Evening star., 1923-10-13
The Library Table
BY THE BOOKLOyER

Closely following the death of
Pierre Lott Julien Viaud) comes the
English translation of one of his
best novels. called in the French
"Ramuntcho," and the translation
"a Tale of the Pyrenees." During
his many years as an officer in the
French navy, Pierre Lott was at one
time in command of a guardship on
the boundary between France and
Spain. 1t was then that he gathered
the material for "Ramuntcho," which
is an tdyll of the Basque country.
X " n n
At about the same time as this
translation appears Lofts last book,
on which he was at work at the
Jeune Officer Pauvre." and is the
third volume in the photographed
series which the author hoped to
complete. The first two volumes are
called lie Roman d. un Enfant" and
Prime Jeunesse." This third volume
begins with Lofts nineteenth year,
when he was a student at the naval
training school at Brest, and ends
with his twenty-eighth year, when
navy.
X n \ n
The various cures that have, in the
history of the world, helped human
beings to sustain the burden of life
are discussed, tolerantly but without
belief, by DIR. James ]. Walsh, in his
book Cures: The Story of the Cures
That Fail" The Doctors thesis is
double one; that when nothing or
ganic is the matter with a person.
anything he can believe in will cure
him. and that in the practice Of
medicine only a few drugs have any
therapeutic value. The various cures
reviewed by DR.. Walsh. and he puts
them all in the same class, include
the touch" for the Kings evil" the
"theriac" Ga mixture of all sorts OF
drugs), and moss from the skulls of
criminals, "tractoriZation, magnet
ism, meSmerism, appliance cures, the
cures of Phineas Quimby, Christian
Science, shrine cures. psychoanalysis,
the Coue method, osteopathy and
c chiropractic.
An extravaganza-s satire, equal in
ingenuity to the Voyage to the
Houyhnhnms," but better natured. is
Christopher Morley's Where the
Blue Begins" Swift substituted
horses for men in his invented world,
and Christopher Morley substitutes
dogs. Gissing, bachelor dog of
idealistic temperament, searches for
real horizon-"where the blue be-
gins" That soft blue light, If he
could reach it, must be the beginning
of what his mind required. In an
effort to solve the problem of life,
Gissing adopts three puppies. and
then his trouble begins; but also, so
Mr.. Morley seems to indicate, his
souls salvation. He struggles along
by himself for d time, after the in
dignant departure of his aristocratic
Japanese pug butler. Fuji. trying to
bring up the puppies with the aid
of grade milk and DR.. Hollis book
on the care and feeding of chIi-
dren. He is finally obliged to appeal
for aid to Mrs: Spaniel, low grade
canine with large offspring. and in
desperation invites her and all her
puppies to move into his house and
take charge of things. He then sees
his opportunity to leave. He must
earn more money to support his
longs for Is more extended search
for his real horizon. So he goes to
the city which is maddest OF all =
"a city so tall that even the sky
above her seems to have lifted In a
cautions remove, inconceivably far"
There he soon becomes the efficient
manager of the large department
store of Beagle & Co. Discomfort
attends even his most striking sue
cess. however, and he leaves his dis
~lat 70 n
the church. His short ecclesiastical
career is most disastrous, as he scan
dalizes congregations. fellow clergy
and the great Bishop Borzoi by his
blasphemous heresies. Finally, after
nautical experience, following his
clerical adventure, he decides to re-
turn to his home. There. as his three
adopted children rapturously cry.
Daddy, Daddy" he decides that he
has at the same time found his
horizon and God.
Though the Booklover has never
since his college days indulged in
the undeniably egotistic pursuit of
keeping a diary, he has still always
possessed enough curiosity about the
affairs and ideas of others SO that
diary literature has much interest for
him. He has enjoyed looking over a
recent book, called English Diaries;
Review of English Diaries from
the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Cen
tury," by Arthur Ponsonby, NJ. 2.
The book is prefaced by a good in
troductory essay on diary writing
by the author and editor. Extracts.
about 120 English men and women
from the time of Edward VI 10 the
present day, are carefully selected
and arranged. They form a remark
able exhibition of human vanity.
People of all ranks, from monarchs
to a linen draper, and of all inter-
ests, from statesmen to idle spinsters,
are represented in these selections.
The first diary of the collection is
that of the youthful King Edward VI,
who died when he was only sixteen
Much space is given to parts OF the
yoluminous diary of Queen Victoria,
who began writing it when she was
thirteen and kept 1t up TIL the eno
of her life at eighty-tWo. Other
personages whose diaries are quoted
are Henry Fielding. Fanny Burney,
Lord Byron. Pepys, John Wesley and
Bishop Wilberforce.
X * X X
"French Literature During the Last
Half Century" by ]. w. Cunliffe and
Pierre de Bacourt, forms a valuable
supplement to the older histories OF
French literature, which usually end
with the middle of the nineteenth
century, or, at most, with 1870. The
authors are both professors at Co
lumbia University. The period treat
ed begins with Zola, his writings,
teachings and general literary ana
sociological influence, and ends with
so recent an event as the death of
Pierre Lott, only few months ago.
The first part of the book discusses
individual writers, especially lola, de
Maupassant, Daudet. Lott, Anatole
france, Bourget, Maurras, Barres,