Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-11-30

do his journeyings in a readers chair
It is q gift which transforms writer
into motion film. From New York to
The orient; across India to the gate Of the
innermost east; through Oh ma and Japan
and homeward by way of the Philippines
and Hawaii is merely a map hint OF
| travels so exhilaraungly different from
the monotonous output Of tourist brains
as to make an individual pleasure OF each
separate page. and there are over 800.
The text is pictured with photographs
taken by the author in every far-on cor
ner OF the globe.
HELL's PLAYGROUND. BY Ida Vera
.simonton. New York: MofYat. Yard
& Co.
It Is written that one may not handle
pitch without being defled. Also there
are those who insist that to the pure all
/ things are pure. In writing the book to
which she has given the above startling
| title Miss Simonton probably had in
mind the latter bit Of wisdom. The aver
age reader. however. who follows the
narrative to the end will not fall to see
new truth In the first-quoted adage.
The story deals with what is said to
haps the author had in mind a gorgeously
sensuous bit Of word Notwithstanding
like The Garden of Allah She sue
ceeded In only presenting us with a
| chronicle of lust, not even adorned by
good workmanship: because her pen is
| too evidently that of an 'amateur. un.
used to the dainty. fanciful embroidery
of language that embelisheS even such
tales as Three Weeks" Pain. un.
| bridled licentiousness does not make a
pretty picture: it does not even point a
| moral. 1t only disgusts.
There are books that never would be
| missed" had they never been written,
| but which. written, do no great hurt ia
q fp~av xr-I,i <ah
he who might read would much better
run. and run fast. "Hell's Playground
belongs in the latter category.
THE CURTIss AVIATION BOOK. By
Glenn H. Curtiss and Augustus Post
With chapters by Capt Paul Beck
U. S. A: Lieut.. Theodore Ellyson
and Hugh Robinson. New York:
Frederick A. Stokes Company.
Glenn Curtiss may be assumed to be a
fair aviation authority. seeing he was
one Of the first men to fly and has done
more things with an aeroplane than any
other man living. Therefore the Curtiss
Aviation Book, by Glenn Curtiss and
Augustus Post. may be taken as authori-
tative. while it is unquestionably inter
esting- Augustus Post, former secretary
of the Aero Club Of America. has writ
ten the opening and the closing chapters
of the work. He tells. as an outsider car
.
struggles in the development Of the fly
ing machine. Curtiss himself continues
the running story Of aerial development.
but evidently enjoys talking of Alexander
Graham Bell. ]. a. D. McCurdy, the late
Eugene Ely and other aviators more than
he does of himself One interesting little
side light Is that DR.. Bell says If he had
known how often the telephone was going
to wake him up he never would have in
vented it. Returning to aviation. Curtiss
tells entertainingly of winning the Cor
don Bennett cup the first year it was Of
fered. of his flight down the Hudson and
of the gradual development of the hydro
aeroplane. There are chapters on the mill
tary aspect Of aviation by Capt. Paul
Beck, L. s. A., and Lieut. Theodore Ely
son, L. S. n. The book is largely a per-
sonal narrative, but is entertaining ana
authentic.
THE LAST FRONTIER; The White
Mans War for Civilization in Africa.
BY E. Alexander Powell, F. r. G. S..
late of the American consular serv-
ice in Egypt. With forty-eight full
page illustrations and map. New
York: Charles Scribners Sons.
Washington: Brentano's.
Little by little the frontiers have been
pushed back, in Asia, in South America
and even in Africa, the darkest of the
continents. the land Of the great jungles
The white man. with his curiosity and his
cupidity, has penetrated all the remote
parts of the world until now practically
nothing remains Of undiscovered and I'M
explored territory. The author in his
preface to this work states the case thus
briefly: THE unknown lands are almost
all discovered. The work of the explorer