Evening star., 1924-10-05
THE TRtE STORY or WOODROW


yet quick tempered and i'm
~ puisive: forgetful OF those
who had served him. yet
devoted to many who had rendered
him hut minor service; unforEiNinE
and fierce in his contempt for some
who had dared TO disagree with him,
vet generous with others even to the
extent of appointing them to high
officc: precise and business-like, and
yet upon occasi illogical without
more reason than intuition itself;
Seclusivc. Yet crusader for de-
mocracy-thus might his charac-
teristic contradictions be grouped IN
cohercntly in series of paradoxes.'
David Lawrence, projecting in the
opening paragraph of his True
Story" the personal paradox.
Woodrow Wilson
David Lawrence. still talking now
in the closing sentences OF this study.
George Washington founded the
American Republic; Abraham Lincoln
preserved the Union and nodded the
several States into single SOW
ereignty. but Woodrow Wilson con-
tributed at the opportune moment
leadership in war hat saved the
whole world from military autocrary
and contributed thereafter code of
morality which some day may save
Christian civilization from economic
Serfdom and the savaEery Of organ
lied murder. To the far corners OF
the globe his philosophy permeatcd.
Tie has done more than any single
statesman in history TO give the world
an international conscience"
These two extremes set. the work
OF David Lawrence within them is
clearly that OF Interpretation and
reconciliation. Mr.. Lawrence is not
a MuggIctonian stone blind to any
possible faw in the perfect human
which it is the mission o: this order
to create and sustain. II he were
MuEGletonian mere assertions of per-
fertion. frequent enough and en-
phatic enough. would create in him
the hypnosis Of perfection applied
TO the individual Of their immediate
care and exploitation. But. since he
is not of these. there is sheer work
ahead of him. And he starts we'll
on the sound basis of long and
firSt-han acquaintance with his sub
ject. For David Lawrence was a
student at Princeton under DR.. Will
son. Afterward he was. as he is
yet, press representative, follow
Ing at that time in Official privilege
close upon the footsteps OF Or. Will
son. Gov. Wilson, President Wilson,
citizen Wilson. And il is with all
Of these stages in the career of Wood
with an attention strictly proportion
cd to their relative importance in
the full sum of this career.
Vet this is an eaSy-running story.
bearing no troublesome evidence Of
an overcare for balances and pro-
portions and other Geographic tcchnic.
Rather does it move swiftly forward
on the tide of innumerablc incidents,
such as the drama of journalism has
L.
stories run and flock and futter about
this point and that one in the pas
sage of Woodrow Wilson along the
adventurous way of making a school
master into the President of a great
republic. At some high moment or
at some crucial turning the little
stories become big ones, and a
gravity settles upon the whole for
the purpose Of momentous statements
and the serious business of tallyins
mere mans weaknesses with his
g..catnesses. David Lawrence doesn't
20 far in this tailying work. That's
not his job. That is for time ana
God to settle. Rather does h. stay
by the currcn- of things as these
reveal the man striving ever to do
well with the day work. Not much
passing. of judgment here. That is
one of the values of this dramatic
StCfS OF d Truly great man, Win
mans follies full upon him, still
through his work challenging denial
of his essential greatness. If David
Lawrence is not a judge. neither is
he the pure eulogist. And that is
the high and convincing point in this
True Story of Woodrow Wilson"
which reads like romance, AS II is,
and which reads also like truth. which
IT as clearly is, too.
FHE THOUSAND AND FIRST NIGHT.
BY Grant Ovcrton. author of The
AuSwcrer. etc New York
'icur-e II. Doran Co.
Grant Overton's romance begins not
incredibly. Easily acceptable as fact
nowadays that man should glide
out of the sky down to earth and that
out from the woods of Long Island.
where his ship had taken unexpected
anchorage, there should walk to-
ward him woman, young and beau
tiful as he was young and strong and
comely. Nothing unbelievable that
they should look each into the eyes
of the other, seeking an old and lost
companionship. The miracle of sud
den love flies ever back into the past
for far beginnings, submerged and
forgotten through many intervening
existences. Plain as prose. too. that
this young woman should offer the
airman a lodging for the night. ask
ing only that she might conceal this
from her grandfather. Magellan Fam
ming. broken and suspicious now, but
once a seafarer of consequence in
many momentous sailings. The
young man slowed away. Cynthia
Tanning went to her nightly task
of soothing Grandfather flaming to
sleep with tales Of her own making.
as mothers lull their children. And
clearly on that night-oddly enough
the Thousand and first night" of an
old. old egend-Cynthia FannniE was
possessed of another spirit than her
own. On other nights the stories
had perhaps come haltingly, but on
this night the tongue of Cynthia Fan
ming was looSed to the telling OF a
magic tale that reached back to the
great explorer, Easco da Cana, and
on down through the centuries to one
Pedro da Cana and the grand
daughter of Col. Charles Tanning,
Tangier. A Cynthia flaming. too,
that granddaughter of flaming of
Sussex. And the love between her
and Pedro da Cana had tragic end
ing. Then the story moves of into
the story of the Fannings, covering
that of the great days OF this very
Magellan Tanning sitting helpless
over there in his chair. Who told
YOU that, Cynthy?' sharply from the
old man. But Cynthia did not know
who told her. She knew only that
the story was true one and that Sh e
must keep on with it's telling. For
was not young Pedro da Gama-oh,
many times removed from that other
one--in their very house, and was
not she that other Cynthia Tanning
urging on this one to the strange
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