Evening star., 1925-06-09
NEW BOOKS -
AT RANDOM
TALES FROM NATURES WON
DERLAND. William #. Horna-
/. G.. NJ.

TALES FROM NATURES WON
DERLAND. William r. Horna-
day. Charles Scribner's Sons.
A clear touch of genius it would be
and a sound benefaction as well, IL in
oVerheated days such as these, some
inspired editor were to pack the
front page of his paper in ice, SO to
speak. Then, instead of the inferno
of superheated activity that now
steps out in fierce frontal attack upon
one-murders, drownings, suicide,
motor killings, the toll of cyclones,
lightning bolts, fires and fioods-the
reader would be met by news, per-
fectly good news at that. of less hec-
tic turn, of less terrifying effect.
Every vender, save the vender OF
news, adapts his wares to the sea
sonal needs of his customers. In the
Summer he deals in cooling goods.
In the winter he sells warmth. But,
declares the newsman, the cases are
different, he is unlike any other mer-
chant. And he is right. He's wrong,
too. For while he is not God and so
cannot order the happenings that
stand as his stock in trade, he can,
without doubt, so proportion the pro-
lection of these as to emphasize sub
stantial and permanent news at the
expense of the merely horrible. He
is able to stress all ameliorating
events as he Is able to minimize the
narrowing and unsettling ones.
Everybody admits that the press is
the greatest of educators. that 1t is
the fashioner of common thought, the
molder of the general mood. Yet, as
an educator it completely ignores the
sound psychology of suggestion. In
the rivalry of news gathering, in an
indulgence of the general greed or
readers for horror tales. it forgets
the potencies of this fundamental
power of suggestion. Because of this,
some of us-cowardly maybe, maybe
wholly wise-give the press a Sum
mer vacation, turning ourselves to
more optimistic and encouraging an
outlook than these are able to sup
ply.
We are running away from the
lurid Summer reading of the news
papers to go with Mr.. Hornaday TO
an enormous EGGPLANT, 1909 efficient
all the year around. Away south
ward we sail. down past the tip of
South America, past the southern
point of Africa, past lone islands, till,
finally, we reach the cooling object of
our search. There somewhere near
the South Pole this enormous plant
is turning out iceberg and foe and
mountain top and endless plains-and
vast ice field of strange sculptured
shapes, grotto and pinnacle and
dome.
But the people of any place are
of more interest than the place itself.
The Antarctic region is no exception
Of <
Penguin family that attracts and alb
serbs us. allowing US to see imme-
diately why Anatolc France based
the subtlest of his ironic tales on
the likeness between these birds and
the human family. Absurdly like
man the Emperor penguin looks.
Standing straight and tall, he looks
like a fat man dressed in white
shirt and vest and baggy white
trousers, with a black swallow tailed
coat reaching down to the ground.
A yellow cravat and a black skull
cap complete the resemblance. A
slow and dignified fellow of truly
impressive aspect In no time ac>ail
flock of Emperor spenguins march
ed to the boat to make call. The
huge birds acted so much like peo-
pie and were so droll and comical
that the whole company turned UJt
! p
There was nothing else to do than
that the humans should treat them
with equal dignity and decorum. AT
respectful distance they halt. the
old male waddles close up and bows
gravely till his beak is almost touch
ing his breast. Keeping his head
bowed, he makes a long speech, N
a muttering manner, short sounds
! following in groups of four or five.
Having finished his speech, his head
| is kept bowed a few seconds for po-
liteness' sake, then it is raised. and
he describes with his bill rs large
circle as the joints of his neck
will allow, looking in your face to
| see if you have understood. 1t you
have not comprehended, as usually
Is the case, he tries again
Weeks could be spent here with
these birds alone, not only in an
amazed interest over their really
human behavior, but in a distinctly
diminished appraisal of mans pre-
tensions as well. Indeed, these birds
simply provide another point in the
clear evidence that animals called
"lower" are doing fully as well in
their own lines as man is doing in
his. Man is merely more arrogant.
Months in this cold zone would be
| a delight because of its various forms
of life, because of the implications of
age and change that lie upon It's
surface. But Mr.. Hornaday has many
tales to tell in this wonder book of
nature. Tales of sea depths in their
glory, of fairy gardens over which
Neptune rules, of the great seal re-
gion, of the snow capped Canadian
Rockies. There are tales of Borneo
and India-but these sound too warm,
warm, so they stand aside for the
moment.
There is one story-and truly it
sounds like fairy tale-about the
wild elephants of North America. "It
makes one bit dizzy to think that
gigantic elephants once roamed over
the beautiful green hills and dales of
New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky
and the Middle West, and the whole
of the Far West, even to the shore
of the Pacific 1t is, in fact, the
story of the rocks that Mr.. Hornaday
here unfolds as the story of the New
World elephants. The record of science
is vastly more amazing than the most
fiorid of fiction, as one is reminded
here in the account of elephants that
long ages ago pershed in the deep bog
lands of eastern New York, for in
stance, around what is now Ulster
country, or Orange, where their skele-
tons lie today. and where some of
| them have already been discovered.
Or that other story of the La Brea
pitch lake of Los Angeles, in which
mammoths, lions, tigers and bears
were engulfed in great numbers,
Only hint of the astounding tales
that nature has to tell, a good hand
full of which this writer has gathered
for the entertainment and the aston
ishment of readers of any age pro-
Yided their minds are omen tn tho