Evening Star Newspaper, August 17, 1930, Page 90

18 GOETHALS: Genius of the Panama Canal; & Biography. By Joseph Bucklin Bishop and Earnham Bishop. New York: Harper & Bros. /@ VHE biography is dedicated to “The Old Canal Men.” It opens like this: “Have they canned you on the A run? “Tell the Colonel; “Tell the tale of what they've done “To the Colonel. “Take your sorrows and your woes “To the Colonel; “He will understand, he knows, “Does the Colonel.” —Panama Roughneck Ballads, 1912. Both dedication and ballad are highly signifi- cant. Under the buildér, the engineer, the administrator, achieving one of the greatest of modern national and international trade routes—under all this of distinguished public service, there is the man himself, open to the . udvances of every order of need. It is, in fact, only the small man who is exclusive, un- approachable, even a shade arrogant. Only the fool who is either in feeling or in bearing superior. Here is The Big Man. I thought, as doubtless you are thinking, that in general terms I knew of the career of George Goethals. But, having caught this homely and genuine tribute to him, I decided - that this is a book to read, for my own sake. So, in deep absorption, I took the trail of the “Colonel.” Back to where the Goethals’ tribe began—an astonishingly ancient lineage. But I'm not greatly excited over family trees. Not much of a climber. Much rather would I pre- fer to stay on the ground and look across at my contemporaries and their immediate forbears to see the warming efforts they are making with the business of being alives But if you do like genealogy, here is a fine chapter for your pleasuring. School days for the lad George, and what be did to these are more to our common liking. Then comes the joy and pride of West Point, with the occasional slip here and there that appears only to add to the glamour of that almost fabulous West Point tradition and training. Then the boy's choice is made for engineering. Finally the real busi- ness of building, since construction is to be the physical and mental and spiritual pre- occupation of this man for the rest of his life. You know the story in outline—service in Porto Rico and otherwhere. But it is the Panama Canal that stands for Goethal, that is Goethal. Here the “benevolent despot” ruled for the efficiency of the enterprise and for the well- being of the workers. And, at last, “the end of the big job.” An epic story to be read in homage to a great, a simply great countryman. Its authors, father and son, are highly compe- tent historians. Were such. Both are gone. Between them they projected the great drama of American history, the Panama Canal, wherein the leading role, the dominant role, was taken by a mafn cut to its very measure—“Goethals, genius of the Panama Canal.” SHEPHERDS IN SACKCLOTH. By Sheila Kaye-Smith, author of “Joanna Godden,” etc. New York: Harper & Bros. NOV!L!BTS, separated broadly, are out- farers on the one hand, home dwellers on the other. To the first we are in debt for wide views of the world, for adventure in many new forms, for customs diverse, for atmosphere of exotic suggestion. To the second we are in even deeper bond for the greatly illuminating fact that the neighborhood span reveals charms hitherto unrecognized, and that here, besides, within this narrow reach the whole of human existence in its essentials may be found. The little and the big are no different from each other. It is writers like this one and other stay-at-homes, working their own garden plots, who make clearest demonstration of every man’'s identity with every other man. Sheila Kaye- Smith is a clearly distinguished literary workey in the Sussex that has nourished her whole life. ‘This corner of England is hers by right of kinship with the soil, with the look of the land, with the drift of the clouds and the slant of the rain, with the trends of neighborhood thought, with the common behaviors of the community. It is from this source that her novels have sprung, in dramatic proof that humanity is a family, its variations being only of superficial quality. Here is a little Sussex village with its outlying farms. At the center of it are the church and its rector. Indeed, the rector and his wife dominate this action through their care for the spiritual dependents around them. These are also the steadying influence where all around are many signs of & new order encroaching upon the past. FHere aresyoung folks feeling the drive of the present as they are doing everywhere. Young love and its rush upon disaster is one of the familiar incidents of the homespun tale. The super- wisdom of the elders is not missing from this realistic picture of Sussex and of all creation besides. Little minds and open ones rub together here as everywhere. Small events reveal personal qualities of worth and unworth naturally and convincingly. All the things we do, all the things we are, come out in this chronicle of Sussex. Such the material from which the artist—patient, feeling, divining, sensing the great symmetry under the outer diversity and disharmony—takes up in her hands and delivers to us this reallsm of old Sussex and of the world itself. LONE COWBOY: My Life Story. Will James, author of “Cow Country,” etc. Illustrated by the author. New York: Charles Scrib- ner’s Sons. THE full stress of this story is on the “lone”— one of the lonesomest personal recordings ever made, I'm sure. Not that hy design aither, Clearly in effect, however. In addition to writ- THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, AUGUST 17, 1930. Will James, Picturesque Cowboy, Writes the Story of His Life—A New Novel of England by Sheila Kaye-Smith—Other Summer Books. | ing his own story, Will James has illustrated it also. He is a great artist, a natural one, self- trained. I'm no judge of art. But there is something great in pictures whose single effect— aloneness—moves in and takes possession of any one looking at them, reminding him of the es- sential solitude of every man’s life. If no words had been used here the body and essence of this matter would have been delivered by way of the drawings alone, But there are words. There is a story telling of a little boy left to himself so young, of the friend found and lost so quickly, of the years of youth and manhood in the West country, of the ways of life out there, of the adventures of this particular man among the various brands of rough experience that a new country imposes upon its people. Getting into trouble is the hourly program, not only with James himself, but with everybody else. Gun troubles, jail troubles, elusive and sketchy legal proceedings, short shrift in the administration of justice. A great picture of the cow country, of the cowboy life. We've all read tales, truth and fiction mixed, of the wild West. Dimly we sense that its early phase is passing, has passed. But for such books of personal experience as this one we should forget the picturesque nificant foundations of the great region $o rapidly corforming to the modes and man. ners of older parts of the country. to be forgotten. Therefore, the real West in good story is as important as other chapter in the record of growth for the entire country. An honest, simple account, completely personal in content, but most in- .clusive in its implications. This is more than a first-rate story. It is a saga of the cowboy and the cow country. It is an essential part of the history of the West. Besides, coming closer, it is a deeply touching tale of the lone boy and man, making his way against odds that, by their very nature, are calculated either to break or to make any mere man. In this case, the evidence points upon a domble achievement—a man made, and a true artist also. THE LION AND THE LAMB. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. POPULARITY, in the field of fiction, is a gad- about. “Touch-and-go” is its whimsical way-word, smiling upon this author today, beaming upon that one tomorrow. Wait a min- ute! W-ait a min-ute! What about this novel- ist, Oppenheim, with more than a hundred ro- mances already to his account, each one, upon its appearance, most welcome of all? How does he do it—despite one here or there who sug- gests that he doesn’t do.it? “The proof of the pudding”’—you know! Mr. Oppenheim tells a good story. Each one begins somewhere. Its action, always stirring, follows the line sourced in that beginning, and ends, definitely, in the sequence set by the open- ing of the story and its supporting movement. This means good structure—not so common & practice as may be superficially imagined. Then, too, he is a mystery dealer, and no one can reé- sist that. Por good reason, too. All of life is steeped in mystery. So any aspect of it takes hold upon the keenly passionate interest of all. Moreover, he works generously, in the large. Hardly ever does one country suffice. To suit this author best the problem must take on in-’ ternational scope. Besides, he gives that variety which so spices life. The cultured, the waywise, living in the amplitudes of plenty are here. Here, too, are the rough and crude, the down-. and-outers, the desperate. His blends of such disparate material are epicurean, so to speak. Here are some of the reasons which, it seems to me, account for this man’s perennial power of entertainment. This is, in the main, a story of gangster life in a great city. It is, of course, an account of the ultimate triumph of order over lawlessness— thought i¢ is in no sense a preachment on the triumph of good over evil. Not that at all. A tremendous adventure, instead, wherein ability, courage, an inborn sense of honor, the gifts of birth and training override, finally, the opposite of all this as it is demonstrated in the slum life of cities. David Ngvberry is the man of the adventure—English, down on his luck, taken to the wrong path in his stress, betrayed by the gang. You know pretty well what would follow such a beginning. It does. I'm sure you will find here a clear satisfaction in the charac- terization of these people, high and low, that will add to the tempestuous movement of the adventure. A great criminal organization pays tribute to the brains of the gang, old Tottie Green'’s gang. Desperate fellows. But not des- perate enough nor able enough to circumvent David, finally. Two ladies widen and deepen the interest of the tale—one a gang lady, a gorgeous woman; the other a girl of David’s own stripe—modem, fine, entirely worthwhile. With such working material Mr. Oppenheim pursues his usual suave and confident way, delivering to readers a romance which they are sure to re- ceive in an undiminished enthusiasm for the work of this first-rate story teller. THIRTEEN MEN. By Tiffany Thayer. Ilus- trated by Mahlon Blaine. New York: Claude Kendall. ANY jury trial is in itself sheer drama. Tif- fany Thayer here projects one of these in & fireworks performance of adroitly blended ilctmdmuini:‘llo:. shrewd insight and sur- face sweeping, d judgment and sardonic chuckling. That is, he stages this drama in the clearly unusual admixture of gifts and aptitudes that make up the assured buoyancy of this Tif- ° fany Thayer, who has written a corking story in the modern newspaper manner. One of the best of manners for this kind of story, by the way. You know, before reading it, how in gen- of the trial. Instead, he slips into the person of each of these jurors, one after another, to get in touch with what is really going on inside there. And here is where the amazement of the story enters. Absolutely shut off from the im- mediate duty in hand, each betakes himself to own outlook, once in a while turning to the going on, but more often holding to per- Well, you read about him for your- You will enjoy seeing if this Thayer boy can hold out, or up, to the tremendous pitch of the undertaking which he has set for himself. When you are all through with that sit down and think a minute about the jury trial as a whole in its relation to the administration of justice, whatever this may me: Then, in passing, stop to speculate on any Thayer. Can he hold out? He himself is the answer to that relatively unimportant question. ARM'S LENGTH. By John Metcalfe, author of “Mrs. Condover,” ‘etc. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Dlsn.LUleNMENT is a pretty common malady. Sometimes it is brought on by a wide range of personal partakings in the rough- and-ready of existence. Sometimes it appesrs merely to seep out from old blood strains wandering about in the system of this or that innocent host to such intruders. It fs a quite general complaint. John Metcalfe has it. Been everywhere. Seen almost everything. His fathers did that before him. University bred, young John. Soldier in the British air service, officer in the Royal Air Force. Writer. The last of these occupations provides outlet for all the disenchantments loaded upon him by the earlier pursuits. So nowadays, he in- vents stories. Writes novels. Here is one of them. London for a background, one of the thousand Londons lying within the city limits. The chief preoccupation of this author here is the course and career of a young man of the great city. A thousand of him, %00, more or less. For he is that familiar young male who cannot face things, anything, least of all, him- self. An engaging fellow from every point of contact, this Gerald Imray. So, this one of the innumerable Imrey tribe, upon meeting a charming lady, falls for her, marries her. Sim- ply couldn’t stand up. In the course of time he meets another of equally persuasive charm. Falls again. Marries—no, not exactly. There was & barrier not to be ignored. Pliant and agreeable the fellow sets up two houses—hornes, whatnot. Then, in the natural run of thiags, children come to both houses. No, this coes not go on indefinitely. Nor is there any con- clusive ending to the matter, if you happen to be interested in a neat tie-up at the close. This is not that sort of novel. It is merely a chance for you to see how the amiable and compliaut man behaves upon occasion. And, you must ad- mit, that this “chance” is a brilliant perform- ance wherein sharp sight and acid humor and free disclosure get together to turn out a satire of excellent dimensions—height and breadth and depth. THE VOICE IN THE CLOSET. By Herman Landon, author of “Gray Phantom,” etc. New York: Horace Liveright. 'i‘rm sin of covetousness set this mystery cn its way. A highly elaborated alibi sustains it by way of ingenious tangle of plausible and promising clues all leading straight away from the criminal, sitting pretty behind the bulwark of absenteeism that he has so artfully built. Just the most foolish and unnecessary lie at the last minute gives him away. In between, how- ever, there is a lot of active and exciting to-do with one suspect and another. Unusual arts are introduced here for the purpose of mystification. Ventriloquism for instance. A silent-shooting pistol for another. A mental murder besides on the part of an innocent man, but one whose behaviors under such mental stress are exactly like those of a truly guilty man, in fact, instead of in intent. The detective is rather unusually good. since he is not so outrageously good as this brand of officer has come to be under the fostering arts of the writer of mysteries. He has an assistant, nothing more than that, who deserves special mention, because he is a joy of competent action under the exterior of blun= dering ineptitude. Easy to overdo this chare acter. He is not overdone. That is the joy of him. Upon the whole this is one of the better- than-average mystery inventions. Ingenuily, hard sense, restraint of imagination, good story- telling, a keen hold on the reading mind of the commonalty, a flair for the unusual and the picturesque—such the foundation of this di- verting story of a man who desired, who coveted ——. You would better read it for yourself. - Books Receirved PROBLEMS IN CONTEMPORARY COUNTY GOVERNMENT. By Wylie Killpatrick. Monograph No. 8. Published by the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences. Uni- versity of Virginia. 3 RURAL GIRLS IN THE CITY FOR WORK: A Study Made for the Southern Woman's Educational Alliance. By O. Lathem Hatcher and others. Richmond: Garrett & Massie, Inc. MODERN ROSES: A Uniform Descriptive List of All Important Roses in Commerce. Pre- pared for the American Rose Society by J. Horace McFarland, editor American Rose Annual, president American Rose Seciety, author of “The Rose in America,” etc. New York: The Macmillan Co. VACATION TRAVEL CHARTS AND TRAVEL CHATS. By Frederick L. Collins, author of “American Travel Charts and Travel Chats.” Illustrated by Howard W. Willard. In- dianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrijl Co. IN A CUP OF THE HILLS: A Story of the Ozarks. By Fenetta Sargent Haskell. Bos- ton: The Christopher Publishing House. THE SEEKER. By Anna Appleby. Boston: The Christopher Publishing House. TWINKLE, TWINKLE, MOVIE STAR! By Harry T. Brundige. Introduction by Jesse L. Lasky. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. STORIES POSTAGE STAMPS TELL:- What We Can Learn From Them. By Sigmund Rothschild. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. FREEDOM'S DAUGHTER. By Gertrude Crownfield, author of “Alison Blair,” etc. Illustrated by Agnes C. Lehman. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. AROUND THE WORLD IN SONG. By Dorothy Gordon. Illustrated and decorated by Alida Conover. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Test Highway at Aberdeen 6T isn’t the 'aulin’ that ’'urts the ‘orse. It's the ’ammer, ‘ammer, 'ammer on the 'ard 'ighway,” as the old coster remarked. Now, Uncle Sam is going further and find out what the hammer, hammer, hammer does to the hard highway. A stretch of concrete paving at the Aberdeen proving grounds at Aberdeen, Md., will be used as a test space to determine what effect a loaded motor bus, traveling 50 to 60 miles an hour, has on the roadway. The test will include the use of various types of tires from low-pressure balloons to heavy- duty cords. Chromite Imports. TH; chromite industry of the United States wasn't much to brag about in 1928, but in 1929, in a Nation which delights in doing things in a big way, it was almost embarrass- ing. The 1928 production was 660 tons, and this dwindled the following year to 180 tons, with a value of $3,226. The imports for 1929 set a record for all time, totaling 317,630 tons, worth $2,666,488, more than two-thirds of which came from Africa, with Cuba, French Oceania and Greece supplying the remainder. Now Ready A great novel of human hearts — a powerful story of mother-love with 2 mes- sage of hope for every read- er by America’s most popu- lar story tellee. (Not pub- lished serially.) EXIT ‘The First Novel in Three Years By the author of “TheShepberd of the Hills,” HAROLD BELL WRIGHT $200. This is en Appleton Book D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 35 West 32nd Street, New York