Evening star., 1926-04-06
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
!. C.. NJ.
THE INTIMATE PAPERS OF
COLONEL HOUSE. Charles Sey-
mOllr. Enughtnn Miffiin COMPANY.

| COLONEL HOUSE. Charles Sey'
mour, Houghton Miffiin Company
The story of the sphinx is now much
too worn to offer hope Of fresh usage,
or would be were 1t not for the fact
| that the really vital point or this myth
| ic tale has suffered general and com
plete neglect. Having set her riddle
the sphinx retreated, you recall, into
| silence as deep as oblivion itself.
! Going back over the old parable In the
| hight OF the present, one wonders II
1t were not this impregnable silence,
after all, that constituted the long
and tantalizing mystery Of the sphinx
"a mystery too, perhaps, whose sole
content was the stirred tnaginings
through ages and ages Of the people
themselves who gave to it a swollen
significance, deep and portentous.
| Many tried to solve the riddle, you
remember, and upon failure were
! speedily slain. Then one day a GER
| tain Oedipus spoke out the answer.
\ straight and clear. Whereupon the
| sphinx promptly destroyed herself. 1t
/ Is in this act of self-destruction that
| the true point of the sphinx myth lies.
The long silence had been broken. I'm
| mediately the mystery dissolved, open
| ing up as nothing more than thin air
upon which, fioated away the vast i'm
plicationS of power that had nested
within it so impressively and SO fear.
somely. 1t Is conceivable that only
the deep intuitfve prescience of the
female of the species could have fore.
seen her own taking off as the single
htting climax TO the long drama
or sef-infiation. A deeply interest.
ing myth, this of the sphinx
y; !: i !:
Two big volumes cover The Init.
mate Papers of Colonel House" These
papers are. III the main. personal let.
tefs 10 which as a whole the nara
i've form has been given through
supplementary and explanatory ma.
terial supplied by Charles Seymour,
professor of history at Yale Uni
verSity.
These letters stand. beyond dispute,
as a clear vein of that inner history,
50 rarely discovered, yet so essential
for the illumination and Interpretation
or the outer and obvious layers of his
toric event. They reach suc. status
by the intimacy of their character, by
their political content, by the distinc-
ton and range of the correspondents,
oy the outstanding Importance OF the
period which they cover.
Just a word in respect to the value
| OF personal letters as evidence. True,
hese do not give the unchallengeable
testimony Of the sworn word. On the
other hand. such letters give markedly
sounder evidence than the diary
which stands in general high esteem
as the repository of truth itself. The
letter. in the person of it's recipient,
Is provided with a check upon dis
torted statement, with a balance
against unveracious declaration. The
diary lacks wholly this check, this bal.
ance. Indeed the latter is often no
more than a private stage for the
parade of secret vanities, for the un-
rolling Of fantastic dreams. Letters
from considerable people to others of
the same stability upon subjects of
weight and timeliness must be
counted as historical material, unim-
paired by the abandon of the diary. on
the one hand. and the dullness Of legal
testimony, on the other.
x \ :. !.
The House papers begin sub
stantially with Theodore Roosevelt s
election of Woodrow Wilson to the
presidency of the United States in
1912 and end with this country's i'm
pending entrance into the World~yVa
In 1916. The election of Wilson
marked the return of the Democratic
party to political leadership after a
period OF eclipse that had lasted for
about 20 years. With the opening of
the campaign of 1912 there slipped
into II an unknown man from down
IeXas way. Softly he closed the door
behind him and sat down to look
around. When he moved about there
was no noise of scraping chairs, nor
n dicttt -I,v ...l-
ture. A quiet man, so unobtrusiye
as to be quite generally overlooked.
But, little by little, the name of
House began to show a tendency to
give pause, to cock an ear toward
the sound of it. And gradually. yerv
gradually, House came to be men,
toned as 'the friend of Wilson. -
Now. everybody knows-not how This
friendship grew, but that il did grow
nnaily to such a stature as to collnt
House, in smiling parlance, as the
silent partner OF the President" And
the war came. And the peace con.
ference came. It is an old story now
the story of idealism, of q high prr.
pose, of tremendous effort, of many
great achievements, of deep disan
pointment, of tragedy, of an account.
ing that 1t will take many years to f,,I.
MI IN It's real grandeur-the story OF
woodrow Wilson, President of the
onlttd States in the period of the
World War. And always in the
story, or almost to the end of If. the
figure of Col. House was the ona
standing ever closest to the President
~ quiet, strange, undecipherabIe
man. Col. House of Texas.
x :; :: X
50 olg ana packed, with time always
proooIng' your first thought is that
you will read here and there onI,,
picking important points, skinnin.,
lighter matters. This is i,st VIII, ,
you do not do. You read every u-ord
instead. First, in an instant of sur.
PRISE then in permanent wonder
then In sheer delight over the ner'
tect aoandon Of confidence into which
Col. House, the sphinx of moderr
politics, welcomes the wide world -
Inc matters Of fact here are re,,-
livery unimportant. The story in jts
essentials, the story as II annlies 70
American politics and internat ationo,
relationships, is one that was we'll
known long before the disclosures
brought about by these intimate ma
pers. Not vital to the history of this
country whether Col. House was the
originating source of so many of the
measures that stand, as they shouid
and must stand. to the credit of pres.
ident Wilson. Not greatly important
this amazing sum of work and inf1u.
ence and effect that Col. House nro.
duced, rather than that Mr.. Wilson
accomplished 1t alone as he is thoueht
to have done. If these letters are
true-and who shall say that thew
are not true?-they destroy for good
and all the chief accusation brought
against Woodrow Wilson. Wilson.
the self-suff1cient man, repelling
counsel, arrogating to himself the
full powers Of Government, the aris.
tocrat of letters, the arbiter Of Amer.