Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-03
THIS AND THAT


arrest him, that the girl he had come in
with was a spy. Another party enters
secretly of Tyl's faction in the fight to
save Belgium from the power of the
cruel King Of Spain. He Is informed
that the seven butchers who have just
entered are On his side and that when
he desires he can start rumpuS by
saying, 1T Is van tie beven de kim
kaert!"-It is time to rattle the glasses.
In that far day and age, that was
the customary signal for angry drinkers
to shoot up the place" The spies and
the constables made merry in token Of
the oncoming arrest of Tyl They poked
fun at him, sncered at him. rubbed it
in" thinking that the seven butchers
would remain neutral at the showdown
The butchers. however. were simply
waiting for the signal At last 1t came
1T is time to make the glasses shiver,"
said Ulenspiegel. The reader Is in the
room, the close. stufTy room. surrounded
by rude. crude fellows. and women OF
III fame. The tables rock. the windows
shake, glasses and plates are destroyed,
and still that awful shout goes up
" T is van tie beven de klinkaert!'
The supernatural plays a large part
in this curious mixture OF fact and
fancy. One Of the visions into which
Tyl and his wife Nele are thrown con-
tains an allegory showing how happy
the world will be when Avarice has
changed into Economy. Anger into vi
vacfty, Gluttony into Healthy Appetite,
Envy into Emulation, Idleness into the
Dreams of poets and wise men, and
Luxury into Love.
1t is the merit of this story that the
folklore quality, the legends of sorcer-
ers and the intangible atmosphere in
general. is tied up closely with the hu-
man mind and heart, so that the total
result is story strangely like Alfred
Neumann's THE Devil" recently re-
viewed here. While the two are utterly
diSsimilar In many ways, they are one
IN an atmosphere of certainty which
somehow seems to be the prerogative of
European tellers Of tales. We have often
wondered at this, because their stories
strike the reader as much like American
stories, except in regard to this absolute
verisimilitude which floods them from
first page to last Too many of our
English stories leave the reader with a
sense Of having merely read narrative,
after ali. Tales Of European novelsts,
on the other hand, put reader in a fine
state OF mlnd-he lives with the char
acters for the duration of the story.
Perhaps the nearest one may come to
solving this riddle is to say that the for
eign writer's state a thing clearly and
let the thing 60 at that. Too many of
our writer's want to hammer the point
home, to such an extent that the effect
is killed The Bible itself is a striking
example of proper handling: the utter
power of many of its finest passages
arises through the very SIMPLICITY Of
telling. Much Is left to the reader, much
being expected of him.
1t Is not such stretch from the Book
OF Books to THE Legend of Tyl Ulen-
spiegel" as one might at first think.
since both deal with the search of hu-
manity for Truth. One may or NAV not
think that Tyl was right or mistaken,
but, however that may be. the discrimi-
hating reader will admit. we believe, that
this Is a book deserving a wider circula-
ton than it evidently has. There is
about 1t something compelling. Often
we have wondered just how many good
BOOKS there are practically no one has
read. Perhaps there are as good fish in
this great sea as have ever been caught:
we thank the fishermen who pull them
out of the raging torrent of time and
display them on counters for our pleas
ure If we have the price
We stand at the open front door of
these book houses, and knock curiously
then saunter through coming at last out
OF the back door, whence we cast look
OF regret that the interesting trim has so
soon come to an end