The New York herald., 1922-03-19

r
others love. II all moves a. maga-
zine serial fiction must nowadays
~ THE MORNING OF TIME. BY
Charles G. D. Roberts Frederick A.
Stokes Company.
r 7 is clear that il the phrase or
our Intelligent friend Hermione.
prehistory is coming in" And
isn't prehistory simply wonderful
No doubt much Of the extending in
terest in il is traceable to the bril-
Iiantly entertaining early chapters
Of Wells's outline. ably seconded
BY Mr.. Van Looms picturesque ac-
count Of our earliest days. Doubtless.
too. the sober scientists, from Henry
Fairfield Osborn down to the humble
school bocS maker have done much
10 arouse a really widespread. popu-
lar curiosity as to the days of the
dinosaur and the later era OF Mr..
Eoanthropus Dawson of Piltdown.
Now comes the facile Major Roberts
with an Offering of pure romance
from the morning OF human time 1t
is almost a generation since the
STORY of Ab" attracted a large pub
! lie attention. and both scientists and
romancers have learned good deal
since then.
Major Roberts. il has been truth
fully said. does not imagine his
facts" though he does handle them
in highly imaginative manner That
IS legitimate. one may even quote
/ John Burroughs. who said. speaking
Of Roberts. that "the imagination
may be used in interpreting and mar
rating facts-must be used if literary
value is TO be the outcome" The
question becomes where 10 draw the
I line; it must al least stop short of
nature taking or even OF such dis
+ tortion of facts as 10 produce an un-
truthful picture. On the whole. in
/ this book. Major Roberts manages
I TO keep pretty well within bounds.
/ though of course. the anthropolo-
giSts viii fall foul of him for ex-
aggeration and misinterpretation. As
/ TO that. they quarrel merrily among
/ themselves. The science of pre-
history is still very much in the
making. And whether the hard shell
scientists think he has stopped over
or not. Major Roberts has built an
, cnsrossiugly entertaining story and
one that has genuine educational
value. even il that be limited To
arousing the readers curious inter
est and squirting him to further study
and thought
The traditionally carping critic viii
object to placing man and the
dinosaurs in the same era, but il is
a very. very early man. ana almost
the last of the dinosaurs. srf il was
not "A very big dinosaur- s..y twenty
feet long. or So. not s.sunting the
useful tail. and but y.sht feet tall
Moreover. only the sther day came
the news report 81 a possibly ex-
istiug pies:osaurus in the Patagonia
of our own time. Maybe he emerged
into the news columns Just to give
pIausibiIity to the second chapter
of this book "a bit OF prehistoric
press aseuting, Anyhow he serve,
to justify M jor Roberts.
No one can take exception TO IN,
ensuing battle OF the monsters. which
is sufficiently blood eurdling. Tn
book is chock full of first elias
thrills. ending in a fine wholesal,
slaughter. As to chronological de
} tail. description of his beasts and o
: the aspects of nature Major Robert
Is careful and is basing all his nara
tive upon az sound a foundation Q
! facts as can Dc Laid for such a struc
ture. If one does not always folio,
him so confidently in his prehistori
, cal human psychology it reall.
doesn't matter, for We certainly can