Evening Star Newspaper, October 4, 1931, Page 97

THE EPIC OF AMERICA. By James Truslow Adams, suthor of “The Adams Family,” etc. Iustrated. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. PIC in the sweep of its movement, in the covering: quality of its 400 pages. Epic in its art of emphasis that lifts into panoramic view the mountain tops of America’s growih—>material, intellectual, spiritual growth—while at a lower level achievements of less magnitude gather. Cone tributory these, however, to the measure of ful- fillment already secured znd set high for all to se=. Epic, toc, in the open simplicity of its force- fu! narretion. At the outset, here is America bared of all but its natural features—mountains, plains, rivers, lakes, in their distribution, so significant in furture expznsions. A sscond wide gesture discloses resources of mife and forest, of soil and climate. A vast and lonely land peopled only by Indians, and, to the South, a curiously splendid barbaric civilization of unknown origin and growth. The end of this heroic passage stands at tre dooray of the present, locking off from the moment of Mr. Hoover's administra- tion into a future, idcalized by the possibilities that today may develop. = Within these limits is the history of this eountry. A few great movcments, sourced in plain end unmistakable conditions. An un- cluttered history, wheren only .momentous events are projected stra‘ght from their own logic. First the col-nies, possessions of the crown, good markets for Ergl:nd. but a long way off, lessening interference and leaving the colenists to a good hundrzd vears in a practical sclf-government. So when Eurcpean difficulties left England free to turn attention teward the new world a revolution for independence met her and a really “new” world came into being. In such a manner of reach and wide outlook and reascned behaviors does this author build up the America that we now know. The expand- Ing frontiers take on time and character and settlement for reason, always for reason. And one follows, keen to ezch period, as he is keen to his cwn current purposes and plans. For those are no different from these. Straight, intelligible and most zbsorbing. When the fine adventure is over and we stand with this author looking off into the great future that we may achieve, or miss—dependent, either, upon us, you know—we are stirred and steeled 4oward the future that we may secure for the world. Coming out of this journey through our own history with Mr, James Truslow Adams, we fall to wondering why bocks intended for the use of young folks, students in the schools, cannot be made like this one. History would never be dull if this were done. History is & most vital and important body of knowledge for the people of a country like this to know with intimacy, to kncw as a firing force. Yet text books on the subject—on any subject, as matter of fact—are the most interesting publictaions, take them by and large, that printing presses can be made to deiiver. Why? Why are there not hosts of such men—great scholars and writers, poets, prcphets, whatnot, who are making books, books like this one in spirit and big movement, to catch up these young ones in the ardor and beauty and power, in the wisdom and reason- ableness of studies like “The Epic of America”? I wonder. CANE JUICE; A Story of Southern Louisiana. By John Earle Uhler, author of “Best Eighteenth Century Comedies,” etc. New York: The Century Co. o OUISIANA of the sugar belt. The “Cajun” population of that quarter. Sugar, an almost dead-and-gcne industry. The majority, after the fashion of these bodies, accepting disaster with only resentment toward some vague enemy outside their own berders. No self-building power. No recuperative ginger. But, just as happens at crucial and desperate moments, a savior came to rescue and restcre. And this is John Uhler's story. A story of Lafourche Par- ish and Bernard Couvillon, Cajun lad, who set himself the job to find out what was the trouble with sugar down his way. A picturesque adventure. A rcmantic tele to read. Yet, it develops along the road of current history under the exhaustion of natural resources—oil, coal, timber and so on—or under out-worn methe cds of development. A chapter of local eco- nemic record reacting. in efiect, upon the in- dividuzl. Bernard Couviilon went to the State Univer= sity, where, 80 he was told, many things jere taught about the home State in its possibilities and resources, provided these were subjected to the new ways of dealing with every business. In substance, therefcre, this is a picture of col- lege life in its effect, in its particular effect, upon the young Acadian, while, at the same time, it diffuses the effect of that life over much of the student bedy. Bernard became engrossed at once, under a wise old professor, with the study of his own sugar soil, with hostile para- sites, with exhausted stcck crying for renewal under cross-breeding, with every sort of ailment and cure that could affect the sugar business of the State. Then Bernard fell into the snare of campus activities. Fell reluctantly, but went down, nevertheless. Or did he go down? It becomes clear and open that the community training and the social to-do of the institution did as much for the boy as did the scholastic work itself. If there is one outstanding point the last is that one. A professor of English at Johns Hopkins and now in the State University of Louisiana, John Uhler deliberately, it seems to me, sets to true drama the actual benefits to be gained from the social element of college life. No mis- slonary intent here. This is first and foremost a novel of special beauty and charm, But even drama has to have foundaticns of fact, or of most plausible invention. An individual, rough as weathered rock, must be shaped to the uses of current life, even to the business of rebuild- ing an industry. The college does it, by com= radeship as well as by lessons. An engaging man, this John Earle Uhler, long, lean, dark, low-toned, restrained but clearly quite captivated, nevertheless, by the THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., OCTORER 4, 1931. ¥__IDA_GILBERT AMYER_/ A Panoraiiic View of the Growth o f America. A Nezw Volume From the Pen of Sherwood Anderson—MWorthwhile Autiumn Novels. blends and currents of Louisizna life, he has turned away from the making of text books, for the moment at least, to create pictures of the people and the face of the fand down that way. “A red glow rising out of the swamps ag:inst the night! From a distance that's what a sugar-mill is.” So the story opens. “Night fell. A suger mill threw its glare against the black horizcn. That's what a sugar mill is at night—a red glow 1ising out of the swamps against the sky. And Bernard Cou- villon is a red glow against the night of poverty and ignorance of the cene country.” And so the story ends. A poet, a novelist, a school teacher, this John Earle Uhler. . IN THE WORLD'S AT-IC. By Henrletta Sands Merrick. Introduction by Sir Francis Young- husband. Illust:at:d. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. HE newest travel books indicate that the really desirable route to India is by way of the Himalayas. The highest peaks, the deepest gorges, the most devas. =ting river torrents, these only and in combination provide promise of that impending immediate death without which the modern adventurer h-rdly considers it worth while to leave his chrir and radio. So every- body who goes that way at all slides and slithgrs off the roof of the wc.ld into India far below. Women as well as men, too. Here is a woman's record of her own rummaging around in this attic of the world without actually taking the final leap off into far Hindustan. Just as well. For as it is, her pack is bulging with new places and peoples, with strange customs and gods, with scenic wonders. And the new names! No geography up our way has ever hinted of these places with names that twist the tongue, with leiters that change their sounds in sheer- disregard of our alphabetic sobriety and steadfastness. However, Mrs. Mer- rick is not responsible for these oriental va- geries. But she is responsible for the admirable use of aids to a better understanding of 5o much of strangeness. Fiist, there is a good map—indispensable feature of any book of travel. There are, also, lists of words and _idioms in common use translated into our own speech. There are tables of money and meas- ures. Routes are laid out, with modes of con- veyance, with prices, with stopping points indi- cated. Indeed, a more useful and thriftily projected prog:am for the possible follower along this trail can hardly be conceived. Yet, "despite such housckeeping pains, this is a buoyant chronicle of adventure, a record of new and Interesting fact, a tribute to the courage and ability of one woman at least in a region which has not yet, certainly, become a worn highway of seasonal excursions. A most interesting account from a fresh and zestful point of view. MOBY DICK; or Tke White Whale. By Herman Melville. Introduction by William McFee. Notes by M. Dodge Holmes, Ph.D. Illusira- tions by Anton Otto Fischer. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Co. N an introduction to this volume William McFee, sailorman, writer and artist, gives voice to everybcdy's love for “Moby Dick,” to the general appreciation of this great work of creative literature. One of the master stories of any and all periods. Then what about this edition of “The White Whale”? What is there to say about it? Not much, except a word or two remindful of the joy lying await in the mere beauty of a book. There is a happiness of its own in the volume that pocsesses a personality, in fts shapeliness and color, in the texture of its leaf and the distinction of its type, in picture and end deccrations—in a full measure of those in- terlinking arts of whicH the high craftsman in bookmaking stands possessed. Sometimes, in momcnts that we foolishly name “lofty,” we declarc that only the content of the book counts. That its externals cf gear are inconsiderable. And yet place in the hand a book of beauty, a bookmaker's best in his art. What happens? Almost at once comes the reader’s own involuntary respcnse to the high qualities of color and shape and texture that, intermingled here, give to the type itself a stronger gesture of appeal and a surer return from the reader. The teautiful book is a thing to cherish—a thing to read again and once more from time to time as, out from the shelves it seems to turn en inviting look. For young folks who show an interest in reading the book of beauty as well as of worth is of an influence hardly calculable to those who say “A book is Just a book,” a yellow primrose, so to speak. All this to say th:t “Moby Dick,” created by the John C. Winston Co., is bound to be a treasure for readers who are just ccming into @ fecling of happy possession of the new book that is both beautiful and great. There is a cultural psychology in such a combinzation that is quite invaluabie—so the wise ones in culture and in its beginnings wculd tell you, I am sure. In the meantime, lucky is every reader, young and not so young, who can claim as his own this fine edition of “The White Whale.” PERHAPS WOMEN. By Sherwood Anderson. New York: Horace Liveright. NY exacting workman would call this & job lot of writing. And so it is. Ander- son, himself, agrees. Says it first, in fact. A touch of poetry, broken in form and spasmodic in touch. A few lines running salong Nke story. A thrust of opiaion toward rmy one passing by. Some throavy gurgiings, th: clackeiy-clack of pushing trains. The heady whiil of motor-riding through the country. A flash of g.ecn—irees or g.owing grains. A trill of sound. Some bi.d telling it to a mate, his own or another's. Yet I wouldn’'t miss this mess If I were rou Better keep a'ongside. Here is th2 m-n who for some time now has becxn chesing himself around under the impression that he was fice- ing from a distastelul world. Juct going after one of his other selves instzad. TI'rom c'ty to country. F.om company to solitude. Then, largely by chance, he came upon one of the facto.y towns so rocently sprung ud in the South. A machine tovn. And he bszan to grow curious a%out machines, about their usurpetion of ran powcr, absut the effect upcn man himself of such cemnlcle abrogation of his own life principis. And he would g2 into the facloies at mnight, many nights. He watched these marvels o efficiency, these prod- igies of speed and eccuracy. Lines of men placed at the 1ight level before the machines with nothing to do save to press a bution of release or stoppage, to turn a d-licate lever for some momentous stage of automatic procuc- tion. What is going to heppen to m:zn in the course of this mechanical advance? Going to settle to the thinking capacity of tke machine itself. A few artists, dreamers, inventors to produce bigger and better mechanisms. The rest sinking to lower levels ¢f ment:l action znd spiritual outlook. Who, then, will do the great things of the world? And here is where the tentative “perhaps women" steps to the fore in answer. Not a bad answer at that. Women are coming; whereas men are gong. That is, they are going in the sense of long service in a man's world. Women are fresh to the out-of-doors of existence. They are eager for it. They are by degrees fitting themselves for it. And so Sher- wood Anderson,. in his own Andersonian way, suggests that in some far future, just as in a remote past, a matriarchy will supplant man rule, for awhile at least. Perhaps until the man, through eons of recuperation, will again be able to take charge of a miracle-producing world. Fenciful? Maybe. Most interesting, especially as this very remarkable man projects the visicn. LIVES OF TODAY AND YESTERDAY; A Book of Comparsative Biography. Edited by Rowena K. Keyes, Ph.D. Illustrited by Theodcre Van Deusen. New York: D. Apple- ton & Co. OMPARISON has proved te be a good in- strument for acquiring knowledge. Like- nesses, and sometimes contrasts, constitute an impressive means of gathering ideas upon a subject and of giving permanence to these. Comparison has provided a methed in education which is useful from the elementary school to specialized study in college and university. It has entered literature as well because of its value in vivid and lasting registration. Here is a case in point. Under the editorship of this scholarly womnan certain basic ideas in the grcwth of civilization, in the history of the world, have been brought into view by way of the proponcnts of those ideas. Discovery, invention, statesmanship, lit- erature and so on appear here by way of great men, two leaders in each case, who, though separated by time or by country, have, never- theless, contributed in marked substance to the growth of this or that of civilization. Benjamin Franklin and Andrew Carnegie, to give by way of example, stand as great “Builders of Amer- ica.” Great discoverers are Columbus and Robert Peery, cne brought from the writings of Wash- ington Irving and the other from his own rec- ord of search for the North Pole. The invent- ors are Robert Fulton and the Wright brothers. And so on thrcugh the chosen activities that have contributed to advancement for the world in one or another field. This editor has col- lected from authentic and famous writers for the substance of such interesting and useful study. Gecod reading and many illuminating partnerships of the spirit emerge from this in- genious service to students of history and to readers of biography. An excellent book to slip in between the ardors of profcund study and the indulgence of what is kmown as “light read- ing.” It helps beth. Lightens the one and corrects the other. THE BIG BONANZA. The story of the Com- stock Lode. By C. B. Glaesscock. Illustrated. Indianapolis: The Bobba-Merrill Co. HE “Silver Cities” of the West are deeply stirred just now, so the papers tell us every day, over the withdrawal of the gold standard in more than one part of the world. Old dyeams of the silver flood come again. Recollections of the earlier days when huge fortunes were made from the white metal re- vive and point upon a future of fair approach to that glamorous past. To be sure, only the best mines remain, but methods of production have. no doubt, advanced enough to counteiact, in some slight ireasure, such loss. At any rate, hope is running high and the daily press is re- viewing the history of that period when silver in the West lured thousands to the upbuilding of that section. And this moment stands as the one particular time to read of those early e L s P e P 2L days of cxcitsment and adventure, reillumi- ne=ted now by the rising of new hopes and plans, And hcre is “The Eig Boncnza,” clear melo- drama, clear fact as well. The opening of an incrhaustible earth supply, or so it seemed. The rush of adventurers. All money mad. The clashing of interests or of mere feelings and the swift eclips: of the lesser man by the stronger cr the better shot. The rise of great fcriunes. The development of a huge moneopoly, fcre runner of many others, to come in other se:ticns and with cthor interesis. The wrecking of banks, to the ruination of the many and the enrichment of the fow. The advance to promi- n-nce of unknown names, of their possessors to power—Pair, Flood, Mackay and others. Lcaders in finznce znd politics made out of I=borers and s2loon keepcrs. Well, what about it? Is not this “iree American”? “Yeah?” Howcver, stop moralizing. No one gets there by grousing. Gets where? Why, where every« body wants to gel—up high. Let's, instead, sit in at this amazing story of unbelicvable event which is, nzvertheless, in the main the vcry esscnce of truth itszlf. Not of.2n do subjeci end narrator come together, mclt together, as do these two in the virile and ecxciting selling out of thz “Comstock Lode” by C. B. Glassccik, original investigator, adventurer, scholar, and, above all, prime story tell-x. Indced, am2zing as the story is, the auiher hime=lf runs it a close second in sur- prising and capiuring pe-sonality. THE YCUNG MR3. MEIGS. By Elizabeth Corbott. Necw York: The Century Co. YOUNG thing, Mrs. Meigs. Only 80. Ex- uberant with life, outstepping to meet it, compstent at many a point in its speeding carcer. A puzzle to the juveniles of the family, those arcund 60 and 40 and younger. Tradi. tion has set rules of filial care toward the elders. But this lady of 80 refused such defer- ence to her years, taking charge not cnly of hergelf but planning much good sense for the guidance of the family and the neighbors roundabout as well. An amusing comedy of domestic life, one that holds itself within bounds, as comedy sa oft’n finds itself unable to do. But, aside from the good diversion provided here by the author in a pege torn neatly out from a certain aspect of family life, the story has, besides, something for the reader to tuck into a side-pocket of the memory for future use. And that use suggests that this novel would make an excellent tract —except that tracts of good precept and intent never seem to register with those most in need of their ministrations. But just supposing that women would read this book and take it into practice. This world, as matter of fact, is over- loaded with women who deliberately invite senility. The streets give samples innumerable every day of these fattening, slumping, heavy- footed seekers after age and helplessness. Lazy, in the main. Ignorant, in large measure. Will- less to an alarming degree. Now just suppose one in a,thousand would turn ardently toward activity, would as earnestly turn away from the tyranny of their own alimentary canals, their own supine outreach- ings for sympathy over the sad state into which they have pushed themselves—get out into things as the young Mrs. Meigs did. I wonder, So would the rest of the world wonder and re- joice in the young folks of full years, wise in experience, rich in understanding, washed of all censoriousness, ready to give out of the rich- ness that they themselves have rescued from the universal temptation to be sluggish, and animal, and less than half alive. Any book that is worth its ink gives some- thing besides its mere content. This one gives bright entertainment. And it ought to give a jolt to the supinely aging women, loafing around all over the wide world. Books Received KITTY FREW. By Jane Abbott, author of “Beggarman,” eic. Philadeiphia: J. B. Lip= pincott Co. WORKING GIRL. By Kathleen Shepard. New York: The Mohawk Press. THE EXPENSIVE HALO. By Gordon Daviot. New York: D. Appleton & Co. LOVE IS A RACKET. By Rian James, author of “Dining in New York.” New York: Alfred H. King, Inc. THE DELICATE SITUATION. By Naomi Royde-Smith, author of “Summer Holiday,” etc. New York: Harper & Brothers. IF TOMORROW WERE TODAY. By Bernard Sacks. New York: Rudolph Field, Inc. BIRDS OF THE NIGHT. By Austin Moore. New York: Richard R. Smith, Inc. AN ANGEL IN THE ROOM. By Girard Hop- kins, author of “The Friend of Antaeus.” New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. LOVE'S LOOT. By Eric Hatch, author of “A Couple of Quick Ones,” etc. New York: Farrar & Rinehart. TOPSY. By A. P. Herbert, author of “A Man + About Town,” etc. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co. - THE SANDLING CASE. By Louis Tracy. New York: Edward J. Clode, Inc. THE BLACK PEARL MURDERS. By Made~ line Sharp/Buchanan, author of “The Sube way Murder.” New York: A. C. McClurg & Co. IN COLD BLOOD. By Armstrong Livingston, author of “Trackless Death,” etc. Indianape olis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co. THE THIRD MURDERER. By Carroll John Daly, author of “The Man in the Shadows,” etc. New York: Farrar & Rinehart. THE DEVIL'S LOTTERY. By Nalbro Bartley, author of “The Fox Woman,” etc. New York: Farrar & Rhinehart.