Evening Star Newspaper, June 22, 1930, Page 92

REVIEWS E— — ~— THE L [H BUILDERS OF THE BAY COLONY. By Samu>l Eliot Morison, author of “The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783~ 1860, cte. Boston: Houghton, = Mifflin Company. ECTURES turned to print accrue greatly to the advantage of ulti- mate readers. That is, they do in this case, and are likely so to do in any case, I'm thinking. The involuntary give and take between lec- turer and studen:, the animation of the speaker delivering a part of his personality along with the theme in hand, the warmth of th: voice as against the chilliness of pure print—all these near qualities of the spoken ward lift it, when printed, into intimate regions of a reader’s pleasurable acceptance. ere are lectures—I11 of them—whose point is to set out one or another of those who were influential in starting the historic “Bay Colony” on its carcer. “If these sketches of a few individuals can convey some hint of the sincerity and the beauty in the lives of those who came out of Old England to begin the new, my purpose will have been fulfilled.” So, through the good service of this writer, who has already published the most stirring history that you will be likely to read in many a year—“The Maritime History of Massachusetts”—you are tnvited to meet these “fow individuals,” these Builders in the New World. Pioneers to a strange land, lawmakers, business men, preachers, apostles, scholars, teachers—the essence of collective life represented here by one or another stalwart of his own calling, by one representative of his own wuseful craft. And what did these achieve? A hand's- breadth of settlement, a “fair day's sail,” to cover its shore line, a scanty total of popu- lation—Yet, “search the modern world, where will you find another community of like extent and age, containing so many outstand- ing, pungent individuals as those described herein?” Frankly the author admits his own free choice in the selection of thes:. He might have taken others, possibly more con- spicuous in one direction or another, but, no— these “appealed to me most.” These ‘“repre- serit the various aspects of life—adventurous and artistic, political and economic, literary and scientific, legal, educational and evan- gelical—which appear in the first 50 years of the colony.” And so they come marching— John Winthrop among them, and John Hull, goldsmith, artist and business man. Henry Dunstan, president of Harvard; John Eliot, apostle to the Indians, and Anne Bradstreet, poet and forerunner of Emily Dickenson. The company is abundantly alive and, more than this, it is clearly cotemporaneous in the essentials of human nature that is com- moa to all periods and ages. Out of his historic certainties of time and place and in- cident, out of his expert appraisals of indi- vidual service and influence, out of the exact assignment of each of these notables to their lawful and traditional rights of homage by posterity—in a word, out of his scholarship and sénse of the rclativities of history, Sam- uel Eliot Morison has delivered over to readers men and a woman that are as alive as we are, as much of the moment as we are in their courage and vigor and forward-looking activity. Possessed by a “dynamic force called puritanism which drove them to start life anew in the wilderness.” And after three centuries they are as alive today as we are, a8 much in the advance of things as we are. All this, this by virtue of the writer's own vividness of putting facts out before one— just as he did with those memorable, and immortal clipper ships sailing the known warld over, in his “Maritime History.” One cannot imagine a more invigorating, a more communicable part of the great celebration going on in New England this year than this dramatic, upstanding story of the pioneers of the Bay Colony. CHANCES: a Novel. By A. Hamilton Gibbs, author of “Soundings,” etc. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. TWO youngsters in the same house, two lads ™ in the same school and later on to Oxford together, two buddies in the same war, two lovers of the same girl—one of them in open thrall, the other secretely adoring. Material here for a most vicissitous romance. Nowadays the novelist loads himself down with the chances and mischances of young love. A step too deep and he may summon the World War to extricate his plot from complete dis- aster. Nothing easier than to dispose of super- numeraries of every sort than by way of battle. And this is what happens here, happens quite a8 2 matter of course. A good love story is here offered to readers by an author who has already earned general recognition for substan- tial themes and a genuine artistry in shaping these to current interest. But here is some- thing much better than a mere romance, better than love’s young dream between man and maid. PFor here is a genuinely inspired picture of deep [riendship and devotion between two men. So rare is this manifestation and so rich t that the theme has served genius every- re and in every age for its highest achieve- ment, The brotherhood of two men is of a Quality Lo objectify unselfishness as no other re- lationship seems able to do. It is this thread running through Mr. Gibbs' story that sets “Chances” so high a place in current fiction. As matter of deep substance these two boys are, in reality, one. So full is their identity that either is lacking without the other. Yet this does not at any time come out, except by the natural course of events. In their boy behaviors they have their differcnces, as all lads do, their abrupt no-manners toward each other, their growly disagreements. At the old French school of St. Mal!o their story becomes a pure charm of nalural boyhood activities and interests. w, you know, most stories of school life are SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 22, 1930. A New Novel by H. G. Wells—“Builders of the Bay Colony”—The Story of a Mountain School. deadly things. Not this one. It is all of a natural and refreshing quality. And through- out, whatever the situation—social, professional, military, what not—these two may be counted upon to behave in true character and to be- have together. Here is where the story scores so peautifully. Damon and Pythias are here Jack and Tom—and no more than Jack and Tom, so tenderly and heartily conceived and projected by this author of deep divinations and sure-handed artistry. A beautiful story of man love and friendship. THE AUTOCRACY OF MR. PARHAM. By H. G. Wells, author of “The World of Wil- liam Clissold,” etc. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co. “’I‘HERE shall be a brand-new world if I have to make it myself,” so, in effect, sev- eral years ago said Mr. Wells, And since that openly declared resolution and program this man of Utopia has been offering samples of his valious endeavors in the way of fabricating new worlds for old. Agreements, accommoda- tions, generally civilized attitudes among na- tions—these are the means by way of which ultimately there will arise not only Aristide Briand’s “United States of Europe,” but a united world instead, bent upon industrial and economic security out of which there will grow settled peace, material comfort, intellectual dif- fusions, cultural powers and spiritual altitudes. War, war ever more destructive and terrible, is to be the heritance of modern and future life unless in time the world turn definitely toward a resolute abandonment of war as means of world intercourse. One of Mr. Wells’ engage- ments is to portray these on-coming wars in an ever increasing horror of scientific ingenuity turned upon devastation, grown more and more inclusive in its sweep. In thls story the agency of unending national animosities is the reactionary element of every country, those who are stewed in the broth of the world-as-it- ever-has-been, the immovables, the classicists, the Tory breed, cherishing the ancient simply because it is ancient, accepting man as a rend- ing and tearing animal because, so far, that is just what he has been. An enemy to change —these are to be the breeders of new wars un- der specious pleas for nationalism, patriotism, and such other clear vanities of explosive and inflamable content. Such clear public enemies are embodied here in Mr. Patham. Off against him is set Sir Bussy Woodcock and his kind—go-getters, money-makers, millionaires, stirring the world to work, to industry, to getting every sort of material on the move. Not a grain of culture about Sir Bussy. Diplomacy is Greek to him, drawing out no response except “Gaw,” which is Sir Bussy's answer to all that he does not understand. A realist to the core, this man, living wholly in his own day. And the new war comes on without, finally, any more definite conclusion than its conduct has been definite. Some fine writing here, however, and some that is amazingly witty and amusing. The matter rather limps through its program be- cause the plot is of an unsustaining char- acter. Nevertheless, it is, with the pictorial assistance of David Low, both scathing ar- raignment of present world politics and a glowing but nebulous vision of still another Wellsian “new world.” A MOUNTAIN SCHOOL. Edited by O. Latham Hatcher. Richmod: Garrett & Massie. IN definite point this is a description of the Konnarock Training School. In full sub- stance it is a report of the Southern Woman's Educational Alliance upon its purposes and achievements among the mountain dwellers of that region. A very complete report, seiting out with a journey to this hill country to discover the prime needs of its people. It was this tour of investigation that pointed primarily upon plans for giving some measure of education to these so wholly lacking in this respect. The book is taken up with a general view of the situation, of the living conditions up there, of the remoteness from current matters, of the seventeenth century stagnation in existence. From this starting point the work sets out energetically to tell of the founding of the Kon- narock Training School—how this was effected, how it was equipped, what its course of study, what the quality of its teachers and, finally, the substantial things that have been accom- plished by this group of women interested in the education of the mountain children. Quite in detail does the book give a body of experi- mentation—tests, suitable subjects of study, the proportion of handwork to bookwork, of in- dustrial education to lessons as these are known in school parlance. Health and hygiene are outstanding in the record, as they should be. Indeed, it is the practical view that attracts one to this study. It is the sanity of outlook, the sense of immediate and essential needs, that hold right of way in this book. To be sure, music, art, dramatics have a place—but it is a well chosen place, an accurately appraised value as immediate needs to young children everywhere. Pictures go along with the text in a most interesting and revealing role. A sketch of Konnarock Training School as it is in the year 1930 closes the survey with a clear sum- wmary of the further needs of this institution and with certain defintte recommendations for the meeting of such neceds. A highly useful study. A most interesting one as well, Indeed, to the city dweller, accustomed to all manner of modern ways of life, this book is nothing less than a revelation. Its purpose, however, is to report the facts of a useful experiment, to arouse interest, to invite co-operation and en- couragement. A finely edited body of fact bear- ing upon a subject of concern to the whole of the United States. SCANDAL SHEETS; A Novel. By E. R. Conde. New York: G. Howard Watt. HE origin of almost any important fact in current life makes a fascinating story. Take the range from tallow candle or oil-soaked wick in a saucer to the electric lighting of to- day. Take the means of getting about, from foot trail to flying machine. Take commu- nication, from relay runners to radio—take al- most any one of our modern easements and conveniences for the back trail to its beginnings if you want a story of real adventure and stir. Now, for the sake of the case in hand, take the vellow journal. Where did it begin? What gave it a start? What has brought it to such gigantic proportions? Who set it on its way? Here is the story. At least, here is a story whose purport is to give authentic parentage to yellow journalism. A lusty story, true or not. According to it, this modern phenomenon of the press took its start along back toward the time of Columbus. In fact, the prototype of this yellow tribe was born in 1492, Colum- bus’ own year—one Pietro Aretino of Arezzo, who came in time to be a poet of account. There was, however, according to the story in hand, such a turn to the tunes of Aretino, such a fitting in of these to the eager mood of all the people, so curious about the frailties and foibles of the rest of the world. that in no time at all Pietro Aretino was in demand to set out sin and errancy generally in his neat singing measures. Popularity grew with the gossip that Pietro was able to distribute on fluttering bits of 'what in that day took the place of the mod- ern rhymster's scratch paper. That was the beginning of the tattling newsmonger’s trade. Why it persisted and grew has really nothing to do with Aretino himself. Such vitality sprang from the human nature of the populace, so eager for news, for bad news, for personal dis- closures, for public shortcomings. With a send-off much less important than that be- stowed by a poet of the fifteenth century, the vellow sheet was bound not only to survive, but to flourish like the green bay tree besides. An amusing tale, this one by E. R. Conde—no doubt in its essentials true also and, therefore, a picturesque contribution to the history of a colorful day and date when the Renaissance was bringing out a new order of adventure, a new kind of romance, a new brand of wit. Here you will meet the notables of that far day— artist, and Pope, cardinal and courtesan, poet, and painter. A bold and lusty romance as, of course, it should be according to its time and its people. THE YOUNG AND SECRET. By Alice Grant Rosman, author of “Visitors to Hugo,” etc. New York: Minton, Balech & Co. BY nature youth is out-giving not with- holding. But, youth is wise, almost appall- ingly wise. It learns lessons of life where the grown folks are quite unconscious that they are teaching lessons to the wide-eyed young- sters roundabout. It is from their elders that the children learn to keep things back, to -be secretive, to make ends meet by way of silences and seeming agreements. Such is the founda- tion of this interesting story of a young girl who kept her affairs to herself. Even her ro- mance was her own possession, not something to be pawed over and messed about by curious acquaintances and friends. And a very charm- ing romance it is—beautifully delicate and ideal, while it is at the same time believable and entirely plausible. The story bégins on a note that is touching, and true. On the insight of a little girl, not much more than a baby, upon the possessive passion of her father for the lovely mother. And that would not have been so bad for the child, save that she caught the fact of the father's jealousy of her in respect to this radiant mother. So by arts and arti- fices innumerable did this infant at every turn abstract herself from the family intercourse— from those delectable father-and-mother visits for which she was wellnigh famished. “Non- sense” did you say? Not nonsense at all. Sheer truth instead. And a very pitiful bit of age- old sapiency done up in the person of a baby, besides. You've seen it more than once. That is, if you are not stone blind—which no doubt you are. Never mind! The child had a dog and a dog can soften a great deal of human brutality. So she and the dog romped and told each other all about it till, finally that young man came along just as the two of them were getting a little older—older enough. Then fol- lows a darling of a love story—and this, too, kept in the shadow. Habit, you see. A lovely business all through. Pathetic much of the time, but artfully managed to keep to the inner truth and not to be too sorrowful about it. THE RHODODENDRON MAN. By J. Aubrey Tyson. New York: E. P, Dutton & Co. A DUTTON mystery story with a new kink to its treatment. That is to say, the reader goes along with the murder as it is set down in its various aspects and in its Ppossidle lines of final disclosure, Then, toward e the end of the story, there is a decided hold- up on the reader himself. Book sealed, slightly, from this point. The purpose is to give one a go at detecting*a criminal from the facts in hand. And these facts, up to page 260, are in the nature of clues. So, here you are, reader, with a bunch of perfectly plausible leads in your hand. Now, go to it. Pick out the guilty one as if you were Sherlock Holmes himself, or Philo Vance, or any other of your supersleuth friends. Don't ask me. I'll admit no great success this time. Couldn't wait, you see. Jumped—and jumped wrong. Next time I'll be a real Holmes or Vance. It is a good device, engaging and with substance to the plan. A rich man, murdered. A news- paper man on the trail. Motives more than one and clues not scarce. That which holds the young detective back for too long a time is a personal sense of his own obligation— no, not to himself, but to professional fair- dealing. However, the ban does not hold forever and, finally, of course, young Baincroft untangles snarls here and there, follows tracks through many turnings, finds his man. Good hot weather entertainment. Better next time, when one really gets into the spirit of being a detective on his own account. Books Received HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT; a Novel of Alaska and the North. By Walter S. Smith, Boston: Meador. THE PSYCHOLOGIST KEEPS HOUSE. By Edwina Abbott Cowan, Ph. D, professor in Friends University, and Laura Thornbor- ough, B. A, authér of “Motion Pictures in Education,” etc. Minneapolis: Midwest. CULTIVATING PERSONALITY. By William S. Walsh, M. D., author of “In Inferiority Feeling,” etc. New York: Dutton. WITH TRAILING BANNERS. By Estelle Au- brey Brown. Boston: Little, Brown. PERIODICAL ESSAYS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Edited by George Carver, Uni- versity of Pittsburgh. New York: Double« day, Doran. ENGLISH PROSE, 1600-1660. Edited by Cecil A. Moore, professor of English in the Uni- versity of Minnesota, and Douglas Bush, associate professor of English in the Uni- versity of Minnesota. New York: Double=- day, Doran, THE PARTHENON NOAS: a Comymunication Addressed to Charles Marie Widor, perpetual secretary of the Institute of France, by Ernest Flagg, architect. New York: Scrib- ner’s. STOCK SPECULATION AND BUSINESS. By George L. Hoxie. Boston: Stratford. MAX WEBER. By Holger Cahill. With 32 re- productions. New York: Downtown Gallery. PAPER BOOKS—PRIZE POEMS, 1913-1929. Edited by Charles A. Wagner. Introduction by Mark Van Doren. New York: Charles Boni. CONDORCET; the Torch Bearer of the French Revolution. By Anne Elizabeth Burlingame, Ph. D. assoclate professor of history in Hunter College, author of “The Battle of the Books in Its Historical Setting.” Bos- ton: Stratford. IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY: Concentration the Key to Mental Mastery. By Bertrand Lyon, author of *“Practical Public Speak- ing,” etc. Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard. WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN HUNGARY. By Elizabeth Pongracz Jacobi, Boston: Loth- rop, Lee & Shepard. TENTS OF THE MIGHTY. By Donald Rich- berg, author of “The Shadow Men,” ete. With a foreword by Paul U. Kellogg. New York: Willett, Clark & Colby. CHEIRO'S BOOK OF NUMBERS. Volume I and Volume II complete. North Holywood: London Publishing Co. WE LOOK AT THE WORLD. By H. V. Kal- tenborn. New York: Rae D. Henkle. THE BOAST OF THE SEMINOLE. By D, Lange. Illustrated by Harold Cue. Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard. VOICE AND PEN OF VICTOR BERGER; Congressional Speeches and Editorials. Mil- waukee: Milwaukee Leader. WASHINGTON'S WESTERN LANDS. By Roy Bird Cook, author of “The Family and Early Life of Stonewall Jackson,” etc. Strasburg: Shenandoah Publishing House. LIGHT ON THE TRUE SHAKESPEARE. By A. M. von Blomberg. Cover design by Jeanne Boynton Woodward and the author. Boston: Christopher. THE STORY OF HAITI: From the Discovery of the Island by Christopher Columbus to the Present Day. By Harriet Gibbs Mar- shall, president Washington Conservatory of Music. Boston: Christopher. R oofing . Asphalt Demand. PmOLEUM ASPHALT seems to be a boom= ing product on the markets of the land. The production in this country rose from 3,817,539 tons in 1928 to 4,057,227 tons in 1929, The improved domestic demand was due large- ly to the market for roofing asphalt. Felix Mahony’s National Art School Color, Interior Decoration, Costume Design, Commercial Art, Posters 1747 R. 1. Ave. North 1114