Evening Star Newspaper, May 31, 1931, Page 85

: the tenacity of the human in holding to a life that is, to us of happier circumstance, ho life at all. Here item by item, the habit of keeping alive day by day is set out. The shelters that are constructed, that we—as matter of fact, help to construct. The feeble fire beside which we, too, crouch along with Mala and his wife and the two children, these are miracles, these faint warmths. The hunting is immediate to our own ardent search for focd and covering. ‘Then, to Mala come, ip the course of time, con- tacts with men from the outside. Men>~who dicker and trade and scheme and get the best of those around. Civilization this is called. Of Mala himself Peter Freuchen® has made a great character. Big and tall and strong. Na- tive in a sense of fair dealing, a proud man in his own right of rectitude. Probably he did not call it that. He just did the thing, fair and straight and above board. Then one day, in the company of the superior man of train- ing and experience, Mala did a thing that brought him face to face with a cruel ogre— the law. Unconscious of evil doing, Mala be- came a hunted criminal. You see wha{ the great story is. In substance it is the tragedy of primitive man learning the high and benef- fcent lessons of civilization. = Innumerable na- tive tribes and peoples have gone to the samne scho:], the most of them dying out under such strenuous tuition. A great story of s0 much of circumstantial detail as to Set that life of the Far North well within the keen consciousness of the reader, and deeply within this sympathetic and understanding acceptance. No one can read this chronicle without coming very close to the habit and outlook and feeling of the Eskimo. Aside from this or, rather, issuing as # larger phase of the same substance, comes a deeply poignant sense of the hopelessness of weaker peoples. A sense of the cruelty of na- ture, an equal sense of the ruthlessness of man, of the strong against the weak. Again, a great drama of life. And who is Peter Preuchen? Rockwell Kent will tell you about him in a foreward to the story itself. “And so he went to Greenland,” Kent talking, “with Knud_Rasmussen, and from that time Greenland became his career.” Rockwell Kent himself recently, as you recall, caught the same Greenland urge, and so, naturally, he is ardent over the discovery to Americans of Peter Freuchen, Dane, and his epic reproduc- tion of Eskimo life in that sub-Arctic region. YEARS OF GRACE. By Margaret Ayer Barnes, author of “Prevailing Winds.” Bos- ton: Houghton Miffiin Co. CLEARLY deserved triumph is stepping briskly out beside “Years of Grace” A novel drawn straight from the current social bewilderment, yet & novel that diffuses through- out a sense of robust decency, deserves to be ore of the very best of best sellers. Don't you agree? Why, certainly, and of course you do. Mrs. Barnes started with an advantage. That is, she carefully picked her start. She chose Jane Ward to bear the brunt of whatever might come after such a good beginning. And there are such girls as Jane Ward. At heart, honest and fair dealing. That is the sum and sibstance of this literary success. To be sure, a deal of invention had to go along with the girl. Episodes and incidents drawn off from the current mode of life, characters calculated to give Jane Ward plausible interplay on the pa't of herself and her associates, a mounting line of dramatic action, testing her, proving ‘ her, causing her occasional defeats to provide Jeaven for further advance, or retreat. This sounds, I admit, a bit didactic—morally didactic. But it is, really, nothing of the kind. Here is a sound and sane girl whose center is honesty —keeping her word, looking at the facts of life, both minor and major, as fair-dealing folks look at their pocketbooks and their bank accounts. Not essentially different. And that is right. Then the story moves on through romance and marriage and the disillusion that, nowadays, is part of the marital program. An- other man, the boy of long ago now rehabili- tated with much of the early charm, an ele- ment in the romance. - You see, the pattern of this romance is right off the current page of matrimony. -But, here is the difference. With- out any savoring of Puritanism or piety or other such alien attacks upon romance, this modern story of marriage, brilliant in its move- ment. fine in its texture, warming in its wit and good sense, moves through - the current social mess and comes out at a very high point. ‘That of marriage material, fundamentally good, having been preserved to a most satisfactory outcome by the good sense and the high hon- esty of just one American girl. A beautiful romance. One of admirable conception and high artistry of achievement. A refreshment to read, as the mountains or the sweep of the ses are a refreshment. e . \ 27 1DA_GILBERT MYERZ An Epic of the North Country— Prize Fiction. “What This Country Needs’—The Conflict in Palestine. WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS. Franklin, New Ygrk: Covici-: ATURALLY, every American desires, great- ly, to know what this country needs. And here seemed to be the straight means to such an end. Yet, for several weeks I passed the book on its shelf. Somehow, it looked dis- ly sure of itself, had a shade of the By Jay the “wisest man in the world.” curiosity overboré” the shade of apprehension. And here “What This Country Needs” lies, wide-open, at hand. A thoroughgoing book, set- ting off with “A New Constitution” and there- after presenting about as complete a program of house-cleaning as the most energetic of Yankee housewives could set up before an envious neighborhood. ‘The statesmen are silenceds ‘That is what they need. Talk too much. Say too little. “Do—just nothing® at all. ‘The two (?) political parties are rescued from the ash pile. These are shaken and aired and examined to see if they are worth repairs. Certainly not. So this man, all fire and fury, makes his way through the high points of American public life—taxes, imperialism, big bankers, less preaching (not half bad, that), health, lower education (distinctly good this) —and, finally the hard luck upon which our long-favored country is directly headed and which will prove to be the best thing that ever came its way. For then, and only then, will all the shilly-shally of political pretense, of official hypocrisy, be brought to the place where these are willing to quit making believe, will- ing to get up and go to work. Now much of this study is so distinctly good that the pity of its total lack of restraint becomes more un- fortunte than as if it were all, quite all, of the pattern of diatribe that stamps much the larger part of it. Nothing in the world is totally bad, nor completely good. A slight concession toward that fact would have in- creased, greatly, the wholesome effect so clear- ly pointed upon by this writer. A vigorous way with him that is good. A clear use of words that is fine. Speaking of his use of words, one single idiom recurring over and over suggests that the writer—whose name is not Jay Franklin—is English and not Amer- ican. However, no matter. The man has over- played his hand. I wish he had been a little more temperate. For, with a grain of such abstemiousness, he might have done us a lot of good. For, without question, there are places in the body politic that need treatment. MORNING TIDE. By Neil M. Gunn. Ilus- trated by Maitland de Gogorza. New York: luring matter to any one who may have the good luck to enter “Morning Tide.” A boy car- flelrhmmuflnm.mt,mdouuu. coun ly for the rampant curiosity, the quick shift, the fresh invention tha atid iy t s0 delight Inside the first paragraph you will know yourself captive to that boy. “But, h was the sea after a storm, it was still THE RIM OF THE WILDERNESS. The Con- flict in Palestine. By Maurice Samuel. New York: Horace Liveright, VEN-in thesesmodern short turns of distance, Palestine is a long way off, and the Arabian And, besides, not many are much in- To the subject Mr. Samuel has given a study that becomes important by virtue of his own commends it to those to the salient facts of the Arabian Desert. forge ahead toward a deeper security ward a larger conception in all departments human endeavor. Industry, politics, the complex of that far region, its cultural sta and promise—these side by side, Jew Arablan are offered to the student in a dispassion of scholarly research, in a strict countries involved, politically and economiecally, in this région of the wilderness. A book for A book for the reader of sub. stgntial world interests and aspirations. MULATTO JOHNNY. By Alin Laubreaux. ‘Translated from the French by Coley Tay- Jor. -New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. PICTURE, weirdly ominous, opens this ad- venture. A man, alone in a trading boat, around which a typhoon of the South Seas is raging. Such the stormy introduction of Mulatto Johnny who for a story length of ad- venture promises to keep you wide awake and wondering. Johnny is half-breed. Son of a sallor, pass- ing by, and a native woman of one or another of the island tribes. A giant of a man, pride- ful of his strength, of his agile body, of bis successes in combat. Not a lawless fellow, since he knew nothing of law. Just a natual man, taking what he wanted wherever he found jit. Uncommonly well conceived and projected in the character and role assigned It was the cunning man of civilization, or near civilization, that was the undoing of .or 10. Johnny to Australia, where as fighter, & reckless whirlwing of a human, he LOVE-CHILDREN. A Book of Iilustrious I- legitimates, By Miriam Ailen de Ford. New York: The Dial Press. s § ¥ i g Eggg Sf i 5k 1 5 LT H Wi :33555;2; O golden rein. And so mighty steed, sped through the air, found the fierce Chimaera and—why, of course! What else! Under such lovely mythic aegis of inspira- mounted the project special moments in' the “noble art” of fox hunting. Immediately following this is a dis- sertation on “the alleged cruelty of hunting.” That has to come, naturally, before the sport can go on in anything like the gusto so prop- erly claimed for it. Hound packs of the British Islands come in for a share of picture agd biography here. Various forms of racing in all parts of the world show the spread of en- thusiasm for this partnership and affinity of horse-and-man in that form of sport. “Horse Shows in the United States” is a topic of fm- mediate interest here in Washington and of spreading enthusiasm as the Spring opens other sections to this recurring sport. The place of the horse in pictures and books is given here. The “Children’s Pony Club” is a de- lightful story. The progress of science in the care and cure of the horse is also outlined. Indeed, here is a very complete overlooking of sportsmanship sourced in the finely able and responsience capacity of this chief of man's {riends and companions, his equine other half. A cherished book for the horse-and-the-man, it seems to me. MULATTO JOHNNY. By Alin Laubreaux, Translated from the French by Coley Tay- Jor. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. IF you are looking for adventure of the sheer variety and a long way from home, why not try “Mulatto Johnny”? At once. in case you do this, that delectable and seemingly in- exhaustible region, the South Seas, will envelop you with its sun and sea, with its tropical glamour and its impenetrable mysteries. A long call, this, from the village green around Weedsport, from the commuter’s trip to town stodgy days without end, from the whole pesky business of being alive in a world gone dead on your hands with all the exits barreg. Not all of them. For here is one open upon the South Seas, and down there waiting you is Mulatto Johnny, and at that moment Johnny needs help. He is running away, trying to run away from the fact that he has killed a K4 Books Received A MIDLAND SAGA. By Miriam Monger, s:1- thor of “Disns of the North Country.” Chayes. New York: Horace Liveright. THE PROFESSIONAL VIRGIN. By Rosewell Wiliams. New York: The Lantern Press. BIG FELLAH. By Ruby M. Ayres, author of “In the Day's March,” etc. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co. : STRANGE CAPERS. By Arthur Meeker, jr, author of “American Beauty.” New York: Covici-Friede, publishers. . STRONG POISON. By Dorothy L. Sayer, aue thor of “Clouds of Witnesses,” etc. New York: Brewer & Wasren, Inc. DEAD MAN'S SECRET. By Harry Plum, New York: Harper & Bros. THE MURDER INVISIBLE. By Philip Wylie, author of “Heavy Laden,” etc. New Yuri‘.' Farrar & Rinehart. MURDER MADNESS. By Murray Leinster, author of “Scalps.” New York: Brewer & ‘Warren, Inc. SOUTHERN MELODIES. By Fannie B Hamilton. Boston: The Christopher Pub- Hshing House. prin THE MERRY BALLADS OF ROBIN HOOD. By Laurabelle Dietrick, assisted by Joseph hhnlnol;thh. New York: The Macmil- THE MARRIAGE OF DON QUIXOTE. By Adeline Atwater, Indianapolis: The Bobbs~ . Merrill Co. FAMILY CIRCLE. By Inez Haynes Irwin. Ine