Evening Star Newspaper, May 10, 1931, Page 87

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, BLACK BREAD AND RED COFFINS. By Negley Farson, author of “Sailing Across Europe,” etc. Ilustrated. New York: The Century Co, ALTENBORN, editor of the air, ssid a few nights ago, in passing, “Genc Tun- ney is now in Russia, greatly impressed with the intense activity there in crowd- ing the ‘Five-Year Plan’ forward to ac- complish a working fact. even ahead of the time.” If you have just come out from M. Ilin’s “New Russian Primer; The Story of the Five-Year Plan,” you are now ready and wide open for every sort of truth that may be gathered con- cerning this project. So books on Russia zre likely to take full possession of the front row in any body of considerable reading. And here they are, crowding forward. A tremendous national experiment is going on in the huge Slavic state. That of industrializ- ing and democratizing millions of pure peasant stock that, for centuries, has lifted hardly a above degredation and hopelessness. At top but a thin layer of vitalized intelligence devoted to advance and leadership. Sorethting to be missed by us. Now is the moment, it 3s en the move, to seize upon it from mass of writing, much of it soundly based upon first-hand study and immediate chronicle. We are lazy, in the main. So, we say, “No, TR wait till something is settled one way or the other.” A mistake, that, for then we Tiss the chance to go along, to foresee for ourselves, to project the next step in the line of political logic and historical vision and knowledge of human nature all of a single blend. Miss the prophecy on our own account. Be- though they slant & bit from the straight. All this to say that now is the time to study Russia. And here is a fine first book to follow *New Russia’s Primer,” that quite remarkable setting out of the “Pive-year Plan.” No pure publicist, this Mr. Farson. No political econ- omist, no advocate of new social theories. An alert, forthright, pictorial journalist, instead, going here and there among the Russian people - of every order and oecupation, mingling with them on their own terms, setting down what he does and sees and thinks in dramatic and eommunicable- fashion. So with him we walk the streets of Russian cities and highways. We go into the dwellings and workshops and places of instruction for the new order. We visit glamorous gatherings, where enthusiasm runs high in spite of no very glamorous evidence of the approaching millennium. Hardly a spot, from bedroon to open forum, that we do not enter under th2 conipanionable friendliness of. this guide. And we learm no end of things. About living to- gether, whole swarms in a single room, all cooking c¢n the family stove, dressing and un- dressing in a finc disregard of the non-essen- tials of existence. Mr. Farson has no opinions, or, if he has, he keeps them to himself. His business to }:t us see through the welcome of opinions at all. ; 3 Atmnk that Negley Farson has given sur- THE JOURNAL OF MY OTHER SELF. By Rainer Maria Rilke. Translation by John Linton. New York: W. W, Norton & Co. ALLED the “first translation of a modern German classic.” And the author desig- nated as “a strictly modern mystic.” Not a *journal” of anything like general appeal. preciations and likings are based upon affinities of one sort or another. And nobody—almost nobody—in the tumult of current life has an “other self,” has no inner life into which Rainer Rilke could be welcomed and made at home. No, we are all much too busy with things and things to venture into that far and strange country ourselves. Marcel Proust did it. A few others. This man has done it. Hovering near, we step inside for a minute or so, 8¢ any door, on any page. And there, more timcs than not, we are likely to oatch glimpses of our own inner selves, running swiftly away from this alien part of our lives. There is no time to wonder about life, decp Mfe. Where it is sourced, what is destiny, what the meaning of a thousand vague ap- proaches of something infinitely precious and revealing, could we omly capture it for a second even? Where are we going? What this in- finite sea of wonder and mystery upon which we are pressed forward? What is a “mystie,” P. C, MAY 10, 193L % DA GIBERT MYER/ Another Book About Russia—A Journal From Germany—T he Play as Reading Material. Tomlinson’s Nezwest Volume. anyway? Is everybody in this profound inner celf, of which he is so afraid, a mystic al heart, seeking an answer to the universe, and above all an answer to himself? I don't know. Do you? Some of the “other self” I do net under- stand. Some of it submerges me in a hcme- sickness, unutterably deep, but not sad. Pene- trating and beautiful, besides, instead. A place to go, this piace within the one. A very um i Fs i Y rett” is said to be one of the theatric master- pieces of the current dramatic season. Un- fortunately the interest aroused by the read- ing matter lles more in the fact that one is al- ready fairly well informed as to the Barvett family than because Mr. Besier has said any-' thing either very original or really anything very remarkable about them. What Mr. Besier has done is to create one of the most villanous villains ever drawn by man. One ventures to say that the character of Bar- rett in this play will cling to the mind lopg after Elizabeth or Robert Browning. And that, it seems, is another reason for seeing rather than reading “The Bairets.” For, with Miss Cornell’s imperishable delineation of the won- derful poetess, who through her love for Browning overcame a fatal iliness and a fa'her whose true nature was revealed to her only momentarily before her flight from home, . one can pcssibly soon segregate the obnoxious R v Ef av ..-§ s-EE;i 5345 Out of our own dep! is com%ny to find another in And so" we go along. Not at all—not with Mr, And confidence is all right, for nothing dangerous than an easy chair and a light and a tranquil mind are needed this outgoing. Guess what the first adventure is! “A Brown Owl!” Guess what the last one is! *“One January Morning!” And all in be- tween, lounging in ease of mind and attitude, “All in & Night,” “The Wreck”— frightful, not here, in this chair and under this light. Here, too, we come upon a beauty and a beast, Fe i Bs & | 73 Gere. In any case each half hour is a spread of life from some angle of insight and experi- ence and mellow philosophy. Now you would hardly expect to get very much of human from a “brown owl” But you do, just as do from a perky little sparrow if you yourself in tune with his own ways ence. Sometimes these wayward seaways up kings and queens and what they yesterday and the day before. Sometimes sweep up books, books that are being written :his morning and what they are about. It seems to make no difference at all what the big waters COLD BLUE MOCN. By Howard W. Odum, author of “Raintow Round My Shoulders,” etc. Indianapolis: The Bobbc-Merrill Co. 11} old house up en h'll cculd jes’ talk, Lawd, if could jes’ talic . . .’ Angd that's the way it began. The Big House Hall is Deing modernized, made into a riding elub, maybe. merrymakings, round and round, in the fashion of the ariste- tradition of the Old South .are repie- tured here by the devoted black man. Super- stitions are interwoven with the meost important Glaspell, author of “Brook Evans,” etc. New York: Prederick Stokes Co. is it, I wonder, that such idealism as a¥ter all, of the more beautiful and happy exist- ence? Well, to get on with Susan Glaspell and her new novel. Ambres: Hcli, who carries the honur of naming the book, deserves in common domestic bookkeeping no honor at alk. He ran away, leaving his wifz and scn, just because he felt like it. Stayed away for years, till his son had grown to presperity, to a gift for writ- ing, to a zeal for popularity as distinct literary " THE G asset to his neighborhood. Till the son had taken a wife, rich man’s daughter who leved the rising genius and desired above all else to help him in his very preper and well-founded aspirations. Then, after years of absence Am- brose Hoit, the irresponsible, came back to the town. Went dewn by the lumber piles for lodgings because—well, just because—prime rea=- son for most of his deeds, and misdeeds. And so the story goes on in current vein of modern interests and activities. A rather exemplary couple for today, this young pair. The wife engrossed in removing every possible obstacle s advance toward celebrity. . The slow conviction on the girl’s part that just possibly the divine fire had been but = flying spark; swiftly smothered under overzeal for fame, however feebly it might be founded. Then came the friendship between this young wifc and Am« brose Helt. Understanding between her and this peet and wanderer and practical no-account, But the real man of genius all the same. The story is that of a mild, but seemly, disillusion= ment on the pa-t of the girl, who finds herself, in effect, with a boy to bring up instead of & genius to cherish. Fmely matured people, thig girl Harriette and her husband’s father, Ame brose Hoit, each with a good grip on life and no concern at all for the thousands df loosé ends that are commonly called life. Goed snd strong and fine. About something, too. Books Recerved OUR VERY BEST PEOPLE. By Clifford Ray= mond, author of “The Mecn on the Dead Man’s Chest.” Indignapolis: The Bibbse Merrill Co. £ ONCE IN A LIFETIME: A Comedy. By Mosd ' Hart and George Kaufman. New York§ Parrar & Rinehart. THE SAME PERSON. By Anna Robecon Bur‘ author of “The Great House in the Park, . ete. New York: Duffield & Co. g CLEOPATRA: A Royal Voluptuary. By Osca# von Wertheimer. Transiated by Humtley} Patterson. Illustrated. Philadelphia: 3. By Co. Lippincott 3 - WOMAN WALKS ALONE. By Ruth Putnang Mason. New York: The Dial Press. NAKED ON ROLLER SKATES. By Matwel} Bodenheim, author of “Replenishing Jessica,® ete. New York: Horace Liveright. z THREE PAIRS OF SILK STOCKINGS. Pentel:imon Remanof. Translated from theq Ruscian by Leonide Zarine. New York§ Charles Scribner’s Sons. ENTLE LIBERTINE. By Colette, authof} of “Cheri,” etc. Translated by H. C. By - New York: Farrar & Rinchart. CARNIVAL GIRL. ‘By Jane Littcll. New York: The Dial Press. & FIVE SISTERS. By Violet Zazarine. New York: Covici-Friede, Inc. NOW...read The Whole Story by the One Man Who Knows It! General John J. PERSHING’S Complete, finally revised account MY EXPERIENCES ,; WORLD WAR “A great story ably uld”—-d:lam’: Monshly. * 2 Volumes, lavishly illustrated, $10 per set. Get it today at your bookshop. 443 4h Ave. FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY New York “RomanticLatinLands e S es— ings and visits to Spain and Portugal. Mirs. Keyes voya to Ascuncion, over inland waters from Argentina w over the *Green Hell” between Paraguay and Bolivia, found shelter in native homes in and Tierra del Fuego and penetrated to the Christ of the Andes. A glamorous book, profusely illustrated, $3.50 Silver Seas and Golden Cities 4 Joyous JOURNEY THROUGH LATIN LANDS By FRANCES' PARKINSON KEYES AUTHOR OF QUEEN ANNE'S LACE.