The New York herald., 1922-09-17

IL historic years before the great war.
Publicans. sinners, saints. artists. philoso-
piers. outcasts. men and women anke. to
say nothing of myriad ideas as diverse,
make up the briefly seen and swiftly pass
ing but sharply sketched participants in
that dance toward death. Mr. Cournos
has succeeded in making ideas as much a
part of the melee as his characters them
selves. This is the third of what might
be called trilogy of novels We're it not
for much internal evidence that there is to
barrow through the making Of The Mask"
that he wore more or less .awry and
through the breaking OF The Wall" he
was born within, into "Babel"-the world
as Gombarov mirrored it in 1912-1914-and
then to stop short with the great topping
OF the tower is not conceivable. For Babel
closes with the great wars beginning and
the mighty shudder of an ended era, with
Gombarov's soul still to be saved alive.
Mr.. Cournos's progressive hero. young
Russo-American Jew. AT the opening of
Babel" has succeeded in breaking through
one OF his walls-his family-so far at
least as to sail for London. His other
walls, himself and the world which, CON-
bined with his family, make the thickest
fourth that blocks his path 10 authorship
are yet to fall before him. On his own, al
last, in his thirtyf first year. he goes to
London to seek escape from the City of
Brotheriy Love-his American home town.
His first discovery in the Old World is that
the whole world is all but standardized by
one language and one speech" so both
Genesis and Mr.. Cournos begin their stories
Of Babel.
II is from Mr.. Hezekiah Wood that Com
barrow first learns Universal Speech OF
Money" learns that it is Big Business that
holds the world together. international
finance. international exchange, interna-
tional credits-this is in 1912! Mr. Woods
particular big business is the Interna-
tionai Embalming Company. that is out tc
make Of one equally enduring mummifica-
ton the dead OF an the earth. With head
offices at New York, its branches are in
Boston, Chicago. San Francisco, Paris
Berlin. 81. Petersburg-this is still in 1917
Toxic. Hongkong. &C. With the process
goes a thousand year guaranty. with
money back at compound interest TO any
dissatisfied descendant of any embalmed
ancestor.
To Gombarov's amazement he discovers
that into the world has also come "Univer-
sal Speech OF Art" The painter Douglas
and the sculptor Maczishek point this out
For them. as for Hezekiah Wood. the world
had shrunk. was no longer wide and fat
but had become palpably round and asserted
its third. possibly its fourth dimension
For both. the world. in its contractedness
was moving toward a unity OF speech
though for the one the medium of inter
national exchange was money. for the
other art" Like Wood the artist was OF
his age, the age OF engineering and me-
chanics. with the machine the unifyins
factor. and he accepted the material OF his
age. Through railways, ships and tele-
graphs. above ALL through Big Business
the world was achieving an amazing same
ness: nationality and local color were fast
disappearing. II business, through seien.
t.fic methods. were becoming abstract ant
universal. So for entirely different ends
was Art. in order 10 make manifest the
soul OF the age.
And yet SaviIle. maker OF masks. spok,
passionately for dRmons as against dynam
ics, not for mechanics but for spirit. anC
ssted for example the wonderful old CUR
in the Museum Of Florence. an instrumen
Of death made superbly precious for al
time by the lavish designs worked over 1t.
death dealing tube BY a people more inter.