New Britain herald., 1925-02-02
AT YOUR LIBRARY

oorFcspohueht9 You had watched the mailbox for days and sputtered over advertisements that looked like lct- ters and bills that turned out at least a fourth bigger than you thought they would be and then IT appeared. You knew the handwriting as far away as you could sec tho envelope and soon you were exclalm- Ing over the news that somebody was engaged and somebody else had a brand new auto and your cousin had gone to Florida and that they won the last big game at college. And then after you had read it through again to be sure you hadn't missed any tidbits you said, "Well. that was her"
 And then you begin to think how glad you were that there was such a thing as real personality to re- convince one that life is worth living. Then you begin to wonder how anybody ever gets on without friends, the kind one can talk to without words or even just friendly people who with unexpected flashes or humor or particularly cordial Thank you" do so warm the cock les of ones heart.
 And as you thought about nice people you had known you realize with start what quantities of them never really existed at all, people like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm or Screoge (after he had reformed) or kim And how many more had been dead years before you were born.
 Now for instance take Charles Lamb. If you've read Dream Child ren and Old China and his letters and his life by F. V. Lucas and Alice Browns latest play about him you feel that you know him for quaint twists of humor. and that steady un- dercurrent of affection for his sister, and his sticking to job he loathed, and his weakness for puns and old books and old friends and smoking. Why, he's the reallest person one ever knew! e
 And then there's Joshua Barney whom Paine has just brought to light in a most exciting tale about this boy of Revolutionary days who went away to sea as cabin boy and after extraordinary adventurings came back as master of the ship.
 Or there's the little German boy always making queer toys and spoil- ed by the Grossmutter who grew in- to young radical and was forced to flee to America where he became the electrical genius whose loveable eccentricities are common property at the General Electric Company in Schenectady. All this and more is to be found in Charles Proteus Stein- metz by J. w. Hammond.
 Though no two men could be more different in their work, there is some of the same simplicity and lovable quality in the great modern prophet of India whose personality shines so convincingly through the little book Mahatma Gandhi by Romain Rol- land.
 It may be that you prefer movie stars to either highbrow authors or mystics. Mrs. Talmadge writes most entertainingly of the youthful tribu- lations and escapades of her three famous daughters, Norma, Con- stance, and Natalie, in her book on The Tamadge Sisters.
 You can't conceal the fact that TT. R. was once your youthful idol and though later years may have 7 made you a bit more critical you can't help loving him anyway. He is particularly irresistible in his boy sh, enthusiastic letters written to his sister, Mrs. Crowles. These have been recently collected and include those written from the time he was twelve until just before his death. The book is called Letters from Theodore Roosevelt to Anna Roose- Nclt Cowles, 1S70-191S.
 Archie Butt who was personal aide to Roosevelt gives such inter- esting sidelights on his personality and the men whom he gathered about him. These Letters of Archie Butt have been published recently and have made quite a stir in off cial circles.
 Writers from other countries have a way of understanding our great men better than we do ourselves, fCharnwood has made one of the most enduring portraits of Abraham Lincoln in his biography of him and Drinkwater's play about him is a classic. Now Leon Bazalgette has Il Thoreaugh Bachelor of Nature. written in beautiful dignifed prose. revealing both the spirit of the man and the few characteristic outward 7 events of his life. Equally significant is his life of Walt Whitman.
 William LeQueux, a well known writer of detective stories has had about as choice and varied assort- ment of experiences as one man could hope to achieve in 8 lifetime. These are written up in a gossipy, anecdotal way under the Intriguing title of Things I Know About Kings, Celebrities and Crooks.
 If you like sparkling, original and altogether charming letters, don't fail to read Clyde Fitch and His Let ters edited by Virginia Gerson and Montrose Moses. William James and Thomas Huxley have something the same richness of personality which 1hows through their letters. With he latter two particularly one has a ansc of growing up with them ana eels almost personal loss atNthe end # such abundant lives.
 One has only to look over a page f Who's Who to realize how little he outward events of life mean ;amaliel Bradford realizes this and