New-York tribune., 1919-07-23
Books
By Haywood Broun
TIME wet spell was not so bad. II

"HE wet spell was not SO bad 1t did
lot for the tomatoes and asparagus
and afforded good many people an
opportunity to read Saints Progress
Conrad in Quest of His Youth" 9TH.
Arrow Of Gold" and Twelve Men"
The thing that usually impresses us in
detective and spy stories is the superior
efficiency and directness Of the villains. In
Henry BEVERAGES THE White Cipherv
(Moffat-Yard). Chester Fay, the hero. goes
to all sorts Of lengths to recover the code
which will solve the German dye secrets.
Upon one occasion he sinks ship and all on
board in order to regain the missing papers
The villain never takes anything like that
trouble. After the hero has spent weeks Of
planning and effort and at length achieved
his object, the villain undoes everything bv
knocking him the head and taking tho
code back again. We wonder why heroes
never think of anything like that
1t is hard to write essays in the wear
1919 without touch of self consciousness
The form has gone out of vogue sufficiently
to make the essayist seem a literary person
whether he writes we'll i'll. Moreover,
the modern essay field is occupied chiefly
by men whom their publishers describe as
'whimsical.' Now when q man begins A
piece of work with his teeth set in tho
determination to be literary and whimsical
he is working under a terrific handicap In
spite Of this, there is good deal of enter
tanment in Leaves in the Wind" (Dutton).
hI Irho Of
English journalist. To be sure, there are
times when the author shows self conscious
diminutive quality, but then again he for.
gets his vows to be quaint and writes vigor-
ously and charmingly. as in "A Legend Of
the War" and Hate and the Soldier" and
"A Comic Genius" which is about Harry
Lauder. 1t is in this essay that Alpha
writes of a show as zone of those dismal
things called revues, that are neither COM
edies nor farces. anything but sham
bling, hugger -mugger contraptions into
which you fling anything that comes handy,
especially anything that is suggestive Of
night clubs, fast young men and faster
young women There is, you may perceive,
a good deal of Anglo-Saxon solidarity. Still
we are not quite so sure about the correct
ness of Apha's observations when he re-
marks concerning the doughboy in an essay
the American soldier, "If | may say so
without offending him, he seems extraordi-
narily English"
We found distinct sense of personal sat
sfaction in the chapter on pockets, in which
Alpha writes;
And think of the surprises you get when
rummaging in your pockets--the letters you
haven't answered, the bills you haven't paid
the odd money that has somehow got into
the wrong pocket. When | have nothing
else TO do | just search my pockets-all my
pockets, those in the brown suit and the
gray suit, and the serge suit. and my
Sunday best'-there must be fifty pockets
in all, and every one of them full of some
thing, of ghosts of engagements | haven't
kept, and duties | haven't performed. and
friends | have neglected, of pipes that /
have mourned as lost and half packets OF
cigarettes that by some miracle have not
smoked, and all the litter of casual and
disoldcrly life"