Evening star., 1924-12-09
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
TO LHAsA IN DISGUISE. william
Montgomery McGovern. The Gem

Iury Co.
The scholar of to one side. The ad-
venturer of to the other. The pro-
founder the scholarship of the one the
greater the distance between the two.
This. the rule. DR.. McGovern. how
ever, points the exception to which
every rule gives occasional way. For
In him both scholar and adventurer
combine. Investigations and studies
of the Far East embodied in books
and lectures on the one hand, and
high honors conferred by appreci-
ative and grateful powers on the
other hand, proclaim the savant in
makes equally triumphant disclosure
OF prince OF adventuresrs. One
plainly sees two groups gathering
about this man who is so able to dis
pense gifts with both hands. On the
right, slim and exclusive band. On
the left, q pressing throng. The for
Iner deeply engrossed in the age-old
learning of the East. peering, spec
tacle-eyed, into the subtleties of its
racial sources and stamp. into the
literature and politics and religion.
The latter. young and keen of sight,
primed for adventure In a new and
difficult field, whose entrance is
barred, In part by Nature herself: In
other part by equally hostile natives.
Let's go with the crowd. Let's
leave behind the dull and arid by
ways of learning. Let's follow the
forward-lifting hills of succulent ad-
venture.
And yet, but for the learning so
onthely dismissed. the adventure it
SER "ouid not be possible. Over and
over again has this waywise leader
covered the ground right up to the
door or his present great project
An honorary priest, II you please of
the buddhist faith besides, bespeak
ing Tor him a quite extraordinary de-
gree or confidence on the part Of the
natives; bespeaking for him also a
deep knowledge of their affairs, both
or which give some faint promis. a,
least for the fulfllment of tn. mad
Undertaking at hand. And this is
nothing less than to get himself. and
us, INTO Lhasa. capital OF Tibet. For
piuaeh CITY OF the Buddhas. goal of
many an earlier adventurera Dr;za
now for the first time won.
Dr.. McGovern gives US chanoe
70 BACK out from the enterprise II.
so De II, we are not endowed with the
bowels or robust and hazardous en-
prise. Tibet itself Is forbiddfne Re-
tween the fertile stretches of India
ana CHINA IL stands, a huge uptbrust
on ara tabieland, spread out higher
ehah an but the loftiest of our own
mountains. and still further guarded
against Intrusion by snrrenndInu u
walls that are peaks and surnni,s
htting to the clouds and Everlasting
SHOWS. And inside this natural har.
li'@ue is living wall of fierce zeal
ots' cruel with hatred for the for
| eisner and consumed with the mas.
sion OF self-isolation.
=
StilI want 20 carry on?" We. ,ya
SUN want to carry on. So before our
very eyes DR.. McGovern goes ma
tiVe' Out Of this magic he emerpes
an unbelievable creature. a thing ~
rags and matted hair and bristIe5
chin. collected upon a frame that
never never had come to terms with
water save as the sodden mess az
s~Ho" snow ana oooy moistures and reekfng
D. Humoly he takes his place
as the lowest of those under his own
head servant.
now we are off upon a Winter star,
through the passes Of the HfmaIsvas
pound FOR Tibet, bound for Lhasa -he
or rolooen City OF the Buddhas.
Literally everything depends upon the
security or that disguise coupled with
ene endurance and strategy of this
surprising masQuerader Throughout
the matter is one Of suspense-1iks
walking the ledge OF a deep precintce
one loot on the thread-liks path. the
other hung over eternity The phys
icai hardships are incredible, the anx-
ietles or the mind no less uubeliey-
able. There is the cold and ,ba Wv,
speakable WEAKNESS OF the steady
and exhausting mountain up-ufts
munger. too, and, TO appease il. "a
ration or putrescent raw yak's meat.
and tea which had been msds into
bricks by the addition of dung. and
which after brewing was salted and
outtered to Tfbetan taste"
As so laboriously we draw nearer To
the hidden city an unmistakabls hos
unity or suspicion comes out to meet
the little caravan. The natives OF this
region are Tor the moment whipped
into fanatical excitement at the an
proach Of a religious festival. More
over there Is fitting about the mis-
ohievous rumor that a white man
has come into Tibet. A breathless
moment OF even greater apprehension
than the usual goes into the tighten
ing up OF our stock OF precautionary
strategy, into q perfecting OF the
disguise OF McGovern at every point
OF possible weakness.
And now-believs it or not-we
are inside the Forbidden City. Oh.
yes, a clear miracle brought us here
one whose working out through sheer
bull-headedness on the part of the
leader has accumulated all sorts OF
racts about this strange region and
It's stranger people, that you will be
lucky to hear about. Facts, these
wrested from dangers and hardships
unreckonable. Such men are fools
clearly. But, how we do envy them
And how much they do bring to us
out of the worlds store which hut
for this long line OF adventurers-
explorers. discoverers. pirates, buc-
cancers, exploiters and scholars
would never bless us with SO great a
larsess of use and beauty.
And here within the Forbidden CITY
itself the pandemonium of adventure
intensifles and spreads. For now the
rumor OF the white man has grown
from hearsay to certain aspects of
fact. Nobody has actually seen him
but suspicion Is ready to leap into
certainty. a rather fatal cast OF GER
tsinty. too. To be sure, there are
several caravans about the town.
clearly all native, however, and bent
upon the legitimate business of such
groups. Out of one Of these q spe-
cially earnest native has been about
the city. He has even talked with
the Dalai Lama, presumably upon
some great matter. and with other Of
f1cials as we'll. May be, a secret
emissary from the outer world upon
some important mission bent. All to
ourselves we know that this lowly
native has secretly made innumer-
able snapshots and has set down in
Vulnerable facts concerning this sed-
ulously guarded citadel Of the Budd-
has Then, suddenly, one day or one
ri hA {alla