Evening Star Newspaper, March 3, 1935, Page 50

F—4 THE SUNDAY § TAR, _ WASHINGTON, D._ €, MARCH 3, 1935—PART FOUR. WANDERING IN A REALM OF LITERATURE AND ART SHIPS AND OTHER THINGS Hendrik Willem Van Loon's New Book Is a Sequel to His Story of Dutch Navigators—Edna Ferber's New Novel, By Sairah Bowerman. BHIPS AND HOW THEY SAILED ‘THE SEVEN SEAS (5000 B.C.-A.D. 1935). By Hendrik Willem Van Loon. New York: Simon & Schus- ter. ~ ' the Bible, about America or Holland, about geog- raphy or adventure, about Rembrandt or an elephant, he is always enter- taining and instructive, without being pedantic. (He would hate that). And his ability to draw striking, often hu- morous, sketches to illustrate his own books of course adds many units to their interest. He has always been attracted by the history of discovery and adventure and the history of Holland, his native land, has been so involved with the sea that for him the sea has had unusual magic. This latest book of his is the logical sequel of “The Golden Book of the Dutch Navi- gators,” “A Short History of Discov- ery” and “Van Loon's Geography.” With a subject of such wide ap- peal, handsomely printed and bound and containing more than 150 draw- ings, it will undoubtedly prove one of his most popular books. HETHER Mr. Van Loon writes about the story of mankind or the story of | There is something very satisfying | to the investigative type of mind, to which the tracing of cause and effect comes naturally, in an evolutionary book like “Ships,” which follows the Hendrik Willem Van Loon, author of “Ships and How They Sailed the Seven Seas.” development of some manifestation of human activity from its beginning to the present time, especially when the beginning is as far back as 5000 B.C. Navigation was one of the earliest of man’s activities, necessarily so, for “man is a predatory animal” and he *“was restricted in his predatory activi- ties by the presence of a substance which then, as now, covered the greater part of the globe and which today is known to scientists and laymen alike by the name of ‘water.’” So it did not take primitive man long to make the earliest boat, a dugout fashioned from the heavy bark of a tree; but Mr. Van Loon, eager for first sources, remarks that really “the earliest vessel that ever cleaved the water” was the hu- man body. From this elementary be- ginning he follows the methods of navigation which developed in the islands of the Pacific, in China, Egypt and other Mediterranean countries; Northern Europe, especially the Scan- dinavian countries, the period of dis- covery which began in 1372, when gun- “Come and Get It.” tler period interest, hardly rivals this story of Wisconsin lumber kings dur- ing the period from 1850 to the pres- ent. The plot falls into two parts— the rule of Barney Glasgow and the rule of his son Bernle. As a prelude,’ there is the migration of Andy Glas- | gow and his Irish wife Nellle from New Brunswick to Maine, to Michi- gan, to Wisconsin, during which they and their boy three times almost met death in storms on Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. Mem- ories of these storms and of his moth- er standing on the deck in her Sun- day clothes, with one hand clutching his hand and the other her three sil- ver spoons, made Barney Glasgow boast jokingly whenever he indulged in reminiscences of his boyhood, which was often, that he would now never die in the water. If he had been superstitious he would not have boasted, or would at least have rap- ped wood. The best friend Nellie Glasgow and her boy had in the lumper camp, after Andy Glasgow went down into the | icy waters during a log jam and never came up, was the big Swede Swan Bostrom, and to the end of Barney's life Swan remained the man he loved best in the world. But it was through Swan that Barney met his final defeat, for Swan had a beautiful granddaugh- ter, Lotta, daughter of his substan- tial, wholesome, unpretentious daugh- ter Karie. Swan was content to be the best lumberjack in the woods of the Ridge district and to live alone in his little house in Iron Ridge; he felled & giant pine tree on his 85th birthday, | with the aid of his proud great- grandson. Karie was content to be | head waitress at the Ridge House, to | rule her pretty waitresses and to joke | | with the rich men who came up for | | hunting and fishing. But Lotta was | ambitious and knew how to plan and | to “come and get it”; her plans did not | include entanglement with a married | | man. Barney Glasgow never under- stood her; he comprehended only her | beality and that he intolerably craved beauty and adventure before he settled down to old age. Miss Ferber clears her stage with a degree of completeness for the second part of her plot, that of Bernie. Only Swan Bostrom and his family remain in center stage throughout the whole story and they are the outstanding ber of the faculty of the National Uni- versity at Peiping, editor and jour- nalist, now a lecturer on Far Eastern | affairs at Columbia University and Wellesley College, has chosen China as typical of the Orient because “in the number of her people, the size of her territory and the qualities of her culture, China, though politically weak now, remains potentially by far the most important part of the Orient.” He has not attempted a history of | China or even of China’s international relations, but tries to show in broad outlines why the ancient wall of isola- tion has crumbled and what that crumbling and the rebuilding process which is now going on mean to China | and the world. Mr. Clark’s discussion of China falls into three parts: Conditions in an- cient China which favored isolation, the first penetration of the West and the reasons for it, and China of today. Differences between East and West are basic. In the West the individual has been the social unit; in China, as the result of congested population, the group is the unit and the tendency, ' generation after generation, has been “to breed for conformity and to breed out individualistic aggressiveness.” This fundamental difference shows it- self in “the art, the religion, the gov- ernment and all the other phases of life in the two parts of the world.” High mountains and wide seas also | separate China from the West, not so high and wide in this mechanical age as in ancient times; and the Great Wall, extending for 1,800 miles from | the sea to the far interior, completed by Shih Huang Ti, was intended to | | make invasion from the outside even | more difficult. The first important entrance of the West into China was “by & back street” and *“the rear door,” | | from the south and east by the sea. | Western penetration of China falls in- to five periods: 1516-1842, from the first modern adventurers to the opium | WAr; 1842-1860, to the ratification of treaties which were the foundation of Western trading in China; 1860-1901, to the settlement after the Boxer up- rising, when European powers reluc- tantly accepted the reaffirmed claim of the United States for the “open | door”; 1901-1922, a period of economic expansion, ending with the Washing- ton Conference; 1922 to the present time, a period of progressive with- drawal. It may be that China is now entering upon a sixth period of for- eign penetration, begun with the Japanese military incursion into Man- churia in 1931, Mr. Clark’s 8nalysis of the new nationalistic currents in China, with the diminution of Western power and | privileges and the increase of Japanese | intervention, occupies the last third of the book and is both comprehensive | and extremely clear. Under all the| influences which have come from the outside, a new China is emerging, still torn by revolution, still economically chaotic, but developing a national consciousness, though national unity is far in the future, if it is ever to be attained. “New things and new ideas have trickled back into the most re-| mote hamlets of China. The ponder- ables and imponderables cannot be separated. New goods create new de- sires and new ways of living, which create new ways of thinking.” Of the chances of Japan in China, Mr. Clark says: “Though Japan for a time may be able not only to hold what she has taken, but to take more, this funda- characters in a large group, all of whom are made highly individual by | Miss Ferber. Swan, slapping away his | powder was first used in a naval en- gagement; the era of the full-rigged ship, the revolution brought about by the steam engine, down to the present | time and “What of the Future?” | Mr. Van Loon's unconventional | method of writing provides interest- ing queries and comments at every stage of his book. He raises and answers such questions as: How is scurvy responsible for the settlement of many of the Atlantic and Pacific islands? What are the reasons for | belleving that shipbuilding is of | Oriental origin? Why were the ships of Columbus such poor examples of the shipbuilding art? Were the very bad culinary and sanitary con- ditions on the rigged ships of the | seventeenth and eighteenth centuries | unavoidable? What was the origin of sailors’ superstitions, such as those | of the kraken and the terrible suck- ing fish, which devoured ships? Why did Holland lose her maritime su- premacy? What killed the sailing vessel? Mr. Van Loon's final chapter, “What of the Future?” makes this book seem almost an obituary of ships | and navigation. He indulges in no | dogmatic prophecies, but shakes his ' head over the prospects of ships in competition with airplanes. The | steamer, which superseded the sailing | vessel, has had only about a hundred | years of life and now finds itself faced | With a rival which may drive it from | the surface of the ocean. Clipper ships made money carrying gold pros- | pectors around the Horn to Cali- | fornia. in four months, if the weather was good; by the air service from | New York to Los Angeles the trip | takes less than 18 hours. Mr. Van | Loon sees the possibility that the harbor of Cape Town will resemble the ports of ancient Rome and that even New York and London will cease to be centers of travel, for “trans-Atlantic airplanes can find bet- ter landing places on Long Island and in Kent than on Manhattan Island or along the banks of the Thames.’ Warships, he says, are doomed. “The real future of the world belongs to the nation whose aviators have the strongest nerves and whose chemists have invented the most poisonous COME AND GET IT. By Edna Fer- ber. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co. IN ‘THE Wisconsin lumber camps in the 1850's, when Andy Glasgow was a lumberjack and his son Barney was a boy of 13, already beginning his career as a lumberman, there were two familiar yells from the cook shack at meal times: “Come and get it!” and “Set up or we’ll throw it out!” The first of these became the unconscious motto of Barney Glas- gow's life. Whatever he wanted he went after, and he usually got it But when, along in his 50's, he dis- covered that success, the wealth which had come to him through mar- rying his employer's plain daughter | and through his own grabbing of Government timber land, the prestige of being one of the biggest million- aires of the West, and complete re- spectability had left him unsatisfied, then he went after something which he failed to get—and Barney had never learned how to meet failure. “Come ‘and Get It,” in its tre- mendous vitality of both characters and scene, is one of Edna Ferber’s Edna Ferber, author of “Come kings of granddaughter’s jeweled hand that had been kissed by princes, when she tried to draw him off to rest after the birthday tree chopping, and snapping. “Iss big lie! I feel fine. I ain't feel 50 fine since we wass shanty boys to- gether”; Karie, in Paris, unconcern- edly calling for ketchup at Foyot's, after the chef and his asssistant had with the greatest punctiliousness com- pounded their perfect sauce for the boeuf chateaubriand; Lotta, ex- waitress at the Ridge House, grand- daughter of a lumber town music hall entertainer of underworld fame, sharply reproving her daughter for driving a mill hand home in her car, are all unforgettable. The latter part of the story, which ts the social triumphs of Lotta in New York. Lon- don, Switzerland, on the Riviera and shooting in India, is like continuous vaudeville, accompanied by & full jazz band. We prefer the earlier and much longer part, whose scenes are Butte des Morts, in the Fox River Valley on Lake Winnebago, the lumber town of Iron Ridge. THE GREAT WALL CRUMBLES. By | Grover Clark. New York: The Macmillan Co. 3 THR Great Wall of China may be taken, Gh.: Mr. Clark takes it, to mental fact remains to tip the scales in China’s favor sooner or later in the 7N and Get It a novel of the lumber the Northwest. contest with Japan: China does not need Japan, but Japan cannot live without China.” MEMOIRS OF A SMALL-TOWN SURGEON. By John Brooks Wheeler. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. DR. WHEELER is emeritus professor of surgery in the College of Medicine of the University of Ver- mont and his recollections go back to the 70s, as he entered the Harvar Medical School in the Autumn of -1875, immediately after graduation from the University of Vermont. There were at that time no legal re- strictions on the practice of medicine, but young men who were ambitious to be something other than quacks usually went to some medical school, the curricula at the best of which were meager and casual. A year's interneship in the Massachusetts Gen- eral Hospital was his introduction to surgical work. Anesthesia had been | discovered, but antisepsis and nepsl.s: were still in the future, though Lis- ter's ideas about wound infection were attracting attention. ‘““The mortality, | morbidity and complications which followed operation were practicaily the same that they were 200 years before.” When he retired, opera- | tions, often determined upon after! spl culture and traditi of the Orient. " with its historical A best novels, if not the best. Even “Cimarron,’ tron- In this book about crumbling of X-ray and blood tests, were per- formed in tiled rooms with sterilized . instruments by masked and white- zobed surgeons who had previously 1 3 Portrait of Col. Willlam L. Keller, painted by Eben Comins and included in exhibition opening today. scrubbed their hands for some min- utes. The doctor’s reminiscences of the dangerous early days are, from the literary and historical point of view, the most interesting part of his book. We now so take for granted modern surgical technique that the days when it was lacking seem almost prehis- | toric, but they were only about a half century ago. Operating experiences of himself and other surgeons show many narrow escapes for both pa- tients and surgeons, many pieces of | luck when things did not go as wrong as they should have done, con- sidering the lack of knowledge of the time. When Dr. Wheeler was & “house pup” he saw a case of hydro- phobia, a rare occurrence for even a doctor of long experierce; as this was before the Pasteur treatment, course the case was hopeless. Set- tling in Burlington, Vt., after his in- terneship, he soon secured an appoint- ment as an attending surgeon at the Mary Fletcher Hospital, which had been in existence about five years and where 15 patients were considered a good number. Diphtheria was endemic in Burlington then and for some years afterward, and the anti-toxin treatment was undiscovered. Trache- otomy was performed as a last resort, with a high mortality. The chapters and “Nurses—Then and Now” filled with medical and surgical anec- dotes, some humorous, some rather gruesome. Dr. Wheeler writes frank- 1y of what he has witnessed and par- choser profession, and it is obvious that he has always had an interest in people as people, not merely as patients. His book will appeal to lay- men even more than to other doctors. THE HISTORY OF THE TIMES. “The Thunderer” in the Making. 1785-1841. New York: The Mac- millan Co. ‘HE 150th anniversary of the first publication of the Times (Lon- | dom), for the first three years of its | existence called the Daily Universal Register, is the occasion for the pub- lication of this book. The name of no author or editor appears on the title page, but the English edition states that the book was “written, printed and published at the office of the Times,” and that it is merely | Vol. 1. Two other volumes are to fol- | low. Many authors have probably | contributed to the work, which is filled with important facts and epi- sodes and accompanied by lette: other documents and illustrations. In- evitably the history of the foremost newspaper of England, one of the foremost of the world, covers also much of the history of British jour- nalism and, at least through full ref- erences, the history of British politics during the period in question. It is an almost encyclopedic piece of work. ‘The present volume begins with the foundation of the Times by the first John Walter, coal merchant and un- | derwriter, who, on the collapse of his | fortunes, turned his attention to an | “improvement in the conduct of the | press” in 1785, and ends with the | death of Thomas Barnes in 1841. It was under John Walter II that the Times came to be called “The Thun- | derer,” but Barnes “was the first man | to become a responsible editor in the sense familiar to later generations.” If John Walter I had not been ruined |as an underwriter by the American | Revolution, he would probably not | have gone into the business of print- | ing and editing. The early years were | full of difficulties and John Walter I was twice sentenced to a year's im- prisonment for libel. The paper might have been abandoned and attention devoted solely to the printing busi- ness, had not John Walter IL come into the family enterprise in 1797 and, from 1803 on assumed virtual control. He contributed business management to the running of a newspaper and was responsible for in- troducing the revolutionary device of the ste*m printing press. Editorially he recognized that the success and in- fluence of his newspaper depended on its independence and freedom from By Courtney of | “Episodes,” “Some Vermont Doctors” | are ticipated tn during a long life in his | government or other control. point and by vigorous fighting with of his news bulletins. He also es- tablished high standards for his writ- ers and was able to enlist the serv- ices of a better type than had been accustomed to enter what was then considered a dublous profession. | THE BLACK CONSUL. By Anatolil | Vingradov. Translated by Emile Burns. New York: The Viking Press. EAVING the more immediate sub- | ject of his own country's revolu- | tion, the Soviet author. Vinogradov, has gone back into history for his story and writes of Haiti and the French revolution. In the opening scene, in Paris, wrapped in snow in the Winter of 1789, Toussaint I'Ouver- ture appears with a Negro delegation to beg from the revolutionary gov- ernment freedom for Haitl. Marat, “friend of the people,” is the other protagonist in this scene. As the plot, the chief parts of which are historical, Paris and Haiti and includes much of the course of the French Revolution and many of its most important fig- ures—Robesplerre, Lafayette, Desmou- lins, Lavoisier, Fouche and Napoleon. The “black consul,” Toussaint 1'Ouv- erture, heroic defender of the cause | of his race, secures from the French the abolition of slavery and brings peace, but when Napoleon attempts to restore slavery, rebellion breaks out and Toussaint takes arms for his people against his former allies, the French. His life ends in a French prison, Joux, where Mirabeau had been confined at the request of his father. There are few quiet moments in this historical novel. All is tur- moil, bloodshed, cruelty, treachery. The style of the narrator is as turbu- lent as his subject. He makes use, in & rather unusual manner, of ver- batim reports from original sources, which he incorporates skillfully in the narrative. They add to the historical content of the book, if not to the interest of the story. CHANGING ASIA. By Egon Erwin Kisch. English version by Rita Reil. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ‘HE modern age has not left un- touched the land of Genghis Khan not & Marco Polo he is at least a brilliant twentieth century reporter. He was famous as a journalist in pre- war Austria, a specialist in crime, a revolutionary in command of troops involved in the seizure of Vienna after the war, and is now persona non grata with all Hitlerites. He has traveled all over Asia and the part about which he writes especially in this book he sketches in a heavily-drawn picture map. Kazakstan, Kirghizistan, Uzbe- { kistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, all in the Soviet Union, lands of the primitive Mongolians, he found un- dergoing rapid changes, chiefly indus- trially, but also .socially. These changes he {llustrates by many anec- dotes and sketches of individuals adapting themselves to their altering environment. In Tashkent he found a 14-year-old girl seeking a divorce from an elderly husband who had paid her mother 16 sheep, because she wanted to go to school and learn to read and write. In Khojent he visited a hospital where physical therapy was applied to disease, without the ald of medicines. There electric show- ers, X-rays, quartz lamps, sweat boxes and other diathermic apparatuses marked the conquest of science over superstition, if not over all disease. In the province of Aral tigers have been replaced by cotton collectives, The theme of change runs through the whole book, but does not exclude much description of places and people interesting merely per se. JUST PUBLISHED | The First Authentic Account of || America’s New War Against Crime 10,000 PUBLIC ENEMIES Ryley Cooper FOREWORD BY J. EDGAR HOOVER Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U. 8. Department of Justice The inside story of the way U. 8. Department of Justice. the Division of Investigation, operates in its war on crime. Here for the first time are accounts of the man-hunts for Dillinger, “Baby Face” Nelson, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and other public enemies. Foreword by eral Bureau of Investigation, Edgar Hoover, director, Fed- Department of Justice. Three Printings, totaling 10,000 coples, before publicationl $3.00 LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY ' Boston Publishers, He | kept correspondents abroad when con- | tinental affairs were at the boiling | the post office secured prompt receipt | and Tamerlane, and if Mr. Kisch is | GOVERNMENT GOES IN-FOR ART Unusual Exhibition at New Department of Labor Building Etchings. Lithographs and Woodblocks on View—Other Collections Now Drawing Washington Art Lovers. By Leila Mechlin. HEN the new Department of | \[ V moniously opened and dedicated last Monday, with flowers, speeches and of paintings, prints, sculpture and handicraft had been set forth as spe- cial attractions. This is distinctly a ernment. Also, apparently, when the Government goes in fer art it is on a quantitative production basis. Under thing less than a year ago, over 15,000 paintings and other works of art were produced and became the property of are hung on the walls of the corridors on the first floor of the Labor Build- ing, while on the third floor may be | Boulder Dam in process of construc- tion by Stanley Wood, a collection of oil paintings by the late John Kane, Labor Building was cere- music, it was found that exhibitions new departure for the Federal Gov- the Public Works of Art Project, some- the Government. Now 150 of these seen a collection of water colors of | | one-time laborer, and a collection of | progresses, the action shifts between | “Central Park,” a painting by Carl G A. Albright, and “Americana,” by Wil- liam 8. Schwartz, both by painters who have acquired reputation through abil- ity to shock without perhaps being vulgar. In the P. W. A. P. exhibition in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and now again here, is a painting of a wheel- barrow by Morris Grave of Seattle, that in its rendition shows sensitive perception of subtle values and gen- uinely artistic feeling. Leo Bresian's “Plowing” has commendable character- istics, and a still life, “In An Old Maid’s Window,” by Woodford Royce, | is painted with exceedingly nice feel- ing as well as evident knowledge. Tla McFz2e's “Mountain Lions” is also noteworthy for merit. Three Washington painters are rep- resented, Julia Eckel, by four large figure groups; Bernice F. Cross, by two studies of Negroes, “Georgetown Corner in Rain” and “Mellon Vendor,” and Mrs. Siebenthal, who shows an “Interior"—ambitious efforts. In connection with this exhibition it should be remembered that paint- “Prints of Industrial Subjects” by |ings made for the P. W. A. P. were, by | sesses American print-makers, loaned by the | requirement, of the American scene, | vitality. Weyhe Gallery, New York—to say ! which quite generally was interpreted | nothing of two portrait busts by Jo!as Main street or the commonplace. shown a portrait of the late Mrs. Wil- ustave Nelson. Included in exhibition | - Davidson, textiles and pottery, photo- graphs and posters to be seen in other | parts of this great buflding. | The P. W. A, P. was to a large | | extent a relief measure, economic rather than primarily artistic, and therefore the works produced under it could not, and cannot, be judged in the same way as those produced under normal circumstances. When a collection of P. W. A. P. paintings was exhibited in New York last year Royal Cortissoz, one of the foremost art critics, said that at least it proved that no great talent had been pre- viously overlooked, for through this interesting, Nation-wide, open-door experiment none had emerged. Pass- ing from picture to picture now hang- | ing in the corridors of the Labor De- partment this comment is recalled and the fact impressed that the art here displayed is essentially that of picture- | making for and by the less intellectual and cultivated classes of society. The | interest in these pictures, most of | | which appropriately refer to some | phase of labor, is subjective. The | painters have, with a reasonable | amount of accuracy, set forth things | seen, but without, in almost every | instance, a ray of inspiration or the least glimmer of understanding that art is not what is done, but the way it is done—the way paint is put on canvas, the way effects are produced, the way a theme is interpreted. To understand just what this means let the visitor compare these paintings by, for the most part, artists who had not attained distinction up to the time the P. W. A. P. gave them ex- ceptional opportunity with the prints, on view on the upper floor, by artists of established reputation and ac- knowledged gift. Even the uninitiated will see the difference. It is an interesting thing that in | this day and generation, when the | tendency of the so-called “advance guard” in art has emphasized the ab- stract and intangible, we seem now to be turning to the subjective, illustra- tive, realistic. But the most realistic subjects may be so rendered that they not only delight the eye but exalt the thought of the observer. It is no compliment to an artist to say that his work looks exactly like something that we have seen. It is a compliment to say that it reveals to us some beauty or significance in things seen or life itself, which we have not heretofore realized. There is no doubt that labor and machinery today provide splendid material for artistic interpretation— therefore, to have it set forth without imagination, clumsily, drearily, de- bases both the laborer and the theme. Joseph Pennell saw the “Wonder of Work” and made it manifest in his lithographs. So did Jonas Lie in his paintings of the Psnama Canal and shipyards. So did Thornton Oakley in his pen and ink illustrations and lithographs, and the late Gerrit Beneker in his portraits of industrial workers. It has been and it can be done. ILet us not lower the standard. Turning to the current exhibition, | note should be made that some of the paintings shown have a naive, simple quality—such for example as “Winter Afternoon, Central Park,” by Carl G. Nelson of New York, and others a strength and vigor which singles them out, as “Building and Construction,” by Joseph P. Meert of New York. In some instances there is a glint of the comic, as in Misha Reznikoff’s “The End of the Horse, or the New Deal.” te obviously the comic supplement has exerted an es have the Currier and Ives prints of the Victorian era which have lately had revived vogue. ‘There &re, to be sure, some paintings in this exhibition that are by painters listed in the American Art Annual and regular contributors to the ‘ead- ing exhibitions, such as Jerome Myers, Charles Rosen, Ross Dickinson A Mar- tin Henning, who gave works ss tan- idence That industrial plants and labor sub- jects were so often chosen is per- haps indicative of a reaching out for idealism in this direction. Ob- viously it may be argued that in order to interest the masses we must bave mass production and that the common man is attracted by common art But this is not so. The greatest works of art have made appeal and been held generally in high esteem, be- loved and revered. America is sup- posedly materialistic, but to desire something, as well as some one to look up to, is essentially an American trait and it nolds good in art as in other fields and affairs. There can be no doubt of it. Artists, knowing the enormous technical difficulties of paint- ing, often see merit in a work that has no message for the general pub- lic. This explains why some perplex- ing prices are awarGaed and purchases made for ait museums by professional committees. But, strangely enough, it is the laymen’s judgment which in the end prevails—the laymen's estimate which fixes values. ASCENDING to the third floor of the Labor Building, one finds, in the northeast lobby an exceedingly interesting collection of prints—etch- ings, lithographs, woodblocks—on view, all of which are of industrial subjects or laborers, and by accomplished printmakers. The collection has been well chosen. In subject and treat- ment varied, it manifests as a whole how rich a source this is for art expression. Here one sees pictorial representations of great engineering works, derricks, steel structures, manu- facturies, forges, building operations, farming, fishing and many other activ- ities through which man earns a live- lihood, activities which call for large courage and great skill. And what is more, here these subjects are seen so rendered that they carry conviction and are significant of things funda- mental, man’s mastery of Nature and the machine. In these simple prints there is something very stirring and worth remembering. The majority are genuine works of art and the artists represented are conservative and progressive, traditional and mod- ern, and yet in accord. Among those represented are Ralph Pearson and Mahonri Young, Hopper and Wickey, Gifford Beal and Wanda Gag, Wen- genroth, the lithographer; Nason and Lankes, makers of woodblocks and engravings; Mabel Dwight, John |siding in the Senate or at work in his office—data very carefully assem- bled and skillfully employed by the artist. The expression and attitude are alertand the pose very well chosen. From the canvas the Vice President, at his ease and thoughtful, looks di- rectly toward the observer as if about to speak. In his left hand he holds a lighted cigar. Equally impressive and strongly painted are portraits of about the same size and somewhat similar character of Surg. Gen. Robert U. Patterson and of Col. William L. Keller, also an eminent surgeon. Both {are very simple and direct in treat- 'ment, In both instances, attention |is focused in the face and hands, ‘Lhe latter being painted very signifi- |cantly and as equally indicative of | character. | Another notable painting in this group is of Justice Brandeis. This has spiritual quality and searching | analysis of character. A smaller por- | trait of Dr. Edward B. Meigs of this city, which is a striking likness, pos- some of the same intense Varying the display there will be at the Department of Labor Building. liam C. Rives of this city, and an unusual and charming sketch pore trait of the Philip Rhinelander baby- her brother, Bishop Rhinelander's grandchild. The fact is that Mr. Comins is especially successful in his portraits of elderly people and chil- dren, both interpreted with special | sympathy and apparent understand- |ing. Another charming canvas in this exhibition is of a little, light- | haired girl in blue holding under her arm, as quite precious, & white “brer rabbit” with pink ears. Mr. Comins is not only an indus- | trious but a very versatile painter. In | such portraits as have been men- | tioned he is distinctly traditional, but |in his fresco painting he is modern- istic, his work broad and bold, and when occasionally he undertakes to interpret social trends of the day, pictoriall he is essentially satirical and very biting. One of the latest of these paintings, generically “after Hogerth,” is of wcmen at a card table playing contract bridge. The |group as a whole is charmingly | painted. has atmosphere, color, good composition, but the expressions on the faces and the attitudes are very revealing. Occasionally Mr, Comins | does a flower study, and a number of | these, colorful and decorative, will be noted on his walls, although not cat- alogued with the recent works in the current exhibition. This exhibition will be open to the public tomorrow and next day, Monday and Tuesday, March 4 and 5, from 2:30 to 6 o'clock in the afternoon. THE SODERBERG etchings of safl- ing craft and other subjects now {on view in the Smithsonian Building |are very charming indeed. Robert | Stoops, in an article on Soderberg | published in the Print Connoisseur, has said: “The success that Soder- (Continued on Page 8, Column 6. Steuart Curry, Ronnebeck, Lozowick | and others equally well known. And aside from their subjective interest, how delightful these prints are. How skillfully wrought and with such un- derstanding of what to leave unsaid! These artists command their media to good purpose and they are essen- tially, whatever method they follow, of the present time and day. This little exhibition is distinctly outstanding. TH] exhibition of paintings by John Kane in conference room 3229, Labor Department, comes here after being included in a larger exhibition shown in the Valentine Galleries, New York, and includes some of the prize- winning works of this laborer-painter whose career as. an artist was so phenomenal—of pyrotechnic brevity and brilliance. It calls for thoughtful consideration, which space at this time will not permit, and will therefore be reviewed later, with the two portrait busts by Jo Davidson loaned by private by textile and pottery workers. EBEN F. COMINS will open this afternoon with a tea, in his studio, 1611 Connecticut avenue, an exhi- bition of recently completed portraits and other paintings. 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