Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-21
REVIEWS OF SPRING BOOKS
Wide Variety for the Book Lover-Fction From Number
Of Authors-A Study in Herocs and
Battlefield Angel.
Smith, author Of "Rahwedia." Illus
trated by Ferdinand E. Warren. New
York: d. Appleton g. Co.

Smith, author Of "Rahwedia." Illus
trated by Ferdinand E. Warren. New
York: D. Appleton g. Co.
In HAROLD SMITH is today a cap
~ tain of the carbon industry,
branch Offices to the central business
standing in all parts of the world. He
Is a rich man, whose voice is potent in
the guidance OF many a business enter
prise. 1.-The Bridge of Life" is Harold
Smiths story from boyhood up to the
present. He tells it himself. A straight
| story Of packed adventure, that. start
ing in London, moved across to New
Zealand, where the lad lived among the
Maoris for a time. From there to San
Francisco to New York and out into the
Far East. Over and over again he
crossed the seas and the lands. His
experiences ranged from plan for
| self-destruction to the holder design of
throwing in his lot with the opportuni-
| ties that began to come out to meet
him. Lady Luck" and 1.-The Goddess
of Chance" appear to have been the
| presiding powers in this wanderers life.
To them he pays grateful homage in a
closing chapter of his book, where he
outlines the philosophy of human ex-
istence as he has gathered it out of his
own transit across its plane. Pursuing
happiness at first, as all young things
do. he came to know that of all dreams,
| happiness is the most illuSory, the most
fleeting. This final, slightly homiletic
| chapter will detain the elders, either in
| agreement or dispute. 1t Is the body of
the moving story, however, that will
catch and hold the youngsters. For here
Is adventure, true sdventure-no mere
! pipe dream Of an Haroun al Raschid.
| Here is youth of their own blood and
| outlook meeting life with a courage that
| is tinge pathetic for one so young.
| But he grows older and the adventures
| also grow to man size. Now and then
the courage flags. But not for long.
| This is dauntless fellow giving point
to the whole business of being alive
Boys. lusty boys, will eat this book up
and it will be no end of good for them.
The stir OF it. The boldness Of it. For
this lad made friends with luck, ran
out to meet chance when he saw it COM
ing toward him. Kept plugging at life
and, finally, made it go his way. made
it take him into partnership. That he
arrived will not be so vital to these
young readers. The fight is what will
| catch them, as it should. A finely STIR
ring story, a stirring true story.
y -
THE MAKING OF BUFFALO BILL.
A study in heroics. BY Richard J.
Walsh in collaboration with Milton
S. Salisbury. Illustrated. Indian
apolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co.
HERE Is a story wherein sensations
push and crowd and jostle for
attention. 1t could not be otherwise in
any adequate record of the life of
| William F. Cody, that tempeStuous
adventurer and born Snowman Of the
West. Here in orderly procession march
| the life and the deeds of Cody. A mere
announcement is certainly enough to
draw quick and intense attention to
| the story that has been worked out with
care by these two, Richard Walsh and
Milton Salisbury. Salisbury having died
during the course of the work, Mr.
Walsh was left to complete it with such
other assistance as he found serviceable
my greatest debt is to Johnny
! Bak.r"-WalSh talking-"Cody's foster
son and long his companion in the
! show" To others, besides, he acknowl-
| edges debt for records and scrap
books and other sorts of authentic in
formation concerning this hero of in
Vulnerable dramas and melodramas
Buffalo Bill has already become a
legend. a figure of history and myth
combined. This book aims, however, To
sift rumor out of the fact. Its purpose
is to present the true story of this
! spectacular figure as he so CALAMITY
| embodied a period of the opening West
| itself. Deleted, as the record mus
stand, 1t is, nevertheless, story that
makes fable look wan, that drives even
hectic invention into a futile and tepio
gesture of welcome. The old dime move
crumples up in despair. the blood-and-
| thunder tale gives only skim milk, the
conventional hair-raiser registers only
| the thinnest SILVER, beside these real
stories out of the life of one of the
realest men who ever paraded the stage
| of the Far West. No more fiction
about Buffalo Bill. The facts have
settled that.
And Other Poems BY Anne Kelledy
Gilbert. New York: Harold Vinal,
Ltd.
THIS title covers q sequence of poems
l. whose subject is Clara Barton
her service, her radiating influence, her
| life. Beyond these there are few
poems that linger around the idea of
war Not many Rather does this au-
| thor trace in song one and another of
the great features of the American
landscape, its people, its history. The
Grand Canyon and the Mojave Desert
are among her sources Of inspiration.
There are simpler themes-touches of
home life. moments of lettering, recol-
lections Of art at home and abroad,
fof vv, foIoe ,;,,r,
among them. Originality Is here, but
that Is not so strange. Poets are sup
posed TO be original, and frequently
are. But, besides, there is good Drawn
to these lines, fortnight movement
an effect Of strength. The music is
good, that is, it, in the main, moves
like the music with which the COM
monalty is familiar and which it likes
Most Of lis like the tune of poetry
prefer it to the hysteric unexpectedness
of much Of the free verse. We like this
like lot of 1t. For an instance OF
many preferences. listen to this one:
My pleasant little golden house
Cleans safely through new maple
/ shade:
Many a task awaits me there
All evade.
For Spring arrived In Washington
Some moment between the dark
and dawn
And of years days this is one
I will not pawn.
And. so, the author goes "Vagabond-
ing" this Spring day in Washington
and who can say her nay! Not the
longest nor the strongest of these poems,
but, at this moment-the one to read.
ROCKS RECEIVEn