Evening star., 1926-01-23
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookIouer.

the European countries and in North
Africa-travel for culture and pleas
ure but also travel with a dash OF ad-
venture-are described in "Red Letter
Days in Europe, With a Glimpse of
Northern Africa" by Viktor Flam-
beau. The author, who, by the way, is
a Washington writer and lecturer,
using Il nom de plume, is especially in
tcrested in social conditions and the
arts in postwar Europe, and had many
opportunities Of meeting and talking
with people in the various countries
whose knowledge Is above the average
and whose opinions on special subjects
are worth listening to. She visited the
home of Johann Lang, a sculptor OF
ability and director of the passion play
at Oberammergau. In Prague she was
the guest OF the minister of foreign ar
fairs. In. Stepanek; IA city councillor,
DIR. Naly, was her guide, and she was
the guest at the theater Of the Czech
playwright, karel Capek. She visited
Ellen Key in her Swedish home.
Strand and met there. at tea, Prince
Eugen, mot merely a delightful. demo
cratic prince" but also "one OF the
best of Swedish painters, ranking with
Anders Zorn and Carl LARSON" She
spent half a day with the foremost
Swedish sculptor. Carl Miles, at his
villa on the cliffs above the harbor OF
Stockholm. The author also visited
many places and had some adventures
not usual with the ordinary tourist.
She travelled from Vienna to Budapest
by Danube boat and from Budapest to
Bucharest by airplane. She visited
Mogosoaia, the ancestral castle Of
Prince Bibesco, recently restored by
the prince. She spent most OF a night
III the railway station at Cracow. be-
cause the hotels were all full, and had
a chance to observe the homeless who
every night crowd railway stations
and any other available place just for
Il spot TO lie on the hard floor and
sleep" At Riga she spoke before the
Latvian w. G.. T. L. on Prohibition in
Fatty Arbuckle in movie! Every
where she received bundles of litera,
ture and pictures on the art and educa-
ton of the various countries, until her
luggage grew to proportions undesir
able for a modest traveller.
x 4 4
BY no means the least interesting
chapter of an interesting book is the
last on Coming Home Steerage:
America IN the Making" Partly be
cause Of scarcity Of first-class accom-
modations from Copenhagen, the au-
thor's sailing port, and partly, we are
are sure, for the sake of experience,
Fiktor Flambeau came home in the
Steerage of the Danish boat Hellig
Olav 1t was not half as bad as most
people imagine steerage TO be. Try it
once. See your countrymen in the
making. If they don't teach you les
sons of patriotism. you Indifferent
Americans.' The food in the third class
was at least hearty. though merely
the account of it would strike terror TO
the heart-or the stOmach-of dys-
peptic: Black bread, Danish ale. raw
picked herrings with onions for break
fast, bologna, liVerWurst. cherry soup,
pork with red cabbage. But the third
class never missed a meal. Except the
poor American" The picture is not an
unpleasant one. Third class on the
Hellig Olav was not so different from
first There We're almost as many
flowers They filed the staterooms and
overflowed 10 the dining room tables.
Moving pictures We're shown every
other evening, and the ships orches-
ira played every other day. One had
the ships newspaper like the rest.
and the stewards We're quite as kind
and courteous. In third class there
seemed TO be no petty jealousies or
silly scandal, as often in the first
class. The steerage passengers were
not envious of first class. They We're
glad. they said. that they did not
have to change for dinner
y x & =
In his much reviewed, much dis
cussed book on heredity, THE Fruit
of the Family Tree" Albert Edward
Wiggam suggests number of ques-
tiuns for investigation by good citizens,
philanthropists, and especially by
woman voters, whose first mission he
conceives to be the welfare OF the
race Some of these questions follow:
Are wealth and sound social stand
ing any true indication Of genuine
social worth? Or do the meek, lowly
and unsuccessful possess the best
human qualities?
DO children drop out of school from
inborn mental weakness, uninterest-
ing studies or poor teachers?
Does charity really cure or does it
increase human misery through keep
ing alive the unfit and enabling them
to reproduce a larger horde of unfit?
Why do city people produce great
men more than twice as fast as coun-
try people? Is it because city people
have better opportunity or better
blood?
Why does child-labor legislation
cause fewer children to be born? Why
have large sections Of some countries
been almost depopulated of laborers
by child-labor legislation? Should such
legislation be discontinued or inn
proved so rs to counteract these dam
aging racial effects?
Why are more babies born during
strikes and hard times than during
peace and good times?
Why do more people go insane dur
ing peace than during war?
Can human nature be changed by
legislation?
Is crime due to bad heredity or
bad social conditions?
Do high wages increase or reduce
crime?
What are the effects Of race cross
ings? Do children of race crossings
live longer or shorter lives, make
better or worse citizens than children
of pure races?
Shall we continue to put all our
money on improving environment as
we are doing now, or part of it on i'm
proving heredity; that IS. the natural
inborn qualities Of the people?
X y X X
In a story as exquisite in style as
his others, Christopher Morley has
suggested a new riddle of the uni
verse. Thunder on the Left shows
with the utmost Subtlety and restraint
the great gulf that exists between
generations, between the child and the
adult. Neither can really understand
the other and from this hopeless i'm
passe come some of the humor, much
of the pathos and altogether too much
of the tragedy of life. Each age looks
across and wonders about the other.
Martin says to his mother: Mother,
Tell the truth; it's awfully important;
cross your heart and hope to die. Do
you have Il good time?" OF course,
from the child's point of view adults
never have a good time, and many of
the good times prepared by adults for
cEildre1l antiral1E 1nniSs q aI.lc