New-York tribune., 1919-09-24
Books
By Haywood Bro,n


lV has done valuabe piece of uors.
collecting much widely scat.aros ~
terial IN her book Representative o.. .'a'
Plays by American Authors T5t41o. 'e'
1t would be q still more valuabla ,,.'.
work If the plays chosen we're rooro ~
representative. Although twenty. fo,,
plays are reprinted the list Of tho r..-@' ~''''
includes Susan Glaspell's "Triheso and s @-
People," Philip Moeller's "Helena's u,.,.-,s 1s
Pendleton Kings "Cocaine,9 Ridgelo, ~
rences "The Rider of Drearos.v Arno '''
letters "The Widows Veil" Eueeu- o,va.,',
Bound East for Cardiff" Lewis poS,+.
"The Clod," Lawrence Lanener's ~Aross.
Way Out" Zoe Akins's *The Magical c;..r
Theodore Drejser's "The Girl IN tho c,s'n
and Arthur Hopkins's "3oonsn,ne
volume which includes none Of +raso ,,.
seems to Us to fall good deal short oe 49,
representative.
We assume that some have been lefe ~.
because it was impossible 70 secure the r;,,..
from other publishers, but there ara ca..S
IN which Miss Mayorga, having perniss;os
to select from an authors work. has chooo.
second rate or minor example. Thus Will.
Suppressed Desires,' by Susan C,asnau CO..
George Cram Cook, is an amusing hnrlesor.
1t hardly shows as much Il ,ha; oual;.n
which is really essential IN Miss Glasper a.
"Trifes" or "The People, Here is 2 rensr,
able vein Of radical eloquence expressed :.
the one-act form which Is totally unrenr.
sented in Miss Mayorga's book "Triss.,
seems to Us the best one-act play bv 9,
American, so we lind i. hard to acc,lit thisro,,
book Of Representative" plays. wlaseyer n.
cause of the exclusion. Eugene O'Neiu :.
also represented by what seems 10 u, Ia.
than his best. We much prefer 'Bound ra,.
for Cardf' to AIN the Zone which is .ba
selection of Miss Mayorga, although We mus,
admit that the play which she selected bs.
received more critical acclaim than anv ot
the other plays by O'Neil
Still, after all this has been said. and
after it has been remarked that Miss Nav.
orga sees fit to seek TO perpe.aate Alfred
Kreymborg's amazing inanity Lima Beans"
it must be admitted that this anthology Of
American one-act plays deserves welcome
AS far as We know there is no other.
The modern revolt in literature and the
drama against sentimentality IS somewhat
Handicapped by the conduct Of some members
Of the lower orders in the animal Kingdom
1his constitutes treacly treacherv TO ths
supposedly grim laws Of nature Shout liar
at the novelist or playwright Who tells
story in which the word hone" IS never
mentioned without sob in the voice. and ba
has only to reply: The truth which tell
IS cosmic Consider the case OF The sea.
swallow"
We have been considering it through the
medium Of J. Arthur Thompson-s The Sc.
crets Of Animal Life Holt and we find
that no prodjgal Of the stage or the novel
ever had the homing instinct deveioped 70
such high degree. In plav3 light IS left
IN the window for the wayfarcr, bur the sea.
swallow needs no such aid Tho~ah the seas
lie between him and his home he VIII bea.
his way against hcadwinds for hundreds Of
miles to his own particular nest.
The technique Of the experiments" writas
professor Thompson, ''is as follows A bold.
vigorous tern IS caught it IS marked char
acteristically with o;l-paint on .he head and
neck; two tags small and large. bat other
wise duplicated are prepared. recording the
date, the place and the KIND Of marking;
the small tag is fixed round the birds neck;
the large tag is fixed to a foot-Iong stake
pushed down into the sand near the nest II
the bird is a Sooty or tied to a convenient
twig If the bird IS a Noddy; the bird is put
into a large hooded cage and transported to
q distance on board ship; it is kept in good
health with minnows from the refrigerator;
It IS liberated a. chosen point. and then It's
return TO the nest is watched for THE NOS:
important general result is that these terms
are able to return from Galveston, more thai
eight hundred miles away, over body Of
water which apparently does not offer any
basis for controlling flight direction Some
returned in about Sin days, some took nearly
twelve, some did not yerurn al all"
Although Professor Thomr on says that
observers are mot inclined to assume any
new and mysterious sense of direction until
they have made many more experiments"
there seems to be no satisfactory explanation
for the uncanny skill OF the birds in finding
their way home to the exact spot from which
they started. The theory that they nosed
their way home fell fat when the nasal
of two Noddy terms were filed
with warm wax and varnished over' before
the N'rds were taken out 10 sea and released.
Ihes returned without any difficulty. Sight
does not account for IT, as birds released at
night or in thick fogs seem to do as well as
those which journey on far days. IN faet'
there seems as yet no adequate explanation.
1t is just one Of those things
In "The Tree Book Stokes Miss 1nes N.
NcFee writes: "Since earliest time the beech
-ree has been lauded in song and story The