Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-15
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. G.. NJ.
DENATURED AFRICA. Daniel NJ.

DA&ANh CASIL AT MIA. IptifiIel W.
Streeter. G. +. Putnam'S Sons.
There they were for any ones choos-
ing q chance at adventure--three
distinct groups all, for the moment,
engaged in the common business of
trying by look and bearing to live up
to the clear ferocity of the enterprise
before them. Up to the neck In
gear--rOlls, bags, boxes, bundles
+ they stood. Every man among them
was strung from both shoulders and
/ belted in at the middle with deadly
, weapons. Each, at the slightest
movement, gave out the noisy metallic
clatter of a hardware shop suddenly
vitalized and seized with frenzy, or of
a kitchen range upon whose iron
floor all the pots and pans had stimuli
taneously come under the spell of
ST. Vitus himself.
Who are these fierce and desperate
men? These are big game hunters.
One group is bent upon the Hima-
layas, one upon the deep heart of
Borneo, one upon far African spaces.
In another way of speaking. these are
men each of whom has heard and has
needed the long call of some ataviStlc
sire bidding him back into the good
old savagery of his beginnings. These
have dared--aS the rest Of us do not
dare-to slip back into that dim past
where man and beast frankly matched
wits, back into a time when even
then these half-human forebears told
of day to come in which tooth and
tusk and claw would be hOpelessly
outdone by themselves. the most
ingenious and inventive beast OF
them all.
No, they are not talking like this
as they stand here. Certainly not.
Instead, they speak of service 70
science, of increasing the world
store of common knowledge, of bring
ing back live specimens, or dead
carcasses, or bony skeletons, for the
purpose of recreating in our midst
instructive bits of exotic wild lie.
Education is the shibboleth and the
sanction of outfarings of this sort.
x X X
And we are going along. Nicarl-
ously. to be sure. But we are USED
to that, since the most of our darlngS
are by way of some one else, since
our heroisms materialize. as a RUE,
through the high deeds of others. And
there is much. very much, to be Sald
in favor of vicarious adventure-ln
favor of letting George do 1t, so
to speak--but not here, not now. Inc
business of this moment is to make
choice among these three chances.
As for me, I chose Daniel Streeter
and Africa. There was in the mans
eye a CLINT of leniency behind the gen
eral austerity of his hunters look.
This plea sed me- And in the rattle of
his personal armory there was
touch of the debonair and kindly that
BODIED no great peril to the wild life
of his ostensible pursuit. That de-
lighted me. About the whole man. in
fact, there was pervasive suggestion
of promised enjoyment that ensnared
me from the beginning. And SO. by
book last week. / went to Africa with
Mr.. Streeter TO hunt big game. It
was fine choice. it's rewards con-
slant and full. Here for company
was first man flexible enough to
change both his mind and his course
upon good occasion for so doing.
And he did in a measure change his
mind right in the face of that which
sent him across the world. Out in
Africa he saw lot of strange beings
native folks and animals. Upon look
ing them over. both the brute and the
human. he found them doing that
as quite legitimate matters. Food and
shelter made up the prime preoccupa-
ton of both classes. That and strictly
mlnding their own business, all of
them. Not so bad, this. He began to
feel a little like an obtrusive inter-
loper, which clearly he was. And this
outlook from the new point of view
seemed to work decided change in
the mind of the man himself. Not
that Dan Streeter turned tail and ran
away from the hunt. That would be
an unfair and an untrue statement.
But he came to display a real talent
for missing his quarry, for shooting
wild, even when n rhino reared it's
huge bulk before him like a gray and
unstable hill. And when he missed
shot he grew so plaintively funny
over the mishap. he grew so humble
ana self-accusing. that one simply had
to love him for his carefully executed
ineptitudes. When a killing did come
ABOUT, as many did, Streeter made a
pretty shocking business of it's sum
and substance. Instead of doing an
Indian war dance around his chance
victim; instead of chanting, II" said
the sparrow. with my bow and ar
row. / killed Cock Robin; instead of
radloing his triumph back home. Mr..
Streeter did another way. He set to
drama right then and there an
actually of the economic life of wild
Africa. Waiting, tense. around the
huge carcass stood the natives of the
locality. AT signal they fell upon
II. heWlng. cutting, tearing away the
flesh. When they had done their best.
hocks of real vultures came to sit at
second table upon the dead animal
After them millions of ants. lice and
other minute forms of life covered
the bones in a thick blanket. leaving
them as clean as a hounds tooth
finally. Upon this center, the essen
tai need for food, the author creates
about dead beast a truly remark |
able picture of these tribes Within |
1t gather customs. superstitious cere-
monies in the taking and use of this |
food their modes of dress and forms |
OF shelter, with such social usages
as they possess. Not at ALL YOU see.
like the carefully staged pageantry of |
the usual big game hunting. Instead |
mere Is summary of the life of such |
tribes as came under this writer's OBJ |
SerVationS with a true and poignant |
picture of the lonely settler, miles |
from other white men, engaged in |
more or less successful efforts to i'm |
press the desert to the uses of COM
merce and progress. And over all |
Mr.. Streeter spreads the sumptuous |
skies at dawn and nightfall and I'M
folds the grim splendors of the land.
itself. And all this, whether 1t be
the skies or the landscape, the whites |
or the natives or the wild creatures,
Is all projected in a gusto which cap
lures the reader and In vein of |
humor that is quite irresistible. The |
whole is adventure from start to fin
ish, adventure that is keenly alive.
and to which the adventurer himself
is receptive in every power of his
mind and body. A most enjoyable
and stirring experience is .'Denatured