New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-31
ent1res in New Guinea Travelling on French Highways


notably in some of the very towns
where stand the cathedrals of which
we have just been reading Indeed. his
book in itself involves one of the most
impressive contrasts conceivable by
human fancy. Motoring through Aries,
Tarascon and Avignon! The half dozen
words span more than dozen CEN
turtles The three names coniure up
memories Of Caesar and of Constantine
81 Popes in exile and of the immortal
Tartarin. 1t is a grief beyond express
sion that ST. Benezet's bridge was too
much out of repair to permit Mr.. Paine
and his family to drive across it on
leaving Avignon. To have done so
would have supplied the one consum-
mate, GROWING touch.
For a writer like Mr.. Paine, viva
clous, gifted with keen sense Of HUI.
NOR, and intensely up to date, to write Of
ancient and medieval scenes and places
and to recall memories of bygonc acc
always involves certain danger, or a
temptation-that of being f1ippant and
making sport of venerable things 1t
Will not, however, surprise the readers
of his former works to be assured that
IN not the least degree does Mr.. Pains
yield to that error. His sense Of
humor does not clash with a sense of
reverence. There are those who at
Brou would have made merry with
threadbare gibes about mother-in-la law
and daughterinlaw; but he saw only
the marvel of beauty in which deco
rated Gothic reached its superlative,
and was moved to look up, somu tire,
Arnold's poem upon it and commiu it to
memory; and then
"On days when things seem rather
ugly and harsh and rasping, 1 will
find some quiet corner and shut my
eyes and say the lines and picture 8
sunlit May afternoon and the Church
of Brou. Then, perhaps, I shall not
remember any more the petty things
of the moment, but only the architec-
tural shrine which one woman reared in
honor of another, her mother-in-law."
1t is precious gift thus to be able
to see and to appraise the scenes which
are new to US because they are so old
1t was that gift which Mr.. Paine exer-
| cised all through his tours in France
and Switzerland, and the ripe fruit of
which he offers in these fascinating
pages. We have already spoken of
Rheims, and of the havoc wrought
there by the Huns. 1t was the year
before the war that Mr.. Paine was
there, when the Incompatible cathedral
was still in all It's unravaged glory;
| and this was the impression which he
received:
1--WE do not study this interior to
discover special art values or to dis
tinguish in what manner it differs
from others we have seen. For us the
light from its great rose window and
upper arches is glorifed because once
it fell upon Joan of Arc in that su-
| rreme moment when she saw her labor
finished and asked only that she might
return to Domremy and her focks.
The statuary in the inches are holy
because they looked upon that scene,
the altar paving is sanctifed because
it felt the pressure of her feet"
Again, it is not in the least incon-
gruous for the author to turn from
such impressions and expressions, to
describe his serio-comic plight when
he stalled the engine of his car just
as a ponderous truck was skidding
straight down upon it; and of his
wrestling, at Avignon, with thirty
seven reasons why the motor may not
start" Imagine, in stored Avignon,
the author setting out to 'make it the
Gil and grease" while Narcissa, aged
fifteen, helped him by washing and
polishing the car, and The Joy, aged
ten, was audience! He followed an
"oiing diagram" which was "a perfect
maze of hair lines and arrow points,
and looked as if it needed to be
combed I followed those tan
gled lines and labyrinthine ways into
the vital places Of our faithful vehicle.
:, 1t was a hot, messy, scratchy,
grunting job. Some people would have
been profane, but l am not like that
rot with Narcissa observing me. One
shour, two, went by, and I was still
consulting the chart and dabbing with
the oil can and grease stick.
! said at last that possibly had missed
some places on the car, but I didn't
think they could be important ones
Narcissa looked at me, then, and said
that maybe had missed places on the
car but that I hadn't missed any on
myself. She said 1 was q sight and
probably never could be washed clean
again"
Thus it was, sometimes with rollick-
inc humor, sometimes with reverent
solemnity and pathos, that Mr.. Paine
and his little family went motoring
through golden lands in the golden
age just before the Hunnish defilement
fell upon that which was fairest and
loveliest in the world AS he tells the
story, with unfailing racines3 and hu
man interest, there will come to many
| readers a strong temptation to send
| +hc;r csrs abroad or get them over