Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-15
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
1. G.. M.

Had YOU been In washington that
| September day-well placed to see and
hear-you would have had part in an
impressive ceremony. The President of
the United States, in the name of all
the people, was bidding formal fare
well to French soldier, who, some
thing like 80 years before, had given
our country high service in its time of
deepest stress. This particular occa-
sion marked the end Of tour. a tri-
umphal tour, of the great Frenchman
over familiar war trails. Now he was
going back home again to France
I'VE shall look upon you always as
| belonging to us, during the whole of
our life, and as belonging to our chill
| dren after us. You are ours by that
more than patriotic self-devotion with
which you few to the aid Of our IA
| theirs at the crisis of our fate; ours by
that mistaken gratitude for your serv-
ices which is precious portion of our
inheritance; ours by that tie Of love,
stronger than death, which has linked
your name for the endless ages of
time with the name of Washington. -
John Quincy Adams, President, to Gen.
| La Fayette.
Upon that return to the United
States in 1925, it was the quick growth
| Of the country that most amazed La
| Fayette. The Colonial seaboard over
which he had fought under Washing
ton was already facing Westward. An
adolescent youth - lusty, ambitious,
eager, Notwithstanding vigorous
legs to cross mountains and vast plains
and mountains again till the Pacific
itself was gained.
** \
Let us make believe some more
assume that last Sunday night, October
| 13, La Fayette was permitted to listen in
upon new radio program whose pur-
| pose Is to give pause TO this stamped
ing present, while the people sit still
and look backward upon some Of those
who have made such present possible.
| And La Fayette, listening, would have
found his name leading all the rest in
| the program OF appreciation, very Ben
Adhem of man who "loved his fell
lowmen." More than this, he would
have discovered that all across our
| great country the name Of La Fayette
marks city and town, highway and
street and park and building institu-
tons of learning, themes for art-a
progressive memorial to the French
patriot and friend Of America.
Books and books and books have
| been written about La Fayette. Here is
| another one. And this was the way of
it: Brand Whitlock, representing the
United States right in the heart of the
war zone, became tremendously eff
| fective, as we recall, in many lines of
practical usefulness. AS a mere Incl
dent he was invited to speak at the
tomb Of La Fayette on July 4, 1917. A
| thoroughgoing man in every direction
he made preparation for this ceremony.
After it was over, La Fayette still held
| him. So, in the scarce odd minutes of
several years thereafter, he read all
that he could find about the man.
THE more read the more came to
! like him" Out of such liking grew this
two-volume book, La Fayette."
Hardly o biography. The simon
pure biographer Is recorder Of fact.
Birth, with touch Of ancestry. Then
a run Of events, through childhood,
youth, manhood, age. Death. With
possibly q gesture toward influence
upon his times" All outside work,
however. 1t has to be. No, this is not
pure biography. Brand Whitlock is
a novelist. A novelist fortified by the
professions of diplomacy, statesman
ship: politics. sociology, and other
he writes, he is mostly the novelist
Therefore, his workshop, unlike that
Of the outside work of the biographer,
| is primarily inside the characters
depicted by him. It Is in this case. He
Is in the main, on the inside, working
in the blood Of inherited impulses, in
the shape and quality of the feelings,
in the forming circumstances Of the
soft years, the plastic years-those that
determine emotions and desires, that
give direction to behaviors. It Is from
such point that he tnterprets the ex-
ternal manifest matters that constitute
the chief concern of the average
biographer. It Is by this medium that
he recreates the human, setting him
out, alive, by virtue Of the intimacy of
his contacts with the heart and soul
Of the man.
And here he is-La Fayetts. A revo-
lutionist. From some odd source of
aristocratic lineage, here Is q lover Of
liberty set down in q revolutionary
world. His work seemingly cut out for
him-both at home and across the sea
In Colonial America. Young, ardent,
romantic, ambitious-not to be denied,
not to be ctrcumvented. Then older,
yet still the advocate of freedom with
almost his early ardor. Then old
exile, disgrace, contumely-an old story,
you see. in the annals of him who de-
fies the tyranny Of kings and over
lords.
It is q great story-partly because it
is story and partly because its au-
thor, before setting out, simplifed q
complex character to its prime es-
sential. using all lesser qualities and
belongings to an Illumination of the
dominating passion of La Fayette for
clearer equities among men.
| Many an ar1ecdote, many an incident
serves this purpose along with the
larger phases OF the life of La Fayette
At the very beginning of the book Is
q little story that, in effect. delivers
the whole of La Fayette to his readers.
It had been a cold Winter and one of
great suffering in Auvergne. The
peasant people had been terrified over
the report Of q monster that came out
from the woods in the dark nights,
drawing nearer night by night to their
homes. The people could talk of moth
ing else. And, in his safe home, little
Gilbert Oa Fayette) talked in whispers
to his young cousin about the great
beast running wild at night
| las Gilbert walked back to the
chateau beside the Able, he fell silent
He walked erectly, in his stout buckled
shoes and thick wooden stockings, the
skirts OF his coat with the great flaps
at the pockets, balancing with his
stride, the three-cornered hat on his
reddish hair giving him a sedate air
for one who was only years old An
expression Of determination had settled
on his freckled face, he had made a
resolution; he would go forth and STAY
this monstrous wild beast in single
combat; it was his duty as nobleman,
lord of the manor of Chavaniac-and
a Lafayette. He was the marquis now,
the last of his line; it all depended on
him." There he is. Ardent for the
obligations imposed upon him for the
well-being of-vwell, of the world. A
lovely little story, holding the man
within the little boy.
There are innumerable points at