Evening star., 1927-04-17
BY IDA GILBERT MYERS.

! MIRRORS OF THE YEAR. Edited
| by Grant Overton. Illustrated
! New York; Frederick A. Stokes
| Co.
u v YITHIN few years first aid
/ \ n | in reading has become as
| " common. and as useful. as
| first aid In medicine. The
outline" form of litera-
/ ture is a direct response to the
urgent cry of readers for help out
| Of the morass of knowledge that has
multiplied in extent and compleXity
| far beyond the power of the aver
age to meet 1t in any degree of com
potency. Mirrors of the Year"
Grant Overton's new venture in
first aid to reading, is not in exact
definition an outline. Yet, in essence.
1t is just about that, and then a little
more. In subtitle the book is called
"a National Review of Outstanding
Figures, Trends and Events of
1861" In agreement with such
naming, the mirror" is here held up
before the politics of the year and
the journalism, before the situation
Of industry and the achievements Of
science, before music and art and
literature, just to name certain OF
the parade features. In each case
That is to say wise political OBJ
server sums the politics of the year
just as the well known man of science
reflects the progress in his own line.
Some of the work is plainly humor-
Gus, but as sound as if it were dolor-
Gus or heavy. All of it projected in
a mood of that sound sense whose
essence is in the nature of optimism.
Therefore, here is helpful reading.
The point of the venture, however,
is to present the year 1867 in a
summary of its outstanding events,
including the figures animating those
events and the tendency of their
direction. And more than this. 1t
is the purpose of this book to con-
struct the whole picture of the year.
not only so accurately, but SO art
fully, as to secure its own atmos-
phere and to provide for it so true
perspective as to render the sum-
mary essentially sound any number
of years from now. This is the first
volume of that which is expected
to be a sort of an institution, each
year providing the best possible
mirrors" for true and helpful re-
Elections of it's own outstanding
events.
PIERRE LOTT: The Romance of a
Great Writer. BY Edmund B.
D'Auvergne, author of Lola Mon
tez, an Adventures of the Forties," 4"
etc. New York: Frederick A.
Stokes Co.
THE story of Pierre Lott is more
wildly romantic than are any and
all of Pierre Lofts stories. For here
is great adventurer in whom a thou
sand themes simultaneously crowded
and jostled one another for hearing
and attention from this urgent and
versatile personality, whereas a Lott
story, under the limitations of art, |
could entertain but a sinble theme, |
strictly confined within it's own nature |
and the consistencies Of its own de- |
velopment. To see the world was the |
supreme passion of this French boy. |
So, joining the navy, he sailed away |
across the world, touching many |
ports, lingering in some of these, and |
then away again. Reading here, one !
finds him in the South Seas, on the |
coast Of Africa, in the waters of lee |
land, touching at China and Japan, |
at Constantinople and elsewhere. |
Again, reading here, it appears that |
Lofts first shore leave at any point |
was engaged in finding some fair lady |
upon whom for time he expended |
such forces of alteration and passion |
as to forecast absolute and prompt |
depletion according to those of cool !
minds and slow blood. A fallacious |
forecast, for the long story through |
1t is just one woman after another,
pursued in an unabated ardor by Pierre |
Lott. Some Of these women have |
taken positions In the best of his tales. |
All of them appear to have contributed |
something to the art as well as TO |
the life of Lott. 1t is conceivable |
that convention will be sorry to have |
read this life story. But convention |
is not much of an artist. So the real |
question will be as to whether Lott, |
the creative genius, could have been |
that under the rigid self-suppression !
of which he was wholly incapable. /
Everybody will answer the question
according to his own personal point |
of view-as all questions are an
swered. In the meantime those who
are keen for sources of inspiration
will read this story, so vivid in con-
tent, so sympathetic and competent
in projection, with deep pleasure and
an added insight upon the workings
of genius.
A DOCTORS MEMORIES. BY Vic
tor c. Vaughn. Illustrated. Indian
apolis: The Bobbs- Merrill Co.
THERE is distinct advantage in
reading certain books backward.
This is true of records where logic
plays a minor part to the facts them
selves. Particularly does the method
hold good in the reading of biography.
Births and beginnings are a common
place that fail to stir any degree of
1t is achievement that
counts. Therefore, commencing at
the end of the story, 1 find myself
face to face with the substantial out
come of the mans life. This is the
contact point of supreme interest be-
tween myself and the subject of the
story. How did you come to do this
and this?" / ask. The immediate
answer lies just few pages, or a few
chapters, from the end of the record,
and to these / go for my answer one
which invariably puts another ques-
ton that sends me backward a little
further for more information. All in
good time, and with a slowing down
of interest, I do finally reach the fact ,
that the man was born, that he had
parents Of certain stripe, in common
with the rest of us. Take DR.. Vaughn
here as a case in point. The prime {
question with me is how he became
on epidemics, as he is so
clearly acknowledged to be. And along
toward the end of his Memories" he
tells of the slaughter that disease
made in the Spanish-American war,
He tells me the interesting and grue-
some story of Chickamauga Camp as
a pest-hole of infection and fever.
Then in another mood he talks about
I ba growth Of the great rnadicaI school