Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-26
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
JOAN OF ARC. Albert Bigelow
Paine. The Macmillan Co.
/. C.. NJ.


JOAN OF ARC. Albert Bigelow
Paine. The Macmillan Co.
Despite the challenge Of it's gallant
bearing Of high emprlse, 1t is lonely
figure-that Of the mounted armored
youth with sword uplift that tops the
Interest Of a fashionable quarter of
the Capital Yet, only a streetwidth
| distant great houses line themselves
In imposing array. To and from
| these mon and women, deep In the
| pleasure or business of the hour,
| come and go with never glance
toward the equally unmindful figure
| across the way. And along the inter-
| vening thorOughfare unheeding travel
speeds, feverishly engrossed in its
little hold upon the fieeting hour. An
| instant of pause, maybe, Is granted
by the hurried sightseer, fumbling un.
certainly for facts Of time and place
and circumstance. vaguely evoked by
this buoyant presence.
Not strange such mutual uncon-
Germ. On the one hand, this soldier
maid on the other, men and women
Of the crowded present. For. between
the two, half a thousand forgotten
J years lie. When this Joan of Arc
| lifted her sword "for God and France"
more than 80 years were yet to run
before Columbus, looking for some
thing else. came by accident upon a
new world. Then ignorance and
| superstition were the rule, the
printing press not yet realized as an
| eventual highroad to common knowl-
| edge. Unforeseen, at that time the
great schlsm that produced the
| Protestant religion. Then science ap.
piled to the daily uses of life had not
| entered even into the dreams Of man.
Then France itself was but a battle
| ground both for rival kings at home
and for the marauding kings Of Eng
land as well. Such mutual indiffer-
| ence Is, therefore, but to be expected
since the narrow roadway between
| the two is in fact a chasm 500 years
deep into which time has cast thou
sands OF effacing and diverting
| events.
THE most interesting human being
the world has ever known" Such is
the deliberate judgment OF Albert
| Blgslow Paine at the end Of q long
and searching acquaintance with Joan
OF Arc In her personal life, in her
service to France and in her martyr
dom at the hands of this same France
II was 80 years ago that this au-
his pursuit Of the life Of the Maid of
Domremy. Twain, you recall, in order
| 10 serve the purpose of his Personal
Recollections' OF Joan took upon him
SELF the personality of Louis de Contes.
an old man who spent his days in tell
ing over and over again of the time
| when he was page to the great girl
leader Of the kings armies. AS with
old folks everywhere, the past was
1 q 10 Il ,ts,. "A,
| every possible angle of approach, from
every conceivable change Of day and
circumstance. Twain here makes the
| old man retrace the glorious DAYS
when he was with Joan at Coudray,
at Orleans and at Reims. You know
| with what drama and effect of reality
Mark Twain recreated the youth of
Louis de Comics by way of the happy
reminiscent pictures of his service to
France through his devotion to the
| savior of France. You know with
what startling vividness he re-em-
bodied Joan herself by way of this
intimate personal storytelling.
*
1t was from Mark Twain's Per
sonal Recollections" that for me the
Maid Of France emerged from the
land of myth and fable to become a
treality"-Mr. Paine talking. Read
ing and re-reading that vivid story,
was prompted, first, to follow in per-
son the footsteps of the Maid, then
to seek out and set down the verita-
bic historic sequence upon which that
luminous and tender romance had
been constructed" And the author
goes on to tell us that the time
came when he was able to realize
this desire-to visit every place
where she Is known to have set
her foot" Domremy, Chinon, the
way of the coronation journey. the
prisons at Beaulieu and Beaurevoir,
the trail that leads TO her last grim
prison at Rouen-these but handful
Of the many points 1T which this
pitiful young life touched. Not a
task, the writer says. Rather a pill
grimage, the reader makes out of 1t.
along which Mr.. Paine fingers here
and there to let soil and landscape
and story sink into his heart, where
deep sympathy serves to touch his
imagination with the very presence
of the young and untaught girl max
ing her way through the confusion
and enmity and superstition that then
was France. This pilgrimage over
the author took upon himself another
one, that of following Joan's story
through a maze of records letters.
official documents, every sort of chron.
icle Of the day. "My chief endeavor
has been to step as nearly as pos.
sible on the Maids precise historic
tracks, co-ordinating the testimony"
without slight or distortion. also /
have thought it worth while to sup
plement the episodes with some de.
scription of such localities and land
marks as may be still identified: places
that Joan saw, objects that she may
have touched" How richly worth
while" this has been every reader
will feel to the bottom of his heart,
will acknowledge in deep gratitude.
X y *
Perhaps it is the method that gives
to this history its GROWING touch. 1t
is this method, without doubt, that i'm.
parts to the whole the sense Of imme-
date reality and contact, that gives
to one reading the effect of an actual
partaking in the sequence of events
leading from Domremy to Rouen. By
means of this method the witnesses
} themselves, in SO far as 1t is possible,
lappear and speak. Joan tells her
own story. Those who know her best
tell Of her life and acts in their own
words and phrases. Her accusers,
also, come forward, on their lips such
words as 'sorceress," hereto" "blas-
phemer." Scenes shift in an amazing
realism. People come and go in their
own persons. Events unroll as wildly
as do those of the actual present. This
is no reading. This is experience
experience in events of an almost un-
bearable pity through which a young
girl walks alone and undefended. And
so she will continue to walk an ever
lasting testimony, on the one hand to
courage and truth and piety and love
of courtesy, on the other hand an ever.
lasting testimony to the ignorance OF