Evening Star Newspaper, May 4, 1930, Page 108

SHE GREAT CRUSADE: A Chroncle of the , Late War. By Jennings C. Wise, D. 8. C,, | leutenant colenel, U. S. A, A. E. F. Author “| ef “The Turn of the Tide,” etc. New York: 7| Lincoln MacVeagh, the Dial Press. o PON its surface this is a story, an / epic of the World War gathered out of the military service of Smith and his comrades. Underneath the true adventure of personal partak- fng in the conflict, the bosk reveals another character. Here it becomes a survey of the wide field of war, with appraisals, expert and waywise, of one or another outstanding phase of the struggle in its tally with the direct pur- pose and design of each. Understand, this two- fold content of the novel is, in the end, its most waluable and illuminating feature. The experi- ences of Smith make a swift and vivid tale of war-time, of war in actual daily progress. The jem and exigency. It is come into possession ef Wise is, perhaps, this twofold projectien, the its high-lighting from below, than writer who has, so far, come inte the war writing. When the World War criticism. It is criticism. It is a challenge to waste, disorder, lack of foresight, lack of readi- unsoldierly behavior at a level where the jndividual is in honor bound to be, not one man nor one commander, but his country as a whole instead. All this, objectively set out in THE WILDERNESS OF DENALI. By Charles Shelden. Introduction by C. Hart Merriam, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Y ome of his colleagues in science Charles <~ Sheldon has been called “our most famous of the habits of animals rank among the most valuable of the contributions thus far made to the life histories of many species— particularly the mountain sheep, caribou, moose, grizzly bear and wolverine.” This, the opening paragraph of Dr. Merriam's introduction to “The Wilderness of Denali,” points upon the scope and substance of the book itself, gives warrant to readers interested in the subject that here is a body of information against which there can be no faint cast even of un- reliability. « Denali is the Indian name for Mount McKin- fey. This fact indicates, broadly, the region with which the record itself has to do. The primary purpose of Mr. Sheldon’s personal un- dertaking was to study the white sheep, the Dall sheep of Alaska. Quite as a matter of eourse from this primary design the experiences of the hunter ramified in many directions, gathering up thereby in pretty full substance he entire range of animal life in this particu- lar hunting ground. From 1906 for three years, Winter and Summer, the scientific search went en. Personal experiences and observations serve to place here to the hand of readers a thousand scemes not immeediately concerned with the humting of big game. Incidents rising out of following the Yukon, of traveling along the THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MAY 4, 1930. — 2 DA GILBER \ COOK | _MYER /™ An Epic of the World War, With True Adventure in the Conflict—Spring Novels to Please All Tastes. Alaska range, of making terms with wild neighbors in Winter time, of building the cabin, of tramping and hunting from this outpost— each and all sources of innumerable adven- tures, robust, daring, dangerous. Then the coming of Spring with its changes in the face of things, which, even high up there, Spring does bestow upon the world everywhere. Many readers will have a clear delight in the keen eyes and brotherly heart of this hunter for other things than moose and caribeu and such, whose study is set by ardor for increasing knowledge of the natural life of the region. Mr, Lieut. Col. Jennings C. Wise, author of “The Great Crusade.” Sheldon has time, and mind, f the North for the ways in immemorial adaptations fitted themselves to the climatic amazing processes of nature. The book is, in effect, a library of useful and authentic knowledge. In addition te such clear scientific quality, it is from page to page direction. A most distinguished achievement by the kindly faced scholar who looks straight across to the reader from the first page of this this is Charles Sheldon’s last book. memorial to have left behind. SALUTE TO ADVENTURERS. By John Buchan, author of “Greenmantle,” etc. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Ce. T was “Greenmantle” that set so many of us chasing after John Buchan, the adven- turer, who, racing backward, had caught men alive with their old gallantries upon them, their old misdeeds still warm for the stirring of these later days that are so filled with work and money, money and work. Man, to be sure, has always loved money, and no doubt always will. Stealing it, fighting for it—somehow these seem more firing ways of gaining gold than the plugging routine of the present affords. However, that is another matter. Here we are going with John Buchan from Scotiand to Vir- ginia. In the person of one Andrew Garvald we are, in the old country, to get the running start of adventure by way of plots against old kings in the interest of new claimants, by way of Scottish moors and skies and moods, and the glimpse of a lovely lady. Then, across the sea to Virginia, away back when the tide- water reach was all there was to that virgin colony, and when the concerns of the day were those, on the one hand, of looking after the interests of the King of England and, on the other, of crowding in against those interests in behalf of a new-fashioned text on the rights of man—as if plain man could ask for rights! Less than a couple of centuries would transform that vagrant text into a great political gospel. But the matter in hand is that of the new set- tlers in their various rankings and degrees; that, too, of the Indian, already in proud pes- session, but already doomed to dispossession and injustice; that also of the land itself, reach- ing from the Atlantic Coast away out West, far as the Shenandoah Valley, then a wilder- ness, unknown save to the retreating Indian himself. Here is the stuff of adventure. Of it John Buchan makes absorbing pictures— settlement, grades of social feeling, the amuse- ments of that day, the birth of romance and its vicissitous growth, the poetry of the won- derful new land, the tragedy of the native. Tt is all here in the Buchan weave. The glamour of beauty, the fire of heroism, the blight of cruvty—all interwoven in a story of the early days of America in the making. A tonic stir always goes along with this writer—this John Buchan. THE LAST RUSTLER. The Autobiography of Lee Sage. Illustrations by Paul S. Clowes. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. PRI.'I'I'Y much everything depends upon the point of view. For instance, a man seated at a desk making marks on paper for 30 years or so would call this story a pure Munchausen yarn. Lee Sage, looking across toward the man at the desk would say, “He’s dead and don’t Why not have him looked after?” couth dress, this is an absorbing personal ac- count around which are gathered innumerable scenes of actuality as this existed in the old days of the West. The pictures by are, first, sympathetic and artful, interpretive. The story runs that Lee finally to learn the lesson of some social conformity—so he became a doing stunts before a shooting camersa. about it? Never mind! You don’t ha answer. Read the story instead—the s that little boy going to school to life. 111 1] et distinct episodes, each packed and crammed to its utmost limit, could provide this side of miracle itself. From Marseille across the Riviera, a dash to Paris, another to London. Such is the roadway of Forester. But no mere map could chart the routes of rascality and evil intent by way of which wickedness of almost every known brand sought out the likable and competent major. Exciting as each adventure is im its picturesque sur- roundings of Nice and Cannes and Monte Carlo, there is never a moment of real con- cern in the reader’s mind. Sinister plots against our Forester fizzle out and sizzle harmlessly at the moment when they were counted upon to raise the dickens of a rumpus with that man, so troublesome when crooked . Every= Everybody knows Op- penheim. Knows pretty much what to expect from both of them. Yet, familiar as they are, these will not stale for a long time to leisure, of sophisticated ways of living, manners and quiet humor, of general waywiseness in a' multifarious world. And and the drinking and the smoking! on all the time. Such food! Such Such heavenly No undertaking so mo- mentous as to shut off the supply of such creature comforts. One feels, reading this book of episodes—true adventure each one of them—as he does when coming from some rather exclusive place, like church, or grand opera, or a Shakespeare play, or an F. F. V. social function—exclusive and cultured, don't ¥’ know! MARKED “CANCELED.” By Natalie Sumner Lincoln, author of “The Fifth Latchkey,” etc. New York: D. Appleton & Co. NOTHER murder in Washington. Albert Reade, bachelor, prominent in social and financial reckonings, found shot to death in his own fine house. Near the dead man lay a scrap of paper, which turned out to be a mar- riage license. Across it was stamped the word “canceled.” Here in equal disclosure was not only the crime itself, but the motive behind it as well. Therefore, “Cherchez la femme” be- came the exclusive pass word of detective and police force. Once more that immemorial trouble-maker of the world became the exclu- sive object of pursuit and apprehension. Such' is the background of Miss Lincoln’s new mystery tale, Across it is woven, back and forth and in a puzzling criss-cross, clues that in fair beginnings frazzle out finally one after another to mere fringes of abandoned trail and counter=- trail. Tt is this gusto*of seizure attending each fresh hint, the amazing activity of the woman hunt carried forward along the familiar streets of the Capital, that engross the reader. There is no problem as such. Find the woman, dise appointed and vindictive. Such the plain proe gram. But, again, it is preved that the woman is adroit, resourceful, a good masquerager—all of the self-concealing things that she has everywhere learned to be. Difficulties are in- creased, besides, through the high social level upon which the crime is set. Cultivated people do not murder one another., No? Well, follow along here for an answer to that. Familiar features of the mystery and its untangling appear through the actualities of crime pursuit as these are revealed in life itself through lack of acumen and insight and courage on the part of detectives and police. True realism takes its place at this point. The reader, trying to be a sleuth, turns away from these ladies who one after another come into the Could it have been a man, after all? Could it? Books Received THE FORBIDDEN ZONE. By Mary Bords Garden City: Doubleday, Doran. e THE GROWING BOY; Case Studies of De- velopment Age. By Paul Hanly Furfey, Ph. D. New York: The Macmillan CHEIRO'S YEAR BOOK; with Specially Calculated Predictions, Birthday Guide and Readings for 1930. By “Cheiro,” author of “Read Your Past, Present and Future” etc. In collaboration with R. H. T. Naylor, author of “The Glory of Heaven,” etc. London: London Publishing Co. ON EASTERN CROSSROADS; Legends and Prophecies of Asia. By Josephine Saint- Hilaire. New York: Stokes. PARENTS PREFER BABIES. By Esther L. Schwartz. Ilustrated by Mary D. Pield Terrel. New York: Dutton. EASY STREET. By Roger W. Babson. New York: Fieming H. Revell. NAVY WIVES, By Whitman Chambers. New York: Rae D. Henkle. POTATO FACE. By Carl Sandburg. New York: Harcourt, Braoe. THE BAHA'I PEACE PROGRAM; from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha. New York: Baha'i Publishing Committee. By Howard Albert Corey, A.B. Boston: Christopher. FOUR INFANTRYMEN. By Ernst Johannsen, Translated from the German by A. H. Wheen. New York: Alfred H. King. HAIL, VIRGINIA! By Helen Sherman Grife fith, author of “The Virginia Books,” etc. Illustrated by Bess Goe Willis. Phila« delphia: Penn. WOMAN; and Other Poems. By Lew B. Brown. Boston: Christopher. RED COATS AND BLUE; a story of a Brit- ish Girl in the American Revolution. By Harriette R. Campbell. Ilustrated by Marguerite De Angeli. New York: Harper. WAR FOR PROFITS. By Otto Lehmanne Russbuldt. Translated F Street at Eleventh Read All the New Books In Our Circulat- ing Library First Floor Jusi P b—h;‘hed' Nancy’s Lone Girl Scouts By JEAN HENRY LARGE NEW story for girls. Mrs. William . 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