Evening star., 1929-06-25
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. G.. M.

| Il H ". w. /
OLD CIVILIZATIONS OF THE NEW
WORLD. A. Hyatt verrill. The
Bobbs- Merrill Co.
Columbus discovered America in 1892.
| Certainly Every schoolboy knows this
| as he knows, toe, the tremendous Sc
quences which have followed that event
UP to this very day of power and prom
/. iss on the part of the Western Hemi-
| sphere as whole. Columbus discovered
| America-that Is, he and his successors
discovered the top layer of it. And upon
this vast expanse Of top-soil man has,
within the past 400 years, built an1aZ-
ingly. Explorer, adventurer, pioneer.
settler and soldier of fortune rushed
| into the new field. Here they found
only the wilderness and hordes of red
men, strange and troublesome beings.
an offense to Christian peoples. Their
| determination became clear duty. So,
wars ensued. And these gave opnor-
tunity also to European kvalries. And
empire grew in the immemorial way OF
battle and conquest. Till, finally, there
appears present of blended hope and
| dismay. This Is history. Public educa-
ton has imposed it upon the upcoming
generations to fit them for the role of
free men in free land.
y
AS matter of fact it took science to
discover America, actually. Half a
| thousand years after the recorded event
| itself along came Science the youngest
| and lustiest of human developments, a
prodigy of achievement which is liter
| ally making an old world over into a
new one. And Science said, Now watch
me, and you will see what you will see -
| With pick and shovel Science fell to,
digging down into a presumably virgin
| earth. Layer by layer, soil and rock
were lifted and thrown aside Year by
! year, little by little, the work went on
under the oversight of this modern
| magician. Now, finally, the miracle
begins to appear. Even so far, it dis
| closes cities, cultures, age-old civiliza-
hurrying, achieving age of men who,
all unconscious, look upon themselves
| as the beginning and end of creation
| itself-certainly as its glorious end.
n 4 X y
| 1t is the story of these ancient cities
buried in the soil of America that Mr..
the fabulous tales that this greatest
! Of romancers, Mother Earth herself,
has held back for the ultimate amaze
ment of the sons of men, this Is one
of surprising strangeness. Picture 1t!
Here, deep in the soil of America, lie
cities, more than one, the Oldest In the
world and among the most considerable
in their record of the passage of man
from savagery to civilization. Here is
chrenicle in buried ruins OF thousands
| and thousands of years of the schooling
Of mankind toward the point at which
he now stands. Mexico, Central Amer
lea and South America constitute the
chief seat Of this discovery up to the
present time. Yet we 90 across the
| world to look upon the Pyramids and
| upon the Sphinx as among the chief
marvels of mans accomplishments IN
a long-forgotten period of time. A
Sphinx at home, from whom answers
to the riddle of life may be wrested--
| just possibly may be wrested-by the
wizardry of this newcomer, Science.
Three important Introductory chap
| ters lead to the matter in hand by way
of q discussion of the various theories
| bearing upon the origin of man in the
| New World, bearing also upon the ma
| ture and relationships of the animal
life Of that time and place to those
of the rest of the known world. There
| is here also review of the circum-
| stances and stages by which man has
moved out from an existence not great
| " different from that of the animals
\ around him into those gradually In
| creasing expansions of Thought and
| habit and action that serve as factors
| In the mathematical problem of human
/ proqress. These accepted theories are
| here brought to bear upon the subject
/ under consideration. Interesting, even
If not altogether new. And certainly
| they are new in the particular applis
cation made of them here. II you have
| the conscience of the student you viii
make the promise to go back TO these
initial chapters, but, just at the mo.
| ment, there Is the clear urge to gel
| on with the story. And so you move
! forward out of theories and their care.
fully summed generalizations into the
great story itself.
| \ 4 y +
Down in Panama Mr.. Verrill himself
| discovered that which he here calls
"The Pompeii of America" Here Is the
| old Cocle culture, said to be the most
ancient of Central American cultures
Here are monuments, graves, villages
| the site of wonderful temple OF Q
thousand idols. Here are the fragments
and parts OF altars and sacrif1cia
| stones, with evidence of human sacrt-
| fice-recalling the intent of Abraham
| toward his boy Isaac. There is proof OF
cremation as a burial custom. Signs
| OF fiourishing industry are not lacking
/ Customs and personal appearance re-
vive under the constructive art OF sci
entific efficiency. What happened
What was it that worked destruction
upon an entire culture? More theories
all plausibly based. come to the con-
sideration of the reader by this profess
sional expert in the field of archaeology
| Thrilling adventure? Here 1t is. And
besides, there grows in the mind of the
reader an uneasy feeling toward him
| self--the center OF all existence, to be
sure-toward his own futility and In
consequence In face of these timeless
ageless processes Of n1an-making.
| 4 u Il \
| No matter how scared you get, and
| you clearly are scared, there is nc
stopping. So on you 60 to those other
/ civilizations that are being dug out
| of the depths of tropical America
| why in tropical America? That ques-
ton is put and theories respecting II
| are given. But there Is no time for
these tentative answers here. On YOU
must move to peer into the past for
| the story of the Mayas, the Toltecs
| the Aztecs and the kingdom Of the
grand Chimu," the means and Pre-
| means. On you must 60 to that story
| of Tiahuanaco, "the oldest city in
| America" a holy city around which
| legends swarm, within which ere aban-
doned monoliths, the evidence of arti-
fetal hills, water systems, perfection of
stone cutting, the largest single sculp-
ture yet known, pottery, metal work,
| portraits and much of wonder besides
| There are other cities in mounds and
| ruins, innumerable mummies showing
| an ancient burial custom. Architee-
| ture, In ruin, is nevertheless individual
and of high order. Great engineering
! feats stand in evidence of the technical