Evening star., 1924-07-26
The Library Table
by THE BOOKLOVER

Readers OF this column have prob
ably noticed that comment Is not con-
| fined to the newest books. Occasion
ally the Booklover manages to dodge
the engulfing flood of books of the
moment sufficiently to reread an old
favorite or to read for the first time
an earlier book which escaped his
attention when published and has
survived by it's excellence. 1 have
jugt completed the reading of such
a book which has been SO delightful
an experience that wish to pass
on my enthusiasm to others. The
| book is The Greek Commonwealth;
rent reities and nd Esonomies in = Fifth H,
mern Of a oKford Gnlversity. it e. First
published in 1911, it appeared in a
third edition in 1922. l was led to
read it by finding it included in the
high, standing, who had been ask ed
| by the editor of the Literary Digest
International Book Review to name
the ten most significant books pub
| lished in the present century.
! u y X
The presentation OF the funda-
| mental facts in the political and
economic life Of fifth century Athens
| is made very inter esting by Mr..
| Zimmen's method of Treatment. lie
| makes US forget that the common
| wealth of Athens existed twenty-four
hundred years ago; as we read we
almost have the illusion that we are
following the affairs and policies of
The famous speeches Of PeIicles and
| 1hemistocles and Cleon and the satiric
plays or Aristophanes appealed to the
same human emotions. idealistic and
materialistic, as the speeches Of our
! publc men and our symbolic and prob
| lem plays today. Questions Of taxation,
| OF immigration, Of the navy, Of colonial
expansion, of foreign trade, of the en-
couragement of domestic industries Of
hard times" of the franchise, of the
currency were just as burning then as
! now, though on a smaller scale, and
were handled by the politicians with
/ ABOUT as much expertness. The ideal of
perfcles for Athens was to make the
cfty-state most completely self sufficient
both for war and for peace slogan
which has n decidedly modern ring.
Cleisthenes and Themistocles encouraged
immigration. for Athens needed her
aliens TO enable her to sustain the
great burden OF her responsibilities, to
supply her with the resources in men
and things in labor and capital, without
which her ideals must be but empty
dreams Whether, if Athens had en-
dured long enough to meet the problems
! Of overpopulation, non-assimilation~ and
land scarcity, this liberal immigration
! policy would have been continued is a
| question. During the Peloponnesian War
| housing conditions at Athens became so
bad, because OF the influx of population
from the country districts. that the great
plague was the result The authorities
| were SO busy carrying on the war that
they had no eyes for the difficulty of
housing the population. Modern govern
ments handle the housing situation
somewhat better in war time. Compari-
sons might be multiplied between an
cient Athens and the modern world, but
| these are enough to show that politics
and economies were not without excite
| ment even in the fifth century
The idea conveyed by many of the
| older ancient histories that Athens
! in the age of Pericles reached a pin
| nacle of civilization and culture never
touched before or since is not sus-
tanned by Zimmern in the Greek
| Commonwealth" Practical infanti-
newborn child had complete power
! to decide whether it should be al
/ lowed to live. If the decision was un-
favorable, as it often was in the case
! of weaklings and female infants, the
child was packed in d pot and ex-
! posed in a public place. 1T is strange
and horrible to think that any day on
! your walks abroad in a Greek city
you might come across pot-eN
/ market place or by a wrestling
ground. at the entrance Of a temple
| or in consecrated cave, and that
you might see a slave girl timidly
peeping round to look if the child
! might yet be saved, or running back
to bear the news - the broken
hearted young motkse." To the wom-
an of today the lot of Athenian wives
and mosneA does not seem a happy
one and there are evidences in Greek
literature that they were not salts
/ fed with it. "In Periclean Athens
! there were two different kinds of
! free women'-the wives and daugh-
ters of citizens, whose lives were
closely secluded and restricted to the
4, home and its duties, and independent
| professional women, foreign born,
! whose most conspicuous profe
was that of being companions" TO
! Athenian citizens. The famous Aspa-
| sia was the ''companion" of Pericles
! 1t is no wonder that the last quarter
| of the fifth century witnessed the
| rise among the Athenian matrons of
movement for the emancipation of
! women. The state silver mines of
| Laureion, with their slave workers,
| were another blot on Athenian civil
! Hzation. They worked in chains and
| almost naked and were branded with
| their masters stamp. In order to in
crease the rate of production. work
1
| night and day"
| X \ X =
The literature department of the
General Federation of Women's Clubs
has been conducting an essay con-
test on the subject What Two Million
| Women Want From the Publishers"
the awards for which were made at
| e nf ha
| tion in Los Angeles. Some of the de-
| mands made in many of the ESSAYS
| were as follows:
| Books that are interesting.
! Fiction that is true to normal life,
not pathological.
Biography that shows a mans soul
as we'll as the facts of his life.
Autobiography that is not con-
ceited.
The advertising of worth while
books. while others are allowed to
shift for themselves.
Discrimination against the writer
whose views of life are distorted
either by his lack of understanding,
his desire to make money or his love
| of the grotesQue.
A revival of the historical and the
romantic novel.
Poetry that children can memorize
for their own future happiness.
Stories written by authors with a
sense of humor.
| Stories which may be presented to
| sick or shut-in friends without fear
| of depressing results.
A moro Strengthening philosophy
| than the "Pollyanna" philosophy Of
| smiling acceptance Of conditions as
| they are.
Better English.
! + = <
Hatcher Hughes. whose play, HELL
| ,,