Evening star., 1924-01-06
Reviews of New Books

and those of czar of the gangsters
Were utterly and hopelessly incom-
patible. For Midge had no higher
ambition than to emulate, the career
Of Jimmy Donovan as the slickest
young crook of Manhattan's East
Side. Nothing to be done in such
case except a change Of career And
Father Marion, Jimmie's conversion
to law and order began progressing
vicissitously toward orderly citizen
ship. Takes a tough guy to run
straight" according. to shrewd Father
Donovan-and about all the rest OF
us-could give the fullest indorse-
ment sturdy story of reform
working down close to the ground
lar writer has the habit of handing
over to his stories. Probably these
East Side gangsters do talk the un-
Ineligible lingo that Mr.. Beach has
follow. But If that is the way they
do 1t one must tag along as well as
he can. There are five other tales
here. all of the Rex Beach pattern.
Outstanding among them are the first
Too Fat to Fight
BUNK. BY W. e. Woodward. New
York: Harper & Bros.
What is bunk, anyway" An aston
ishing condition of mind. Just fancy
grown-up person who has no first-hand
knowledge Of bunk. "Why. bunk. my
dear young lady. is the diminutive, or
pet name, for buncombe.' ITS hy-
pocrisy-pretence-th isn't it?'' Not
altogether. 1t is kind of Illusion.
Hypocrisys a mean word. Illusion,
that's it. It's big thing in life. Mil
lions of people make their living with no
other asset" A little talk running
something like this serves to introduce
the man who. under the impression that
he had written ID highly humorous book,
found both the book and himself taken
most seriously-a philosopher, program
in hand-bent to the business Of de-
bunking the world. taking out of its
tremendous bulk OF illusions a kind of
intellectual dehation. Some Of our
cases are most interesting" the de-
bunking expert said. Recently we de-
bunked the head Of a large financial
institution. 1t was an extraordinary
essary. This financier was not a large
man, but when we operated we re-
moved a solid block of bunk that
weighed over hundred pounds. 1t was
as hard as brass, Oh, no. he died.
knew it would be fatal, but his business
associates told me to go ahead. We are
getting ready now to e-bunl. one of
the metropolitan newspapers l don't
Know now IL Will come out, but Judging
from the preliminary diagnosis l hardly
think there will be much left of the
poor thing except the column of death
notices and the shipping news" So, on
in this vein of good fun and better
satire the chapters run on the "adyer-
tising psychology" The Importance of
Being Second Rate The Contumely
of Ideas" The Romance of Business
and this and that. Second rate"
says this philosopher, "is only an
other name for practical common
ssense. Common sense belongs exclu-
sively TO Second-rate intellects. First
raters. in all ages, have been devoid
Of both common sense and morality.
The early Christians were first-raters.
but they did not have enough com
mon sense to fill a thimble, and al
lowed themselves to get so unpopular
that they were turned over to the
Geological Gardens as nourishment
for the lions" christopher Columbus
was a first-rater. He had to be for
no second-rate mind would have ever
had the fantastic idea of sailing
across the ocean on wild goose
chase. So Ias Leonardo da Vinci.
with five different professions. expert
In all of them-but quite unable to
make a living" Immensely amusing
and almost equally pertinent to a
world swollen with illusions-bunk.