Evening Star Newspaper, February 23, 1930, Page 96

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, FEBRUARY 23, 1930. JOAQUIN MILLER; And His Other Self. By Harr Wagner. San Francisco: Harr Wagner i § P E' il Ee E EE%“&EE E g Eg; 5 ‘ig 555 tiiEEi 1] §§§E§5§§§Eg!is§fi§3§ fae] § ; i T BEEE 1 i i i g ks f:1: 4 E égi i B s% H i ; i | s N :égéggégiiégfi It Rt agfi Egia ) 8 3 < I find so much of sin and blot, I hesitate to draw & line Betweeén the two, where God has not.” And the grand swing of the ‘“Columbus”— “Now must we pray, For lo! the very stars are gone. ‘Brave: Adm'r’l, speak, what shall I say?” “Why, say, ‘Sail on! Sail on and on’!” TO THE VALIANT. By Norah C. James, author of “Sleeveless Errand.” New York: . William Morrow & Co. KNOW Norah James? Meet her. Irish by .~ blood. Many things by occupation. Sculp- tor, designer, war worker, to an official politician, a politician quite unofficial herself, a trade union organizer. An active adventure in being alive, you see. And, by virtue of her own nature, these activities soaked into the girl as clear artistry, emerging as novels of fine literary distinction. “To the Vallant” is the second one, which, in effect, is simply re-affirmation of the substantial quality of the first one, “Sleeve- less Errand.” If you are subject to fits of cynicism in . respect to the family, as such, as an institu- “#tion, you should take something at once to coun- teract so futile a seizure—indeed, so harmful an attack. Take “To the Valiant.” You are bound, by way of it, to come out in a keener sight, and insight; in a sturdier defense of thes home fortress. Just a family—perhaps a little below what is vaguely defilned as the middle class. Father, mother and three boys, one of them blinded as a little fellow. Between this lad, Benny, and his younger brother, Robert, there grows up a service of love and friend- ship that is both deeply beautiful and wholly believable. This homely idyl is closer than David and Jonathan, nearer than Damon and Pythias, more of the:daily texture of current life than these and, therefore, more powerful ~in its good service ta the general reader. Every family, it is said, is likely to produce one black sheep. This one does, the youngest boy. Yet such is the sanity, the simple understanding of the lad, the freedom from nagging and preach- ment, that, black though he clearly is, he never does reach the ebon depth of unreclaimable .evil. By and by a girl appears, of course. Benny, the blind boy, and Robert, his faithfulest one, » SR TR Joaquin Miller Is the Subject ofAnoflzér Volume—A Wide Variety of Novels Arrive for the Spring Bookshelves. splendid story. In- stead, fair dealing, faith, willingness to suffer, s little at least, for the endeared ones. A hearty give and take, without rancor,”that is, after all, the rock bottom of every sort of human re- . A competent artist has worked Hutchinson tempo to the levels of self-denial that constitute so substantial a part of all hon- est and really decent intercourse. If you are looking for excitement and swift changes, don’t stop here. If you are interested in the drama f evel y of life, in the spiritual battles that Fang—where have I just met that name?” Then it came to me—that pettish moment when, having opened the book “The Bright Concubine,” I saw in its preface that very name. But I laid the book down. I said, quite unreasonably, “I'm tired of 'em!” Tired of 'em, both “in esse” and “in posse,” as the schoolman used to say; tired of in the past, in the present and the future. I'm sick of Solomon with his thousand—it was or less, wasn't it?—sick even of Sheba who went out Just a mood, an in- for any one who knows that history is this little istory with the savors of and statecraft upon it. L RN W N E L *'gfgfgizssffi;;fsgggnég Egié‘?g?%é“ H L fi%i?ié&iimzffififi. 1l : li z. § _5 A M i : 4 u I 8 used to say to me: “Dom’t jump in s0 hard! Begin as you can hold ." Now, if George Gibbs had had that kind g of grandmother and had minded her words, why, then, he would have made a better novel than “Isle of Xilusion” seems to me to be. The “isle” is & real one. A nose of land thrusting up above the destruction of the Mis- sissippi on & rampage. To it, for safety, swam a man, rescuing a strange young woman on the way. There, for a couple of days, the two were marooned. Then, rescue. But the mischief was E?g i H! :?§=Eg§ss iéiié!§z§§$fzséi § ) fre " & provement upon the One does not always g i ed 5 [ F gif THE MAN WITH THE SQUEAKY VOICE. R. A. J. Walling, author of “That Dinner The Moment., By Witter Bynner. Moments may be but moments to the heart, But they walk with iron feet nevertheless. And the earth takes them, and of the earth a part Is our own part, and we feel the siress They make on earth and we crumble and we confess Owur dust. We who had thought our love a dart From some unchangeable star of loveliness, Fixing in each an unchangeable counterpart, Find but infirmity and wilderness. Though we know that still I am and still thow art, Yet a single moment was enough duress Against a love that months and years had wrought. Was s a moment or ourselves or fate, Is what we ask ourselves'a moment late. / _— ing at a filling station. Masters was in the neighborhood, s0° much in it that he himself was taken into custody as being a lttle -too close to the scene of murderous activity. Such is the starting point of this very eager affair, hustling the corners of the shire committed, involved first sggg § : apart for much of the flimsy to- Rmmmmo!the ac=- crime story. A of 28 iEEEE BETRAYAL. By Alexia E. and H. C. Walter, authors of “The Patriot.” New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. v PAY DAY. By Nathan Asch. New York: THE ALTAR OF HONOR. By Ethel M. Dell, HOW MANY MILES FROM ST. JO? of Sterling B. F. Clarke, a Forty. gether with a brief biography Phelan, 1819-1892, pioneer merchant. San Francisco: Privately E. West, chief Scout executive. Il New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. TOWN GOVERNMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS (1620-1930). By John Fairfield Sly, lecturer on government, Harvard University. Cam- bridge: Harvard University Press. THE FLIGHT OF THE HERON. By D. K, Broster. New York: Junior Literary Guild, Inc. CHATS THE MACPFADDEN FAMILY. By G Perkins. New York: Lewis Cope- land Co. WILD FLOWERS AND STATE FLOWERS OF NORTH AMERICA. By Lydia Nor- INSECT WAYS. By Clarence Weed. New York: D. Appleton & Co. BERNARR MACFADDEN; A Study in Success. By SIBYL WILBUR . An Authentic : Mrs. Eddy’s life is here de picted with illuminating ¢ e , care- fully -voidi'l:: l;nvemion. has ent wrote biognplqlu ication in -~ — | a magazine general cir- culation. Published by . THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING SOCIETY; ’Iouon. U.S. A, 408 Pages — 13 IMustrations Cloth Edition: $3.00,