Evening star., 1924-10-06

| the trite is mighty good, after all.
| Sometime we shall come to the de-
fense <of the trite, the bromide and
| Babbitt.
In a hammock swinging just under
| the roof Of a seaside porch, the tales
of the brothers Grimm. barbaric, but
| Colorfu1 folk stories of Germany, were
| read, while the cool wet winds of the
| ocean blew the pages frantically.
| There, too, the more peaceful stories
| Of Hans Christian Andersen were
| gone through inclosed between their
red covers, with the gold figures of
some of the more outstanding char
acters winding in relief on the covers.
| They were large. brave books, none
of your skinny, badly printed little
volumes. Gold edges and plenty of
pictures. One always turned the
page quick that showed the picture
of the old witch.
| 1t Is easy to remember that at the
time one thought the more quickly
moving stories of Grimm were the
best, although it was admitted then
that the tales Of the little tin soldier,
the ugly duckling and of Great Claus
and Little Claus held their own.
| Today one might be hard put to
change the judgment, although ad-
mitting the great artistic finish of
Andersen, who had much Of the artist
in his ma ke-up.
| Then these beautiful books disap-
| peared, ever to be a source of
pleasant memories, mixed with the
sorrow of the loss of these particular
| volumes. Many fine editions could be
purchased, but none ever would be
like those old books
| X X
| Then there was Edmond Rostands $
"Cyrano de Bergerac." 1t was a
paper-back volume, which gave one
| hundreds of dollars of pleasure for
| Is cents.
The seaside village general store
on back street was the treasure
| house where these delectable treas
ures could be purchased at prices
well within the reach of youth. Some
OF the old paper backed libraries"
| had wonderfully well chosen lists
| They sat in neat row next TO the
| assortment of sand shovels and buck
cts for little ones. Many of Alexan-
| der Dumas, rarer novels were there
in blue paper. 1t was great day
| when the excellent translation of the
| story of the immortal Cyrano was
chosen out of curiosity.
Good paper. large print-these
| fairly outlined the best thing Ros-
tand ever did. a play that rings true,
| and makes his later effort, "Chanti-
| cleer," seem puerile in comparison. To
this day the great heart of Cyrano
cheers one.
! And all out of a paper back ed
novel;
| Where did you go to, paper-ba acked
Cyrano. with your story of the big
nosed hero, singing his ballads so
| that another man might win his
sweetheart. composing rhymes to the
touch of his swordo
| x X X X
| There was Olive Schreiner's STORY
of South African Farm" also in
paper cover. Only this Summer
new edition of this great novel was
issued. The impression left by this
story. perhaps the saddest in all lit
erature, cannot be estimated.
This book, too. disappeared Years
later-last Summer-it was replaced
| with the new edition, in fine cloth
covers-and too small print-but the
attempt was failure. 1t is a great
! novel. but the rereading is not like
| the first reading.
| And there was Swallow" one of
Rider Haggard's thrillers, telling of
an Africa teeming with mystery, ex-
| element and romance, denatured Of
| its serpents, crawling creatures, blaz-
| ing sun, sweat, awfulneSs.
! One wanted to keep that book al
| ways, but it, too, in the fullness of
time, made away with itself. One re-
calls dog-eared copy of the United
States Pharmacoepia. and a fat doc
| tors book telling all about how the
| Japanese use camphor for all the ills
| of the human frame.
| All these books have disappeared.
lost with the passing of the years, to
be recalled and pleasantly mourned
when the fresh breezes of autumn
| bring back their memory.