Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-11-08

pleasing medley out of the procession of
Seemingly uneventfui days Every SORT
of thing-the plain and simple tasks OF
the morning. the hull OF MONDAY. the
forthfarings of leisured afternoons. the
homing fight of nightfall-moves the pen
of this delicately subtle. TINS daintLy ar
tistic diarist. Pictures of French NE In
town and country. or women IN ,lIe s..ops'
of fat hunting. of women In literature.
a summary of the secrets or beauty, an
evocation of the spirit of lean Jacques
Rousseau. as topics. show fairiy .he 70
and-fro. the hither-thither quaity POS
sessed by this diary The charm OF the
book lies in the personal comment OF the
author upon any and every subject, ana
in its French precision and purity OF
style.
FAMILIAR SPANISH TRAVELS. VIII
liam Dean Howells. Illustrated New
York: Harper & Bros. publishers.
A long-ago boy read Don Quixote I'm
the little room under the stairs OF his
home in Ohio. A wise man of today. VINO
has harvested fame along with his Dec
AIDES has just written these impressions
of recent visit to Spain. And step py
step through the country, and page py
page through the book, they Keep step
together-the man and the boy he used
to be.
So realistic is the sense OF companion
ship conveyed-helped out by ones own
memory-journeys with deadly uthselves-
that one feels that no matter how wide
open the mans eyes are to the shame as
well as to the glory of Islam's conqueror.
and to the havoc made by the vandal We
call progress, the boy keeps valiant
faith with his illusions. He Is seeing his
castles in Spain. And that 1t Is the man
wish that the boy retain his glamours Is
evidenced by Mr.. Howells' foreword to
his friend-"the gentle reader: II had
better be honest with him and own at
the beginning that passion for Spanish
things which was the ruling passion OF
my boyhood: I had better confess that.
however unrequited. 1t held me IN the
eager bondage of lover still. SO that
never wished to escape from 1t, but must
try to hide the fact whenever the real
Spain fell below the ideal" :.
That the man many times found himself
justified in his boyish faith Is evidenced
by the final paragraph Of more than 800
pages: In little things and large l
found the Spaniards everywhere what
heard a Piedmontese commercial traveI-
Ter say of them in Venice fifty years ago:
'They are the honestest people In Eu-
rope In Italy l never began to see the
cruelty to animals which English tour
lists report, and in Spain l saw none at
all. If the reader asks how with TINS
gentleness, this civility and integrity the
Spaniards have contrived to build up
their repute for cruelty. mendacity and
every atrocity; how with their love OF
bull feasts and the suffering to man and
brute which these involve. they should yet
seem so kind to both, l answer frankly
I do not know. ! do not know how the
Americans are reputed good and just and
law-abiding, although they often shoot
one another, and upon mere suspicion.
rather often burn negroes alive. In ad-
diton to the downright descriptive delight
of the journey, pictured throughout its
pages with cathedrals, tombs. universe
ties, castles-real castles OF Spain-and
streets and roadways and types" there
is an argument" synopsis of his travels
versed by Mr.. Howells, and which it
seems a pity to have printed on the
jacket rather than on the books cover.