Evening star., 1928-10-14
IDA GILBERT MYERS

GOlJO. EOlUcQ Dy ManuSl
New York: Boni & 1iveright.
u"HE Black and Gold Library"
- Boni & Liveright, is meet
ing, more than half way
4 the growing class of readers
who are reaching backward
into far past for the men who lived
and worked and wrote in those distant
Gays. More and more is the conviction
growing that life is of one piece. that
every age is needed to interpret the
present one, that this growing and con-
tinuing adventure must be instructed
by its beginnings And SO, whether 1t
be history OF letters or other whatnot
OF human achievement. there is today
an impulse. movement that includes
the past with the present. identifying
the two as parts OF single thing.
In such mood. or thought. aS this,
records of old centuries are taking
on new values. The book in hand Is
case in point Here we find. rather
oddly to the common notion, that our
friend Marco Polo actually had CO.
temporaries who did their bit, as well
as he, in going about the world. in
setting down what they saw and heard
and felt. And, reading, Marco Polo
himself takes on an added actuality
from the reports Of these his CO.
temperaries. In this book William Ru-
brIck H245-l247 offers the story OF
his travels to the Eastern Parts OF
the World" The Journey of John OF
Plan de Carpini, made over 500 years
ago, is given and the journal of Friar
OGoric, along with the Oriental travels
OF Rabbi Benz jamin OF Tldela-an OF
these records of centuries ago. An in
PRODUCTION by the editor. Manuel Kom-
roff gives definite place to this new
work in its relation to the works OF
Marco Polo himself, whom the reader
Is constrained to use as something OF
a guide post from the fairly familiar
to the utterly strange. More than this,
Mr.. Komroff in most readable man.
ner. tells of the purposes OF these
men in their far iourneyings, why they
set out at all, what they found east
we're their rulers in addition to the
great Kublai Khan. who is the sub
ject of Poio's interest and attention,
something OF the sort of man that
each ef these adventures was--"Rabbi
Benjamin was Jew from Spain. His
descriptions are quite accurate and his
love of the marvellous lends romance
and color to his record''-and so on
in passing designation of all OF them.
It Is the introduction which. In a f1t-
ting combination of matter and mood,
defines the atmosphere Of the sue
ceeding stories and puts the reader
in touch with the spirit Of the whole
spirit not out OF harmony with that
OF today. All of this work is. to the
commonalty. inaccessible. or would be
we're it not for the enterprise that has
projected The Black and Gold lii
Hro M MA b AV~o ~ n
also Plat st. Augustine. Lucius
Apaleius, Francois Villon and others
of this more and less remote past.
HOW WE GOT OUR LIBERTIES. BY
Lucius B. Swift. Indianapolis: The
Bobbs Merrill Company.
OUR learning is patchwork affair
~ little Of this, slice of that, a
portion of the other. 1t is called seeing
life in cross-sections as it actually does
exist and carry on. Confusing. though.
The other day a man told me he had
learned more history from H. G. Wells
than from all the other historians put
together Here for the first time he
saw the movement as whole, gathering
from this full view an understanding
that ne had not otherwise Sensed. True
Wells might have made some errors,
as the critical saVants aver. but In the
sum of effect, even in the sum OF fact,
these are not important. How We Got
Our Liberties" offers exactly the oppor-
tunity, along a single line, that Wells
granted by way of his inclusive process
sion OF historic event. Where did we,
Americans, get the liberties that have
made of this country what 1t Is? Where
did the impulse start that gave us in
dividual freedom of opinion and action?
The answer to the question. the telling
OF the great story, goes back and back
and back to the ancient Anglo Saxon
''tun-moot." the straight progenitor Of
our own town meeting or our American
tun-moot, the seed OF our representa-
tive government From this point the
author moves along to the various
high peaks of such advance toward
freedom, telling again the story OF
Magma Charta and its effects in the
Petition OF Right" and the Bill OF
Rights" as these liberating triumphs
reacted upon the British Parliament
and subsequently operated toward our
own Declaration OF independence and
the framing of the American Constitu-
ton The place of the Supreme Court
in this scheme OF protected liberties
Is defined and set in its relation to
free speech, free thought and religious
liberty. Now, this is the story OF an
amazing growth in the life of peo-
pie, story that would stir every boy
and girl. could they hear 1t. AS mat
ter of fact, they never do hear 1t. save
in piecemeal portions that never do
get together to make real feast OF
stirring truth. Why not? The logic OF
this course is clear. its usefulness
patent. Why not. then? Education Is
on the move, on A slow and cautious
move. Maybe in a hundred years this
way will come. ..5,
THOUGH THIS BE MADNESS. BY
Robert Keable. author Of Simon,
Called Peter" etc. New York: G. P.
Putnam'S sons.
OBERT KEABLE was a rebel. All
IN OF his novels give proof of II. His