Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-22
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM


RANEAN. Paul Wilstach. The
bobbs'Merrill Company.
Where shall we go?
why go anywhere7 Why not stay
put?
was 1t our tribal ancestors. forever
on the move after food and forage,
VINO set our feet upon these restless
Waysf Is 1t, instead, the spirit Of
man, forever under the urge of wings,
that drives us hither and yon in pur-
ssuit or fresh desires and dreams?
wherever the answer lies, the fact it.
sell stands clear that man Is the in.
corrlglply uneasy center of all crea.
tion. dependent for health and happi.
ness aiike upon recurrent changes of
place and situation. Therefore, where
10 go IL not an idle question of the
moment. Rather Is It an absolute i'm.
perative of human existence.
Now choosing, choosing anything.
is pesky business. The thing reject
ed hoids so much Of fair promise, the
tning accepted so much of plain du-
piety' That looking back, ruefully,
over lost chances of happiness is a
common preoccupation of all.
Ana nowhere are our inaptitudes
OF cnoice more manifest than in de.
termining where to go, which hand to
take when the. urge to move on pos
sesses US. The rich man sails away
or, nowadays, he is as likely to fly
aWay-across the world on the trail
OF his questing soul. The poor man
ooards his Ford and rattles off over
mn ana pain on an errand that is no
olnerent. The one Of blessed vagrant
Two feet, the whole world a glamour
and a seduction before him. And all
OF them, all of these sailing. fiying
rording, hoofing humans, by virtue of
INDIVIDUALITY and goal, gather loosely
INTO TWO great moving caravans. One
Oh tnem Is headed upon the solitude
OF the natural world the other 11pon
remote nests of civilization, old and
new.
Paul Wilstach belongs to the second
oano. Let's go along with him. Last
YEAR py way OF the book route,
went with him Along the Pyrenees,
an adventure that spread wondrous
panorama to the cyclone. too. that
iifted the spirit into the tonic zone of
hardy enterprise.
And 1t was, no doubt, from some
snowy Pyrenean height that this
traveller conceived the bold and bril-
ilant notion Of taking over the Medi.
terranean itself. On some potentIv
sponsored day he must have caught
IN the slant rays of the westering sun
a glitter of silver, topping a far bulk
OF stability seated in the swinging
cerulean ebb and flow of the great
sea. Instantly, upon a celestial ar.
COSY of sound there must have sailed
into his mind Islands of the Medi.
terranean." And for little space he
chants this phrase, since it was SO
clearly made for chanting. And for
another brief snatch of time he goes
on into something much like poetry
user, singing the SURPRISING charm
VI isiands over the clumsier masses of
continental exploration.
But, at the bottom. a practics, man
ana a devoted student, this one spends
his holiday" in delivering over to ms
these islands Of the Mediterra mean
Not all Of them, certainly not for
they count by hundreds. So, he picks
out the biggest. the most momentous
OF these. Ten of them-Spanish
Majorca. French Corsica, italian
Sicily. Sardinia, Elba and Rhodes
British Malta and Cyprus. Greek
Corfu and Crete. A big handful of
shining jewels lifted from the bosom
or the great historic sea. Admirable
choice! For these particular islands
prove to have been the chief ports of
cali Tor a tide of civilization flowing
from the Orient out into the Occident.
ana for a return tide as well bearing
w estern traders, crusaders, fighters
ana adventurers away into the East
ana these countercurrents left upon
the islands from age to age q mot.
ley of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. loiterers
stranded folks of every sort, a usual
feature of all great migrations. Here
the people lived land built and dice.
ana upon the ruins that they left
others built and lived and died-as
clvlllzations, SO far, have had a way
Of doing. '
Moving from one to another Of
these islands, Mr.. Wilstach hands
them over to us in pictures that are
immediate and vivid. There is likely
TO come first among these pictures
the look OF the land itself, the face
OF the particular island under con.
Then there are the peo-
PIE, so plainly diverse in origin, so
e, In appearance. going about
lne!r daily business, or lettering over
nothing to do at all. We are shown
the houses they build, the shops they
set up, the wares they offer, the food
tney eat. The many rites of yarv
Ing religious beliefs come to the sur.
race and the ritual of ineradicable
ancient customs. A brilliant picture
to whose general effect Europe. Asia
and Africa contribute impartially in
Saracen and Tartar, in Christian and
Jew and Mussulman. in Greek and
Roman. Over yonder is a. curious
renc-maybe a Gothic ruin in the
MIDST OF Moorish surroundings. ANY
such outcropping sends this traveller
underground, so to speak, like some
!erreting wild thing in pursuit Of its
legitimate prey. And in no very long
Time out he comes with strange tales
Of another day, and still another one.
when life upon this island was of
inherent purpose and fiber and quail
ity from that fourishing under the
eye at present. If you want history,
here 1t is. Not. either. in tiresome
and labored offerings, but in sue
cessively vital eras of civilization
growing. eliminating, falling away.
places project. Each island is a |
tabloid Of widely separated eras, of
unrelated races, Of fierce counter
religions. of deadly warfare, of slow
growing peace and it's products in
civilization, of overthrow and burial. |
then of rebuilding, over and over
again. upon the ruins of the old. In
sense each island presents itself |
IS an epitome of all history-rise.
climax and fall-here seized upon
and sensed by the reader through
is clearly concentrate character, and
through Mr.. Wilstach's objective and |
aighly dramatic projection.
A traveller, even the reading trav-
eler, loves the feel Of freedom. He |
wants to move about a bit on his |
own. instead Of being led too care. |
fully along the path of events. The |
very subject of this book, to be sure,
lavors such liberty Of choice. But |
It's treatment, also, helps distinctly |
n the direction of personal ATTITUDES. |