Evening star., 1926-09-07
NEW EOOkS
AT RANDOM

Floyd Dell George II. Dora
Company.
cities contract disease much as in
dividuals do. An enterprising group
of hostile hacilli taken into the sys-
tenn may meet there. on the one hand,
ina dequate resistance: on the other,
active cooperation. In either case
unhealth ensues in the municipal
body as. in like conditions, it does in
the human body. And just now
many of the older cities are In the
grip of a peculiarly insidious and
ruthless malady. Gaining foothold
in the name of healthy growth and
progress, it works destruction of
many priceless things that cannot be
replaced. Under it's ravages old
quarters. rich in association, give
way to blatant unbeautiful pros
perity of towering shops and offices.
of 1amboyant hotels and blinking
theaters. Narrow picturesque streets,
echcing with strangely beguillng
footsteps out of an interesting past.
must he made straight and broad.
Indeed. street widening" marks a
specially virulent stage of this cpl
demic among cities. For at this point
thousands of trees give way TO a
ca llous brutality of destruction. into
many of these have gone the sun ana
rain and soil juice of mans life
time. And these are pure beauty,
our most precious possession. whose
complete violation is deadly sin.
Nothing else in a city can take the
place of tree-lined streets. But these
are giving way to bare sun-baked
stretches Of stabling for millions OF
Henry Fords. The city fathers are
blind to such despoiation. The com
mon folks are blind and deaf, too.
save for one here and there who
promptly willis under the scOrching
taunt, "Sentimentalist:'
The city of Washington Is in the
midst of seizure Of street widen
ing" Great trees are being up
rooted. Historic houses are being
torn down. A SURPRISINGLY beautiful
countryside is being leve ed to meet
the speculs tive madness of progress.
And other cities are afflicted likewise.
Right now New York is taking a
hand at the famous Greenwich Viii
lage, which is to have it's crooked
ways made straight for the passage
of its multitudinous betters. The
great ma 1ority looks on complacent,
maybe bit pharisaical. But here,
too, the lone "sentimentalist' rises
up, this one not so much in protest
as in recollection and reminiscence.
Floyd Dell was not, strictly speak
ing. one of the earliest of the vii
layers, but nevertheless he was
sufficiently at home there to feel stir
red now over the doom about to fall
20 Live
in Greenwich Village" stands. there
fore, in the nature of an elegy of
not specially "mournful numbers
upon the passing Of Greenwich Vii
lage-an elegy that is likely TO be-
come a substantial part Of any me-
mortal which may in the future he
set up to this shrine of youth and
work and freedom. In this book the
author becomes, turn and turn about,
archaeologist, historian, poet, ro-
mancer, interpreter. The story
covers the Rise and Fall Of Green
wich Village. And in between these
great points are pages of happy ana
Illuminating adventure embodying
the general life of the place that has
caused so much Of comment and
speculation. Dell. the archaeologist,
shovel in hand digs up the various
civilizations supporting this latest
one. There, at the foundation or
them all, the Indian village of Sap
pocanican. Upon this squatted a
Dutch settlement. Bossen BouWerle'
and above it the village Green Wien.
II am no hand at archaeology; but
have heard tell that 200 years ago
the town of New York was huddled
down in the sOuthernmost tip OF
r.. In, Nlyh0 G
the financial district, Green Wich be-
ing two miles out Of town, an aris-
tocratic place up the Hudson Like
those ancient cities which Schliemann
dug up in the Troad, each city rest
ing upon the dust of its forgotten
predecessors. so Greenwich Village
presents the spectacle of successive
LAYERS of ruin. Count them over
that happy Indian village, the busy
Dutch settlement, the quiet Englsh
hamlet, the fashionable American
suburb. and the proud Washington
Square period-while the Greenwich
Village Of my immediate predecessors
NAV be called the Sixth Village. And
upon it's ruins was built the Seventh
Village, which 1 saw come blazing
into existence" 1t is upon this
Seventh Village. built by a woman,
"Egeria,' the place Of his own abode.
that the author writes in a group of
adventures set down in prose. usually,
but breaking into song when the
prose proves inadequate. These ad-
ventures are, in essence. sometimes
the Illuminating fairy tale. sometimes
the eerie fantasy, sometimes a DIT
Of broad comedy. now this. now that.
but at all times they project the
l,,lk 30 i
Ia poor as Jobs turkey. But nobody
lis afraid If that Everybody has A
dream In his heart and this is ell that
counts. Many of these dreams could
never come true, at least not till
every natural law had been reversed.
But no matter. They made fine and
heady stuff to live on. and to starve
on. Nobody had enough to eat, but
everybody shared what he had with
those who had less. Friendship was
an open-handed, open-hearted affair.
sure to be misunderstood and mlsln-
terpreted by the timid folk outside.
But the Village didn't care. They
never did begin to care about any
thing but freedom and work till
make. believe Villagers began to
crowd into the place. muddying the
clear stream Of honest intent, of free
friendships. of as much innocence. at
least, as the conventions outside the
Village possessed. II was when. the
ha rbarians came In that the Village
fell And that. you see. is the his
tory of all iviliZations-growth In
power and beauty and in the true
wisdom of life. then a weakening
from within or encroa chments from
without-and the round is completed.
"The Village-our Village-was dead
and gone. Here were young people,
as young as we once had been. as
gay and eager. They were the new
Greenwich Villagers. They did not
mind the changes. because they had
never seen our Village. Under the
aegis Of our legendary gayety, they
were enjoying themselves. in their
fashion. Perhaps they were more