Evening Star Newspaper, July 10, 1937, Page 16

B2 BOOK ON WASHINGTON IS OUT Frances Parkinson Keyes Tells Story of Four Administrations. Essex Had No Real Enemy at Elizabeth’s Court Except His Good Looks and Pride, Harrison Contends. By Mary-Carter Roberts. CAPITAL KALEIDOSCOPE. By Frances Parkinson Keyes. New York: Harper & Bros. HE plot of this latest book by the popuiar Washington writer, Mrs. Keyes, is contained in its subtitle, which is “The Story of a Washington Hostess.” For the work is given over to its author's reminiscences of her life in the Capi- tal, where, as wife of the New Hamp- shire Senator and a member of the press, she has had unusual opportuni- ties for seeing and knowing the men and women who have influenced pub- lic affairs over four administrations. | It is written in her customary chatty | and informal style, and ought to | make excellent entertainment for | those Washingtonians who can live over with the author the years cov-| ered in her book, as well as for those who will be seeing our public flgures} only through Mrs. Keyes' eyes as they \ read. | For her viewpoint is not without its | piquancy. although in the main her | book is kindly and good-humored. It | covers much the same ground as V\‘i\s‘ taken up in the best-selling “Let Them | Eat Caviar” last Winter, and a good many more vears, but is notable for its lack of that savage humor which char acterized the earlier book. Mrs. Keyes has an eye for the kind of anecdote which amuses without wounding, and even when she does allow herself a tart moment, as when she says of a former cabinet member that he is now remembered “because of the bril- liance of his wife’s make-up,” she | does mnot linger over her point, but | quickly returns to her customary | amiability. She describes the embassies as they | have been under the past four ad- ministrations, the homes of the out- standing hostesses of the Capital and the personalities who at different times have contributed color to official or city social life. She is, perhaps, a | trifie too intimate about her own friends—their families, their pets, their romances. She writes feelingly of the difficulties and problems con- | fronting the woman whose position obilgates her to entertain in a city where she knows few people person- ally and where the “gate-crashing” habit is well established. She sketches her own entry into a wriling career and tells of her assignments to cover such historical events as the Wash- ington Arms Conference, She takes | up her press associates in the.city | and deals very generously in (‘nm])l)-‘ ments and praise of their abilities. Of the four administrations of which | #he writes—the Harding, the Coolidge, | the Hoover and the present one—it would seem to a reader that she has pleasantest memories of the Coolidges. | She praises both the former President | and his lady at some length and with unmistakable warmth, beside which | her lack of enthusiasm for the Hoovers | is the more conspicuous. She admired | | hanged. These were the endearments | | older man would have done that RICHARD HALLIBURTOQN, Author of the “Book of Mar- vels,” compiled for the young. preciation of the sorrowful human values involved in the young favorite's downfall. For Ess stor as Mr. Harrison shows it, is the story of youth taken unaware by the ruthless sophistries of power. The earl at the end tried 0 | the rapture consequent in beholding plead that he had been the victim of a conspiracy. This was not true; he had | no enemy at court except himself—his good looks and his incorruptible pride. The first had sufficed to win him the old Queen’s favor; he was such a “long lad” as she was from time to time pleased to honor. The second prevent- | ed him from reaping the reward that her favor might have yielded him. For, having raised him up, she found it necessary to her feline humor to hum ble him from time to time, to box hi ears in council and order him, before the assembled lords, to go and b of a lioness, a trifle difficult te bear. Serious, devoted to honor and, above all, proud, the young soldier could not forget that he had spent his life in the dangers of her service. He could not bring himself either to adopt the wise advice of Francis Bacon and give | over some of the glories he had won | and insinuate a new favorite into the | roval regard so that he might himsef | retire—while yet there was time! An | Es- | sex, however, had the youthful craving for justice. He brooded over his wrongs and, brooding, botched his Irish campaign. It can only be thought, after that, that his reason ' gave way, if indeed it had not done so | earlier, and that, in his pitiful rebel- | lion, he was half crazed and incapable of seeing any act save as an attempt | to injure him. | Mr. Harrison shows him at the end a bewildered and weeping boy trying to recapture the childhood comforts than by a torrent of darkness. * | Winter THE EVENING which he offers us the same pictures bound with a plot. The difference in fineness lies in just the circumstance that when this Tomlinson writes a plot is not necessary. More than that, a plot is actually in the way. It does not belong with the kind of mind-stuff which he possesses. That does not need formal ordering, nor does it find improvement in being made harmonious with the uses of ro- mance. It is a world in itself, and when Mr. Tomlinson ties it to realities he is trying to weight the thistledown, to anchor the rainbow, to show us| gravely the printed text of the song | the sirens sang. And none of the: undertakings are necessary. More than that, they are impossible. For Mr. Tomlinson's genius seems to STAR, WASHINGTO! D. C. SATURDAY, lie in his ’bility to put his visual im- pressions of land and sea into words | in such a manner that his reader be- | comes tremendously aware of the mood which, in nature, lies lurking be- | neath the scene described. He does not | merely make us “see” what he has| seen. He makes us feel the emotion | which he experiencd when he was| seeing. And, with Greek austerity, he | deals only in the great emotions—the terror, the foreboding, the grief and nature in her various aspect Th | genius and this economy are rare, in- deed. Their combination ]ifts Tomlin- son far above those categories to which he is 50 often relegated—the categories | of the “travel writer” or the “writer of sea storie: True, he writes from places scattered widely over the world. True, he uses the ocean for his favorite material. But the world and ocean which he set down in his shining paragraphs exist first of all in his own mind, a mind infected with a great wonder and aware of a great strange- ness and shadowed by a treasured awe. A mind, indeed, that is not unakin to| he mind of Poe, had that writer been dazzled by a torrent of light rather | ravel | riter,” indeed. “Sea stories! Here, in his present book, Mr. Tom- | linson has given us his familiar but | 1t Jacket design for “The Anatomy of Murder,” by Helen Simp- son, Margaret Cole, Dorothy Sayers and others. (Macmillan.) Rouge, upon Thais and even upon|that Mr. Kitchin was largely influen- sections of the Histoire Contemporaine. | tial in preventing America from en- is noteworthy that she never | tering the war even earlier than she thought much of Anatole’s researches|did. He asserts that President Wil- about Joan of Arc. She wanted act- | son, if uninfluenced, would have uality, because she knew that was|brought the country into the conflict what the great public wanted. She|as early as April, 1916. | wished to bring her bear from the re- cesses of the menagerie into the mar- Mr. Kitchin, who opposed war, was made to bear the pro-German charge ket place and make him dance, some- | which was leveled against all paci- times, to the political drum She was, in short, Franee's social ad- vance agent she “pinned down her prize butterfly and displayed him for the occasion.” To the reviewer elaborate works of factual compilation, when the subject essence, are largely efforts, and in frankness she is obliged to say that of the present volume. However, it is 2| fists at that time. Her own statement was | that when he entered the Academy that | pro-Ally propaganda. He was in favor | What |is a man who has written his own| | arrant critical balderdash! | He was not pro- German, says this author, but felt the country was being led by of complete neutrality. ‘The book is evidently written with a good bit of personal feeling but the case made seems to rest on the record s0 that the author’s insistence in pre- senting it does not injure it. The work can be added to the steadily- increasing group of war books which never less than awesome scenes of |a worthy effort. Ten years of research | have for their object clarifying the tropic island, English harbors and have gone into it— nexplicable proj- | issues which, in war times were ob- tempests, but he has at-| tempted to bind them together by the | story of a ship. It is a ship which has | an ill name; bad luck accompanies | her on all her voyages. We meet her | first off the coast of Celebes, wher ‘ as part of the seeming curse, her ma: ter has died. A new man arrives, one who is not unaware of the implica- tions of his command, but who, with Olympian calm, takes all such mat- ters simply in his stride. He offends | his owners by a too literal zeal for | obeying their orders, and they pena ize him by refusing to make repairs and sending him, on the unfit vessel, across the North Atlantic in Winter. A hurricane overtakes the old vessel and she is about to founder. The liner which is car ying the guilty owner attempts a rescue but fails. The ill- Mrs. Harding, too, and devotes some Of faith and prayers. He had Known | faied freighter seems to be lost. The paragraphs to her personal at- | tractiveness and excellent taste in dress. Of Mrs. Hoover, however, she | remarks, in one of her crisp moments, | that “she had no flair for ciothes: | had no resources whatsoever. He had | captain has pulled her but her figure was | forever appearing | elows | | she was well built mature and she w in fichus and flounces and furl which made her look twice h And she adds, “In short, she had no charm. * * * While as for Presi- dent Hoover, she accuses him of let- ting her down on a story, and she is too much of a jouralist to be able to forgive that unforgivable default. . Her great enthusiasm, however, is for the present occupants of the White House, about whom she is rhapsodic. Her book is, as has been said, en- tertaining reading. It gossipy without being maliciou s amus- | ing without being unkind. It is pret- ty comprehensive, and, if it would geem to a reader occasionally that a large amount of space is given to the author's friends, why her friends have been important people in the life of the Capital. The work is now on | the best-selling list, and, for its amia- bility, would seem a refreshing volume when it is compared with other works on Washington life which have re- cently been similiarly honored. ROBERT DEVEREUX, EARL OF ES- | SEX. By G. B. Harrison. New York: Henry Holt & Co. THIS book is one of a number which for some weeks now have been kept unjustly—though \mamidably—i waiting on the reviewer's shelves. For the production of the publishing houses during the past season has ex- | ceeded any conceivable human capac- | ity for reading; books have been pour- } ing into reviewers' offices at the rate | of 15 or more & day for a month and | longer. But now that terrific current has slackened and little by little the accumulation is being given attention. ‘That so many of the neglected works have proven to be first rate is grievous to a reviewer's scruples, but then a good book does not depend upon prompt notices for its success. In- deed, a good book does not depend upon notices at all. Its public will find it eventually, though half a dozen meretricious efforts may have achieved & brief fame in the interim. ‘This biography is commended, then, to lovers of Elizabethan history and appreciators of good prose. It is writ- ten with a fine limpidity; it tells the story of the brilliant febrile young earl | as movingly as could any drama or fiction. Nor does the fact that his his- tory is a well-known one make thi new telling redundant. Essex’s story is & profoundly good tale in itself, and 80 it does not grow old. Like the trag- edy of Mary Queen of Scots, it is such & stary as people love to hear and re- peat, a story of strong emotions shown against a background of violence and eplendor, to be placed “among such things as are taught to children from the cradle to make them fall in love with reading,” a case, indeed, where nature has contrarily held her mirror up to art. The present volume seems to have been dictated by appreciation of this quality in the materials. The author has not followed the practice of Strachey in his “Elizabeth and Essex” of a few years ago, and used the story as a vehicle for ironical comment which must be taken to be contempo- rary in mood. Instead, he has told his tale with uncomplicated directness, supplying such comment as seems nec- essary from the writings of the Eliza- bethans themselves, allowing us to see how the rise and fall of the fa- vorite appeared to his fellows, and how the wisest of them discerned the end toward which the earl was hurry- ing and warned him repeatedly of the disaster attendant on his course. This does not make such witty reading as is to be found in the Strachey volume, but it shows perhaps a.(nner ap- | prince in question was an aged Tudor, | | agree—the story {of that most unnatural and unlovely but one friend, and she had been all- | powerful. He had met her too early | in life. When, incredibly, after long | indulgence, she turned on him, he! learned nothing but her service. story is a vivid elaboration of the folly of putting faith in princes, though perhaps the point should be | elaborated to bring out that the His | ndden and ferocious” as was the| habit of her name. | The author makes it clear, however, | that it is difficult to see how Elizabeth could have taken a different course and | precisely in that difficulty lies the | excellence of the story. For it is not | merely the one-sided story of Essex’s wrongs but also that of Tudor pride put again and again to severer tests than any realistic thinker would have dreamed of essaying. For repeatedly, after giving rough blows, the lioness | returned to purring and, contemptu- ously, Essex came to believe his power over her limitless—a perilous conclusion. M is the story of two natures essentially opposed, endeavor- ing for selfish reasons on both sides to of the impersonal unthinking pride of youth pitted against the highly personal calculat- ing vanity of age; it is the story too opposition—male against female, since Elizabeth was a queen who would insist upon being a woman too and a woman who had pitifully little to commend her. It is likely that| when Essex characterized her as| having “a mind as crooked as her | carcass” he secured full revenge, even | though he signed his death warrant. She must have remembered those words to the day of her own demise. They marked one of the few occa- sions when she heard plain truth about herself from a msan, and she was too much of a realist not to know in her heart that Essex was far from being the only one who held such an opinion of her. Like her royal father, she could only cut off a head. It did not make her particularly happy. It is indeed a story in which there is & great richness of moving forces. Yet all these forces are in such har- mony in their course toward the in- evitable end that the plot itself seems simple as one reads it. The present version lays the whole lamentable case bare once again. It is recom- mended for its impartial and excel- lent narration. PIPE ALL HANDS. By H. M. Tom- linson. New York: Harper & Bros. EADERS who share the reviewer's inordinate enthusiasm for the writing of H. M. Tomlinson will be pre- pared, like her, to ignore those faults of construction which prevent his novels from being more than a series of exquisite paragraphs, and will, again like her, derive pleasure aplenty from Mr. Tomlinson's superb mastery of words. As a stylist, he probably has no peer today. His prose has a texture that is almost tangible; taking it into one’s mind, one is as aware of its qual- ity as if one had taken it between one’s hands; it is like that fine wool cloth (that inimitable tweed which is so greatly imitated) which feels like velvet and wears like iron, which makes garments worthy of the proud and the discerning and which is at all times unobstrusively beautiful. And yet, having the genius to weave this marvelous fabric of the language, Mr. Tomlinson lacks somehow the ability to cut a garment from it. He cannot devise a novel. His finest books (though they are all fine) are those in which he writes of what his eyes have seen around the world without attempting to bind these memories together with any imagined plot. His less fine mmn those in | waters of [ but himself. owner is left to his conscience, and has a few bad moments. Then, suddenly, | the freighter turns up again. She has not foundered after all. Her olympian | through. We leave him shaking hands with the owner, who apparently is going to re- | form, while the handsome young sec- | ond officer is completing a romance | with & lovely passenger. i It is a childish sort of plot when told thus baldly, and most of Mr. Tomlinson's have the same defect But that is unimportant. The little men who jump about on his paper at | his ordering are not the essence of his | book. That lies in the great seas of | the wintery Atlantic, in the shining the tropics and in this author's peculiar capacity for making the visible manifestations of nature seem but the masking of vast catas- trophic forces. His book would be just as well if he omitted his men alto- gether. They are all Tomlinsons any- way. He never creates any character The reviewer will keep “Pipe All Hands” but will put it on a secondary shelf. “Tidemarks” now, and “The Sea and Jungle"—they will remain on the first. That about ex- presses the distinction. ANATOLE FRANCE. By Edwin Pres- ton Dargan. New York: Oxford University Press. THIS book, by the professor of French literature at the University of Chicago, is considerably more than a biography. It would seem to be,| instead of a mere life history or a work of criticism, an attempt to assemble in one volume all of what the author feels to be the salient points in the career of the great Frenchman, as these points have been brought out by the various works written about him, not‘l excluding France's own a\xloblgraph-l ical pieces. For while Mr. Dargan does express his own viewpoint throughous his worl, he also includes those of other authorities. His book would seem to be a compendium of opinion, therefore, in which the assembled mass of evidence is intended to be of as great weight to the reader as the conclusions which the author modestly draws from it. In the author’s own words, it is a “‘pioneering synthesis.” It is scholarly, detailed and seem- ingly impartial. It is somewhat pedes- trian in style in places, but eminently readable in others. A certain groping quality is responsible for the occasional dullness and of this Mr. Dargan says frankly that “there is a considerable amount of disagreement and that al- ready the ‘legend’ has often displaced reality.” He expects this to be cleared up in time but “while waiting,” he says, “we do what we can.” The present volume covers the years of France’s life up to 1896. It is divided into perlods as follows: From 1844 to 1862, the years of childhood and adolescence; from 1862 to 1886, the years of early productivity and the develpment of the Anatolian tastes for antiquity and French classicism; from 1886 to 1896, the phase of ep- icureanism, which reached its height in the “Jardin d’Epicure.” Of this latter period, which is the celebrated one, Mr. Dargan makes this reserva- tion—that his treatment is ‘“provi- sional only” since, he feels, “important revelations are still to be made in this connection.” The great influence on the career of France in those latter years, of course, is attributed to Mme. de Caillavet, his “Egeria,” who, more than any one, says Mr. Dargan, was responsible for France's election to the Academy and his accession to a prominent place in French letters. Of the direction of this influence, he says: #If she did not give him his talent, she did to a con- siderable extent direct it—toward con- temporary subjects, toward life, love and action. In these respects, she ex- erted an influence « ‘upon Le Lys i ect! Those who some curious s gives them isfaction which the facts of Anatole France’s existence or the outstanding | THIS SIDE OF REGRET. By opinions held about his work, can find those materials in this book. Those who want to know Anatole France, however, will read him, and forget to o s Ay ant to know, for|scured by the intensity of general| it | feeling. la- rissa Fairchild Cushman. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 5 "THOSE who read and enjoyed Mrs. Cushman's former novel, “The “ The American Falls at Niagara, one of the “wonders of the Western World,” pictured in Richard Halliburton’s “Book of Marvels.” (Gendreau.) | wonder whether he got his bachelor | degree at the age of 17 or somewhat | later. However, as has been said, this is a worthy effort. Indeed, it is almost overwhelmingly worthy. THE ANATOMY OF MURDER. By Helen Simpson, Margaret Cole, Dorothy Sayers, John Rhode, E. R. Punshon, Francis Iles and Free- man Wills Croft. New York: The Macmillan Co. ’I‘HE reviewer sometimes wonders on what bit of conviction publishers base their evident belief weather breeds in the breast of the reading public a taste for crimes of violence. Certainly they do so be- lieve; on murder so prevalent on their lists as in the still dead heats of Summer. Can this be their idea of “light read- ing?” Or is it their notion that only violent stimulus can arouse readers’ attention from a heat-induced leth- argy? Nobody has explained it yet, but there it is. Homicide begins to loom on the *book horizon about the middle of June and reaches its point in the zenith about dog days. Homi- cide and heat. Is there a real con- nection? Some lover of facts ought to make a study sometime and de- termine in what season of the year major crimes occur-most commonly. The New Deal might even appoint a bureau . . . But to get on with the day's reviewing. The present volume is the history of seven actual crimes retold here by writers who have an interest in crime detection. But it is not a mere re- telling in any case. Possibilities are also explored beyond the findings of the police and the verdict of the trials; speculations are engaged in; unsettled points are discussed. Each crime is treated as a chess master might treat a problem in his game, or a chemist an analysis. The re- sults are entertaining, if you can stick the consistently gruesome. The element of downright comedy, indeed, is not lacking from some of the most outrageous of these crimes. They are the murder of one Henry Kinder out in Australia, the famous case of Constance Kent, the mysteri~ ous death of Edwin Bartlett in which his wife was implicated, the dreadful Landru business, the unexplained murder of Julia Wallace, the killing of Francis Rattenbury in the house in which his wife was living with a lover and of which killing she was acquitted, and the double murder of Mr. and Mrs. Lakey out in New Zea- land. As has been said, the treat- ment given these unpleasant affairs in this volume is interesting and even entertaining—that is, if you can bear it at all. CLAUDE KITCHIN AND THE WIL- SON WAR POLICIES. By Alex Mathews Arnett. Boston: Little Brown & Co. TH!S book offers & record of the part played in America’s entry into the World War by Claude Kitchin who was at the time Democratic leader of the House of Represent- atives. It is the suthor's contention that hot | at no time of the year are works | Bright Hill,” will find much of the same charm and speed of action in this new volume. Written with a fine understanding of human beings and the temptations which beset them, she paints her characterizations with sure, bold strokes; at no time does she sentimentalize with or about them. This impersonal treatment leaves the reader free to enjoy his own reactions to the various situations as they unfold, with no interference or | guidance on the part of the author. The novel, of course, concerns a triangle—a charming woman, reared in luxury, forced to with reality through disgrace and tragedy, finds herself unable to con- form to the role required of her as the wife of a professor of chemistry | in an Eastern university. During this period of maladjust- ment the inevitable third of the tri- angle appears on the scene—but Mrs. Cushman’s handling of the situation is refreshingly different and the denouement entirely unexpected. The book fills all the requirements for good, light Summer reading, when heavier material is apt to pall, and will prove as pleasant as a drink of cool water, B.C. ZERO TO EIGHTY. By E. F. North- rup, writing under the name “Dr. Akkad Pseudoman.” Princeton, N. J.: Scientific Publishing Co. 'HIS is the “autobiography” of Dr. Pseudoman, scientist, who lived from 1920 to 2000 A. D.—zero age to 80—and who, among other things, circumnavigated the moon. While, of course, pure fiction, the work is so solidly based upon scientific data that it forms an extraordinarily vivid picture of the possible ways of life for mankind in the future. Dr. Northrup went into the laboratory in his quest for material for the volume and he holds patents for much of the equipment developed, including an electric gun. Here is a book which is original in concept and fully as thrilling as Jules Verne. What is more to the point, it is based on sound science. “Dr. Pseudoman” makes many philosoph- ical obeervations upon the basis for an ideal society, which, he finds, has not yet been attained by 2000 A. D, though much progress has been made. It is an optimistic, inspiring glimpse into the future which he records. ‘Well worth while reading from many standpoints, not the least of which are sheer entertainment and mental stimulation. J.S. E. THE DOG DAYS OF LANK HANK. By T. P. Leaman, jr. Boston, Mas.: Bruce, Humphries, Inc. A FARCE based 6n an ancient the- ory of transmigration of souls or the more modern one of mental telepathy. In this case Lank Hank, a poor dub in love with a very modern maiden, tries the experiment of changing minds with the maiden’s mongrel dog when she, the maiden, announces - her - engagement to s tallor's dummy. His experiment is only too succqesful, snd the resulting come to grips | JULY 10, 1937 By M.-C. R. HE reviewer during the past week had occasion to ask her neighborhood magazine dealer some questions about what the public buys from him. He told her the following facts: The best-selling magazine which he handles (and he seems to handle about all of them) is the Readers Digest. It leads, it is tops, month after triumphant month. And next to it comes the Current Digest. And after that the vast array of monthly magazines of the digest character quietly fades away. Sclence Digest does not sell at all. Book Digest does no better. - Re-Vue does not sell. Neither does the Commentator, al- though it started out hopefully. Bally- hoo has dropped nothing. Presum- ably, the public which once bought these is settling steadily on to the Readers’ and the Current. Or anyhow that is the case out our way. We trust we are a representative neigh- borhood. Among the weekly digests Time leads, said the kindly dealer. Liter- ary Digest is soon to go out of pub- lication, and the question was asked by an interested bystander, “Did the famous poll last Summer have any- thing to do with its demise?” The dealer did not know. The reviewer can only think that it is pretty hard on the Literary D. if it has died away because the majority of its sub- scribers were Republicans, It re- minds one of a provision in one of the mock amendments to H. L. Menc- ken’s Mock Constitution for the New Deal—"It shall be illegal for any Republican to possess money.” Any- way, the old veteran is soon to merge with Reviews of Reviews, and that will end its honorable career. It was a good mag while it lasted. Life and News Week are not par- ticularly good sellers. None of the weekly surveys, in fact, amount to anything except Time. Time for | gossip. Time for secrets. Time for courage. said, for all things. seller anyway. approaches it. Among the venerable trio—Harpers’, Atlantic Monthly and Scribner's— Scribner’s leads each of the others | 50 per cent. It was down to & negi¢- | gible figure last year, but by dint of changing its format, getting some | new members to its staff and clean- ing house generally, it altered its appeal 50 that it is now hardly recog- nizable &s the old conservative it once was. It has doubled its sales since the change was made, and of all the quality group | the American Mercury. (That would seem to answer the question about the Digest poll, murmured the in- terested bystander.) Globe, says the dealer, Globe is coming up. It did not go so well at first, but now it is doing nicely. The reviewer was pleased at that. She | has mentioned in these columns more than once that Globe is a very nice little periodical. Maybe, she thought, maybe her plugs helped it. Well, maybe her plugs did. Bachelor, however, another monthly, has not caught on says the dealer, too limited | peal. And what about these, asked the re- Viewer, pointing to a whole row of Time is a best Nothing else even new It is, in ap- crime and adventure mags, the pulps, | in other words. What about these? The dealer said that he did a nice little business fn them. Not so good | as it might be in another neighbor- hood, however. he, “enough cowboys around here.” Not enough cowboy He meant drugstore cowboys, you comprehend. He went on to say that the appeal of the pulps was chiefly to the young, the high-school age reader, and that the reviewer would find that these mags were selling tops in delicates- sens, lunch counters and the like places where the young naturally congregate. That is where they are most popular. 1‘ There was a notion in the reviewer's mind for a minute that it was regret- table, to say the least, that these magazines were read so largely by | the Nation's youth and she was on the point of saying so. But second thought detained her. The idea of a Nation of drug store cowboys reading such trash is sad enough, heaven knows, but nowhere near as sad as would |be the prospect if these periodicals were purchased for entertainment by adults. For there is a certain amount of crudity in any young animal and it must have an out. You cannot cor- rupt good taste either. You may starve it, but you cannot change it into something else. Saving the ap- pearance of Homer in cheap editions on magazine counters, it may be that the pulps do as well as anything else—or at least do no irreparable harm—in boosting the populace over its difficult teens. Violence, danger and romance—these are the elements which the human animal craves then, and it will not care particularly about how it comes by them. Later it may become somewhat more attentive to the dish in which they are served. But young hungers are hungers before anything else. Esthetics, except in very rare cases, will simply have to wait. THE women's mags were on the next rack, but the reviewer did not ask about them. For long they have been a source of grief to her, for she does not review them at all con- sistently, and the reason is that she cannot find anything in them to talk about. Recipes, yes. But these are regular features in such periodicals, and the women who want them will turn to them of themselves. Of the rest of these highly esteemed and popular sheets the reviewer has re- gretfully to say that she finds them lamentable gush. They seem to her an insult to complications can be and are well imagined. After a year's incarceration of the body of Lank Hank in an asylum on the theory that Hank thought himself a dog, and after & year's adventures of the body of Muggins, the dog, motivat= ed by the mind of,Hank, all ends well. Body and mind of Hank, again united, and still in love with the same maiden, celebrate by a hasty marriage and honeymoon in Europe. Like all farce, it is rather vulgar in spots, a fault easily forgiven in this type of book. Like most farce, it has long spots of moralizing not so easily forgiven. But it is perhaps only nat- ural that all Fallstaffs fancy them- selves in the role of Hamlet. R R T A Time, indeed. as some one | has no rival except | “There are not,” said | BEST SELLERS FOR WEEK ENDING JULY 3. FICTION. The Outward Room. mon & Schusber. Neighbor to the B8ky. Macmillan. American Dream. Tow. Wind From the Mountains. Gul- branssen. Putnam's. The Mott Family in France. Mof- fatt. Little Brown. Victoria 4:30. Roberts. Macmil- lan. Brand. Bi- Carroll. Foster. Mor- NON-FICTION. American Doctor's Odyssey. Hei- ser. Norton. Present Indicative. Coward. Dou- bleday Doran. A Maverick American. Maverick. Covicl Friede. T. E. Lawrence. By His Friends. Doubleday Doran. Capital Kaleldoscope. Harpers. Napoleon. Keyes. Tarle. Knight. womankind, and yet she knows that they are not, for womankind goes for them in the biggest way. Womankind, indeed, simply laps them up. If the reviewer could believe that all the purchasers who spend their husbands’ money for the ladies’ publications are really only interested in the recipes, patteins and fashions, she would not be so depressed. But the horrid con- viction lingers that the fiction that is published in these magazines has something to do with the demand. And it is the worst fiction in the world. It is false in outlook, it is vapid and it is narrow. It seems to | have for its purpose above all things to flatter its readers and make them believe that they are the most wonder- ful creatures in the entire world. And they may be. But, if s0, and particularly if so, why do they need to read about their wonderfulness? Does not the course of such superior virtue also imply the course of mod- esty? (Of does it?) There is the catch, my sisters. Answer that one, if you can. The reviewer once made & survey of the fiction published in four of these mags for a period of several months. She found that the over- whelming number of the stories dealt with brave, beautiful wives who, by their courage, cheer and intelligence, | brought drooping husbands through great crises and made men of them. (But why did you marry them in the first place, gals? Who wants a droop- ing husband?) The next greatest number of stories dealt with brave, beautiful wives, generally encumbered with young chil- dren, who fought off the nefarious advances of bold glamorous hussies who wished to steal their men. Is this a common experience in suburban society? One hardly thinks that it is. READERS DIGEST IS CHAMPION Magazine Dealer Tells What Periodicals He Sells—Time Tops News Weeklies and Scribners Has Doubled Popularity. He Does Nice Steady Business in the “Pulps.” And then the question also arises— can these husbands do nothing for * themselves? 80 it all seems rather beside the point and one wonders if the readers— who keep their children on a diet of good books, no doubt—really feel that they are disciplining their own minds by gobbling down such mental sugar candy. The ladies’ mags, it is to be feared, will continue to receive a more or less cursory attention is these plain simple columns. They are too much whipped cream and maraschino. The reviewer will take roast beef, medium. IT BEING July, two quarterlies are to hand, large, thick and full of worthy stuff. One is the Hungarian Quarterly, which is published in this country by the Columbia University Press, and the other is the Round Table, which is a review of the politics of the British Commonwealth. The Hungarian Quarterly arouses an old conviction in the mind of the reviewer that it must indeed be a de- lightful thing to belong to a race that is demonstrably denied its liberties. What grand times these sufferers do have, to be sure! In New York it used to be that one could hardly ever get up Riverside Drive without encounter- ing & group of Hungarians having a splendid riot. They would be in abso- lute paroxysms of rage at one another; the police would come along and hus- tle them off; they would issue mani- festoes about the hustling and then the hext week there they would be, back again, doing it all over. They had a marvelous time. How stodgy it made being an American seem! How Philistine to have no need to riot! Sometimes, of course, they were not | Hungarians. They might be Poles or they might be Irish or they might be Catalonians or, mayhap, Letts, But | whoever they were, they had been be- trayed and their eyes were flashing | The reviewer even knew one man who | came from Yucatan and was having a grand time engineering a revolution | to setifree his countrymen; he burned, he assured her, for liberty. Liberty |of Yucatecs! And all the time she | had thought that the country was just a sort of bunion on the map marking | the spot where the chewing gum grew. | Obviously, she was ignorant. Of them all, however, the Hun- garians seem to be the aristocrats They have made the finest art of suffering; you cannot think of them without thinking simultaneously of politics and music. And any people which can combine politics with music is a noble race. There is no getting around such genius. Next week the reviewer will report on the Hungarian Quarterly. And likewise the Round Table, that solid, excellent British summing up. She had meant to do it here and now. But something has happened to the space allowed her. It has melted away while she looked. It must be the hot weather. Brief Reviews of Books Travel. RICHARD HALLIBURTON'S BOOK OF ' MARVELS. Bobbs Merrill Co. The famous traveler compiles a book for the young, covering the most enthralling sights and places of Europe and the Americas. Very at- tractive and profusely illustrated. The best thing the enterprising Richard has ever done, to this reviewer’s mind. She has always known something was wrong with his adult books, and now it is made clear. They were just about right for children. INTRACOSTAL WATERWAY. Com- piled by the Federal Writers' Proj- ect of the Works Progress Admin- istration. American Guide Series. A new volume in the projected ef- fort of the W. P. A, to cut the country into neat sections and write about each section—at the cost of $10,000,000 of the taxpayers' money. It tells how to get to Key West, Fla., from Norfolk, Va., with descriptions of the scenery, illustrations and a map. As it has been prepared in co- operation with the Coast and Geo- detic Survey, the United States Bu- reau of Lighthouses and the United States Army Engineers, one assumes that it contains information which is customarily available from these sources. Indianapolis: Motors. YOUTH AT THE WHEEL. By John J. Floherty. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. A manual on safe driving, well illustrated and easy to understand. Should be a highly valuable book. EVERY MAN HIS .OWN DETEC- TIVE. By George Antheil. York: Stackpole & Sons. How to distinguish different crime- inal twpes and how to determine from y& crime what type of criminal has been guilty. An argument based on glands. Interesting. Charactet. THE AMERICAN HOME AND CHAR- ACTER TRENDS. By George D. Beckwith. With a preface by Roger W. Babson. Gloversville: Published by the author. A study of child life in the home, with character building the basic theme. By a Boy Scout executive. New Milennium. TECHNOLOGY, CORPORATIONS AND THE GENERAL WELFARE. By Henry A. Wallace. Chapel *Hill: University of North Carolina Press. The Secretary of Agriculture tells how to bring in peace and plenty for everybody by “developing an ever more powerful technology.” Not by killing pigs, by any possible chance? Biography. JOHN CARLISLE KILGO. By Paul Nefl Garber. Durham: Duke Uni- versity Press. The life history of the president of Trinity College, which is now Duke University. An interesting chapter in educational development in the South. Fiction. THE FIFTH HORSEMAN. By Rob- ert W. Chambers. New York: D. Appleton-Century Co. Story of mill town girl who won love and fortune. By the very old maestro. Just as usual. Earhart (Contirlued From First Plg},) all possible precautions. Unknown to Miss Earhart, it had set up a high frequency direction finder on Howland for extra safety, and her communica- tions were monitored throughout by four officers, Lieut. Comdr. Baker, Lieut. Comdr. Kenner, Ensign Sutter and Lieut. Cooper of the U. S. Army Afr Corps. N TALKING with Lieut. Frank Johnson yesterday he gave me in detail his personal summary of the entire situation. It is largely through his steadfast analysis, based on long experience as a navigator and a radio man, that the Phoenix Island theory at last assumed such importance. Much of Mr. Putnam’s assurance came from him. Said the lieutenant, “I feel that the plane, if found, will be on dry land or a reef. The study of con- ditions prior to and during the flight indicated extremely unsettled weather over the middle portion of the route. No foreknowledge here was available, due mainly to the fact that few weather forecasting stations are lo- cated in this part of the world, and those that do exist are used mainly for the convenience of local mining or plantation interests. Communica- tions thereabouts are very poor. Re- ports the daysMiss Earhart took off from Lae indicated wind velocities of 25 miles at the surface, and wind velocities at higher altitudes are al- ‘ways more or less uncertain and many times shift wind direction a few thou- sand feet up. In addition to this, it is extremely possible Miss Earhart made several detours around thunder- showers and squalls and that the ac- cumulated errors in making changes in course or the failure properly to correoth for wind drift would, over & distance of 2,500 miles, be likely to cause an error in landfall of possibly as much as 100 miles. “ON THE morning Miss Earhart re- ported she was short of fuel” the lieutenant continued, “she gave just one position, the indeterminate line of position 337-157 degrees. It is assumed that this line of position passed somewhere near Howland, but perhaps as much as 50 miles east or west. Even though a considerable dis- tance existed between the limits, they would allow all lines to pass through the Phoenix group. Noonan being a navigator of experience, and finding himself in such a predicament, would head in the direction of the greatest amount of land on the line of position rather than attempt to reach one small island. It is entirely possible that Miss Ear- hart changed course to follow the line of position and rapidly flew out of range of the Itasca's radio. If she sighied even a small reef then, it would be the logical thing to do to land even though it meant minor damage to the plane and no oppor- tunity for a later take-off. I person- ally do not believe that she ever ap- proached Howland closer than 100 miles, and if she did land on a reef in the Phoenix group that she did it within a very few minutes after she said she had only half an hour's fuel left. It is the feeling of most pilots that she could have kept her plane in the air by the use of only about 30 gallons of gas an hour. I myself believe that, if the radio we have heard is hers and not some crank’s, that she and Noonan are safe at least from the perils of drowning.” —— = Fifteen great-grandmothers and 35 grandmothers received diplomas in graduating exercises recently in & New Yook English and citdsenship class. » A