Evening Star Newspaper, June 7, 1931, Page 88

PIGS IN VER. By Frances Noyes Hart, author of *“My A. E. F.,” etc. New York: y Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc. UNE! Time to go. To go where and what for? Oh, anywhere and for just nothing at all—except everything. Nor, however, upon any heavy expedition nor cne too laborious. Not in June! Here comes a motor. Roomy. “Pigs in Clover.” What could better fit a Summer mcod than that. A magic car that slows all by itself and swings its door, a little. And we are off with the two inside it. Off over the white roads of France and along its rivers oi singing sound—Loire, Seine, Meuse, Rhone, Garonne. Through the wide chateau country and where great cathedrals point back to the artistry of the Middle Ages in challenge and triumph. Across, clear frcm North to South. ‘Threugh Normandy to Patls. Then to Bordeaux and the Basque country. To Provence, througn Burgundy and back to Paris. Thrown in are midnights and moonlight, mountains of en- chaniment, rivers silver and molten, castles of. bewitchment, where ghosts ¢f pope and prince, of warriors and women, dissolve past and present info a scene of pure magic. Not all moonlight and midnight, however. Here is a traveler in whom the blend of old acquaintance, with a sence of deep enjoyment brings out a most useful, and delightful, partnership. Here, the competent and way- wise woman. Here, too, the artist—poetic in feeling and word-ways. So there are hours of daytime when rest and food, when plain plans and means are to the front. At these points definite stopping places are noted and summed in a practical precision for common use. Properly, these are of slight proportion, but here they are. Then off again, in & ssemingly complete intimacy with the places through which “Pigs in Clover” makes {its l.appy way. Right here is the distinction of this book—one of them. It does not feel like a travel book. Rather, it feels like travel i self, like old contacts renewed, like one’s own matured discrimination am<ng these half- forgotten places and scenes. The book has gusto for the reader, as it so obviously had that very zest for those two in the car—the tvo Harts. A “delightful adventure, wherein all the ¥'rench gods of bed-and-board unite with the scerfic and historic deities of that beautiful country to give a Summer journey the true essence of France to a couple of rovers and, by way of them, to the rest of us reading at home. SILVER SEAS AND GOLDEN CITIES. A Joyous Journcy Through Latin Lands. By Prances Parkinson Keyes, author of “Queen Anne's Lace,” etc. New York: Horace Liveright. BIG book. Yet it spreads a wide circuit of space, and deals with swift and momentous changes. It organizes & vast panorama of lag's and related peoples. The Ttepublics of £huth Ameriza constitute the basic theme of description and discussion. This scope, in itself, is, indced, wide. Added thereto, is the author's choice of setting out ior South America by way of Portugal and Spain in order to gather certain ancestral drifts and lines explanatory and illuminative of the Latin American region to the South. Agzain, an informal and companionable way of v riting serves its intended purpose of intimate spproach to the reader and a corresponding iiterest in the “joyous journey.” It serves such purpose and tends likewise to Increase the length and bulk of the big volume. However, it is a most readable account. First, of the European experience, where in Ceville the Ibero-American Exposition was in inll swing. Where, also, a perfectly good King was on the thfone of Spain, one whom we see, and hear, in the stcry. Times sweep along ndieadays. And there is no King of Spain at the moment. In America, and its study, the book becomes of multitudinous quality. So much to see, s0 many things to keep in mind all at once. So much of going from here to there and back again that the whole becomes something of the rush of movement that is fatal to actual joy in any kind or mode of traveling. With the majority of writers the experiment would have been, indeed, fatal. Mrs. Keyes is, how- cver, of trained habit, of practical outlook, of wide experience in more than cne field of human interest. A student of politics, deeply and partakingly interested in many social movements, a most intelligent on-looker 1n life itself, a recognized writer. So, that which would have ended in confusion and disarray to almost any other sent out upon this mission cf wide and important investigation, becomes liere a vivid picture. Crowded, to be sure, yet with order in its packed lines. With brilliance of effect in its amazing shifts of scene. Illustrattons, many and finely chosen, add markedly to the value of that which is clearly a - great project, competently conceived and projected. A VILLA IN BRITTANY. By Donald Moffat. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co. UMMER travel is a glamorous business— when it is over. There are those, however, with memories so keen as to deny the enchant- ment of such seasonal pursuit at even the dis- tanee of Midwinter itself. This group of pro- tastants accounts, no doubt, for the growing interest in *book-route travel.” For, nowadays, on enormous bulk of vicarious adventure goes on by way of this route. Exploration, discov- ery, scientific enterprises, business quests, every sort of human interest, is nowadays so graph- jcally set out by skillful writers as to bring cvery place and every order of interest, human cnd otherwise, straight to the chair where one is so comfortably waiting. “A Villa in Brit- tany” belongs to this general class of traveling by book. Yet it is distinctly apart from the 1wst of it. For here is a book that is all ar- THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 7, 1931. e ——————————————— ] Books Especially Suitable for Summer Reading. Travel by Motor and Boat—Adventure and Some Fiction. gument in favor of the new cult of travelers. Looks and sounds as little like argument, how- ever, as it is possible for print to do. No premises here, no points of logic set in their proper order, no deduction—nothing like that. Instead, just an uproarious gathering of in- cidents from that Summer project of a villa in France. Nothing else—except this man to see that under the glamour which is mostly imag- ination there are a thousand pesky points that may turn to laughter, that do turn to chuckles and roars of sheer mirth about once a minute in this Summer business. Ninety-nine out of a hundred groan over these familiar pin pricks of travel, swear about them, say “Never again!"” But this fellow thinks they are funny, and they are—when you are sitting at home in the easy chair, doubling up in mirth over the bad tem- pers and rudencsses and other failings of the traveling public. Not one of the absurd epi- sodes that you have not yourself seen—and taken part in. The entire book of enjoyable nonsense is a true story of travel'in the Sum- mertime, and for good measure, in this case, of sharing a villa over across with a family of dear friends. You would better not miss the fun of this, particularly if you are in a po- sition to appreciate it to the full—under a tree, in an easy chair pulled off from the porch nearby. And on the table right here a nice big pitcher of ice water, PORTO RICO: A Caribbean Isle. By Richard James Van Deusen and Elizabeth Kneipple Van Deusen. New York: Henry Holt & Co. HE excellence of this book rests upon the fact that it is a complete history of Porto Rico. The comprehensive survey of a land, new and immediate in its relations to the United States. Therefore, a quarter about which intelligent Americans desire fuller knowledge and a better understanding of the people in their derivation, their outlook, their achievements, their ambitions. No hasty jour- neyings, no rapid surveys, no passing impres- slons could possibly serve any useful end where thorough investigation and deliberate conclu- sions are the single requirement, as they are in respect to Porto Rico at the hands of Amer- ica. This story goes back, fortunately, to the days of Columbus, and earlier even, to the ancient lure of that “rich port” of the Carib- bean. In swift and graphic movement 400 years of Spain ovep the island are projected. A sweeping picture, so composed and so bal- anced as to present an actual and immediate entity of colonial life, responding to its center of domination and control across the Atlantic. Coming quickly into the present, 30 years of Porto Rico as part of the United States is defined in its salient points of approach and response to the new order. Here and hereafter lies the bulk of this admirable study. The people themselves in their common nature, in their stand toward the newness of this day for them. How the new order has reacted upon their attitude toward civic responsibil- ities—industry, education, religion, sanitation, culture. The cultura) effects of their religion and of newer institutions coming into the late order of a changed form of government., Here are pictures of life in the towns and cities. Sketches of countryside and its interests and modes of meeting these. The book is a thorough piece of scholarship. Documented and fireproof throughout. And it is, besides, a study of ab- sorbing interest. Well written by two people who are, in a sense, in love with their subject and of a long intimacy with it, The right sort of imagination lifts that which, without it, might be a worthy but unenlivening report of the exact truth about Porto Rico. With such imagination and such knowledge and such deeply personal interest, the Van Deusens have turned out a triumph of a story as well as a much needed account, authentic and orderly, of that “Rich Port,” that “Island of the Caribbean.” ¢ THE GRASS ROOF. By Younghill Kang. New York: Charles Scribner’'s Sons. AT house of the “grass roof” must have been a long way from here. It was. Half around the world, in Korea, where all the houses were roofed with grass and sod. And that far-away village, and country, were the birthplace of this writer, who now lives in the United States, who is now lecturer on com- parative literature in New York University. The first 12 of Mr. Kang's 28 years were lived in his native land, where poetry and philosophy were the occupation, the preoc- cupation, of certain men of high grade. His own father and uncle were of this order. Easy to see that the boy himself was a poet, that the man himself is thet in feeling and expres- sion. Those early years are pictured here in great beauty. Sigple, as a child’s account of himself must remain, no matter how mature the writing hand may have grown. Little things of the day, of every day, are set down, por- traying the ways of life off there. How chil- dren look upon parents, and parents upon chil- dren. C:rtain ceremonials in their treatment, like that given by us to Easter, Christmas and the like. And all these little things are woven into Korean life with a vividness that is real- ity itself. Within them, interwoven also, is this lad of old Korea. Vcry brautiful and, undesign- edly, very touching. Then come days of school in Japan. Changes to Korea by the warlike obtrusicn of Japan to that secluded country. Then the great change of western life for this boy, growing to be a man. Now a scholar making researches into the ancientry of his country and other lands of the Orient, a teacher in an American university. Through- out a close observer, an intuitive diviner, a painstaking student always, and always a poet, as this deeply touching and beautiful book about himself and his native land so clearly makes plain to every sympathetic reader. SAIL HO! Windjammer Sketches Alow and Aloft. By Gordon Grant. New York: Wil- liam Farquhar Payson. A SAILOR at 6 by his own avowal. An ar- tist in ships right now by the evidence of “Sail Hol* Here, page by page, is spread the life of a windjammer, in its intimate dally commerce with the sea from the opening of & voyage to its end—and then over and over again. Incidentally, this book is also a pictorial account of an occupation, of a race of men, now passed on by both time and progress in sea industry. b The pictures are thrilling because they are alive and vibrant with the activities of sailors, with the sentiment, human movements of the ship itself. Drawings in ink, 60 and more of these. Each set on its own softly toning sepia page. And on the opposite page the legend in print that, over across, is told in pleture. A roomy spread to the whole. Big, like the ship and the sea. These drawings, taken as a whole, set out the work and play of the saliors, “alow and aloft.” Here is an old page of sea history, of men and their ships. Here is a beautifully graphic series of pictures that make an old ship come alive. And everybody thrills to a ship, either in fact or in the artist’s sketch. I wonder why this is so. Why ths veriest of inlanders, one who never saw the ocean feels—even he feels— a trembling anticipatory joy of kinship for these amazing masters of the great waters. Prideful ownership waits upon thcse who appreciate and take over this “Sall Ho! Alow and Aloft.” A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER. In- terpreted by Thomas B. Marquis. Illustrated. Minneapolis: The Midwest Co. HE Custer massacre of 65 years ago on the Little Big Horn in Montana is still matter of controversy. Annihilation of the 1,000 soldiers by nine times as many Sioux warriors has rendered facts unavailable. Therefore hear- say, rumor, invention and legend have grown up around the disaster, with no fair likelihood of these being replaced by the truth itself. The book in hand does not aid in the matter. This is a body of reminiscence and remembering on the part of old “Wooden Leg"” Cheyenne, who, partaking as a young man in the battle, now sets it out with many of its facts gone astray or tak- ing on new forms and values, as facts have & tendency to do “when left to themselves, un- caught and unrecorded. Nevertheless, this is an - interesting looking backward which Mr. Marquis puts into shape for its understanding and re- ception by general readers. The really use- ful, and enjoyable, part of the story is that wherein the Indian goes tack to his childhood and his oncoming into manhocd. With all of us memories are clearer and keener upon the early years. And so it appears to be with Wooden Reg. (No, he didn't have a wooden leg. That was his name for another reason.) All the ways of little Indian children come into this old picture. Tribal customs in re- spect to them and many other features of the common existence are given here in the sober and picturesque manner of the race. The tests and trials and ceremonies that passed the boy IHE JONN C. WINSTON COMPANY WINSTON BUILDING PHILADELPNIA into the status and obligations of the warrior are illuminative of the savage mind in its outlook upon the life around, the seen and the unseen life. Pathetic, too. For this was just a boy, lonesome, like all boys. Alone under try- ing conditions. Certainly with not a little of fear in his heart. A stoic, though, as is the way of the Indian. Here are hunts and raids upon other tribes, trials of endurance, feats of daring—just the adaptation of primitive man to his surroundings. He was still a lad, only about 18, when his people joined the forces of Sitting Bull moving toward the Little Big Horn. Past this point the matter becomes of less value as authentic report, there taking on the char- acter of assertion and denial, of report and legend, to which Wooden Leg clearly contri- butes a share. Good story and valuable at points. Not good history, as only mediocre re- search is calculated to demonstrate. CUPBOARD LOVE. By Nancy Hoyt, author of “Roundabout,” etc. New York: Doubleday, Doran and Co. HE modern novel, aping current life, as all " good fiction is told to do, to a great extent nowadays uses the marriage ceremony as a springboard for leaping off into every sort of free and latitudinous behavior. In grandmother’s day a maiden slpped from the cloister of father's house into the even more restricted area of husband’s bed-and-board. Not so any more. For here is a novel right off the press, right off the moment, too, in evie dence that times have changed. These are all newly married folks. Very yog, though not so young as they used to be, for the female is growing uncannily shy of bondage. They are all gay. Everbody is gay now. It is the fashion. A good fashion, too. Seemingly there is no daytime in the do- mestic economy of these people. So, maybe resentful of such sho:tage, they turn night into day, into a merry-making day, patching on an hour or two of rest at the end of whatever of mirth and madness may have been going on. Wives lose their husbands, but without alarm, since there is a loose husband at hand in about every case to be appropriated. Dancing is the prime domestic preoccupation. Eating is a picnic process, carried on here and there at random. Sudden auto excursions with mixed partners are something of an industry. Gambling, a little, or more. An easily recoge nizable group, this one. Only one girl ap- pears to have sense enough to make shift for herself and for now and then one of the others. “See here, kid, you have to work for happiness. You don’t get it without work,” and she rights the weeping lady up from the welter of her own emotions. That is about the run of this matter. That which saves this too too modern tale is the clever wit of the writer. It is her turn of common sense, of keen satire, of sophisticate onlooking. These bring tem- porary relief to a picture of passing life in one of its wide-open spaces. The satirical little yarn gives a shade of easement to much of the utter banality of current fiction. D'ARTAGNAN'S LETTER. By M. and H. Bed- ford-Jones. New York: Covici-Friede, pub- lishers. EEPLY interested in early French letters and manuscripts, Mr. Bedford-Jones, some= thing like five years ago, went to France to indulge himself in this preference and passion. Time not wasted, after all. For out of the pur- suit came “The King's Passport” derived from a Louis XIII document. Came also D'Arta- gnan” after the manner of the great Dumas himself, so it is said. Now from the same quest comes this tale of mystery and crime, doubled and twistcd to tormenting involutions of design and action and outcome. A letter, declared to have been written by D'Artagnan, greatest of the great three, was, with a lot of old and miscellaneous manuscripts, Continued on Eighteenth Page EXHIBITION THE ABBOTT SCHOOL of FINE and COMMERCIAL ART . Summer Session 1624 H St. N.-W. Nat. Art Exhibition Students’ Work 9 AM. to 9 P.M. Daily Y~ ME. 2883 EXHIBITION STUDENTS’ WORK May 23-June 7, Inclusive ° Felix Mahony’s National Art School Interior Decoration, Costume Design, - Commercial Art, Color. 1747 R. 1. Ave. North 1114 OO PO0P0000000000 0000000