Evening star., 1925-04-28
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
THESE UNITED STATES. Ernes,
I. G.. M.

lIilo Dc GhlCnlSaQ or MaQaSaScar-lS
among the deepest of human affec-
ions. And with good reason, too.
For this feeling is sourced, primarily,
In span of native earth to which
kindred generations have given body
and blood and spirit, thereby produc-
Ing a very special sort of physical
and spiritual chemistry between this
soil and the blood of it's successive
holders. A chemical union whose sig
nlncant effect Is an indissoluble bond
between that home spot and the lineal
heirs of those creating it and per-
petuating it. A sentiment, this, that
practically every one acknowledges
and blesses. Around 1t the finest of
human aspiration buds, the best of
human endeavor flowers. Song and
story commemorate tin old tunes
that never stale and old stories that
never tire. 1t is upon this universal
sentiment that These United States"
is based.
Pride-local pride, State pride, pride
of country-is something radically
other than the sentiment of affection
commanded by each of these expand
ing conceptions of locality. This pride
is different from that affection in
origin, in growth. in objective, in ex.
preston. For instance, the State
New York or New Mexico-takes on
great self-esteem from its natural
beauty of assembled mountain and
stream, on the one hand; of iridescent
desert and plunging canyon and Turing
mirage, on the other; or from it's nat
ural resources and derived industries,
from its increase in wealth or its com
manding influence among the other
States. or in the great world itself
Largely material in Its quality, that
which calls out pride OF country or
State or town. History is it's medium.
History recording facts, relating them
in sums of progress or deficits of de-
feat, comparing and contrasting, de-
ducing, projecting, prophesying -a a
technical process that, highly useful
for its own ends, does, nevertheless
tend 10 dehumanize the acutely hu-
man affairs from which it is drawn.
x 4 x
1t is the purpose of These United
States to put the human back into
the history of each of the Common
wealths that make up our Republic
But not in any sense to do away with
the formal recognized history of these.
Indeed. without the authentic story of
each of the States. as historians have
gathered il. Ernest Gruening'S work
would fail to register. His business
here is 10 gather the meanings out of
the summed facts in the lives of these
different States of the Union; how to
interpret them; how to place them in a
proper fronting upon their own pur-
poses and plans; how to weigh and
evaluate them; how TO project them as
influential factors in the whole prob
lem. In a word. how to give TO each
State living personality-just as one
gathers a definite personality out of
the scattered sayings and doings and
attitudes of human being. This is
the object of Mr.. Gruening's work in
these two volumes.
x < x =
Essentially of the essence Of pure
drama is this study. To give to each
State A bodily presence before the
reader-that is the intent. To endow
this parsonage with a sense of it's own
powers on the one hand. with an acute
consciousness of it's own responsibility
on the other; to give to it moods and
actions and ambitions-this is the
work of the dramatist. The novelist
is. obviously, the best instrument for
this work of incarnation. And, in so
far as this was possible. it was the
iiON CllSl W NUM- vi uCtiliiS SIlOSt- III
every case he made use of the writer
of experience and recognized merit.
A very distinguished company of
writer's is assembled here. Again,
where he could do so, he selected ma
tive son, or daughter, to produce the
great impersonation. In the two cases
possibly three-where no native
writer was available there is a mani
fest lack of the Unborn sympathy that
is so clearly a part of the other studies
given here. To offset this, however.
once or twice an oversympathy-the
binding sort-mars the zeal of one
and another of these protagonists of
the home States. However, these are
mere specks in a work that is so alto
gether good-original in scheme, bril-
liant in projection. illuminating in ef-
feet. One of the most readable books,
besides, that you will come upon in
many a year. A lure and fascina-
ton. this new kind of historic projec-
ton.
JAPAN. Lafcadio Hearn. The Mac
milan Company.
Just as they did a few years ago
by the South Seas so, today, writing
adventures have pretty nearly
scraped the top off Japan. So that,
sitting at home, the general reader
can envisage Fujijama as clearly as
he can Pixies Peak. And he can
see the terraced hills of intense cult
vation, and the many Shinto temples
and the Buddhist gods, and the
flimsy little houses and the polite little
folks and the pretty customs and the
dainty arts. This appears to be the
moment of Japan's exploitation at the
hands of the writing craft. At long
intervals some one goes into Japan
who has within him a strain. that
we call exotic, We hardly know what
we mean except that we do recognize
vaguely a kinship of thought and
spirit between that traveller and the
people of Japan. At the moment 1t
is Harry Hervey who possesses this to
a certain degree. Pierre Lott had it
more markedly And Lafcadio Hearn,
to name only these immediate three.
was most completely imbued with this
spirit of the Orient. So, from Laf
cadio Hearn one expects an intuitive
inseeing understanding association
with the Japanese. Protesting that
it cannot be done, that the Western
mind cannot seize the Oriental spirit
Hearn nevertheless modestly enters
here upon what he calls "An Attempt
at Interpretation" This expression OF
intent sets the author back with the
origin and evolution of the Nipponese
instead of leaving him on the street
along with the other tourists in Japan
the other writers on Japanese life
Why are the people of Japan this
thing instead of that? Where did they
get their national character, where
their racial bent Along their own line
of evolution what may the world ex
pect from them in years to come, un
less some tremendously superior in
fiuence breaks the continuity of their
logical advance? And just what might
this superior power be? These are the
inclusive lines along which Hearn's
mind works so delicately and with sc
much of SvmnathY and cnfnnrehpn