Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-10
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookloUer

perlence or q literary h0ax, Inc
Cradle Of the Deep" by joan Lowell.
schooner not altogether attractive,
especially for O girl. The author tells
OF her being taken by her father, cap
tain Of q four-masted, windjammer
rugged schooner, when she was less
| than Q year old, TO be brought up
| aboard ship. ST was the eleventh
child in our family. Four Of my broth
erS and sisters had died in two years.
They called me the lick OF the pan be-
| cause was last and not much OF me.
No one expected me to grow UP, but
I'm going to save 1t. I'll take it away
from the land and let the sea make 1t
| the pick Of the puppies 30 he took
me when was less than q year old
and lived on shipboard until I was
| IT. and II the sea didn't make me the
pick Of the puppies. at least 1t made
me the huskiest." Though the sea
seemed to be physically therapeutic for
the child, one wonders what it did for
her Intellectually and socially. The
ship was engaged In the copra and
sandalwood trade In the South Seas.
There were long periods on the sea,
with shorter ones on land, at ports
which. however interesting TO the sail
ors, were not exactly CONNIE II faut for
q young lady, but Of course she was
never q conventional young lady. How
her education was carried on, except
| for the education Of daily sea life, she
does not tell us, but we take it for
granted that In some way she learned
to read and write and add few ig-
ures. Her ethical ideas she evidently
developed for herself Father brought
me up with no creed except fear and
respect for the gods that brew the
storms and Gains AS to God Himself,
1 can say only that in my early life
He and were on most intimate terms.
had not halt the fear of Him that I
had OF father. felt much closer to
Him because I could discuss many
things with Him that wouldn't have
dared mention to father. He was my
friend, confidant and counselor and
always felt that He approved of every
thing l did. and II 1 felt He disap-
proved I would argue until convinced
Hmm my own mind! Our argu-
mentS and discussions took place at
the masthead far above the deck where
no one could hear our private con-
versations."
The daily life aboard the Minnie A.
Game was free from all the elegances
which are often irksome to natural
| young people. Joan was not troubled
| with hair combing, trimming or curl
| ing, and she never had TO hunt for her
tooth paste, for she brushed her teeth
with salt. Her wardrobe gave her no
| trouble, either for storage or repairs,
because she had but one garment,
overalls, with rubber boots for rough
weather. Her food, after the first few
months, was the regular sailors diet
| salt beef and salt fish, often spoiled;
lentils, rice, dried prunes and apricots
and dun pudding for desserts. Some
times the food was favored with the
bay rum used freely as q toilet access
sorry by the Japanese cook, and on &C.
caSion the cook smuggled cat into
, the "slumgullion" for the crew in order
to save extra salt beef for himself.
Joan's amusementS did not include
movies, radio, automobiles, tea dances
or night clubs. II she played she had
to flnd her own toys and make her
own games. At first her playthings
were sea birds, toy ships and fishes
| fms, and her favorite game was pre-
| tending to row in a lifeboat made fast
| to the deck. I'm my lifeboat, strapped
to the deck, used to row away on
| long picnic trips by myself to places
| where I would find children to play
with; children like had seen playing
around the docks In port. And what
games we hadl The games played with
those imaginary children always in
volved something to eat" Later she
| learned to steer at the wheel, pull at
the ropes, help man the pumps, and in
every way ito obey as q sailor obeyS
! the master OF q ship" With only
sailors for associates, it Is no wonder
that when, at the age Of IA or IS,
she was taken ashore by her father to
be left with her mother, she did not
A,-AA - - al
home where the captains wife took col
lege professors as boarders. A young
girl who had learned to swear at the
age of and whose chief ambition
had been to spit tobacco juice through
a crack did not meet the approval of
academic minds. After she had grab
bed her food sailor fashion at table and
told her mother that this was hell
of a house because there wasn't q bed
conventional mother told the father:
You raised her-so perhaps you can
discipline her." and later, Take Joan
back to the sea. She'll fret herself
away here" So back to the sea she
went for few years more.
y 4+&
So long ago that Mark Sullivan might
have mentioned him as landmark in
| Our Times" Stanley J. WeymAn was
writing historical romances in the man
ner Of Dumas-"Under the Red Robe, "
The House Of the Wolf and "A Cen
tleman of France" Mr.. Weyman died
about . year ago, and after his death
his last romance was published. with
the glamour Of old associations to help
it along, THE Lively Peggy" It is a
Lively Peggy Is a privateer, whose port
of departure and concealment is Bere-
mouth, Devon. The other Peggy Of the
tale is the daughter Of o Devonshire
rector, who falls in love, against her
fathers wishes, with the one-arined,
cashiered navy lieutenant. According
to orthodox Weyman tradition, the story
ends happily.
"A Modern Plutarch." by John Colr-
nos. is o collection of comparative biog-
raphies Of prominent persons OF the
nineteenth century, written about the
theme of racial influence on PERSONAL
ity. As Plutarch in his biographies
analysed the racial characteristics OF
Romans and Greeks, so CournoS an
alyzes those Of Latins and Anglo
saxons. Complex modern personalities
often exhibit conflicting strains from
different races. Some Of the subjects
Of these biographies are Cecil Rhodes,
Mark Twain, Thoresu, John Brown,
Garibaldi, Amiel, Henry Adams, George
Eliot, Parnell, Anatole France, Melville,
Balzac, Bolivar, Lee and Gauguin.
4 4 4
As picturesque as Alexander the Great
and more picturesque than Julius
Caesar, Attila the Hun Is q figure OF
romance as well as Of history. Coming
at q time when the Roman Empire was
rapidly disintegrating under the repeat
ed attacks Of the Germanic tribes to the
north, Attila brought o new element
into the racial confiict-the wild, nomad
| TY,,u. ~ Asia Roth Romano and Ger