Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-29
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
I. G.. M.
MAN THE MIRACLE MAKER. Hen
dirk Van Loon Horace Iiveripht

| thousands listening in must, by way of
that experience, have captured within
himself one of the few real thrills of
lifetime.
There, face to face, so to speak, he
came upon the officers and men of the
America, each giving his own account
Of the rescue of the foundered Florida'S
and Capt Harry Manning. Here, too,
were the eight Seamen who volunteered
to man the lifeboat, who fought the
sea and brought back safe 81 lost men.
Each told his own story. Some in one
way, some in another. Everybody in his
own way. Standing by. one felt that
to these men this was an ordeal greater,
perhaps, than the actual service behind
it. Yet for us not to have had these
stories would have been loss irremedi-
able. And to those fortunate enough
to be on hand Sunday night this was
a surprising event, one not to be for
gotten nor diminished.
Out Of 1t two miracles emerge. One,
that Of the mechanical invention by
way Of which these two ships could
speak to each other, could get together
in spite of the monstrous sea raging
below in demonic fury of Illustration
and destruction.
The second miracle, greater even than
the first is man ,himself-these men.
Embodied here Is courage without
shadow of fear with no dependence
upon rank or standing. Here is hero
ism of epic measure. Here Is sturdy
devotion to the business in hand deny
ing the power even of the sea itself.
Here, too. is modesty of personal dis
claimer that sets up an inspiring pic
| ture and a passion of generosity, a
new quality of friendship, that quickens
the heart and taps the place from which
tears flow. Does 1t take the perils of
! the sea, or its vast isolations, to make
men such as these? There is no an
swer, not any answer available. So let
us turn to the pleasure and excitement
Of Mr.. Van Loon himself in his outlook
upon man as the real miracle maker.
\ y
Authors, as a rule, hold the reader
to leading strings in a compliant fol-
lowing of the courses laid down by
| them. A proper plan, too, in the main.
! first laws. And this, no doubt, is rea-
son why the reader, irked by too much
law and order, is overjoyed to come
upon a book, like this one, that per-
mits him to roam about at will. Were
it not for that amazing adventure of
Sunday night, I should, very likely, have
gone along side by side with Mr.. Van
Loon, instead of leaping over to page
POI for my start. In that case, I'd have
set out with space" as the beginning
of mans miracle making. Maybe it is
Just as well, for at this minute we are
all sitting on the edges of our chairs
waiting for new conception of that
same "Space"-a conception calculated
to knock our present notions sky high.
Too big, too immeaSurable, too terrlfy-
| ing. too uncertain-space. So, let us go
back to Sunday night and the radio and
the men. Let us begin at page 20l.
| X X
At this point Mr.. Van Loon tells a
story. That's what he does all the time,
because he knows that the story is the
thing with all ages and all conditions
OF mankind. According to this story,
the Chinese thousands of years ago in
vented toy by means of which people
quite widely separated could speak to-
gether. Nothing but a couple of bam-
boo tubes linked by slender wire was
this toy. For a while 1t served to amuse
them and then, after the fashion of
toys, 1t made way for something else
and was forgotten. This particular
thing, however, was among those trif1es
that sooner or later come to the surface
! again III d OcIIldIlu IUI iLlUL6 VI lCSS VI
attention and interest. So, in the Mid
die Ages, this same toy in its essentials,
the very one that had amused the Chi
nese thousands of years before, caught
| the public mind by its strange power to
permit speech to pass over distance to
the ear Of the listener. The eighteenth
century played with this curious con-
traption. "And lust when everybody was
talking about the great possibilities OF
the electric current, that old Chinese
thingamajig popped up for the fiftieth
widely at all county fairs"
And the notion grew that this might
be a way to carry the human voice out
and away from the mouth of the speak
er. It was a German, of course, one
Phillip Reiss, who first brought to
practical use an instrument of sound
transmission" And he called 1t "tele-
phone"
Then Scotch immigrant, Alexander
Graham Bell, took the next step and
the most vital one to the public gen.
orally, that of producing the modern
telephone. And then-and then-the
means by which the voice, without any
carrying wires at all could pass out into
the air. winging half around the world
and more, with messages as clearly
audible as If the speaker and listener
were In the same room-well, this is the
miracle, the man-made miracle, that
brings us back to the point from which
we started. back to Sunday night with
It's story OF a sea rescue, made possible
by the wireless and the hero-men be-
hind 1t.
II you want to examine any kind OF
1 0PHtA hnNn "a Il
engrossing occupation, to run the finger
along this table of contents in an ex-
ploring mood. The point of pause will
depend, to be sure, upon the kind OF
reader that you are. Maybe you would
Ike to know how we came upon the
elaborate and bothersome business OF
clothes. Well, here you are. Able to
follow us from the time when we were
dressed in our own skins on UP to
dear me! This Is one of those cycle
movements which the savants tell us is
a habit OF history, sort of going round
and round like dog after its own
tail. Like everything else, the story OF
clothes is that of the rise, the domina-
ton, the rebellion. the return to former
conditions-and then the whole thing
over again. Perhaps this Is not your
choice-this story Of the first coat.
would not, If I were you, abandon II
too quickly, for it is a huge story after
all. The coat" means warmth and
shelter, rather than the apocalypse of
the modiste. 1t means, therefore. the
whole of the builders art, much OF
observation-disclosures made of ice, houses
made of leaves, and by and by the
modern apartment house and the city
skyscraper A wonderful storyi All
right, if you prefer something else. sup
pose you take your own hand, letting
this illustrate some far past whensthe
man-creature began to make use OF
his forepaws to do many things for his
own safety and comfort. for the safety
and comfort Of those under his pro-
lection for the time being. II you
! HAnk t,Sn DC 81 G,ex