Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-08
THE LIBRARY TABLE
Rv the BookloUer

During the Years 1591-15o4." by G. 3.
Harrison. In his preface Mr.. Harrison
says: In this book have tried to put
together a journal of gossip which
should mirror the mind of the English
people and give a background to their
literature during the years 1891 TO 1894.
= Each entry in this book is. with
very few exceptions, taken directly from
a contemporary source which Is record
ed in the notes, but I have used my
| sources freely, at one time borrowing
| phrases, sentences and even whole
pages; at another condensing or para
phrasing as suited my purpose. 1 have
! done this deliberately, because 1 believed
| that If the book was to have any ar
| tistic unity all the events should be
| seen in the same perspective. Each
entry is therefore recorded as it might
have been noted down by contempo-
rary in his journal, and as gossip varies
from place to place / have imagined
the diarst to be such man as Edward
Knowell ST., before he began to take
his family responsibilities too seriously
one who was more interested in events
than in their historical significance and
who regarded authors, dramatists and
players as not less important members
OF the state than generals, politicians
and clergymen." 1t is a question
whether the using of hisssources freely
as explained by the author, does not, at
least partly, diSqualify the book as his
torical material. Another question is
whether the book is interesting enough
to be widely read as literature. 1t has
not the Vivacity of Pepys' Diary"
There are, nevertheless, many inter-
esting entries in the good-SiZed volume.
The state of sanitary science is illus
trated by an entry regarding the causes
Of the plague. The causes of the
plague are great and unnatural heat
and dry or great rain and foundations
of waters; great store Of rotten and
sinking bodies lying unburied, which
corrupt the air, so that corn, fruit,
herbs and waters are infected; dung
hills, filthy and standing pools of water;
by thruSting a great number of people
into a close room, as in Ships common
gaols and in narrow lanes and streets
where many dwell together. But for
the most part 1t cometh from clothes
and such like that have been used
about some infected body. It may also
come by dogs, cats, pigs and weasels"
Pleasanter entries are those under the
heading plays Of the Week" One
reads: THE plays OF this past week at
the Rose were Doctor Faustus,' The
Jew of Malta Caesar and Pompey. >
'Warlamchester,' The Knack to Know
an Honest Man The Set at the Nav
(for the first time)." A burglary at
Windsor is recorded: Yesterday four of
the gentlemen pensioners of the court
were robbed at Windsor In their abb
sence at O'Clock at night their cham
Der door, which is in one of the five tow
erS OF the tiltyard, was broken open, and
all their trunks likewise, out of which the
thieves took In jewels and ready money
to the value of 400 pounds" There are
entries telling of a plot to kill the
Queen, revels at Gray'S Inn, a nrocla-
nation against firearms, a conference
10 take measures for the suppression of
rogues; also measures against Migrants
ana begging, a petition against a new
tneater, the funeral of John Aylmer,
Bishop OF London; floods in Sussex ana
Surrey, quarrels between Queen Eliza
beth and the Earl OF Essex, court revels
| troubles between debtors and creditors
expeditions of Sir Walter Raleigh. the
publication Of Sir Philip Sidney's AS
trophel and Stella" besides many en-
tries about the foreign wars.
y x x X
Agnes Repplier treats very sympsthet-
ically the scholarly Jesuit who was one
OF the most important pioneers of our
Middle west in her biography "Pere
Marquette, Priest, Pioneer and Adven-
turer." While zealously working for the
| advancement Of his faith, Father Mar
quette also explored the course of the
Mississippi River, discovered by the
Spaniards long before. He was only 20,
In 1866, when he began, his missionary
| work In the New World and he lived
only nine years after that, but they
were nine years full of adventure. Miss
Repplier points out that in those early
days OF discovery no one counted on
! living long and everybody was keen
to do something with life while he
had it," X x " X
Uncompromising feminists who think
OF Communist Russia as. feminist
Utopia will be disillusioned by reading
The Hammer and the Scythe," by
Anne OHare Mccormick. Mrs. NC
Cormick says: There is no woman
among the peoples commissars. In 10
years, although 10 per cent of the dele
gates to village, factory, state and all
| Russian SoV1ets are women, only Krup-
skaya, the widow of Lenin, in charge of
the department of political education:
kameneva, wife Of Kamenev and sister
| OF TrotSky. director of the Society of
Cultural Relations, and KolIontai once
commisSar of social welfare and twice
ambassador, have held anything like
! hrst-claSS posts in the Soviet Union.
But the visitor who expects to
| md the sexes sharing the seats of
power and authority in q Communist
state VIII be disappointed. Women share
more manual labor, but succeed to no
more OF the really important ofices than
are meted out to them in the most con-
servatiye political systems.
| X *
Book reviewing is more ancient
profession than most of us realize, read
ers of Henry the Eighth; the Personal
History OF Dynast and His Wives" by
Francis Hackett will discover. Henry
did not have time to keep I'D with all
the reading he was expected to do
works of theology, in particular-"and
Henry thrust these on the bright young
men, the Pagets and Wriothesieys or the
Seymours or the Parrs," reports Hack
EFT, and quotes a contemporary to ex-
plain now the plan worked: THE King
commonly hands over books which he
has not the patience TO read himself
to one OF his lords in waiting for pe-
rusal, from whom he afterward learns
its contents. He then gives them to
someone else of AN opposite way of
thinking. After hearing all the criti-
cisms he forms his own judgment"
| x X y X
| In his new book, "An Hour on
Health" DR.. Morris Fishbein, editor
| VI GikC oOCtLI VI G4lc american MeOl-
cal Association and authority on health
movements, makes fads and faddists
his target. zone of tho difficulties with
the whole physical tAture and athletic
movement" he says, has been the
creation Of outdoor fanatics, marathon
runners, hundred-mile pedestrians who
in the exceptional performance. "AIl
systems of breathing, such as the
'vitalic' breathing, abdominal breathing,
rhythmical deep breathing and other
schemes, are irrational. Nobody ought