Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-19
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the Bookloper

Dicta,' History Is a pageant and not
philosophy This dictum would APP
ply to current history as well as to the
receding figures and events Of the past.
| William Allen White, the brilliant fight
the title of his new book" Masks in a
Pageant" which contains group OF
estimates mot biographies) of some
prominent men OF the present and the
recent past. The classification of his
subjects in the table Of contents Is of
itself enough to make a nibbler at new
books sit down Immediately for full
meal from this one. Under The Old
Kings" are placed Croker and Plat;
under THE Early Stuars," Harrison,
Grover Cleveland and Mckinley under
Bryan; under THE Great Rebellion"
Theodore Roosevelt, Taft and Woodrow
Wilson: under The Restoration" Hard
ing and Coolidge, and under The
Young Princes of Democracy" Alfred
Emanuel Smith and william Hale
Thompson.
Toward all his masks in the pageant
Mr.. White is both critical and sympa-
thetic, as becomes one who attempts to
interpret the motives and feelings of
men as we'll as their acts. Only toward
Roosevelt does he find it hard to be
critical In footnote he admits: THE
reader should be warned that Theodore
Roosevelt was my friend. and probably
I cannot be fair in estimating his weak
nesses. This article was edited and
somewhat rewritten more than nine
year after his death. Yet he seems as
] {kaI hA
Still. his own justification OF incidents
in his life-as. say. his cruise in Pan
ANA, or his quarrel with Wilson-seem
to me reasonable and on the whole
inevitable, being what he was. and on
the whole tolerable. SO what tried to
make an honest estimate is scarcely
better than eulogy" OF President
Coolidge Mr.. White writes In the past,
as If he had already stepped into the
pages of postwar history. He was
the man of the hour, the one who
alone could have functioned in the
White House in the years of his ascen-
dancy. He represented the spirit Of the
times, the aspirations OF his people.
Mr. White considers the Presidents
cryptic II do not choose TO run" state
ment as one Of the most strategic acts
of his administration. and offers an
analysis of its significance.
| n X
'The last section of Masks in a
Pageant" that on Alfred E. Smith and
! which Mr. Whites satire seems most to
enjoy itself In one sentence he places
Gov. Smith in the American political
scene, "Al Smith must rise or fall in
our national life, If ever he should enter
it, as our first urbanite." And, says
Mr.. White, the back alley from which
| AL Smith sprang was in the
seventies as clean and wholesome a
place as the backwoods from which
Andrew Jackson sprang in Revolution
airy time One gathers that Mr..
White, if prejudiced in Roosevelt's favor,
certainly has no fondness which inter-
feres with his critical faculties in the
case of the mayor OF Chicago His
comment on the third election Of Mayor
I Thompson is Cheap calleth unto cheap
/ at the noise of his water spouts!" and
Man turns away from moron leader
ship in politics only in extreme unc-
ton. In times of profound crisis. when
he longs for the day of deliverance."
The description OF Mayor Thompson s
arrival at the Chicago City Hall April
IS, 1927, after his last election. is like
a one-act play. He was due to appear
at the City Hall at 1890. but no one
expected him. He was punctiliously I'M
punctual' He really arrived between
IL and /, and down the aisle through
the lords of the realm slouched large
man. circling laZily a soft. wide-brimmed
black hat, waving his free hand, gayly
stopping to bow here, to extend casual
hand there. pausing again to give both
hands to some lady minion. He was
babbling the while in heavy. berry
voice. He hulked briskly across the
hall and disappeared into the inner
Office There. in the holy of
holies. surrounded by the bower of
flowers which had heralded his COM
ing he stood for moment, and, grin
ming at the retainers, pleased as little
Jack Horner with plum on his thumb,
said. Well. We are here oficially.'"
Then followed the reception of the
and for an hour 'he stood seesawing
away at the multitude. while his thick
voice purred slow, berry, diaphonic
monotone of greeting over and over:
| I thank you! You're so kind. I thank
you. I thank your as he disposed of
callers. supporters. office hunters,
| idlers."
| The delightful combination of pathos
and humor found in all the romanceS
of Dom Byrne is illustrated by scene
in one of the stories of Destiny Bay"
the Tale of My Aunt Jenepher's Woo
ing" Aunt Jenepher is young and
beautiful, but blind. Her lover, a Des-
East. but. stopping on the way at Monte
Carlo, has been killed in a duel. Her
brother, Valentine, and her nephew.
Kerry. thinking that life has already
dealt too hardly with her without this
additional blow, resolve to keep her in
| ignorance of her lovers death. They
compose letters, which they read to her
at stated intervals-letters which are a
wonderful compilation of information
about the Orient, copied from the Ency-.
clopaedia Britannica, and arnorous SEN
timents, copied from old family love
letters. Kerry tells about it: my
dear Jenepher' my Uncle Valentine
would read aloud. This is trusting you
are in the excellent health which en-
| JOY and for which God be thanked
And then would follow a dissertation on
the simeon or on rubber, which we had
bodily taken from the excellent ency-
clopedia of Mr.. Britannica. Tonight.
when the stars are in full glory in Coos
| Heaven and when I should be reyelling
in the jewellery of the universe my
thoughts are with you and my Ulster
home. o head of dark locks' We had
changed auburn to dark And con-
| cluded, Yours very sincerely, Digory
Pascoe.' Damned good: we thought it.
| Thank you, Valentine. and thank you.
dear Kerry, for reading it, my Aunt
Jenepher would say" The reader of
the story knows Immediately that the
sensitive, humorous blind woman is not
deceived. that she has penetrated the
kindly hoax from the beginning. and is
herself considerably deceiving the two
childlike men,
y X X
Tamerlane, or Timur Beg. Sultan of
Samarkand in the fourteenth century.
has always been a favorite subject for