New-York tribune., 1919-10-27
Books
BY Haywood Broun

by E1eyWOOd BrOun
7 AWRENCE F. ABBOTT'S "rmpres
i sons of Theodore Roosevelt.
(Doubleday-Page) is amone ,b.
most interesting of many new Roos,
velt books because it is almost entire,,,
record of things which Mr.. Ahbot.
observed. Interpretation is entirely
secondary, which is we'll enough. sincs
this is phase of Roosevelt s+,a.
which can be performed much he,.os
as time eiapses. Upon the few occ.
slons IN which Mr. Abbott is betravea
into Interpretation the result is M,
happy. He is somewhat abashed e.
instance, at the blunt statement of ~.
Colonel lin 1908 took Panama. and
writes, "Of course he could not Inv.
taken 1t in the sense in which Phil.
IL Of Spain took the free cities ~ -.
Netherlands. The meaning Of ~.
phrase will be more clear if it is para.
phrased in this way: In 1908 | ,oo.
action, guided almost solely by nv ou,,
Judgment OF what was wise and nroro.
tnat resulted IN the building of thu
Panama Canal"
personally, we much prefer the
Colonel's way of stating the fact. III.
Colonel would never have snonsoroa
anything so defensive in tone a. ".
Abbott's paraphrase. Though tbs
Colonel's expression may be uplier :,
Is also shorter.
The various Roosevelt bioerapb,s,
which have been issued since the d,ath
of the Colonel have done somoth;,n
to dlspel one popular Instrumentation ~
his character. We were all inclined "a
look upon Roosevelt as man who
acted largely upon impulse. but hi,
various biographers are a unit !,
denying this. Indeed, Lawrence Abhot,
names caution" as one of the four
most characteristic qualities of the
Colonel. Not all the other biogranbers
go as far as this, but there is amnl.
evidence that before making a decision
Colonel Roosevelt was always WILLING
and eager to seek advice, and that he
sometimes took it.
About this Balboa business" writes
2. G. Wodehouse. "a few months ago
wrote a story for The SATURDAY
Evening Post in which described
golfer who had just laid his ball
dead, gazing at the pill like stout
Cortez when, with eagle ewes. he stared
at the Pacific. Two days later / re-
ceived a copy of the magazine with
these words inscribed on the first page
of my story: 1T was Balboa. YOU bic
stiff But why shouldn't Cortez have
stared at the Pacific, too? The Pacific
was surely open for being stared at
about that time. Anyway, don't weaken
on stout Cortez. If he was good enough
for Keats he's good enough for us.
can't see Balboa in the thing al all"
Theodore Wesley Koch describes the
work of the Library War Service in
Books in the War" which is published
by Houghton Mifflin. According to Mr.
Koch, the writers who seemed to be mos.
popular with the doughboys we're @
Henry. Rex Beach, Zane Grey. John
Fox, Harold Bell Wright, G. B. Nc
Cutcheon, Jack London, Robert v
Chambers, Conan Doyle, Mark Twain.
E. P. Oppenheim, Rudyard Kipling, Ed
gar Allan Poe, Booth Harrington, Rider
Haggard, Alexandra Dumas and H. G.
Wells.
Booksellers, at least, should lind en-
couragement in Madeleine" the anony
nous autobiography of scarlet woman
(this is newspaper form, published by
Harpers, for in one chapter the heroine
tells of the fearful mental sufferings
which she underwent when compelled
to take part in drunken carouse, and
then adds, "For the next two hours
forgot the man and all my annoyances
in my never failing solace, d good book
1t may interest the publishers Of Amer
ica to know that there are pights des-
perate enough to drive anybody to read
a book. But" we suppose they might
counter, "is there any human experience
sufficiently narrowing to drive anybody
to buy book %
IN stating the other day ina. Ameri-
can radicalism lacked any eloquent
writing supporters for It's cause We
forgot that Eugene Debs has moments
in which he speaks or writes with great
literary distinction. We are thinking
particularly of a finely cadenced piece