Evening star., 1928-11-10
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BoOklouer

u.
tan Chapman, 1.-The Happy Mountain" ;"
is so simple that 1t could be summarized
in few sentences. The quaint lam
guage of the Tennessee mountains,
much of it having Chaucerian ances-
try. in which the book is written can
neither be summarized nor described.
The style Is the charm and distinction
of the book. The author and her char
acters are all philosophers. Everyday
life is seen philosophically. The noun
tain couple RaShe and Barsha Lowe,
parents of Waits, Dena Howard and her
sister Bess, Fayre Jones, the lover of
Bess; Preacher Virgil Howard and,
above all, Waits Lowe himself, dreamer,
wanderer and musician, all speak in
maxims, frequently lyrical, at times of
deep feeling or serious reflection. Waits
says Hits just the natural time for
loving when the dogwood'S out.
But there's the thorn tree, too. Hit
gets thin cover Of green on-and then
then, you see, Dena, there's love N
hate ali mixed up together there"
Waits tells Fayre: Il reckon you n
Bess'll get along fine being as
neither of you is Strongminded enough
to uuar'l" Old Uncle Shannon sagely
comments: "a man don't learn to loose
his tongue in lone house top Of a
mountain; but come wife and he's
bound to practice or go under" Preach
err Virgil Howard, consoling Rashe and
Barsha for the departure of Waits from
the home which they feel should satisfy
all his needs, says: Love does half
the mischief in this world n hate does
the rest, but it's plain discontentedness
that makes things happen" Describing
newcomers to Glen Hazard, Fayre says
They're a low set o. people, the Nor
gans-addled from their first egg"
Dena. distraught by Waits Indifference,
thinks as she prepares for bed: "SonS
saw sorrow is cured by sleep but
what I say is, sleep runs to meet the
next day and alls to do over again"
Leaning against rock, on a bed OF
balsam needles, eating his lunch of
bread and "side-meat, Waits reflects
on eternity: ETERNITY is wide each
way and every side. Eternity is long
vet a man must live today-and today
goes and tomorrow comes-and if eter-
rity means that that kind Of foolishneSs
goes on forever, it's the same as telling
a man he's going bereft of his senses"
A tramp met on the road tells Waits:
"Me and work quarreled and never
made it up. All roads is the same.
It's being on them-traveling-
that's the main thing. It's not In rea.
son any one town on earth can noIo all
a man Graves so I learned long years
ago to move betwixt 'em and soak UP
the world as it comes to me-.
y \: X
An Anglo-Saxon or early English die
tionary would be of some asslSt ance III
interpreting the language OF these
dwellers in the Cumberland hills. AND
you going kurling of to none knows
where" Dena complains to waits.
waits brogued along back OF MN as
he followed Uncle Shannon through tne
woods. Sheriff Joe Marks is uncertain
of his duty in connection with the fight
between Waits and Burl Bracy. For
Marks was nightly gramyed in ms
head by all the bearm concerning the
breaking of the long-pent JoWer ano
could not content himself what was 10
do" The preacher helps him to decide
bv telling him he had better not search
farther for Waits. "at least not Elm
YOU crave to get elected again" In
reminiscent mood, Rashe says 10
Waits: you're just like that time Wnen
YOU was tinsey tad and swallowed a
cartridge out of your grandslrS shern!
gun. and was scared to whip you
case'n it might go off and in manner
waste you." Waits is moved to go PACK
home by the suggestion OF his COM
nanion. Emery, that "Dena might be
mad and have taken spite and SO
gone tinkering with ary Wastrel.
Rarsha treasures Dena when she mas
heard disturbing tales about waits on
his travels: Nothing there TO get
cumfluttered over. Likely tAdC
was Just a tale. Come he gets back
he'll devyse how come it." The. prlni-
tive atmosphere of the story is con-
sistently maintained, because tne auCIloI
when speaking in her own person uses
the almost archaic mountain language,
as in a description like the following:
"It took most Of that days light, Tor
the mules were trashy beasts and
scarcely could be got to strain the wagon
of ties back into the road. BY the time
waits had won to hills crest the sun
was going down in f1re-red glory. he
could not make 1t so far as the Gap tnlS
dav. for the road was powerfully gouted
by the rains and the draught was
heavy"
At the age of 81 Maj Gen. A. w.
Greelv. Arctic hero of 1884, has written
a complete history of North and Soutn
polar explorations, prepared from ms
study of 10000 pages OF original mar
ratiye. The title of the book Is the
Polar Regions in the twentieth Cen
tury." .o.,o
expedition of 1881-1884 furnished one OF
the sensations of its time. Upon
recommendation of the Hamburg inter-
national Geographic Congress he was
placed in command of United states
expedition to establish one OF cham
of l3 circumpolar stations. The party
of IS reached farther north than any
nrevious record and discovered new lana.
Subsauuently, two relief expeditions
failed to reach them, and by the tlme
the third relief expedition, under capt.
afterwards admiraD Winfield 5. Schley.
effected their rescue, all but seven OF
them had perished by exposure aIlo
Starvation. Upon his return. Lieut..
Greelv wrote history of polar explora-
tions I'D to that time, which was
Standard work for many years until 1t
finally went out of print. 'VilhJalmur
stefansson suggested to him few
wears ago that he revise the old book
for republication. Instead, Gen. Greely
wrote an entirely new work. A set OF
nroofs with corrections in the authors
Handwriting. was added by Comdr.
Richard E. Byrd to his ships library
before sailing for the Antarctic. Comdr.
Byrd wrote Maj Gen. Greelys inter-
esting book Will be very use1ul W dh
of us. I give him my sincereSt con-
gratulations on his splendid work.
X X
One of the earliest of anthologies
was "Tottel's Miscellany" U557-8O.
A new edition has been prepared by
Prof. Hyder Edward Rollins. Richard
Tottel was a publisher of the latter part
of Queen Mary's reign, who was also
critic and collector of poetry His Mis-
cellany" was first published in 1857 and
bore the complete title Songs and
Sonnettes, written by the Right Honor
able Lorde Henry Howard, late Earle OF
together occupy about half of the first
edition and Tottel was responsible for
their first appearance in print. some
Years after the death of both. Having
toll fVA Tfnl hnt