Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-20
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the B0OkLoUer.

| AiHEl ittt VI INC liSl FOiuIIit vi
| Charles and Mary Boards Rise of
American Civilization" There is an
agreeable amount of concrete detail
and the treatment Is often humorous.
| For example: "Of course. titled per
sons in Old England shifted as they
| caught the smell of tar and salt fish
| on the garments of the mercantile
order of the Back Bay, but sturdy
| PuritanS did not worry about the
snub." A Marbehead sailor is quoted
as saying to his pastor, Our ances-
! tors came not here for religion; their
| main end was to catch fish" The
| prevailing habit OF historians Of at
tributing strictness and asceticiem to
| the Northern colonies and q Sybarite
| manner OF life to the Southern col
! onles is not altogether in accord with
| facts, say the Boards, for rum as hot
| ana wines as rich as any that graced
| the planters table were found on the
| boards of the noblest diyines and the
strictest merchants of Boston. On
the other hand. under genial Southern
skies. were reared the families that
brought forth in America the two out
standing pietists of the nineteenth
century. Robert T.. Lee, whose lips
were never profaned by an oath
whisky or tobacco, and Stonewall
jackson, who opened every battle with
| Il prayer Traditions of ariStOcracY,
brought from England, fingered long
| in both Northern and Southern col
onies. AT Harvard and Yale author
| ity, houses, lands and chattels deter
| mined the rank of students in the
academic roll. In churches, Puritan
| and Anglican alike, congregations
| were seated according to age, social
| position and estate. One old Virginia
ga ftxV xlte.t~J
commoners of the vicinity every Sun
day by requiring them to wait out
side the church until the Auperiors
| were duly seated in the large pew
especially provided for them"
X \
The origins, both social and eco
nomlc. of colonial culture were Eng
lish, and the prevailing class struc-
ture by which the provincial culture
of America was so largely conditioned
was derived in the main from the
mother country" Mr.. and Mrs. Beard
| think that the idea of the colonies as
local democracies. founded according
to the principles of a philosophy of
their own and nourishing from the
start economic equality, is chiefly fic-
ton. In reality. the distinctions and
privileges of the landed gentry, mer-
| chants and yeomen Of England "were
reproduced in a new environment.
The economic foundation of New Eng
land was mercantile, Of the Southern
colonies agricultural, and in this the
South more resembled England at the
tlne or colonial settlement. The two
economic elements were mingled in
the middle colonies. where both land
and trade were cultivated. I'm Penn
savanna rich merchants usually car
RED Off the emoluments and the hon.
ors, political and cultural In New
YORK PATRONS and mercantile families
or Dutch origin retained their high
place In society when the English
took over their inheritance. but in
time new houses ruled by the con-
querors rose beside Dutch establish
Inents In town and country
Even the pocket boroughs Of old Eng
land had copies on the banks of the
hudson. Some of the lordly masters
Oh New YORK n1anors were represented
III the provincial Legislature by dele
gates of their own choosing. with the
assent of their tenants a matter of
FORM There were five social orders
IN the colonies. The wealthy leading
1amllles, landowners or merchants
corresponded with the English landed
gentry, the farmers with the English
yeomen, the free artisans and laborers
ana the indentured servants for agrj
culture or mental work with the same
f3ngllsh classes. but the black slaves.
the lowest class in the colonies, had
no English precedent. "It is true that
the status OF the ruling element was
not as plainly marked by legal signs
as In the mother country and that the
gates Of entry were slightly moro
agar: but its grip upon industry and
local politics was no less secure"
X X X
The Orient Express" of John Dos
Passos runs from Ostend, where the
author landed from a channel boat
70 venice, through the kingdom of the
SERBS Croats and Slovenes, through
bulgaria, across a strip Of Greece,
10 Constanttnople, to Trebizond
through the Caucasus, to Tiflis
around Mount Araraf. to Teheran'
along the Tigris and across the plain
Oh ancient Babylonia, to Bagdad,
across the desert to Damascus. and
nnally by airplane over Morocco.
across the Straits of Gibraltar to
malaga, Valencia, Barcelona, and
over the Pyrenees. The experiences
or Mr.. Dos Passos on this tour in
the East We're far from those of the
conventional conducted traveller and
are described in anything but con.
Ventlonal terms. Interesting sights
were purchased by the endurance of
many discomforts, the worst of which
were caused by dirt and it's associated
doors, If one may judge from the
frequency with which he speaks of
this subject. On the Tifiis Express,
the bedbugs took the insect powder
SfiY,
ing" AT Erivan were long, straight,
grassgrown streets full of a sickly
stencil of dung and ditchwater." On
the train from Erivan to Nakhtchevan
a woman in the next car died of
typhus. On the plain about Mount
Ararat, on the frontier of Armenia, |
there was IAN evl-smelling freight |
yard full of trains, beside a ruined |
station" and ION the wind comes a
sour smell of filth and soldiers and
garbage" Mianej is "a town famous |
for its flies, its gnats, it's mosquitoes, |
and especially it's white bedbugs |
which breed a private fever of their |
own which has made the towns name |
renowned in the annals of medicine"
From such encounters with offensive |
and menacing things tangible and in
tangible, and of course with other
things more agreeable, emerged the |
Orient Express" but it is not strange
that at times the author in some I'M |
usually trying situation found him. |
self wondering why he was there and
trying to make myself believe that
a rowing life was the life for me-"
X X X
International relations following the |
World War, from the Treaty of Yer
sailles. which failed to settle things. |
through the Locarno pact, are ana.
lyzed by Frank II. Simonds, veteran |
newspaper correspondent, in his book. |
How Europe Made Peace Without |
America" Mr.. Simonds says that |
American withdrawal was the |