Evening Star Newspaper, October 31, 1936, Page 18

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTQN D. C, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1936. FAULKNER'S STYLE DWARFS MATERIAL IN NEW NOVEL PLOT ITSELF CONVENTIONAL Author, However, Imparts to It a Quality of Inspiration That Makes an Outstanding Volume — Pearson and Allen Return to Their Etchings—Other Books Reviewed. By Mary-Carter Roberts. ABSALOM! ABSALOM! By William Faulkner, New York: Random House. IGHTING with his own prose like a man slashing his way through a forest of falling velvet curtains armed only with a dull knife, William Faulkner here writes another novel of human disintegration in terms of the far South. It is on the whole a fine performance, though its excellence rests on Mr. Falkner's formidable prowess as a consistent stylist rather than on any significance in his material. For his story, just as a story, Is purely conventional. It is the tale of & Mississippi plantation, from the timz it was cleared out of virgin jungle by ‘Thomas Sutpen in 1833 up to the de- struction of the Sutpen family.line in 1910. Such plots have been common o the point of weariness in the Ameri- can novel in the past few years, though they have by no means always | dealt with Southern scenes. They have told the tale of the sturdy New England skipper who built up a for- tune with his clipper ships, erected a fine house in his pride and then saw his descendants degenerate into soft- ness until nothing of his creative effort | remained. Or they have told of the children of the New York patron, go- ing through the same cycle, or the Pennsylvania German family, or have dealt with the descendants of sod- breaking prairie pioneers who went West with the light of conquest in their eyes. The pattern has always been the | game, however. It is the story of hu- man resources dwindling to a vanish- ing point from a parent of original force and genius. Mr. Faulkner has not changed the outline in any re- markable degree. But he has con- tributed a luridly tragic coloring that lifts his book well above the ruck of the others. Through the sheer pounding music of his prose he has invested his con- ventional stuff with conviction and sig- nificance. He writes here as he has in past novels—that is, as if he were the only writer in the world, and as if | no one were expected tg read his book obviously, | except himself. To him, the story of the Sutpen plantation has been immensely tragic. him. He writes with newness about it, with a profound personal sense of the horror of its decay and degenera- tion, not as if he were telling the tale to some other person, but as if, from that cycle of human regression he had drawn such dark and dreadful beauty that for his own sake alone he must needs reproduce and preserve it. And so we have a novel that stands high among its contemporaries simply as a prose structure, a signal triumph of style over content and an example of artistic conviction as a force to give old tales new life and significance. ‘ Beyond that there is not much to say about the work. NINE OLD MEN. By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen. New York: Doubleday-Doran. 'HE authors of “Washington Merry- ¥ Go-Round” and its sequel, “More Merry-Go-Round,” two of the Na- tional Capital's most corrosive corre- £pondents, again have dipped their | pens in acid, this time to etch the | lives and works of the nine Supreme Court justices. The technique of Messrs. Pearson and Allen, whose sincerity perhaps is | s great as their skepticism, remains | the same as in their earlier works. In effect, they have lifted up the black{ robes of the justices and found men beneath. Men, they would have you know, are vulnerable. The particular form of vulnerability to which the authors object in the men who are nine and old in this| volume is expressed in their own words, thus: ’ “They had become legislators, not Jurists. They had taken into their own hands the right of self-govern- ment for which our Colonial ancestors fought a long-drawn-out war against ‘Great Britain; and while no British court can supersede an act of Parlia- ment, the descendants of those who once fought Great Britain for legis- | lative liberty have found that liberty | deftly stolen from their hands.” . And so the authors—with enough liberty left to pass what is bound to be a financially successful judgment on the Supreme Court—write with indignation on the loss of liberty. ‘The premises from which they write ¢does not enable them to see the gov- ernmental set-up as one of checks and balances. It has become one of checks, alone, they would have you know. Pearson and Allen always say well the things they have to say. The cur- ‘rent volume is no exception. So, there will be those who find it amusing, others who will question its good taste, and many, many who will find they simply have to read it to keep up with the Joneses. There will be good royalty checks for Messrs. Pearson and Allen, z And the Government at Washing- ton still will stand! F.J.C EGGS AND BAKER. By John Mase- field. New York: The Macmillan Co. 'HIS is a sad little novel tracing the course of a man's education in the thankless business of saving one's fellows. Robert Mansell, its hero, is “a baker in a small English town back in the 70's. He inclines toward po- litical liberalism and gives much of * his time and more of his small in- come to furthering socialism and, as socialism is not popular with his fel- low townsmen, he rapidly loses stand- ing among them. The matter comes to crux when he attempts to interfere in the courts in defense of a poor imbecile who is charged with a murder simply because he happened to be in the murderer’s company at the time of the crime. ‘The baker is obviously in the right, but the forces of fear and self-inter- est weigh on the other side of the scale. The imbecile is duly hanged and the baker sent to jail for con- tempt. When he comes out he finds that the proletariat, which he has so generously defended, has robbed his business and beaten his wife. Mr. Masefield does little more than tell the story. He comments scarcely at all and he puts no passion into his “social thesis. He writes on the whole s if what he were writing bored him. ‘The clarity and beauty of his prose is there, but spirit is hc‘(. L3 Its conven- | tionality simply has not occurred to | MY TALKS WITH DEAN SPANLEY. By Lord Dunsany. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, DEAN SPANLEY at one time had been a dog. He was, when Lord Dunsany knew him, a highly dignified gentleman of the church, but still he had been a dog. And he was able to remember his canine existence. But let us be clear. Dean Spanley had been a genuine four-footed, hairy- coated dog, and not at all what is meant by “dog” when one prefaces the word by “gay.” He was, as Lord Dunsany explains, & heaven-sent gift to any one who had an interest in the transmigration of souls and re- searches into soul progress from one level of life to another. Consequently, Lord Dunsany set himself to pick the lock of the good dean’s secret memories. He discov- % law. The result is unremarkable, either for goodness or badness; it is just a romantic story set against the background of a pioneer community. Miss Wilson writes with seriousness and sincerity, however, and those who like her work will doubtless like this. RENAISSANCE OF PHYSICS. By Karl ‘K. Darrow, New York: The Macmillan Co. DR‘ DARROW'S title is well chosen. The great outburst of experimenta- tion and imagination which has characterized twentieth century phys- ics and opened gates for the first time through the walls of space and time is the present-day parallel to the flowering of literature and art WILLIAM FAULKNER, Author of “Absalom, Absalom!” (Random House.) | ered that the best implement for thlsT | work was Imperial Tokay. When the | | dean had had several glasses of this | | royal drink he would talk freely of his | | former days. And so Lord Dunsany | learned what it is like to pick up a | scent, guard a master’s house, eat a | hot rabbit and talk to other dogs in | dogs’ own language. And many other things. This was the substance of his talks | | with Dean Spanley. They make a very | nice little volume. SHERSTON'S PROGRESS. By Sieg- fried Sassoon. Garden City: Dou- | bleday, Doran & Co. N THIS little volume Mr. Sassoon goes back to his World War days | and tells how George Sherston—that | semi-autobiographical figure of his earlier works—revolted against war service and was sent to a mental hos- pital as a case of nervous breakdown. | He then tells how the easy life of the | institution eventually made him | ashamed of his defection and how he | returned to the trenches and duly | fought until wounded too badly to stay longer. Thus duty triumphed. | It is not much of a book from any | standpoint, whether it be considered | as waf memoirs or as a discussion of the individual's right to refuse to fight. | The popularity of Mr. Sassoon’s pre- vious works, however, invests it with a | certain interest. THE WIND BLOWS OVER. By Walter de la Mare. New York: The Macmillan Co. ‘IR. DE LA MARE offers here a | collection of short stories that | is sufficiently distinguished. The sub- Jject matter for-the most part touches on the other world within this world, & medium in which Mr. de la Mare works familiarly and passably well. ‘While none of his present stories rises to heights and some of them are very slight indeed, there is crafts- manship and propriety in them all and they can be, on the whole, recom- mended. FUNNY PIECES. By Stephen Lea- cock. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. R. LEACOCK here is funny about & number of things—the educa- tional system, literary conventions of various sorts, the drama, the writing methods of professional economists and book reviewing. He proceeds by burlesqueing the things which amuse him; he is pretty good. This critic, as one who likewise finds the book- reviewing profession funny, especially liked the section devoted to reviewers’ follies, where Mr. Leacock writes of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” under the headline, “Raising Hell” and of Sir Isaac Newton's “Principal Philoso- phias Naturalis” as “The Nature Man Speaks.” However, the other sec- tions are good, too. If you don't get a laugh on every page you will still get enough to make the volume worth having. And that is saying consider- able for any book length collection of humorous articles, MORE THAN BREAD. By Joseph Auslander, New York: The Mac- millan Co. THE level of this volume of poems is high. Mr. Auslander is not profound in thought or impassioned in expression, but he has a gift for the musical expression of minor pen- siveness that is utterly genuine. An understander of poetry can always read him without offense. ‘The present collection covers a wide variety of subjects, which are treated for the most part in short poems. It is & desirable volume to have. THE LAW AND THE McLAUGH. LINS. By Margaret Wilson. Ga den City: Doubleday, Doran & 'HE author of “The Able McLaugh- lins” here resurrects her Scotch family and makes them the center of a dispute with u’\mn of the which contributed the renaissance of the fifteenth century. There have been numerous efforts to present in popular language the story of this sensational intellectual | expansion, which is probably the mos! significant development in the histor: of the present. Mr. Darrow's book differs markedly from most of the others. They have been cantent to tell of spiral nebulae and electrons, of photons and expanding universcs. But they often leave the critical lay reader with an obvious and justifiable question: How do you know? Mr. Darrow tries to answer this question. He describes the technique of physical experiment. It is well enough to tell the reader that there are 20,000,000,000,000,000 miniature | solar systems in the head of a pin. Here one is told how they are counted. The book is not easy read- ing. The techniques of navigation can’t be made quite so thrilling as accounts of voyages into space. But there could be no voyages without the navigation. —T. R. 0. THE GOLDEN HEART. By Richard Strachey. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York. 295 pages. $2. h/IR. STRACHEY'S novel of a fake medium and his zany friends a curious blend of light and savage satire. It is imaginative, but un- | skilled: the plot is deftly manipulated, but, withal, quite unnecessary to this type of novel; it is easy to read, be- cause the author frequently strikes off sparks of wit and observation, but it leaves a hazy impression because of needless Joycean obscurity in cer- tain passages; some of the humor is quiet and pungent or bold and devas- tating, while some of it is mere pun- ning. It's a splendid example of the yes-and-no novel. Readers of conventional light fic- tion will be amused by its clever story, but offended by its eccentrie style. Beerbohm-Coward fans will Basso (Charles Scribner’s Sons). Non-Fiction. ULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, BABY! By Sylvia of Holly- wood. New York: The Mac- I fadden Book Co. The energetic masseuse describes short cuts to what is known as charm. PRELUDE TO PANIC. By Law- rence Sullivan. Washington: The Statesman Press. A White House reporter tells of the spread of panic in the banking crisis of 1933, WESTWARD BOUND IN THE SCHOONER YANKEE. By Capt. and Mrs. Irving Johnson. New York: W. W. Norton Co. Another young couple go around the world. This time in & deep-sea pilot schooner. HISTORY OF ART CRITICISM. By Lionello Venturi. New York: E.P. Dutton Co. A historical review of critical ap- proaches to art, from the earliest recorded time to recent years. CRIMES OF THE HIGH SEAS. By David Masters. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Stories of crimes in ships and the methods by which they have been | solved. Exciting stuff. GARI-GARIL. By Hugo Adolf Ber- natzik. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Anthropologist and cameraman makes a journey into wilder Africa. THE PRACTICAL PUPPY BOOK. By Dorothy K. L'Hommedieu. New York: Windward House. Care of the infant dog. THE FUTURE OF LIBERTY. By George Soule, New York: The Macmillan Co. Examination of American social system apparently to see if it can be changed without being changed. Nice reading for the social-minded. THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY. Francis Pickens Miller. Chapel Hul: The University of North Carolina Press. Examination of the American social system, apparently to see if it can be changed without being changed. | See above, | CONCERNING PROGRESSIVE REV- ELATION. By Vivian Phelips. London: Watts & Co. Reconciliation of science and re- ligion. WING SHOTS. By Albert Dixon Simmons. New York: Derrydale Press. Camera studies of game birds. Very beautiful. IN THE SHADOW OF TOMORROW. By Jan Huizinga. New York: | W. W. Norton Co. | Comparison of the crisis of our | i From the jacket design of “Court House Square,” by Hamilton To be reviewed later. | Brief Reviews of Books times with great crises in other times. ELECTRICITY FOR USE OR FOR PROFIT? By Bernhard Ostro- lenk. New York: Harper & Bros. Popular interpretation of the prob- lem of electric power to the American people, DRUMS IN THE BALKAN NIGHT. By John I. B. McCulloch. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Another young couple turn their wedding journey into copy, during which they have an interview with Queen Marie of Rumania. | MAN IN THE MAKING. By Dr. Thomas Gravess New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. Man's evolution from the first group of animal life cells to his present remarkable estate. Fiction. SHOCKS. Algernon Blackwood. New York: E. P. Dutton Co. Ghost stories by an old hand. THE WONDER BOOK OF TRAVEL~ ERS' TALES. By H. C. Adams. With an introduction and illustra- tions by H. Van Loon. New York: Liveright Publishing Corp. From Sindbad to Capt. Cook—a col- lection of great yarns. Worth having. AS THE MORNING RISING. By Sigrid Van Sweringen. New York: Benziger Bros. Fictionized story of the life of Eliz- abeth Seton, founder of the Daughters | of Charity in this country. HERE WAS A MAN. By Norah Lofts. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, ‘Woman writes a novel about a man she admires, always a dangerous thing. And the man in this case is Sir Wal- ter Raleigh, who has been executed once, JING. -By John Taintor Foote. New York: The Derrydale Press. A dog story. Exquisitely illustrated by Aiden L. Ripley. Mysteries. MURDER AT THE MOTOR SHOW. By John Rhode. Mead & Co. A Dr. Priestly detective story. Pretty good. THE CONCRETE CASTLE MUR- DERS. By Francis Gerard. York: Henry Holt & Co. Scotland Yard gets its man again. Poetry. | AN ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN POETRY. Edited with an introduction by Mark Van Doren. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock. The English, Irish and American sections of the new enlarged edition of Mark Van Doren’s “Anthology of ‘World Poetry.” IN THE CURRENT MAGAZINES Coronet, Newest of the “Littles,” Starts Life With Big Aspirations; Thomas and Browder Scrutinize the Nation’s Future Under the Old Parties; Richberg Speaks. ByM.C.R. NEW monthly has appeared on the stands thes: last few days. Its name is Coronet. ‘ l It is interesting for seve reasons. | The first is its size. It adheres to| that pamphlet-like form which has| recently grown in popularity among | magazines of all grades—the Readers’ Digest silhouette, for lack of better descriptive powers. ‘The growing prevalence of this New York: Dodd | New | form among magazines seems to in- dicate that, whether we like it or not, it is here to stay for a season or 80 anyhow. Like the starlings on the District Building or the present un- attractive generation of women's hats, it does not make any one any hap- pier, but what is there to do about it? pee-wees to go in for illustrations in) The issues, as he sees thom, are be- & bir; way and so it marks a departure, or, no doubt, something. It is worth small page does not lend itself at all convincingly to elaborate photography. SCRIBNER‘B, which like the Mer- cury, underwent a change of for- mat last month, issues its second number in its new form and it too seems very like an approximate New Yorker, This is only in appearance, | however. * Scribner’s continues to be | serious in content, and there is g | slightly humorous discrepancy between the solidity of some of the articles { and the frivolity of the pictures. You cannot jump from Victoria to Edward VIII just by deciding that you are going to, it seems. Scribner’s first article this month is Only last month the August American a double interview on the political sit- JOSEPH AUSLANDER, Author of “More Than Bread; a Book of Poems.” (Macmillan.) Mercury adopted this pee-wee size, fascination from one delivery of the Atlantic to the next, fearing to see that bulwark of solid Victorian size appear in tabloid shape, which, if it happened, would be something like hearing Wallace Beery speak out of the screen in a childish piping treble. But to get back to Coronet. It is unique in its subject matter. It seems to be an effort to combine the best features of half a dozen dif- ferent types of periodicals. It hank- ers after the New Yorker's humor, it admires the pomp and circumstance of the magazines which specialize in expensive photography, it reaches nobly after the higher things of life and obviously, at the same time, hates the notion of being “highbrow,” it contains fiction and non-fiction and personal interviews with prominent people. It is, on the whole, a sort of Esquire - Fortune-Vogue - New Yorker and it costs thirty-five cents. It is the first of the manifold variety of | {uation. What If Roosevelt Wins? | der who, it seems, is running for Pres- | ident himself. Mr. Browder hopes to f become Pirst Executive by way of the | Communist ticket. The alternative, | What If Landon Wins? is asked of | Mr. Norman Thomas, sufficiently well- | known as first contender for the So- [ cialists. | Briefty, Mr. Browder (and by his photograph he has a nice sort of | face), says that if Roosevelt wins the eventual revolution will be staved off a bit because Roosevelt is sufficiently | liberal toward the underprivileged to keep them from rising for a while yet anyhow. The issues, says Mr. Brow=- der, are between the forces which make toward fascism and those which oppose it. Mr. Thomas says that if Landon wins nothing in particular will happen because nothing is going to happen | anyhow. Nothing, Mr. Thomas plain- ly implies, ever does happen anyhow. | | | find the idea to their liking, but will | | miss the deft touch of the real master | of minor pieces. | not apply. Simpson. Published by Covici- Friede, New York. ‘The schoolmarm shows herself up in a rather unfavorable light. She is a Devotees of the | person fitted by position and education | % is | Messrs. Walpole and Priestley need | to lead the community. Instead, she | TOM, by E. E. Cummings. fears even to listen, she fears to in- volve herself in the life of the com- MOUNTAIN PATH. By Harriette | mynity, and when finally her emo- | tions are involved in spite of herself | that it cannot be made better—pro- | | she sinks to the level, and below of | yided e. e. cummings does it. | QTILL another story about a school- her neighbors instead of helping them | would make an ideal “hostess gift” to a garden-loving week-end entertainer, Arrow | Editions, New York; $3. | 'HIS truth he holds to be self-evi- dent: That nothing is so good So, with even such a veteran, dog- marm in the back mountain regions | tO Fise. She leaves Canebrake as she | eared classic as Misy Stowe's “Uncle | of Kentucky, where moonshining an | feuds are still very much the order | | of the day. This attacks the situa- | | tiom from the woman's angle, the | viewpoint of the mountain woman, bred to suffer in silence and do noth- ‘ ing to ameliorate her condition. The | ‘dehneauon of characters in this book | is especially noteworthy, being clear and definite, without being over- drawn, one feels. mountain backwoods. Part of the charm of this volume is scattered through all the pages. These were drawn by Marie Lawson, who also drew the decorative little uni- corn on the jacket and the fanciful frontispiece. “Seeds” is the sort of book that d | found it feud-ridden, moonshining, | Tom's Cabin,” cummings was not sat- | isfied. | “Tom,” a starspangled newfangled | directly traceable to the accurate yet | “ballet” version of thr old vehicle | artistic line drawings of seed forms|in black and white, is the result. It is Tomeliza Evalegree done up in dance, song and symbolic gesture. Taking liberties with the original Cabin is somewhat like drafting a new version of the Lord's prayer, but not an impossibility to e. e. Thus, Halloween Magic Reflects Practice of < By Mary Machin- Gardner. ALLOWEEN fortune telling traces its ancestry to the time when Halloween and New Year’s Eve and the beginning of the three-day Festival of the Dead, celebrated by primitive peoples all over the world. The days of this festival, October 31, November 1 and 2, correspond to Halloween, All Saints’ and All Souls’ days. The year began with the evening rising of the Plei- ades, therefore the ancient day began at sunset. The sunset-beginning of the day was a prevalent belief even in some sections of this country until the middle of the last century. Halloween was the best time of the entire year to foretell the future, ac- cording to the beliefs of many ancient peoples—Peruvians, Pacific Islanders, Japanese, Hindus, Persians, Egyp- tians, Romans. They also believed that every one had the power of divination on October 31, which prob- ably explains the present Halloween fortune telling. Witches, devils, and all kinds of mischief-making spirits played pranks on unsuspecting per- sons, and the spirits of ancestors were believed to wander over the earth on this particular night. Dnsm to know future events has been & characteristic of the human race through all the ages. Consequently, divination has wielded a surprising infiuence upon the lives and beliefs of peoples everywhere, from remote times to the present. Most forms of divination—one au- thority lists 55—were known to all early peoples. Predicting future events deveioped into a regular science, in- timately associated with the religion of the ancients. 'Ru oracles, Dodona / All the Ages and Delphi, were consulted by the wisest and best of the pagan Greeks. The government at Rome appointed | official fortune-tellers of the state, | who from the flights of birds or the appearance presented by the entrails of sacrificial victims, made pronounce- | ments as to coming events. The | early Germans drew favorable or un- | favorable signs from the snorting or | neighing of a consecrated white horse. | Palmistry was known to the ancient Chinese and was practiced generally | by the early inhabitants of Europe, | India and Egypt. All the edrly Asiatic | tribes had favored ways of predict- ing future events and sorcerers were common among the American Indians. Although divination did not have its origin in fraud, it easily lent itself to fraudulent uses. Perhaps it was for this reason that Moses prohibited the practice of divination, and that Saul expelled those having familiar spirits from his kingdom. Records, however, show that Saul himself con= sulted the Witch of Endor shortly before the battle in which he was killed. The practice of foretelling future happenings by the movements of mice, likely, caused Isaiah to in- clude mice in the list of the ajom- inable things of the idolator, After the third century «f this era many Christians practiced Biblio- mancy, predicting the future by the passage on which the eye happened to fall in a random opening of the Scriptures. During the Middle Ages divination regained, partially at least, its early prestige, for it is reputed to have been taught in the schools and col- leges ‘of that time. The literature and drama of all .countries from the Middle Ages to the middle of the nineteenth century are full of allu- sions to Iuge telling. NE of the very earliest books on divination, published in 1685, is “Mother Bunch’s Closet Newly Broke Open,” which gives many and sundry methods whereby, on Halloween, one may learn about one's future life companion. One suggestion was, “The first time you hear a cuckoo sing, look under your left shoe and find a hair of the color of your wife's or husband’s hair without the aid of the devil.” The devil seems to have had a great deal to do with the securing of a life companion in this intriguing book. Divination today has somewhat re- gained the professional status of an- cient times. While the legal attitude toward this profession is not always favorable, the number of those de- siring to learn about future events is on the increase, according to avail- able data on the subject. This pro- fession in its many phases is not listed separately in the census of 1930, but information secured from some 15 large cities gives a slant on the atti- tude toward the practice of divination in some sections Qf the country. The State laws of Texas and Colo- rado prohibit fortune telling, while city ordinances forbid it in Los An- geles, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Buffalo and Atlanta. Phrenologists may practice in Salt Lake City by paying a license fee of $25 a year and in Buffalo by paying $50. Ac- cording to some State laws, persons practicing divination in any form are classed as vagrants and as such may be prosecuted, but some reports indi- cate that it is practiced without re- gard for these laws. Two cities re- quire a license for fortune telling in any form—in Washington the fee is $250 and 11 ‘are registered for the current year, while Miami, with a fee of $825, reports none licensed N i FORTUNE telling is not the only phase of the Halloween celebra- tions which can be traced to the time when this was New Year eve. The connection with the primitive Festival of the Dead explains many of the Halloween customs for Which no explanation could be found in the church observances of All Saints’ and All Souls’ days. The Halloween torches of the Irish, the bonfires of the Scotch, the Coel Coeth fires of the Scotch, the Tindle fires of Coznwall, and the present- day bonfires on Halloween all cor- respond to the bonfires of the pagan Festival of the Dead in remote times. Other customs, and even names fa- miliar in the merrymaking of Hal- loween, are traceable to the Roman feast to the goddess of fruits and seeds, Pomona. The Romans on this night opened for the first time the Winter stores laid up during the Summer, and this ancient practice probably is the source of the names sometimes given this night—Nutcrack Night and Snapapple Night. The Celts also associated the idea of a harvest festival with this ill- omened night of the pagans, for one early writer says the observance was “a solemnity kept on the eve of No- vember 1 as a thanksgiving for the safe ingathering of the produce of the flelds.” Thus the nuts and apples without which no Halloween celebration is complete find their origin as a part of the early Roman festival to Po- mona, while “sheet-clad” figures, dart- ing about the streets, decorative witches, bonfires and fortune tellers trace their beginnings to that far-oft time when Halloween was New Year "N | the ballet proper, written in typical- tingaling, small e. e. cumming’style, is preceded by a synopsis of the four acts into which the production is| | divided. | *“Episode One,” opening upon a glorified revival-meeting of the slaves, dances through Haley's melodramatic acquisition of George, and their child, by means | of the mortgage threat held over ol’ | Marse Shelby's head. “Episode Two” gives us all the ice-cakes and blood- | hounds of the Eliza-and-child chase, and introduces George and Eliza to | the friendly arms of the Quakers. | In “Three” enter Little Eva and Topsy, Tom and the familiar trap- | pings of the New Orleans estate of the St. Clare’s. Tom, on the block, s bought by villain Legree for a finale. “Episode Four” presents Legree's flogging of Tom into Little Eva's heaven, beyond Legree’s whip and | beyond his comprehension. cummings | ends his synopsis typically, and we | get a rather complete insight into | this ballet in black and white from | his final paragraph: “Unaware that the actual Tom is far beyond his reach, and that merely the mortal effigy remains, now absolutely satanic, resumes the flogging of what he supposes to be his victim. At the moment of Tom'’s physical death, murderous perversity is confronted by its opposite, Creative Nature; the white killer cringes be- fore an apparition, symbolizing to his distorted senses the vengeance of the entire black race. As this apparition dissolves in the reality of Cassy (Eliza’s mother), Legree's mentality crumbles; the former prodigy of brute strength becomes a miserable insect, consumed by the merciful radiance of eternal things. Cassy kneels at triumphantly enters, are stilled as wife and husband fall humbl; beside Tom. In the midst of this new sorrow, Eliza recognizes child reminds Cassy of Eliza, as & little girl; daughter in the mother of this child, Cassy embraces both Eliza and George. Suddenly transcending their person- alities, the ecstacy of the three brown protagonists overflows. To Judgment trumpets Death enter, black like Tom; and, likc Tom’s body, Death itself disappears: Appears the Heavenly Host.” The form and style of the ballet | which follows, in detail, is Cummings | of The Enormous Room, Is 5, and— which, if one is a cummings fan, makes “Tom” another book to buy. D. B. —_— S.J. has carved a persimmon fiddle for lxh he has been offered $50, buying, although to the reviewer, the Legree, | Tom’s feet. Eliza with her child | followed by | George. The raptures of liberation | her motner, who sees, but does not | know her. Then the sight of Eliza’s and, beholding her now | ney, Welling, Okla., farmer, tween socialism and capitalism. So there you are. Just two more candidates, | A THING which ought to be closer to the interests of many Washing- | tonians than campaign generalities is | the fight which Scribner’s is waging | to have the merit system in civil serv- ice made a hard and fast reality. It opened last month with a leading edi- torial on the subject and follows up this month with a historical piece on the past follies and sins of the spoils system. It asks support for its efforts through contributions to the Civil Service Reform League. The Mercury this month offers as its leading article “Enemies of the New Deal,” of which the author is Mr. Donald Richberg, former head of the IN. R. A. The explanation for Mr, Richberg's appearance in the peri- odical which has most entertainingly {and pertinently attacked the adminis- tration is that he was asked by its edi- tors to write what he wished in defense | of the Roosevelt regime. This, they explain, was done purely as a move- ment toward ‘air play. They wanted to give the other side a chance. Such idealism in these days first takes one’s breath away and then makes one wonder if the editors of the Mercury have a cleverness be= yond human origins, Because Mr, Richberg is, alas, not very substantial in his role of defender. He deals in generalities and vituperation, and he does it with a heat that bespeaks more passion than skill. It may be said, and with perfect truth, that Mr. Mencken, attacking for the anti-New Dealers, also dealt in generalities and vituperation. But who can do better | than he? Not Mr. Richberg, on the evidence on his present piece at least. The contrast, one fears, is all to the benefit of the antis. Mr. Mencken is funny. Mr. Richberg is just mad. The editors announce with, as it were, restrained glee, that, in pub- lishing Mr. Richberg’s piece, they have printed it exactly as it was when re- ceived in their offices. \IR TUGWELL'S always fertile “'7 field, the Resettlement Adminis= | tration, comes in for a neat raking in the Mercury this month at the hands of Blair Bolles of The Star staff. Mr., Bolles culls quite a nosegay of thistles | from the resettlement acres at Reeds ville, W. Va., that experiment in Gove ernment support of citizens, which, although the oldest of them all, still does not seem ever to get going This piece makes nice comparing with Mr. Richberg’s. While Mr. R. is insisting in his pages that the Presi~ dent has gathered the best brains of the country about him to advise and guide, Mr. Bolles, somewhat toward and the reviewer waits with horrid | This question is asked Mr. Earl Brow- | the rear of the magazine, is pointing out that there is a complete absence of consistency in the entire Reedsville ect, whether it be in a matter of building plans or in the somewhat ime portant detail of the payment plan, As Mr. Bolles sees it. thi consi tency will work invariab further burden of the taxp: astonishing to observe that the errors are always on that side of the ledger. I\IADA.\TE SYLVIA of Hollywood, writing in Mr. McFadden's Libe erty about being beautiful. tells us this week that nobody can buy that highly valued If it is to be had by | sweat, says she, then it must be by youz own sweat and not that of a masseuse. And it must be by sweat created from effort. Alas, the easy ways whether they be steam baths, exercises, medicines or what have you Exercise will do it, says Sylvia, and exercise alone. Even the negative path of starvation is no good. You must eat well and then rush about and burn up what you have eaten. Starvation will only make you weak. Weakness is not beauty, Hard words, these, indeed. Waiter. (Continued From Page B-1.) Eliza, her husband, | but the car started on the downgrade and kept picking up speed. I reckor it was going about 50 miles an hou: when me and another fellow jumped !I landed in a heap of rocks and it was lucky I did, because at least they | gave way. If it had of been concrete | I would have broken my neck. But | I skinned my foot and bruised up mjy leg and sides pretty bad. They took | me to the hospital at Spartanburg anc later to the Emergency Hospital here in Washington. That car went 7 or 8 miles before it finally slowed down It reached an upgrade and that | stopped the momentum it had pickec up and slowed it enough to get it i under control.” | This week Brooks plans to returr to his job “on the road,” but he | remarks a little wistfully that 22 years is a long time to carry trays on mov- ing trains and he’'d “like to be ‘rounc home more now.” With a confident jsmxle he says, “I think I'm going to | take advantage of Mr. Roosevelt’s offer to write him when he gets elected again, because it sure would | be nice if I could get one of those | messenger jobs in the Government | service!” - Texas' largest private deer hunting preserve, the 17,000-acre Paint Creek ranch of Kerrville, was sold to a Beaumont oil ma OUR LENDING LIBRARY hos all the latest books .. . fiction, non-fiction and mys- teries. “Gone With the Wind” “White Banners” “Drums Along the Mohawk” “l Am the Fox” “Steps Going Down” “Live Alone and Like It” Lending Library . . . First Floor.