine in spirit and mood to minister to the heart and soul of man himself. Therefore, en this author writes & story it becomes, in es- sence, the story of the human in his deep contacts with the soil that has created and nurtured him. So. here, there is thé romance of the English lcoul\lr)’slde. of an old manor house on the coast of Devon, as this spot and | this house have entered into the life- blood of the family living within it and upon it. A homely story that goes deep |into the feelings and daily round of existence in that particular corner of { England. There is a hero to this tale— the only kind of hero that could by any chance find a place in this setting. A | man, simple as Francis of Assisi, simple | as the hope of modern religion is sim- ple, takes his unobtrusive course through this romance, & part of the countryside itself in his single and uncomplicated receptibn of existence, in his beautiful use of it for the happiness of all who come his way. No tale, this, for the light reader hunting briet diversion till the next ex- citement comes his way. But for one who loves beauty of thought, poetry of expression, for one who senses the uni of all life—plant and animal and man— | this is a rdre Adventure of encouraging and uplifting effect. * K ok K THE ART OF LIFE. From the Works of Havelock FEllis. Selected #nd Arranged by Mrs. 8. Herbert. Bos- ton: Houghton Mffiin Co. T is the serenity of Havelock Ellis in the face of truth that commends | hith to every reader who is himself hunting for the truth about the imme- diate saliencies of life—love, religion, | art, morality. Here is, cleariy, a phi- losopher searching for the real essence of human existence, a man not satis- fied with the common bundle of ac- ceptances about the great issues of man’s intercourse with man. Mrs. Her- bert Has selected for the use of driven people who cannot read extensively, or | think they cannot, some of the most | directly applicable opinions of Mr. El- | lis upon these universally absorbing | themes. Of ~morality—let us listen {in: “It would be amazing, if it were not tragic, to watch the spectacle of | morality as it is played out on the | scene of modern life. In reality noth- | |ing is simpler than the moral process | of life. hatever men sce the ma- jority of their fellows doing, that they | cAll morality; whatéver they see done | by the minority outside that compact | | majority, that they call immorality. | * %+ 'The méchanism is beautifully right * + + and yet all want to stick | & mischievous hand into it. If they be- | long to the campact majority they can | {never refrain from vituperating the ! small advance guard in front of them or the larger rear guard behind them. And, if they belong to either minorit their sneers and contempt for the ma- | jority are equally persistent. * ¢ ¢/ Nothing can desfroy morality. Nor ean anything destroy immoraiity.” Both | exist and will as they have since “Adam | and Eve scuttled over through the | jungle of the Garden of Eden.” | “By science we slake the thirst for knowledge; by religion we attain the | bliss of contemplation.” * * * “We | must remember that ‘religion’ and| ‘chureh,’ though often confused, are far rom being interchangeable terms. | ‘Religion’ is & natural impulse, ‘church’ is a soclal institution. The confusion | Is unfortunate.” s BACK-TRAILERS FROM THE MID- DLE BORDER. By Hamlin Gar- land. author of “A Son of the Middle Border,” etc. Tllustrated. New York: | The Macmillan Co. | WJBACK TRAILERS" puts into con- crete and personal form one of the deepest of instincts. No matter how long one may live, no matter how far | he may stray from the spot where his; | earliest years were spent, there comes 'a time when a thousand vague longings | | | take body in a diréct urge to go back || to the place of his beginnin, | were the plastic years that ‘Those | eived & daily_impress from those special sur- | i roundings of sun and air and sweep |of sky and stretch of land. Nothing | can destroy this early imprint. Noth- ing can dull its ultimate claim. 8o with| | Mr. Garland. Having spent years in | the “Middle Border," having done the | GREATER LOVE. | THE HUMANITARIAN CALENDAR; free to follow his heart, turned East-, ward for a new sort of pioneering. To keep him company in this act of “back- THE SOVIET UNION. trajling” he cites many another man writers and others, who have finally turned to the claims of New York upen the art life of any considerable artist And this is the story of Hamlin Gar-| land’s new adventure. Sorry, but it is a | depressing story—not y virtue of having turned his back upon the Middle West, but a depressing story through the au- thor's own mental state. Reading, I said. “I didn't know that Garland was 50 old.” But he was, or so he said at about every turn of his mind. Then upon a certain page the truth came out —*“around 56." Then I did wake up.| What's the matter with this man, call- | ing himself old and done for right in his| prime? No answer, not. from him. There | is an answer. He's sick, or he has habits that need making over, or his outlook has gone blue. Nonsense! There is much of beautiful and sturtly remi- niscence here, recollections of Roosevelt and Dreiser and John Burroughs and a | host of others, pleasant pictures of New York and London, all of great worth because ®of their source in this man Garland. Nevertheless, the tone of the book is that of discouragement, of count- | less worries about himself, of undue anxiety about his family. It is, in a word, centered too much in the feelings | of Hamlin Garland. the downcast feel- ings of the man. To be sure, there is| a lift, later. Yet the effect of the book | upon its writer is likely to be unfor- | tunate. Not an old man at all. A young| man instead. * % k % HELLDORADO; Bringing the Law to! the Mesquite, By William M. Break- enridge. Illustrated. Boston: Hough- ton Mifflin Co. ’I‘HIS is a true story told by one who acted once the strenuous and dan- gerous part of sheriff off in Arizona in those old days when a motley of hu- manity passed that way. Rough folks looking for fortune, law-breakers flying from the law-makers, Indians be- wildered by the queer capers of the “noble white man,” cattle stealers, rob- bers of every brand, these and a host of other sorts of wild man, made up the field of adventure for this former officer of the law, out in the wild West. From Wisconsin went this boy off to Pikes Peak and from there by swift stages into the real West, and into the thick of the rough life of that region. Stam- peded by Indians more than once, es- caping from them more than once, young Will made his way into Arizona, where in a swift course he graduated from many occupations into that, fin- ally, of upholder of the law in the per- son of Willlam Breakenridge, sheriff. This is a breath-taking reminiscence of mining and feuds, of trigger-finger poker games, of murder and the quick action of justice. of ranching, of the vigilance Committee on the trail, of the | Geronimo trouble—indeed, events crowd here for place and Speech, events of such A nature as to appear quite un- believable. Yet, this is history. This is the rise of a city of Arizona, the fabulous Tombstone, from the wild days of its beginnings up to its present re- spectable and rather drab existence And this graphic going back to earlier and more active days is a quit> indis- pensable record of one part of the West to those who aré looking for the facts of espansion and settlement in that quarter. And, somehow, despite the | flight of timg and the changed days that now confront us, this is as vivid a | story, as realistic a picture, as com- | municable an adventure as one will | come upon in many a long day. One rather envies this ex-sheriff of Tomb- stone, for he surely had a good time recalling those early days of hunting | the bad man. BOOKS RECEIVED THE MONSTER MEN. By Edgar Rice Burroughs. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. |'The Life and Exploits of Comdr. Richard E. Byrd—A Nature ' Story=—Another Volume from the Pen of Hamlin Garland, and “Helldorado.” By Oliver ) cuse: The Re v _Edwards. S lo Press Wash Soviet Union Information Burean POLITICAL HANDBOOK OF T} WORLD: Parliaments, Parties Press, as of January 1. 1929, Editr by Malcolm W. Davis and Walicr 11 Mallory. New York: Yale Univei- sity Press GILES OF THE Would Be a Rice. Ilustrated by Boston: Lothrop, Lee THE SECOND TRATIL. Baden-Powell, Marjorie Bowen. Botd Cable, Owen Rutter. L. A, G. Strong, Mabel Marlowe, E. V. Rieu, Hugh Chesterman, _ Nicholas Palmerston, Tanthe Jerrold, Roy Meldrum, frid Howe-Nurse and GeofT: Boumphrey. New York: D. ton & Co. UNDERSTANDING INDIA. By Ger- trude Marvin Wiliams. New York: Coward-McCann, Inc ort Wil- Zpple- THE PUBLIC LIBRARY Recent accessions at the Public Library and lists of recommended read- ing will appear in this column each Sunday. Aeronautics. Abbot, C. G. The Relations Between the Smithsonian Institution and the Wright Brothers. SZP-Ab2. Jones, B. Q. Practical Flying. SZP- J7 p. International Civil Aeronautics Confer« ence, Washington, D. C., 1928. Proe ceedings of the Cohference. 8Z« In8a. Richardson, H. C. Aircraft Float De« sign. SZP-R39. United States Commerce Dept., Aeroe nautics Branch. Air Commerce Rege« ulations, SZ-Un34. Biography. Adams, J. Q., President of United States, - Dia: 1794-1845; ed. by Allan Nevins, E-Ad 142a 1. Asquith, Lady C. M. E. C. The Duchess of York. E-El 48a. . R. H. Bob Davis Again! E- D297a. Bartlett, J. G. Henry Adams of Somer- setshire, England, and Braintree, Massachusetts. 1927. E-92Ad 1. Duncan, Irma, and Macdougall, A. R. Isadora Duncan's Russian Days. E-D9132du. Jorgensen. Johannes, Autobiography. v. 1. E-J766.E MacDonagh, Michael. The Life of William O'Brien. E-Obf44m. Nevinson, H. W. Last Changes, Last Chances. E-N414b, Thompson, C. W. Presidents I've Known and Two Near Presidents. E-9T37: Whiffen, Mrs. Keeping off the Shelf. ‘Thomas. E-W5724. Physiology. Burton-Opitz, Russell. An Elementary Manual of Physiology. QD-B956. Hin, A,]V. Living Machinery. @QD- 5 1551, Hill. A. V. Muscular Movement Man. QD-H55m. Paviov, 1. P. Lectu Reflexes. @D-P2 Trask, J. W. and Cuzzort. Belvh. sentials. of Physiology, Hygiene and Sanitation. QD-T6S. in reg on Coniditioned History. Belloe. Hilaire. James, the Second. F4555-B41. vey, John, Impressions of Soviet Russia and the Revolutionary World. F5466-D513. 3 L Meech, T. C. This Generation. F4567-M47. Pares, Sir Bernard. A History of Rus- sia. F54-P213. THE ECONOMICS OF FARM RELIEF; | A Survey of the Agricultural Prob- | lem. By Edwin A. Seligman, | LL.D., McVickar professor of politi- cal economy, Columbia Universit; New York: Columbia University Press. | THE WORLD'S BEST BOOKS; A Com- plete Classified Guide to Self- Culture. By Dr. William J. Robin- son. New York: Freéthought Press Association. IT'S NOT OUR FAULT; Why We Can't | Be Good! By Alfred Lawrence Hall- Quest, Ph., D., Columbia. New York: Horace Liveright: By Frances Mo- author of “The Forbidden New York: G. Howard catta, ‘Woman.” Watt. And Daily Maxim Book. By Dr. William J. Robinson. New York: Freethought Press Association. DISARMAMENT. By Salvador Madariaga, New York: McCann, Inc. THE GHOUL. By Frank King. New York: G. Howard Watt. AN EYE FOR AN EYE. By Frances Hickok. Boston: Hale, Cushman & Flint. DUSKIN, By Grace Livingston Hill. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. QUEEN LOUISE OF PRUSSIA, 1776- 1810. Translated from the German of Gertrude Aretz by Ruth Putnam. | With 16 portraits. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. MARRIAGE FOR ONE. By Erno S7ep Translated from the Buigarian, with a foreword by Emil Lengyel. New York: The Macauley Co. THE AMERICAN YEAR BOOK: A Rec- ord of Events and Progress, 1928. Edited by Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D.; associate editor, William M Schuyjer. New York: The American Year Book Corporation. i THE MAN OF IRON. By Richard De. han, author of “Between Two Thieves,” etc. New York: Frederick | A. Stokes Co. SOULS IN THE MAKING: An intro- | duction to Pastoral Psychology. B: John G. MacKenzie, M. A.. B. D., au- thor of “Modern Psy Achfevement of Ch ity,” etc. New York: lan Co. | REPRESENTATIVE MODERN SHORT | STORIES. Edited by Alexander Jessup, editor of “Representative | American Short Stories.” stc. m-wl York: The Macmillan Co. LAW OBSERVANCE: Shell the People | of the United States Uphold the | Constitution? Edited by W. C. Du- | rant. New York: Durant Award | Office. FROM DEPTHS UNKNOWN: Poems. Exhibition il of ! Paintings & Drawings by Foreign and Local Artists Yorkc Gauery 2000 S Street N.W. de Coward- ' most important of his lifework thére, Be at the last, like every one who i May 6th to May 29th Rand, E. K. Founders of the Middle Ages. FE-R 153F. Sellery, G. C. and Krey, A. C. Founding of Western Civill: FOA4-Se: ‘Thompson. J. W. An Economic and Social History of the Middle Ages (300-1300). FO4-T: Thornton-Cook, Elsie. Their Majesties of Scotland. F43-T396t. Wrong, G. M. The Rise and Fall of New France. 2 v. F816-W94. L . Eh¥ zation. Chemistry. Blanchard, W. M. A Laboratory Mane ual in General Chemistry. LOe B. 596 | Bradbury, R. H. Laboratory Studies in Chemistry. LO-B722 1 Carntledge, G. H. Introductory Theoe retical Chemistry. LO-C2451. Cornog, Jacob, and Vosburgh, W. O, Introductory Qualitative Analysis, LOC-C8161. Newell, L. C. College Chemistry. LOe Essentials of Genera] Nadsce. w. LO-Se 12. Sears, G. Chemistry Smith, D. P. and Miller, H. K. An Introduction to Qualitative Chemical Analysis.” LOC-Sm52i. Walden, Paul. Salts, Acids and Bases, .__The Modern Calori« LL-W58. Money and Prices. Bilgram, Hugo. The Remedy for Overs production and Unemployment. HM= B49r. Mitchell. W. C. and Otpers. Internas tional Price Comparisons, 1919, HMP-M69. “Dead” 50 Years, Found. When an estate was left to John Crid- land. who had emigrated from England to Australia half a century ago, hit brother, William Gridland, a _detective sergeant of police at Mineland, Somer- | set. thought it a hopeless task to search for a man who had not been seen o' heard of by any of his living Kin for 50 years, but as a matter of honor ane good conscience he sought definite in- formation from the proper auth: a long wait, but eventy word came that the Australian gov ment had discovered John Gridland liv g at Cairns, 1 and a little ter the brot d memori briefly reviewed. The Book You Want < When You Want It ERE you mayobtain fora small rental fee—a fractional part the purchase price—any book | of fiction or non-fiction, if new and popular. The service is prompt pleasing, the books are clean and in- viting, You start and stop when you shoose, WOMRATH'S i85 1319 F Street, 3028 14th Street, N. W. JANE BARTLI 1603 Connecticwt Ave., N.W, g e ] ¢