Evening Star Newspaper, February 28, 1932, Page 85

EVIEW/S OF T ALI. ABOUT WASHINGTON: Including Din- ing in Washington; An Intimate Guide. By Lawrence Sullivan. New York: The Jchn Day Co. Bicentennial Edition. O youTre going to Washington!” Il “Well, we all are.” The great Bicentennial year, for- mally opened last Monday, the 2Id, declares the fact. Private car, motor bus, train, plane and river boat are hour by hour delivering specific evi- dence in the case. The “wide avenues” and “open streets,” com- monly cited as amcng the chief charms ol the Cap.tal, are, under this celebrative oncet, be- ginning to loock not unlike the packeg “side- walks of New York.” A shade confusing to the visitor, this strangely crowded aspect of the town. Or, would be, were it not for such prompt first aid as “All About Washington” ofers. In the interest of personal profit, profit in pleasure and time saving, get hold of this book. Buy it, «= borrow it, or—get it anyway. Just a single word eof warning in respect to it. Take it in hand and set out at cnce on the business of sight-seeing. Otherwise, time is likely to fly away with you still poring over a mere guide book, whose manner is as engaging &s its substance is useful. As a rule, charm and utility do not go to- gether. There are reasons. But here they step out in complete fellowship. Originality is the keynote of this book. Originality of approach and treatment in showing Washington's city to the people of Washington’s United States. If the author wishes, “Before You Begin,” as he does, to talk abcut the geography of the town, its population, its topography, its mu- nicipal idiosyncrasies, he simply proves himself able to make these commonly dry-as-dust top- ics positively juicy with his fresh outlook, his new turns of speech and his own general way with words. A complete guide. From its opening “Cal- endar” to its closing program of events for this year of celebration there is nothing of mo- ment or interest missing. A well organized program, besides, that separates Washington into its official character on the one hand, into its municipal aspect on the other. Belonging to the one are great Federal buildings, located, set out in architecture, history, use. Belonging to the other are such outstanding features as mark city life everywhere. Between these two stretches a bridge whose name is Society, link- ing a brilliant official display with the wealth and culture of private citizenship in one of the surpessing centers of the world. A short chapter devoted to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial is of clear inspirational impact and effect. Mount Vernon, Alexandria, Arlington, link momentous periods in the growth of the United States and its Capital on the Potomac. Great men come and go. Great events move vividly before the visitor, come from all quarters to get acquainted with his own Washington, past and present. And going along all the time with the va- rious features of this important adventure is a deal of useful information on the regularly recurring business of getting something to eat. A wide span, this. From the epicurean ritual of dining in fashionable club or hostelry, to a plain snacking around at the sudden ang im- Pperative call of plain, lusty hunger, pushing threugh the doors of cafeteria or modest inn. It is a great book. Its first count is that of comprehensive, complete, well ordered infor- mation. Its second one is that of an origi- nality which has given to the usual dry me- chanics of a guide the vivid companionship of a friend, in bond, to tell everybody ‘““All About Washington.” PROMISE YOU WON'T MARRY MF. A novel. By Rosita Forbes, author of “One Flesh,” etc. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. GOOD craftsman. A clever woman, stored with travel and adventure. “Packed with the eyesight of many regions and with insight upon the main facts of human nature. Rosita Forbes, writer of romance, travel, biography, essay It is possible that this opening is in the nature of apology for the title of this novel. Some day, some one is going to write a story on the psychology of fool titles. And, in this study, no doubt, the sharp turn will come through the truth that a title is in the nature of a shop window, sizing up the caiiber of window shoppers along the street. However, all that is something else. When Rosita Forbes sets out to study the true inwardness of the marital state by way of the four children of Sarah-Anne and John Lake, there is sure to be no inanity of treat- ment, nothing but sound study, good sense, and enough of a picturesque to-do in action and cetting to get the matter across. She does, does 2ll that and even more in her latest novel. What is the matter with husbands and wives, as such? Probably nothing. Maybe every- thing. But, in either case, Fere are four cases of matrimony, or approaches to it, that lit- erally seem to turn the matter inside out. First Jane, a daughter, married to George. Models, these two, to the conventional pattern of wed- lock. Children, home, prosperity, congeniality —there you are. What more? Nobody knovs, nobody but George, and so he goes a-wander- ing. And Peter, who married ratter above his own state in life. The well born and well reared girl was delighted with Peter. But Peter was miserable. And Richard, engineer off in the East, who picked up a perfect little rip of a rum-guzzling scrap. Yet—but why follow these four cases of trial by merriage? Enough to say that Rosita Forbes has made fair study of a situation that, just now and all .lonn_z.m«- Adam and Eve, has been the great situation with an grades of men and women Na thie §o rat 0 pawel ferine $a he emart THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTEGN, B €, FFBR(’.@R\' 28, 1932, Something New in the Way of a Guide Book of the National Capital—Miss Forbes Writes Another Novel—T hose Isles of Georgia. ard modern by way of being deliberately a bit c¢ft the track. It is e serious and interesting piece of work, that touches a vital point in the insecurity of wedlock. No preachment. A finely dramatic romance instead, wherein a keen, and fearless, writer bids you to come on in and think it over. THE GOLDEN ISLES OI' GEORGIA. By Caroline Couper Lovell. Illustrated. Bos- ton: Little, Brown & Co. HERE may be good cause for ignorance, for that is a deep-seated malady. For lack of genial information, however, there is no excuse whatever. Tre atmosphere, hitherto considered to be an element devoted to the respiratory processes and needs of plant and animal life, is now day by day and hour by hous proving itself to be the supreme news monger, the greatest tale bearer of all time. To lack all sorts of general, and useful, in- focrmation, therefore, is nowadays without ex- cuse. Facts about unknown places, to give a case in immediate point, arrive faster and in great- er volume than one can possibly meet. Never- theless, one is able to help himself richly in this direction alone. Here is a strange tale rigtt along the line of new and strange places. A kind of historic fairy tale. Seven islands stretched along the coast of Georgia. Aside from the routes of latter-day trade, these have been left to ripen and mellow, to glimmer through the yellow haze of sunrise and sunset, for more than a century of solitude. Happily, when the atmosphere was caught in its great game of news carrying then peo- ple woke up anew to the joys of receiving these amazing stories and of spreading them as fast as possible. And the great lordship of “They Say” began to take on its present amaz- ing power. Happily, now, authenticity is be- ginning to push out mere rumor and vicious repetition. It looks as if, in spite of ourselves, we are beginning to know a few things. The traveler is a fine school teacher these days. .So is the patient stay-at-home, learn- ing to dig into old records of first-hand source, and generous in passing on these documentary accounts, Here is one of this sort, the one for which we are in debt to the author of “The Goldenr Isles of Georgia.” Once, so .it turns out, these seven isles of the Georgian coast were harborage for Spaniard, French, for Scotch exiles out of the Stuart revolt, for Swiss Moravians and many another brand of fugitive from Old World oppression. Always the Indians to menace, always old national disagreements brought across to lend the spice of warfare. A place packed with human nature, these “golden isles.” And since it wasn't easy to preach his re- ligion at home, Wesley came over to the Georgia coast to plant the seeds of rigtteous- ness. And since it was not comfortable fcr Aaron Burr up North after his duel with Ham- ilton, he, too, went South for safety. One of the best of these tales of an earlier day is that of Fanny Kemble, rank abolitionist and indifferent wife to a Southern planter. But, why name all the pleasures lying 1in wait for you out of the rich journal from which Mrs. Lovell has drawn those old days of adventure and enchantment, the days set down herein here in perfect grace and lure. Just a chapter of old history, on its way out into the world along with the hosts of in- formation that are besieging us to find out a few things about ourselves, and the rest of the world. A Story of Two Great Boston: The NOT ONLY WAR: Conflicts. By Victor Daly. Ciristopher Publishing House. SHORT novel, compact of deep substance. Racial separaticns and the World War provide its background. Two ycung men from the South, cne white, the other a Negro, em- body the theme by way of a stirring war epi- sode wherein race is forgotten in immediate overhanging danger where color seems not to count, where hercic service, instead becomes measure of the man. The story begins back in the South, where a Negress may have, does bhave, beanuty, refinement, intelligenge, charm. What of it? Nothing at all. It moves over into France, where a beautiful young woman, not under bond to- racial prejudice, becomes dceply interested in the Negro soldier who figures so heroically and, at the end, so trag- ically here. Ne one “over there” minding this save the young Southern officer who later became comrade in death with his black play- fellow from back home. Just a meager sketch, you see, of a theme that looms mightily at any time and anywhere. War and race. The immediate interest is that within so small a compass Victor Daly, a progressive and cultivated young Negro of Washington, has succeeded in producing drama, poignant and tragic. A drama, seem- ingly, that cannot be simplified to any lighter measures. War is today as fierce as ever. Race is today the great separatist. The point here is that Victor Daly has ere- ated a short, pointed, admirably constructed trocedy on » donbla theme. joined in a desplv impressive problem which ne, In a keen sense of fact and at, leavcs as it has to be left probably for several thousand years yet, mil- lions maybe. CLEAR AND CONCISE CONTRACT. By Jules, Estelle and Beatrice de Nouement. Skeiches by Byna Wood. Printed by Co- lumbia Printing Co., Washington, D. C. HE entire family appears to have taken hand in producing this “simple system for teach- ing, and a practical method of playing con- tract” One of its specific aims is that of “teaching auction players. the game of con- tract; of helping contract players to improve.” Written “for ladies and gentlemen,” it is dedicated to those “noble characters who do not quarrel at cards no matter what the prov- ocation, if there be any such persons.” Fol- lowing a simple biographic sentence or two in respect to the authors themselves, the study of contract begins in a mood of easy gayety, to which the sportive sketches along the way give stress and point. Yet, this is withal a serious business. Listen: “The ccunt at contract involves two different states or positions, carrying different bonuses or penalties.” The words “vulnerable” and “not vulnerzble” follow, with close explanations of the powers and potentialities of these terms. That analysis complete, one knows all about “the count a2t contract.” Then comes “The Method of Bidding at Contract,” all spelled out in an astonishment of direct simplicity. Mystic ccmbinations of letters and other glyphs take possession of page after page, all contributing by good intent to the plain and guileless nature of the' game. A young man came into my place. So, I said to him. “See here, can you make any- thing of this?” Whereupon he bolstered himself against my desk and apparently lost consciousness. But scon he began to twitch and shift in sign of some active influence. “Gee! But this is great!” “What's great?” And I cast about for the source of so much gusto and excitement. “Why, this book. It’s a peach! Do I play contract? Do I?” and I withered away under so much of scorn and pity mixed up tegether. That's what the young man said. “Why, it is the clearest thing I've met,” he went on. And I was glad of that. Anything clear is well worth while. And here is your book. The last section of the study, “Bridge As a Social Institution,” is a joy, even to the Philistine who looks, a bit perturbed, upon the deep, daily preoccupation of 50,000,- 0660 citizens with little slips of pasteboard. The humor of the story is delightful, its scientific depth is terrifying. But, it is for the 50,000,000, and they'll eat it up, I'm sure. THE MASTER OF CHAOS: A Romance of George Washington, By Irving Bacheller, author of “A Candle in the Wilderness,” etc. Decorations by Herb Roth. Indianap- olis. The Bobbs-Merrill Co. PRETTY splendid affair from either of its two points of view. Some, of the more elderly persuasion, will call the background of this tale, the real stery, the one to read and then to read again. But the young folks will declare, instead, for the vicissituous love- making between Colin Cabot and Patience Fayerweather. These will deny sturdily that the courtship of the two is but a pattern of embroidery drawn upon the fabric of Revo- lutionary history itself. Both claimants can be satisfied. For, undeniably, here is history. History, authentic, at the most critical point in the chronicle of America and a new world. As such, it is the figure of Washington that dominates, that leads and directs and assures the issue. And one comes upon him here, alive and masterful. Just as in the story of Abraham Linceln, “A Man for the Ages,” this author founded his work upon the authentic facts of the histery of that momentous day. So, here is first. history, Washington its maker. Then, skillfully interwoven, is the slighter mat- ter of a pair of young lovers, sad and glad, happy and sorrowful, hopeful and despairing, as lovers have been since the world began. And yet, these two are of good service, beside the purely personal one of achieving wedded bliss For this Colin Cabot, by virtue of his good patriotism and sheer gallantry, turns many a side of the larger matter outward toward some conclusion, or some direction from the great commander himself. Sent here and there, by his leacer, Colin Cabot comes upon many of the critical aspects of war, upon one and another of the situations that stand as history. One of these the signing of the Declaration of Independence, with many an- other, and less, event. A splendid story, a tribute to the thoroughgoing quality of its author, as well as to the dramatic power of this invention. A true contribution to this great year of the people in celebrating George Washington. WASHINGTON; And His Portraits. By G. M. Garland. Chicago: The Guilford Press. HERE others have written so voluminous- Jy this author chooses to be concise. Holding o the conviction, no doubt, that while leisured folks have time for the long studies of Washington that have been so numerously produced, there be thcse of almost no spare time at all. But these, to be sure, should no§ be shut away from the great career of Washm ington, from the high character of the many And, so, with these in mind, Mr. Garland hag pressed the enormous bulk of material upon the subject into the compass of a hundreq pages, a little over. A novel feature of the book, and a useful one, is the collection of Washington portraits that it contains. Twenty portraits of Washington himsell. One of Martha Washington. Reproduction from Trumsa bull and Sharpless and Stuart and Savage, From the Pecale’s—Charles Wilson, Rembrand$ and James. All come tcgether here with bitg of critical and ccmparative analysis ace companying them. With sketches of the sune rounding circumstance and specific occasiog out of which each of these pictures grew. This portrait gallery is, indeed, the highes§ peint in Mr. Garlend's work, since the book makes availabie very important material thag is not easy to reach, as a rule, but that here becomes immediately to hand of those having need for just this collection of Washington pictures. The portrait and the history, so clean-cuff in its sharp condensation to the prime essentialg of Washingion's life and influence—these the stamp of criginality to the book and at thg same time serve to meet the need of timgw pressed readers and students. Books Recerved THAT EVENING IN SHANGHAI By Padl Thorne, author of “Murder in the Fog,” etg, Philadelphia: The Penn Publishing Co. STRIKE! By Mary Heaton Vorse, author @@ “Men and Steel.” New York: Horacg Liveright. THE GOLDEN ROOF. By Margaret Fullefy author of “Alma,” etc. New York: William Morrow & Co. LAUGHING WATER. By B. M. Bower, authog of “The Ranch at the Wolverine,” etc. Boss ton: Little-Brown & Co. L THE FAR-AWAY BRIDE. By Stella Bensony New York: Harner & Bros. NARN WIRE. By Walt Coburn, author 0f “Mavericks,” etc. New York: The Centurg Co. OUTLAW BLOCD. By Eli Colter, author of “Bad Man's Trail.” New York: Alfred H, King, Inc. CONTRADANCE: A Puritan's Progress in New Orleans. By Willson Whitman. Indians apolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co. THE SOPHISTICATES. By Gertrude Athers ton, author of “Black Oxen,” etc. New York: Horace Liveright. TANGLED TRAILS. By Willis Staton. Bogs ton: Meadoer Publishing Co. RUSTY OF THE MEADOW LANDS. By Frances R. Sterrett, author of “Rusty of the Tall Pines,” etc. Illustrations by Marion Oldham. Philadelphia: The Penn Publishe ing Co. CALICO BUSH. By Rachel Field. Wood ens gravings by Allen Lewis. New York: Thg Macmillan Co. HEADLONG. By Genevieve Parkhurst, authos of “King in the Making.” New York: Henry Holt & Co. BOY CRAZY. By Grace Perkins, author o “Personal Maid,” etc. New York: Coviche Friede. INDIANA JANE. By Cecil Roberts, author of “Scissors,” etc. New York: D. Appleton & Co. THE EAGLE'S SHADOW. By Arthur Iy Howden Smith, author of “Porto Bellg Gold,” etc. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincoty Co . THE OTHER PASSPORT. By Harold Mats Grath, author of “The Drums of Jeopardy® etc. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co. THE GLORIES OF VENUS; A Novel of Modw ern Mexico. Bu Susan Smith. Drawings in color by Jose Clemente Crozco. New York: Harper & Bros. TWO PENNILESS PRINCESSES. By Charlotte Yonge. Introduced and edited by Elizas beth McCracken. Illustrated by Stafford @ Gocd. New York: The Macmillan Co. SIBYL OF THE NORTH: The Tale of Chrige tina, Queen of Sweden. By Faith Compton Mackenzie. Illustrations. Boston: Houghw ton, Miffin Co. DISILLUSIONED INDIA. By Dhan Gopl Mukerji, author of “Caste and Outcast® etc. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. ALEXANDER; A Novel of Utopia. By Klaus Mann. Translated from the German by Marion Saunders. New York: Brewer & Warren, Inc. DEATH OF SIMON. By Boris Sokoloff. Newt York:The Logos Publishing Co. LAKE FRONT. By Ruth Russell. Wood cuts by Ruth Kellogg. Chicago: Thomas f 9 Rockwell Co. THE PATHS TO YESTERDAY; Memories o Old St. John's, Newfoundland. By John Maclay Byrnes. Including a number of typical Newfoundland poems, each from the gifted pen of a Terra Novian. Neg York: Meador Publishing Co. i A NOMAD'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. By Johan Turi. Translated from the Danish by B, Nash. New York: Harper & Bros. - BUY OR RENT NEW BOOKS at WOMRATH’S 1319 F St. N.W. 3107 14th St. N.W. { Jame Bartlett, 1347 Conmn. Ave. NW. { - Used Books at Remarkable i Reductions 3