Evening Star Newspaper, November 9, 1930, Page 103

b REVIEW/ ¢ SINCE THEN: The Disturbing Story of the World at Peace. By Philip Gibbs, author of “Now It Can Be Told,” etc. New York: Harper & Bros. IKE some high mountain spring from which flow many rivers, diverse in course and action and effect—like this is the treaty of Versailles giving rise to many diverse and troubling currents of national problem and international nace. m;t is from this treaty of Versailles, from this source of world-wide doubt and misgiving, that Sir Philip Gibbs sets out upon a journey of investigation and accounting and recording. Trained by the war itself and by the practice of journalism before that event, Mr. Gibbs brings to this enterprise a war-trained mind, an experience shaped to the exigencies of this particular situation, an international outlook of both general and special reach and under- standing. A waywise man with words as well, Thus equipped, Mr. Gibbs follows down each of these streams of national situation and problem. He goes into the countries immedi- ately affected by the decisions of the peace conference. He looks cut upon each of these in a quest for the revival and rebuilding that were to follow so instantaneously and sturdily upon the terms of the great setilement. Into Germany, swept with revolution. Into Hun- gary, a broken and dismembered country. Into Greece, where a tragic un-hope fills the ladd. He recounts the rise and progress and promise of Fascism under Mussolini. Into Poland, into France, back to England, across to and over again into Russia, diligently and expertly the true effects of the treaty upon the common mind of its various beneficiaries and the reaction of these minds toward any program of subsfantial peace, toward any for- ward movement of rehabilitation and growth A terrible story of cher- ished hatreds, of deep secret enmities, of flagrant injustices at home, of wild projects toward the world away from home. A story to be believed by virtue of the mind and character of its author. A clear-seeing man. A man of peace. One whose mind is of inter- national pattern—a world man. He has told here what he sees of national and international moment as an outgrowth of the Great War and its attempted settlements. At the very last Mr. Gibbs turns to the youth and to the new age as the single hope of a warless world. Not convincing, this turn. A true and terrible sum~ mary of world fact. SECRET SERVICE. By Maj. Gen. Sir George Aston, K. C. B. New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation. g FORIIERLY of the naval intelligence depart- ment and the secretariat of the war general observation national secret service in times both of war and of peace. The average reader fails to realize the vital need of governments for such work, save, per- haps, when countries are at war. For more E £ Efiiaigéf SECRET AIR SERV:iv.. by Laurence La Tourette Driggs, author “Herces of Avi- ation,” etc. Ilustrations by Clayton Knight. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. wxmomwmerea&ncwwchm slated for & turn of aviation literature. ‘Novels, travel records, books of informational design and content. Certainly a more astound- ing theme could not have been provided, mot even by ancient wizardry or necromancy. Besides, the story of aviation in all of its aspects has the advantage of truth to sustain it in a hard-boiked day that demands - to be shown. As yet the novel of aviation has not made & strong or concerted bid for attention. That is lnauaethebodyotnvmborsiswowyu- plaining the amazing u:hi;u. too engrossed in showing groundlings acts of this miracle 20f the skies. "flu“wmhmmmhe‘m- mysterious ~ THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, NOVEMBER 9, 19;”. NEW % DA GILBERT MYER / Sir Philip Gibbs Contributes ‘A Disturbin g Story of the World at Peace”—V olumes on Secret Service—The Nezvest Novels. ning to come. More and more will they appear, since the subject seems to be fashioned for dramatization as well as for plain utility. Laurence La Tourette Driggs, is quite peculiarly -fitted to step into the role of romantic ad- ventuerr by way of aviation. An airman who knows his job to the extent of having lived it under every manner of trial and of having writ- ten more than one air adventure that was based upon a foundation of actuality in con- crete fact itself. “On Secret Air Service” is a superb story. In its essentials it is a true story. enterprises of the secret service stripe lift it to keen excitement of ef- fect. The clearly accurate account of such movements as are here set down places the record fairly in the hands of young en- thusiasts of the air. Here is a book to learn by, as well as. a book to give an excellent quality of entertainment. but that is of little account. It is the swift and robust account of this secret service of the air itself that gives the novel its prompt and distinet appeal. THE BACK-TO-BACKS. By J. C. Grant. New York: Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith. th that subject as it al- new difference lies in a ‘this region of the doomed. some vague Plutonian shore it has been close, set down within the earth it- drudgery ages swiftly sweeps away the old. The hell with which this terrible novel has to do lies in England, facing the set- tled rages of the North Sea. A. coal-mining settlement. One street reaching from the mouth of the coal pit to the graveyard. A of a street, black with coal and to. a gummy stickiness that feet. "The other name of Risner. n ' Gordon Battle. New York: G. P. Putnam’s excellence. This, multiplied and massed in concrete example, sums to a big bulk of human worth whose dis- closure under every sort of circumstance is clearly the useful mission of Dr. Risner. And 8 good mission it is, since unworth is as a rule more readily brought into the open than its opposite Preacher, traveler, lecturer, writer, in Army service during the World War, a hunter of men in every case and all cases. Man is 90 per cent preachments to the contrary, sets this adven- turer in man stuff out to prove that vital assumption. So, along the road of life, he hails everybody—high and low, poor and rich, the happy and the forlorn. In each he finds and hauls into the open that which he is questing. Of course. Everybody finds that which he seeks. Everybody gets that which he gives. Therefore, this friendly, believing, comradely man becomes Such is the conviction that, despite - prectical content. People of less conspicuous serviee, yet of stirring personality nevertheless. And just plain folks, like you and me, who reccive more than we are able to give. Friend- liness is the key to this situation, to this big program of letting love lcose in the world in a thousand ways of comradély confidence and lifting suggestion. A book for our low moments when nothing seems to count. A book to open the door of the heart to for reminders of the beauty of the world and the basic good intent of those who dwell within it. A scholarly, friendly disinter- ested man here invites us to his party where a hundred personalities of charm and substance wait to welcome us and to delight us. CINDERELLA'S DAUGHTER: And Other Sequels and Consequences. By John Erskine, author of “The Private Life of Helen of Troy,” etc. Illustretions by Graham Erskine. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company. WBAT would have happened to them today— to those fascinating friends of our child- hood, of cvery one’s childhood? What to Cinderella and her Prince Charming? What to Lady Godiva, and to the Sleeping Beauty, to Beauty and the Beast and the rest of the family of many enchantments? No doubt a common wonderment along this line has taken hold of the more curious among us. And right here is a chance to follow these hidden things out into the light of this morning and tomorrow afternoon. Lucky are we in that phenomenal school master, John Erskine, who refuses the solemnity of the pedagogue and who, instead, plays all over the lot with our folktales and traditions in a robustious and communicable glee. What really did happen to Cinderella, suddenly lifted from sweeping ashes off the hearth, to behave herself like a high lady in a court of cercmonious behaviors? A fruitful theme, as John Erskine makes hilariously plain to you here. Probably among the adventures none is more favorable to consequences, dire and stressful, than the one undertaken by Lady Godiva in an altruistic effort to remit the burden of tax laid upon the people by her lord. It requires little of imagination to picture the life of Lady Godiva after that act of public- spirited self-immolation. Breakfasty dinner and supper, night time and day time, year in and year out, became a rumble or a storm or a plaint on the part of the lord of the house at the terrible act of parading his private property upon the open and populous highway. A lovely and iaughable to-do John Erskine makes out of these modernized ancientries of fairy tale and logend. Ingenious in their devising, gently satirical in their modern slanting, enter- taining beyond question, to 8 world dolefully ponderous in its manifold duties and responsibilities. BANDAR-LOG: A Novel of India. By A. W. Smith. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. Bdcxdmhwvd—ms!mkmh&— stands a most important author question familiar with the East. and episodes are of first-hand color cation. An exccllent art of combining serves t produce interes believable accounts of the adjustments and, in many cases, not found. If one clined to shade off enthusiasm _toward 4 i return to it. And, yet, that hardly hold. For a few England could, as figure at all beside gone into the making glad to know that the up in the nick of time home to the other girl. theme not overworn. PORTRAIT OF A DOG. By Mazo de la Roche, author of “Jalna,” etc. Pictured by Morris Dennis. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. "THE writer and the subject, the lady and the dog, collaborate in this instance with such fine éffect as turn a mere “portrait” into an autobiographic account of the black Scotch T, Bunty. Bunty does the work of self- : under a thousand inspirations of general puppy-dog life. The author’s business / » €04 is simply to be appreciative, understanding, wordy enough to get the matter across to readers already firm in the conviction that a finer creature than the canine might have been made, but that of a certainty such a one never was made. Loving and loyal, uncannily intuitive in its understandings, incredibly intele ligent in its swift responses—oh, there is no discounting the heart of a dcg. And here, thiough restraints as well as through freedoms and liberations, Bunty comes in to contribute to a simon-pure enjoyment on the reader’s part at the sagacity and sheer lovability of that little black Scotch dog. Maybe you have seen more doggy pictures than Morgan Dennis has made of Bunty—but you couldn’t have. These are far too alive to stay set upon any single page. Bunty races through this book, every hair ‘of he: alive with dog doings of infinite variety and endearment. There is a flaw in the story. The author is a realist. Why be a novelist if you can’t make up things? If you can't lie to us in the interest of a smiling cheerfulness rather than in behalf of weeping and pain? Oh, shucks! a beautiful story, staying true to the very endl Never mind! Il read it again—right up to page 185. Then I'l shut that book with [ Y snap—you bet! Books Received JESUS AND THE MODERN OUTLOOK. By Frank H. Sprague, author of “Spiritual Consciousness.” Beston: The Christopher THE REAL MEANING OF GENESIS. By David A. Murray, D. D., author of “The Supernatural,” etc.; professor of Bibleal literature, Monmouth College. Boston: The Stratford Co. IMAGINATION. By 8. Parkes Cadman, D. D, LL. D. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. SPEECH MADE i;nu'mrm,: Practical Les- sons in English Diction. By Helen Stockdell. Introduction by W. Russell Bowle. New York: The Abingdon Press, MODERN CONVERSATION. By Barrington Hall. New York: Brewer & Warren, Inc. TOWARD STANDARDS: A Study of the Present Critical Movement ia American Letters. By Norman Foerster, director of School of Letters, University of Towa. New York: Farrar & Rinehart. 3 THE STORY OF INFANCY: A Modern Hand- book of the Baby’s Feeding, Care, Training and Development; Difficulties and Disease Prevention . By Dr. Newton Kugelmass, M., D, Pr. D, Sc D. Ilustrated. New York? The Century Co. On such - - CHILD TRAINING: A System of Educatiom for the Child Under School Age. By V. W, Hillyer, head master of Calvert School, Revised Co. SHAKESPEARE AUTHORSHIP: A Summary of Evidence. By Gilbert Standen. Oxford: Cecil Palmeér. THOSE EARNEST VICTORIANS. By Esme Wingfield-Stratford, D. Sc, M. A. New York: Willlam Morrow & Co. WITH MEADE AT GETTYSBURG. By George Gordon Meade. Published under the aus- pices of War Liberary and Museum of the Order of the Loyal Legion, U. S. A, o : The John Winston Publishing THE ROMANCE OF OLD GLORY. By Ethel Clere author of “Herces of Peace.” Tlustrated by Harold M. Brett. New York: George Sully & Co. THE DECLINE rill Co. THE MARKS OF AN EDUCATED MAN. By Albert Edward Wiggam, author of “Explor- ing Your Mind,” etc. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co. SHADES AND SHADOWS. By Randolph Ed< monds. Boston: Meador Publishing Co. BIRTH REGISTRATION AND BIRTH STA- TISTIOS IN CANADA. By R. Kuczynski ‘Washington: The Institution. oft-asked ques- tions and their correct answers +esthe bows, wheres, whens and whys of inter- #g &.25°St New York WHtas wr S wi A o edition. New York: The Century