Evening Star Newspaper, May 7, 1933, Page 77

) A ARCTIC VILLAGE. By Robert Marshall, New ; - York: Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, HE first pleasure for a reader opening “Arctic Village,” with its artistic jacket, showing two tall pine trees with peaked, snow-clad mountains in . the background, is in the illustrations (66 of them) from photographs taken by the author. They have the charm of black and white pencil drawings. The text does justice to the pictures. It accomplishes two things—it tells an interesting story of explora- tion and life in the Arctic and it gives much sound information about the country, the peo- ple and their communal life, sex customs, economic problems, recreations and philosophy. Mr. Marshall, after graduation from the New York State College of Forestry and the Harvard Forest School and four years of work with the United States Forest Service in Montana and Idaho, went to the Arctic and stayed there for over a year. “Blank spaces on maps” had always fascinated him, and he had been in the Arctic once before. This time he went by air- plane the 200 miles from Fairbanks to Wiseman, the chief settlement in the Koyukuk, where every inhabitant of the town, Eskimo and white, met him at the landing field. The in- habitants numbered 127. The description of Mr. Marshall's log cabin, where he settled down for the Winter, sur- rounded by steep, rugged, snow-covered moun- tains, and its furnishings, notable for their sometimes self-conscious in its artistry, that is not a serious criticism. The same has often been made of Swinburne’s poetsy. Ex]iloration and Li fe in the Arctic—A ermuon. vy sarurse sicen. moston Little, Brown & Co. Buccaneer and Governor—Wide Variety B o st v s e 5 & e . of the most important villagers. Every year in New Spring Fiction. Jim Devoke, head groom at the Brambledon stables, one of the largest farms in the district, property of a gentleman farmer, takes the fa~ mous shire stallion through all the neighboring based on origipal documents. Mr. Roberts oven and the view from the sink-room window. villages and to all the shows. This is to both allows the narrative to lose nothing in the way’ She moves from task to task in all seasons, of sensationalism in the telling. The swash- caring for the wants of all the others, storing buckling and the horrors are equal to those of her food supplies, cooking the dishes the dif- a Sabatini novel. ferent ones ‘like, welcoming home the brothers and sister from the outside world, trying to put a proud look in her eyes when Olly tells her about his debating, though she does not know what an alternate is nor what Wesleyan is. She is deeply contented, undisturbed by ill fortune influence of ideas in promoting the slow or injustice, unconsciously dominant. The growth of humanity toward what we call civil- 5tyle of “As the Earth Turns” is simple, smost zation, and the author’s adventure in “framing epic. Ladislas Reymont, Polish novelist, did a speculative scheme of ideas which shall be something similar to this, on a much larger explanatory of the historical adventure.” A ScAle, more powerfully. less pleasantly, in his philosophy of history is the result. Dr. White- four-volume novel, “The Peasants. head, professor of philosophy in Harvard Uni- = versity, has intended it for the general reader; and for the general reader with some elemen- UNCLE PEEL. By Irving Bacheller. New York: Prederick A. Stokes Co. Jim and the Brambledown Pride the high mark of the year. The route of the triumphal prog- ress is posted in the local newspaper and clipped by Ursula, Jim's wife, and pinned on her chimney crossbeam. She takes pride in ‘seeing the name of her lord and master in print, and she is the only one who sees in anything but a black-browed fellow, “piggish snout and thin, drooping mustache,” a small, pot-bellied figure, and generally in- rignificant personality. It is the character of Ursula which inspires the story—gentle always, happy when there is nothing for her to be hap- py about, unselfish, almost superhumanly for- giving and generous. Her four daughters, the only survivors of her 14 children, would bring her little satisfaction, except that she has an ideal of each of them which she loves. When the gypsy ex-circus girl Tamar leads the surly ADVENTURES OF IDEAS. By Alfred North Whitehead. New York: The Macmillan Co. - adventures of this book are twofold, the maximum of utility, will arouse the admiration of every practical housewife. His book collec- tion, which included “The Life of Sir William Osler,” “Middletown,” “Anna Karenida,” *“The Magic Mountain” and the “Plays of Euripides,” in addition to practical works on sociolcgy, physics and medicine, was “a splendid collection tary foundation of sociology and philosophy it will prove an addition to knowledge and & stimulation to thought. It is another study, s0 necessary in the process® of establishing sociology as a science, in the evolution of dif- ferent social manifestations, as government, the family, finance, religious observances, warfare, agriculture, commerce. In this case the evolu- HE Plorida boom has entered literature, and with it the Florida collapse. Together they furnish perfect rising and falling dramatic action in Irving Bacheller’'s novel. Through all the hysteria Uncle Peel plays the part of a prophet, but,“of course, no cne pays any Jim astray on one of his tours with the Pride Ursula meets the resulting situation with sim- ple acceptance of facts, without pride or jeal= ousy, with a certain secret joy and with con- siderable shrewdness. Marguerite Steen bas had some experience as a teacher and on the stage, with Mrs. Pat Campbell, but bas at for a year of isolation, but the isolation proved 80 extremely social that I did not have time %o read a quarter of the books.” The villagers, with the exception of a baby and orfe Eskimo woman who could not speak English, spent hours visiting him in his cabin, and he returned their visits. He also made many excursions to the two gold mining centers nearby, at Nolan Creek and Hammond River, where the miners welcomed him with overflowing hospitality, allowed him to work with them, and only with great reluctance permitted him to depart, Longer dog-mushing trips, “snug nights in snow-surrounded camps,” the exploration of the course of an unknown river and visits to the most remote mining camps of the region added to the wealth of his experience. And all the time, everywhere, there was conversation about all the subjects which interested his various companions, and all the subjects on which he effect of ever augmented universal forces, which wished to pick up information. In the jey go on to ultimate conclusion but never tum mornings at Wiseman, after his cabin had been back. warmed by the iron stove, notes were written intervals followed the advice of Ellen Terry and W. J. Locke, who told her she should make a career as a writer. She has facility of style and the ability to create real characters. Some of her previous novels are “The Reluctant Ma- Summers in New York State. In his own per- donna,” They That Go Down in Ships,” “Uni- sonality, apart from his unclehood, Uncle Peel corn’ and “The Wise and the Foolish Vire is a banker in a small town in Northern New gins. York. He is also the-wise man of the whole countryside. Northern New York is a producer of wise men—almost as much so as Vermont. Pelopides Parker (his unabridged name) is a cheerful bachelor, has a handsome flowing moustache, first black, then white, is always well dressed, and is known and liked by every= one whose approval is worth having. He is canny and cautious, is always ready to give good advice but never forces it upon any one. If his nephew had had half the wisdom of his uncle, he would never have made his first visit to Sarasota, would never have helped to start the boom, would never have emerged from it with losses heavier than money losses. attention to him at the time. Afterward they remember what he has said and wonder why they didn't see the sense in it. Uncle Peel is the uncle of Gabriel Parker, portrait painter, who spends his Winters in Florida and his tion is traced of our entire present society from the influence of certain basic ideas, which have themselves undergone change. For example, there has been evolution from ideas of force toward ideas of persuasion, though stern facts make us admit that there is still ample oppor- tunity for further evolution in that direction. Perhaps the most profound truth in the book is this: “The history of ideas is a history of mistakes.” The changes in human ideas with regard to witchcraft, trial by ordeal, slavery. types of punishment for crime, the rights of people in their own government, the rights of women *are all illustrations of what Dr. White- head's theories include. That more changes are in process of development, in some in- stances of very rapid development. every one must be aware. Sometimes the changes are sporadic, temporary; sometimes they are the ' THE MEANS TO PROSPERITY _(Pamphlet). By Jo_hn Maynard Keynes. New York: , Harcourt, Brace & Co. RIEFLY, the means to prosperity, according to Mr. Keynes, is through a combination of protecting the foreign balance of trade and at the same time stimulating loan expenditure. Just how these two policies may be worked out Mr. Keynes explains with, of course, appli- cation to the British situation, but with fre- quent reference to the stiuation in the United States, whose plight he considers rather worse than that of England. Mr. Keynes has been called a prophet of evil, a Cassandra, but um- up. when visitors did not interrupt, perhaps furnishing material for mcre notes. And this world, far distant from standardized civilzation, did not seem to him isolated or lonely, but, on the contrary, seemed full of human interest and natural, unspoiled beauty. After an eve- ning walk in the freezing air, with the northern lights rolling brightly across the heavens, he would reflect that “life could not possibly be more splendid.” It is not possible in available space to quote any of Mr. Marshall's descrip- tions of his neighbors and friends in outlying places, nor to give his observations on family life, food, clothing, occupations, law and its enforcement, sickness and health, education, amusements, religion and many other subjects. ‘The book is the choice of the Literary Guild for May. SIR HENRY MORGAN: Buccaneer and Gov- emor. By W. Adolphe Roberts. New York: Covici-Friede. 8 “lord of the buccaneers that scourged the Spanish Main,” Morgan’s fame has never died. A Welshman, a freebooter, a knight, Governor of Jamaica, favored by Charles II, distrusted by James II, he ran his course by the time he was 53 and died in Jamaica, drink- ing and thundering blasphemies almost to the last. Less tham four years after his death an earthquake obliterated the cemetery where he was buried, and “if the Caribbean claimed the great buccaneer's bones, melted and destroyed them utterly, merging them with the waves, the poetical logic of that end cannot be ques- tioned.” He had lived more at length, for his time. than many who lived less intensely. In the first two chapters of this biography Mr. Roberts describes buccaneering in the seven- teenth century, its “Port of Orgies.” Port Royal in Jamaica, and “The Brethren of the Coast,” the buccaneers themselves. It is probable that Morgan went from Wales to Jamaica in 1659, when he was abcut 24 years old, where he joined a relative. There is an unsubstantiated story that he was before that time held in servitude as an indentured laborer, sold for debt to a plantaticn owner of Barbados. He rose rapidly to success in the most popular and lucrative occupation of his time. The standard exploits of the buccancers, such as boarding gallcons and raiding coast towns, were too tame for him. He directed his fleet toward Porto Bello, “strongest bulwark of Spanish might in the Caribbean,” marched upon it with about 480 men, blasted its three large fortresses and captured the town. “Rapine and pillage began prematurely, twin scourges from hell. Let no one imagine that distinctions remotely sug- gesting humanity were made that day.” _He sent first for the monks and nuns and forced them to place scaling ladders against the walls of the one remaining castle not yet captured. But the alcade of the castle did not yield to this diabolical strategy and fircd into the crowd below, so that many of the religious were killed, and over their bodies the buccaneers climbed up into the castle. Por this and similar deeds of distinction Charles II conferred knighthood upon him. 8ir Henry Morgan has not previ- ously bten the subject of a: detailed biography i < own Kitchen ‘(she feels (et #tiss hers), her own: * A8 THE EARTH TURNS. By Gladys Hasty Carroll. New York: The Macmillan Co. Jm THOMSON, eighteenth century Eng- lish poet, wrote in the years 1726-1730 his four-part long poem, “The Seasons.” It is a pleasing exception to the formalism of the typi- cal eighteenth century poetry. In the division for each season are a number of poetic pic- tures, as the snow scene in “Winter,” the sheep- washing in “Summer,” the coming of the rain in “Spring,” and the storm at harvest time in “Autumn.” Gladys Carroll has taken this same basic, earthy theme for her novel, “As the Earth Turns,” and follows through the four seasons the life of the Shaw family on their farm in Maine. The opening scene is a February bliz- zard: “Outside the house it was storming, & busy downfall of flakes that the wind blew lightly across acres of old snow left from De- cember.” During all seasons the family life goes on in the kitchen—in Winter because it is the only warm place in the house, and at other seasons because there all feel most at home. The parlor is used only when the daughter Lize and all the sons come home together and some one must sleep there on the sofa or for a fu- neral; otherwise it is kept sacredly unused. The bed rooms, unheated, are for sleeping hours only and no one lingers long over dressing and undressing. From the kitchen windows Mrs. Shaw, always making clothes for her daughter Lois May, looks sourly, and Jen, always cook- ing and cleaning, looks placidly across toward the farm of their Polack neighbors, the Janow- skis. These Janowskis, who have taken over an abandoned farm and are living in the barn until they can build a house, furnish the sub- plot of the story. Stan Janowski, son of the family and its mainstay, is thoroughly indi- vidual, yet seems to represent the best type of immigrant, who becomes rapidly American- ized and revives early New England standards of hard work and thrift. The group of characters created by Gladys Carroll, herself from Maine, is unusual because no one of them fails in reality at any point in the narrative. Mark Shaw, all farmer, is the father of seven children. His first wife, Minnie * Foote, lies buried down in the pasture. He un- derstands everything about his farm but fails to comprehend his children and much that goes on in the domestic life. After all, he can follow the seasons in his planting, cultivating, harvesting, fence making, gathering of barks for his Spring tonic, without thinking much about people. We feel that a council of justice should have set on the case when Mark Shaw gives to his grumbling. lazy son George, on a neighboring farm, who has lost a cow through his own shiftlessness, the one-horned cow_which is producing butter, which is paying the ex- penses of Lois May at the Normal School at Rumfret. Lois May and Bun are the children of Mark Shaw's second wife, the rather weazen- ed, red-haired Cora Webster, from Kezar Falls. John, the child of the second marriage, is Mark’s pride, for John, he is sure, is like him, a born farmer. No one recognizes the fact, but Jen, 19-year-old daughter, is the real head of the family. She is a true daughter of the soil, never wishes to leave the farm, except to visit for a few hours the farms of her brothers, Ed and George, and then is glad to get back to her vice »wabilog vwerdd 2Yodosilc - YPILOE The love affairs of Gabriel Parker’s daughter Gladys, the effects of wealth on the ‘unstable character of his wife and a mild little mystery in connction with Uncle Peel furnish all neces- sary intrigue. One of the minor characters, Solomon Runions, a chauffeur, is the humorist, a sardonic one. Asked what he thinks of Mi- ami, as it is beginning to boom, he says: “Well, ye put that town and 30 cents side by side, and I'd take the money. It's nothing but land, water and lunatics. I don't like land or water, but I can get along with lunatics.” He is driving Gabriel Parker and his friend De- metrius Plumb in search of land bargains at the time. Mr. Bacheller was in his Florida home during the wild land boom and its aft- ermath, so this piece of fiction has historical ‘'value. In his foreword he says: “I aim also to make clear the great injustice done to the State of Florida, overrun with people from the North who, perhaps, honestly intending to set- tle within her boundaries, demanded extensive improvements and then spent themselves in gambling and ran away, leaving the Stateload- ed with debt incurred for their benefit.” WILDERNESS WALLS. By Jane Rolyat. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. ORT KAMINOCHAMINGUE is & Hudson Bay post in the wilds of Canada and to it is sent as an assistant Vincent Reid, straight from his job as clerk in the house of Napier Rolph, importer of staple and fancy dry goods in Montreal. He is young and unseasoned, but he falls immediately under the spell of the wooded wilderness and he has “an almost over- whelming consciousness of success in the fu- The post is a lonely one and Vincent's only companions are Scotch traders and In- dian coureurs de bois. The chief factor, Alex- ander Maurice St. Clair, is a pompous, eccen- tric, mystical man, whose character is gradu- ally developed throughout the tale. Vincent himself is an average young mah, eager for experience, fond of the sports offered in the woods, though St. Clair and most of the other men cannot see any sense in swimming, canoe- ing and shooting just for pleasure. He is also filled with healthy curiosity about everything he does not understand, and this puts him on the trail of a mystery connected with the Indian voyageur Cingebis, a flashy fellow, who always wears a red cloth about his head and plies a cent, were messy and difficult to decipher pnd, as evidence of supreme carelessness, one tarift sheet bore the print of a moccasin. Thery is a rumor that MacIvor, who had left suddenly, had buried some treasure somewhere in the for- est. Here are materials for a not-too-usual mystery story, but that is not the type of story Miss Rolyat set out to write. - She uses her materials, but the intrigue is entirely subordi- nate to the creation of a picture of the life of traders in the forest in the early 1860s. In very poetic prose, the majesty and mystery of the woods, the music of the waters, the help- lessness of man when struggling against the forces of nature, the pathos of the wild life pursued by man, are woven as motifs into the fabric of the story T Miss ‘Rolyat’s prose: s '/ phlet.) visions.) Kummer, fortunately many of his prophetic croakings have proved to be correct. of “Economic Oonsequences of the Peace” “A Treatise on Money” and “Essays in Persuasion.™ Books Received NON-FICTION. THE STRANGE CASE OF HERR HITLER. (Pamphlet.) By Everett R. Clinchy. New York: The John Day Co. HITLER, MENACE TO MANKIND. By Sidney Wallach. New Yeork: PROUD HORNS. (Verse.) By Carleton Drewry, New York: The Macmillan Co. ALIEN CORN. (Drama.) By Sidney Howard, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. > OF THINGS WHICH SOON MUST COME '.l“). PASS. A commentary on the Book of Reve- elation. (An enlarged edition of the Patmos FICTION. THE GOLDEN PIPER. By Prederic ArnoM New York: Sears Publishing ©o. DANGER ZONE. By Pomroy Lee, 3d. New York: Sears Publishing Co. i TRANSATLANTIC WIFE. By Peggy Hopking Joyce. New York: The Macaulay Co. 3 FULL CIRCLE. By John Colller. New Yoslst D. Appleton & Co. STRANGE BOOKS for Lovers of the Unusual) “LEMURIA, The Lost Continent of the Pacific —a forgotten race beneath the sea "MAN SIONS OF THE SOUL" — a fascinating dis- courte on reincarnation. “"SELF MASTERY AND FATE, CYCLES OF LIFE"—instructive He is the author (Pam- By Philip Mauro. Washington, D. C.: The Perry Studio. THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOC- ALYPSE. By Philip Mauro. Washington, D. C.: The Perry Studio. LEISURE HOURS. By George W. Wear. Bose ton: Meador Publishing Co. WILL THEY PAY? A Primer of the War Debts. By Dorsey Richardson. Philadele phia: J. B. Lippincott Co. LIFE'S PLACE IN THE COSMOS. By Hiram Percy Maxim. New York: D. Appleton & Co. RED VIRTUE. Human Relantionships in the New Russia. By Ella Winter. Harcourt, Brace & Co. THE MODERN STATE. By Leonard Woolf and others. Ed. by Mary Adams. New York: The Century Co. : New Ydwk: