Evening star., 1925-02-22
Reviews of New Books

OLD BOSTON DAYS AND WAYS. BY
Mary Caroline Crawford, author of
Romantic Days in Old Boston"
etc. Illustrated. Boston: Little,
Brown & Co.
A DELIGHTFUL book as even
~ the table of contents sug-
@ gests. And within the first
Il n chapter the suggestion turns
into secure conviction. Among
these titles are such beguiling ones as
When Earl Percy Lived Opposite the
Common" When Faneuil Hall Was a
Playhouse "A Painter of Fair Wom-
en- The Man of the Town Meeting"
An Eighteenth Century Aeronaut"
and dozen more of equal invitation
and lure. Just to let you see that
these titles make good, that they are
not empty flourishes of surface ap-
peal, here is the opening sentence OF
old Boston Days and Ways: AN
interesting essay might be written on
the scapegoats Of history, and in such
a work a prominent place should be
given to Thomas Hutchinson, lieuten-
ant governor of Massachusetts, in 1850
and throughout the most trying pc
riod-from the point of view of
Kings man-in the whole history of
the colonies" And from this the au-
thor goes on to describe the acts of
Hutchinson, Sworn servant of the
crown not a bad man." but an hon
est man doing his duty as he saw it.
And from this animated and commu-
niCable beginning the author moves
in equal spirit and effect through
these pages, that picture the all
around life of Boston from the be-
ginning of the Revolution to the time
when Boston town became the city of
Boston. People step out here in a
lifelikeness that the average history
denies them. Places take on fresh
meanings in their new light upon this
or that early day in our reach for in
dependence. The social life of the
time is as vivid and distinct as are
the doings of the present day in the
collective life. The place of art and
music in the colonial city is set clear
ly out here. Indeed, the whole is
spirited and admirably organized bit
of intimate sightseeing through day
and in a place that but for such
work as this would gradually dim
out of mind completely under the
many superimpositions of the sue
ceeding years. An eminently worth
while survey of that which Ameri-
cans do not wish to forget and can
not afford to lose.
PORTRAITS; Real and Imaginary.
BY Ernest Boyd. New York:
George H. Doran Co.
"Appreciations of divers singulari-
ties and characteristics of certain
phases of life and letters among
North Americans" is, in part, the
designation given by Ernest Boyd
to these Portraits" Despite the
aboriginal tang of this title, Mr.. Boyd
does in actuality concern himself
with cotemporary writers and with
current aspects of literature. These
belong chiefly to the United States,
though not entirely. In a voice of
goodnatured foofery the writer first
gathers up literature in certain
groups under such comprehensive
namings as "A Literary Enthusiast"
"A Mid-Western Portrait" "A Liter
airy Lady" and others, all a part of
his Imaginary demonstrations" A
good-natured amusement appears to
be the mood in which Mr.. Boyd pro-
jects himself here, with no apparent
desire to be either caustically clever
on the one hand or heavily instructive
on the other. Pleasant reading, with
no very great stir to the mind under
its direction. There are interesting
real portraits here-Dreiser, Cabell,
Sinclair Lewis, Hergesheimer, Menc-
ken and some more-more pointed as
mary" stuff, more definite AID con-
crete, more appealing to the author
himself and therefore more impress
sive to the writer. Here is a word. or
two drawn from hiSspeEtrait of Memo
ken, a person who unfailingly draws
attention-"a bulky Rabelaisian fig
ure, full of laughter and kindly
malice, enormously energetic and
ceaselessly in pursuit of intellectual
sport. | could see nothing of
the NietzSchean monster who is the
II. l. Mencken of popular legend"
And here is Mencken himself talking
to Mr.. Boyd: My aim is to combat
by ridicule and invective American
piety and stupidity and tin-pot moral
ity; progressives, professional moral
NlStS, patriots, MethodiStS, osteopaths,"
and so on and so on. II have advo-
Gated a single taX"-Mencken still
talking-"of dollar a day on bache-
2ors, on the ground that it is worth
Fhat to be free"-not so bad and
clearly better than much that he says
In addition. An interesting and pleas
ant book of fair reading for some un-
exacting hour.
TALES OF A WESTERN MOUNTAIN
EER. BY c. E. Rusk. Illustrated.
Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co.
The most of us are plain routinists,
docile at least under the day -by-day
round of making a living. There are,
however, some rebels among us, those
who yearn for adventure-faring the
sea- exploring the caverned UNDER
world, hunting big game in remote
regions, climbing to the SUBMITS of
great mountains, from which to look
out upon the wonders of the world
and the glory thereof. This is the
story of a mountain climber. No, he
did not climb the Alps, but the home
mountains of Washington and Oregon
instead, peaks so near at hand that
we of like desire may find the strenu-
Gus pursuit well within reach. Read
ing here, you will easily come to the
opinion that these mountains and this
man offer every possible experience in
this particular kind of adventure and
recreation. Mount AdamsAis the prime