Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-13
IDA GILBERT MYERS,

4DA u1A GhsOs
BENEATH TROPIC SEAS. BY William
Beebc. Sc. D., author of Jungle
Peace" etc. Director of the Depart
ment of Tropical Research, New
York Geological Society. New York:
G.. p. Putnams Sons.
~ CIENCE plus a positive gusto IN
its pursuit transforms William
Beebe upon occasion into the
~ perfect go-between. On one
hand, pure knowledge. On the
other. the common reader. His job to
humanize the one for the use of the
other. This he does here in Beneath
Tropic Seas" as he has already done
through books of similar stamp,
dozen and more of them.
As matter of evidence William Beebe
is an adventurer. a romantic one at
that, having taken to the field OF
science, where his tribe as rule goes
into gallantry or warfare. Not that
Mr.. Beebe cannot be as dry and Stodgy
and learned as the regular simon-pure
scientist so obviosuly feels in bond to
be. Merely reading the title of this
book and that which goes with it in
dicates that he can be. That is. that
he can be dull upon demand. However,
this is not our concern. Our interest
lies in the fact that in Beneath Tropic
Seas" William Beebe, adventurer. jumps
right off the deep end clear down to
the bottom of the sea. Soon, upon the
surface, a thousand bubbles breaking
sound exactly like-"Oh, to the devil
with research. I'm off to find mer-
maid" A plain libel that. Look at
the top of this page in proof thereof.
And, besides, nobody can hold a sea
bubble to accountability. Better wait,
instead. for Beebe to come up to be the
reporter of his own undertaking.
And such story as he brought to
the surface. 1t hardly seems as II any
responsible society is going to accept
his adventure as contribution to au-
thentic knowledge, as any part OF ex-
PLANTATION Of the world-as-it-is.
Yet, 1t turns out that the amazing
discoveries of this deep-sea man are
absolutely the truth and nothing else.
1t comes to pass that under the CLAM
our of the adventure-it is glamor-
Gus all rights an amazing picture, a
moving picture of life within the sea-
An infinite variety among the denizens
Of the deep, as great, taken by and
large, as the puzzling differences
ashore. And these, all these down
IldFC okkdpSu tIiCttSClVeS,
shaping themselves, to their surround
for sustenance and Self-perpetuation,
food and procreation. Makes a man
feel as if just, perhaps, there is nothing
so special and sacrosanct about him,
save what he has made up about him.
self. pretty much out of whole cloth.
However, that is something else. In
stead here Is the story of william Beebe
down off the coast of Haiti hunting
fish. primarily, examining them for the
ways in which they have made shift
with life, with one another, with a
long past of change and vicisSitude in
their approach to the present. In
teresting? No end interesting-and so
human. The fish I mean. And then,
I1e day, being hot and tired and wet,
Mr.. Beebe went off by himself to loaf.
1t was rendezvous, instead, to which
birds and birds came flocking. And out
of this day of leisure he came upon a
new way to study birdS-a fresh breath
from the long lists and descriptions
and things that go along with con-
ventional bird study. You read about
this, you bird student It will interest
you and give wholesome and en-
tightening turn to your present over
worn habit.
The book is a refreshment in the
way Of putting knowledge across. So
Is William Beebe.
THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL,.
BY Oscar Wilde. Conceptions by
John Vassos. New York: Z. P. Dut-
ton & Co.
THIS Is a picture book, its themes in
spired by Wilde's Ballad" as last
year his "Salome" brought out another
picture book by John Vassos. And what
genius is clearly OF special source and
cast. Read the Ballad" Sit beside
the pictures that draw one part of it
or another out into an objective 'front.'
ing upon destiny itself At first you will
say, II don't see." But in minute you
will begin to feel, to feel deeply and
with hint of panic upon you. Then
sight and feeling combine In an illumi-
nation that comes to be of staggering
proportions. However, this is for your
personal adventure. Let us instead
talk a minute about what John Vassos
did as a way of getting the Ballad"
into himself, through and through his
heart and body and soul, before he saw
1t in these haunting symbols of the
prisoner-any prisoner, in fact. He
himself went to JAIL No, not under the
law, but In free will to come by, If
might be, some true reaction to such a
life. The dreary light, the grated cell,
the deauening routine, the sense of
hatred on the part of the good world
outside, the hOpelessness of the future,
the homelessness, the loneSomeness-all
this John VassoS sought And then. no
doubt there must have come to him,
as 1t certainly does to us, facing these
amazing conceptions, that everybody Is
priSoner-manifest walls or MOTTO
that monStrous thing called destiny. He
must have felt this. try as he might to
study the literal prisoner alone, else
how could we be so overwhelmed here,
not only with the actual state of the
man behind actual bars, but by the
bars around us as we'll. by the yawn-
ing caverns at our feet, by the unan-
swering skies above us, by the depths Of
the space toward which we are moving
against our will? Wonderful concep-
tons! And they put to US question
What will the answer be? Therell be
none.
However, who is John Vassos to do
this thing? A Greek youth who has
lived in the East, taking part in adven-
lures. familiar with its art, SO oriental
in spirit and manner. I have his pic
ture before me. Looks as If Praxiteles
himself had had a hand in the making
of this youth. Not important, that, save
that John Vassos Is a fine bit of handi-
work, inspired by a genius that con-
ceives hidden things and is able as
we'll to bring these into the open in an
art that is Individual, beautiful. signifi-
can't. THE Ballad of Reading Gaol"
becomes here, by way of the conceptions
of John Vassos something like the voice
of an oracle, the vision of a prophet
John dreaming on the Island of Patmos.
X n
Able PIERRE'S PEOPLE. BY Jay
William Hudson, author of "Abbe
Pierre" etc. New York: d. Apple
ton &, Co.
You know Able Pierre himself al
II ready thruiiuh tho Intimate and