Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03
BY IDA GILBERT MYERS.

Co.
IF you chance to be in that certain
part OF Australia where this story
grew you might, just possibly. come
L upon its author. A young woman
in wheel chair or seated by the
roadway in motor which she herself
handles and controls And maybe she
would tell you about the singing
gold"-about the down larks. millions
OF them, that soar, singing. high in the
sunshine above the huge fiocks of sheep
making their slow way across the land.
Then she would tell about the little
hawks Of the plains that follow the
moving sheep to prey upon these tiny
sparks OF music" Singing they rose,
though they knew the hawks were wait
ing for them, singing even as they fled
from the talons of death. Once among
the soaring larks and the lowering
hawks my father heard little rush
Of song, and something soft and CULVER
ing darted into his open shirt and
the thWarted hawk circled above his
head. calling shrilly. He had carried
the beautiful desperate atom there until
the safety of darkness came; and dear
rough, gentle old man that he was. !
never heard him tell it. even years
after, without tear-blurred eyes. 1t had
been so frightened and SO small and
valiant. that 1t had flown not only into
his shirt but into his heart"
Such is the key to which this lovely
story is pitched and such, in a sense.
is the essence of the story itself A
handful of people, the family and work
folks on sheep ranch in Australia. A
small band. maybe frightened, certainly
valiant. under the brooding exactions of
a vast and untamed land. A plain rec
ord. this, of family matters. Plain?
Well. as plain as pure poetry
can be. For this is poetry, lyric. into
which good fun enters and keen wit
and smiling valor before the hard ex-
actions of the unsmiling land itself.
Here is the story of little Joan and
Dickie, soaking up their particular
corner of Australia till it is a part of
their blood, the whole of their spirit,
the source OF joy, and grief, through
all their hours and years. A record OF
clearly in its own character. The
and delicious. The year-in-year- out
intimacy with this home corner of Aus
tralia yields innumerable pictures OF
illimitable land and sky, of miles OF dry
waste, of long stretches of gray mulga
trees splashed here and there with
golden boronia thickets, of innumerable
small wild creatures, they too, making
a go of life in this amazing land. It
is, however. the human element that
counts so big here. In a strange set
ting to be sure-that is, strange to us
yet they are cut in our own pattern
Just life is here, plain. simple, natural
The people are "muddling through" as
we are. But it Is life met courageously
challenged valiantly. accepted stoically
And as for the business of putting words
together In way that makes music and
tells the true story besides-why, here
you have rare and beautiful example
Of that very kind of art.
y
THE WORLD ON ONE LEG. BY
Ellery Walter Illustrated. New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
MOT the world on one leg. Instead
the boy who rounded 1t and crossed
1t up and down, both on the straight
and on the bias, every which way
was on zone leg" Crippled to the
| necessity Of crutches, this astonishing
lad, set out to see the world at IA. He
put seven years into the sightseeing
and then. at %, propped the crutche;
beside him and took a chair for the
telling of the great story And it is a
great story. not only in its scope but
in its content as we'll There Is nc
point in telling where he went. You
can read that. Besides. he went every
| where-Old World New World, famous
quarters in each. many a remote corner
here and there that most travellers pass
by. but not this traveller. There Is but
one world. to be sure. Or, SO it is said
Happily, however, each traveller makes
the world out of himself-therefore both
| he and his readers are seeing 1t fresh
in every new record Of travel. Aston
new regions visited, of new sights and
new experiences-these fade to a de-
gree beside the personality of the writer
himself. II you are looking for courage
and daring, for gusto Of life. for the
zest of sheer livingston right here.
For here 1t all Is. Think of it!-A lad,
crippled, moving out under the sting
Of the wanderlust. going to all parts
of the earth, earning his way, eating UP
experiences limp by limp, and hobbling
ON again. And not a small part Of the
achievement is that of making book
after the journeying was over. that OF
taking up lecture tour to let the world
see how its many parts look to the eyes
of a lad out on his own. A good share
Of the record, good for the reader, is
that the print OF this book Is fairly
bursting with its content Of joyous
gree of insight. Pictures fall over one
another here to let the reader know
word pictures that move on run. that
sparkle with the travellers own joy, that
laugh with his giee at being on his way.
We speak of a book being alive, now
and then. Well, here is one, so acutely
alive as to make one q shade ofhSh
about handling it, lest 1t speak right
out in the face of the reader. A great
piece of work by boy who Is greater
than the book itself.
THE PEOPLE OF THE TWILIGHT.
BY Diamond Jenness. Drawings by
Claude johnson. New York: The
Macmillan Co.
WITH the Eskimos of the North
w Alaskan Coast We are at this mo-
ment in the company of man who
has been there for three years and
more, getting ready for us to come along
up that way. A guide is after all an
essential WileIl TIC ttaNCicr hiios HiiH~
self In a strange place, everything COW
cred in the deep concealment of the
generally unknown In that situation
there is no way of knowing the impor-
tant from the trivial, the basic from
the casual. No such disability attends
us here, however. for Mr.. Jenness does
know the place and the people. He
has dug beneath the surface of Eskimo
life in search for the foundations of
many of their customs and beliefs. for
many of the causes that have even
tuated in their present status OF char
actcr. Of physical stamp, and i'll their
attitude toward the new day whose
dawn is breaking even at the poles.
North and South. A companionable
man, this one, even though he be
stamped scientist" investigator" Eek
pert" For you see he does not wear his
learning like a gaudy garment. Not at