The New York herald., 1922-05-21

ASeihS "iAttSh SO-NAitOA w Sct-
ern" plays and books and scenarios
there emerges one that is sincere and
admirable and valuable; and once in
a while-four or five times in a life
time-there energies a book, novel or
history, never play or scenario.
that, going beyond the qualities men,
toned, constitutes itself a real con-
tribution to history and exhibits
some of the attributes of a classic.
Such a book was 1.-The Virginian,"
which, despite it's sentimentality and
it's most moral young hero, caught
for all time the spirit of the West;
and such books, although restricted
to the narrow field of humor, are
Harry Leon Wilson's "Ruggles of
Red Gap" and MA Pettingill"; and
such book-not novel this time
but q history, or rather a chronicle
is the latest contribution to cowboy
literature, "The Cowboy" by Philip
Aston Rollins.
Unlike most people who write
about the West, Mr.. Rollins has
taken many years to experience his
subject, study it and impregnate
himself with the love of it. He has
not considered that an occasional
summer on Wyoming dude
ranch," coupled with a perpetual
residence in Hollywood. Cal, or Nut
ley, n. j., entitled him to become
an interpreter of subtle and intricate
national developments and of subtle
and intricate characters, nor has he
in the least attempted to tell people
what he thinks they want to be told
or to subscribe to popular and -er-
roneous beliefs. He has, with alto
gether passionate intentness, at
tempted to rid himself of thoughts
which possessed him and. threading
through the maze of individual char
acteristics which distinguish the
Oi any SNiNie'A ~ pc
at a composite portrait truthful and
unexaggerated. In other words, he
has written his book out of his ex-
periences and has not sought his ex-
periences in order to write his book.
He has accomplished that most un-
usual task of putting the horse be-
a,.t. .f t11A 14I
method of reasoning; of not trying
to publish his conclusions until both
his heart and his head We're too full
of them for him longer to remain
silent.
1t is by such a process. of course,
that all important books. histories or
otherwise, are written, and all
charming books and all enthralling
books. In the writing of books i'm
portance and charm and enthrallment
come because a man has hunger to
say something but sufficient restraint
to withhold his hunger until it be-
comes uncomfortable. And this is an
important book, and charming
book, and an enthralling book.
1t is important because it shows,
briefly but very clearly, where the
cowboy came from. why he came,
what the original traditions were
that formed him, and. once having
arrived, what sort of a man he was
(or is, for deprecate the past tense:
the cowboy still exists in great num-
bers) and what was his position in
the development of the country In
his discussion OF the open range and
it's passing the author has given an
epic glimpse of an epic occurrence.
In his first, second, fifteenth and last
chapters he has material for another
book. His present book is further
more important because it depicts
more truthfully than l have ever
seen depicted elsewhere both the
faults and virtues of type that has
now for over twenty years held in a
most extraordinary way the imag-
ination, not of America alone, but of
the world at large. At Oxford few
years ago l remember being sought
out and considerably bothered by a
fledgling peer who had discovered