Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-25
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
|. G.. NJ.
TO BAGDAD AND BACK 10
Mitchell Chnnple The Century 90

| CIlGpplC. 1AIC SCAlbOly w.
The mood behind this adventure
the one that takes 1T in hand, sets it
upon it's way and sees it through so
trnlmphantly-is a mood to which the
majority of US is bound to yield 81
immediate and eager partaking. For
| in the years behind us, far or near,
who has not fallen deep into the magic
of ScheheraZade, bent to the natural
and worthy job of saving her own neck
from the ferocity of Sultan Shahriar,
whose mind in respect to his women
Z. had the bad habit of shifting over
night? ScheheraZade'S way, you recall,
was to cast over the tickle lord OF her
/ own personal destiny the spell Of "A
Thousand Nights and Night" an en-
chantment still potent the source even
yet of much OF our own "once upon a
| time" happiness. Who has not seen,
plain as day, upon the far horizon OF
/ his own desires and his own imagln-
| ings the walled splendor of old Bagoad,
metropolis of youth everywhere in its
shining and impossible deeds?
| So. completely at one with the mood
of this adventurer, off we go with him
upon an actual journey to place about
which maybe we have few very nat
ural dubieties Shall we find it? Shall
we see it? However, there is no time
for doubts to breed, since every minute
of this outfaring is packed minute.
Promptly there is commanded for our
use every device invented by audaciouS
man to prove that distance is a myth,
space a mere Pigment of the fancy
wheels, sails, wings. Then we arrive
propsrly-arriVe at Bagdad by way OF
camel and donkey. No other way would
have done at all This? This, Bagdad?
Oh, no! But it is! Illimitable gray
| nf CT
fallen ruin roundabout it. Mean Streets
squalid huts. Oh disappointment!
But just at this very instant Adven-
ture, in the seeming of Joe Mitchell
Chapple, touches us upon the shoulder
takes us by the arm. Now as we move
about in the sordid and dirty streets of
Bagdad, stopping at this point, stand
ing close by that one. the slow dawning
of the old day comes creeping out of
the eastern sky. The old enchantment
, comes stealing back, reinforced by this
divine gift Of imagination-and Joe
Chapple--We begin to rebuild the an
Gent splendor that has delighted the
world for so many centuries. It Is here,
right here, that ScheheraZade circum-
vented Shahriar by the simple art of
amusing hin1-a long lesson, active to-
| day. Here that Haroun sailed out to
his wild nights. Here that the student,
Omar Khayyam, sang the immortal
"Rubaiyat." And here many another
of our "once upon time" friends had
their little heyday Of life, or seeming
Sindbad the Sailor, Ali Baba and the
Forty Thieves are among these. Here
are the Talking Bird and the Singing
Tree. All come back again. All are
| Springing alive around us out of this
rubble and grayness. out of this old
Bagdad Then upon this clear wizardry
of re-embod!ment Mr.. Joe Chapple.
First Adventurer, builds into the pres
ent Moving swiftly up into it, he
dence that thf four quarters of the
earth are bearing swiftly in upon the
land of Haroun, that they are meeting
here to revive an old land, to recover
a lost heritage, to bring the miracle of
science and modern industry and gov
eminent to a region that plainly stands !
waiting for the sunrise of new mode
of life. The particular adventure of
Bagdad itself sets the method of Mr..
Chapple's work throughout this So
! journ in the East First there comes
the appeal to the early impressions that
have been gathered from fairy tale and
Bible lore, from history and geography.
| from the whole what-not Of early school
| ing and earlier home life. Upon this
| common possession there Is erected a
comprehensive sweep of fact and impli-
cation, covering the immediate East
Bagdad. the Holy Land. Egypt, the SUI
| dan. Each stands in its present status
and outlook, III its immediate future of
contact and participation with the rest
| OF the modern world. The whole sums
to q finely considerable survey of this
! region in its various aspects of promise
| for The nearing future Wide informa-
ton about the vital questions of this
! locality, trained art in the way of
! setting facts cut by way of words, a
robust JOY in the adventure itself hui
NOR and wit for steady company-these
! are among the elements that contribute
so markedly 20 the height and depth
Of this prime adventure. To those of
us who take 1t by way of book word
should be said for the beautiful housing
of the whole matter. ITO Bagdad and
Back" is rather sumptuous in externals,
| as, indeed, it deserves to be. The pic
lures are of the best for their purpose
here-etchings by Levon West, draw
! ings by Chauncey Peters. colored inSets
! by Saul Arkin and Konrad Meindl.
Dressed in crimson and azure and gold,
it is most delightful to the eye. That
is as it should be, for here is a finely
substantial adventure. whose good sub
stance IS only increased by the spirit
of the past in which it is born ar /
| brought up to the present.
QUIET CITIES. Joseph Hergesheimer.
| Alfred Knrpf
| Here. again. is book shaped to the
! pattern of the authors mood. That
mood was clearly induced by an earnest
/ reach and need for a little more of
I Rfnft D. Il
more of general sense of blessed tran
| quillity. But nowhere does the whirling
| present offer such gifts to even the
most deserving. The situation appears
to have created an emergency for Mr..
Hergesheimer to meet by some invention
, of his own. Well, invention appears to
be quite in his line, and here it does
not fail him. Merely matter of walk
! ing back into the past. and this is what
the author doSs. laying aside hundred
I years or so, much as one rolls back the
blankets that have passed from a COM
forting warmth into a smothering dis
tresS. Then, cleared of this burden, he
begins to move about the country from
city to city, reacquainting himself end
us with them in the days of their COM
parative youth and simpler behaviors.
In no very long time you discover that
Mr.. Hergesheimer is not on quest of
! quletude and ranquillity-not solely on
such quest. Quite as much is it youth
that he is seeking with SIM
plicity and certainty. and particularly |
with that phase of youth that requires
a forthrightness a clean-fisted facing
of life that the hopelessly complicated
present does not offer. So day, |
younger, simpler, more courageous, is
that for which this man is looking, |
quite as much as for a leisured ampli-
tude of life. The search is made by
way of certain of our cities. quiet
| cities'-New Orleans, Charleston. Pitts |
burgh, Albany. and so on. and so on. |