Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-24

and Otherwise. BY Eugene &. Prlis-
sing, author of 1.-THE Estate of George
Washington, Deceased" Chicago:
Pascal Covici.
~ GORGE WASHINGTON In his
effect upon the commonalty,
was born man grown. More
~ over, he was born the Father
of His Country. More unhap-
PLY still, he was born fawless and re-
manned in that relatively futile state
throughout his life. To be sure, in mo-
ments of energiZing that are purely
sentimental we extol this truly great
man, resenting heatedly any suggestion
that so far as we know Washington
was not human being at ALL But,
by and large, We are unawake to this
great character. simply because he was
projected and has been maintained in
the Puritan spirit that still dominates
what is called our system Of education
Our great men have all suffered under
this affliction. The intellectual life
of this country began In New England
and even yet is to a degree sourced
there. The Puritan was keener to
Satan than he was to God of kind
ness and love and understanding. Every
pleasure was the devil seeking to destroy
the human. In time, when New Eng
land took the lead in education, its
system partook of such prepossession.
Teaching and text book dealt only in
precepts Of warning, in models of quite
impossible perfection for the builders
Of this country. This order Is not yet
out of date. There still fingers the
mania of dehumanizing our leading
spirits for the purposes of education.
A fatal and silly procedure-that is,
II one is interested at all In inspiring
sensitive youth with manhood and lead
ership, real manhood, worthy leader
ship. And among them all no one has
suffered more at the hands of a Pur-
itan method of education than has
George Washington, human as YOU and
I, a leader because he could meet and
resist, not a leader by virtue of the
fact that he never had to resist. A few
years ago some writer's, now here one
and there another, undertook to present
washington anew, now in the strength
and weakness of any human trying to
make go Of life. Perhaps they did
not do this as we'll as 1t should have
been done. Maybe one fell short OF
true appraisal of the man, Washington.
Maybe another in q mood of over-zeal
distorted the picture by too great a
stress upon what might have been
considered q foible or a weakness of
the great one. At any rate. whatever
the cause, these efforts to make a liv-
ing man Of Washington met with only
resentment, bitter criticism, an outrage
upon patriotism. At least this was what
1t was called by the Puritan bred public.
year or so ago Eugene Prussing
made an interesting study and wrote
q deeply significant book, 1.-The Estate
of George Washington, Deceased"
Sounds dull, doesn't 1t! Well, 1t isn't.
Far from It, You see 1t is hardly pos
sible to get closer to man than when
he, looking into future beyond him
self, takes In hand the disposal of such
rewards as life has accorded him. And
so 1t was here. PruSsing, pouring over
these testamentary documents, digging
into the expressed reasons for this be-
quest and that one, working for years
close to Washington in this research,
came finally to the great discovery that
he had found George Washington. He
learned to know him, to feel his motives,
to sense his moods. to understand his
purposes, to appreciate his greatness as
q living man. This, you must agree,
was q great discovery, for US, seeing
the dilemma of pure perfection TO which
washington had been for so long rele-
gated. 1t was great experience.
Read It.
Out of that work came the sketches
that make up this volume The title
brings momentary shock. George
Washington in love? Oh, with Martha,
to be sure, but not in love as boys and
young men find themselves. Real boys
and young men, but not this one.
You'll see. Mr.. Prussing is scholar,
trained investigator, Weighing. apprais-
Ing. evaluating, as he goes. He is also
an understanding and sympathetic
human. Writes beautifully, besides.
He tells us that while working upon
his big book about the Washington
estate, he was constantly coming upon
Washington In q new aspect, or mood,
or potentiality. He grew eager and
commenced q new research, one result
ing In the group of essays offered to
you here. "The story Gin Lovely Is
Washington's. He wrote it"-Prussing
talking-and at Is to my mind the
finest love story In the world" Another
OF these studies presents the great man
as engineer. ut was written in 1920,
bearing upon Herbert Hoover, the engi-
neer, and was completed at the request
OF Hoover on the ground of its value to
the public generally. The other sketches.
The Captain Of Industry and 1.-THE
Bank Of England Stock" were intended
to show Washington as a business man
flrst and then as legislator, to show
him as the man of broad vision, OF
sound principles in business OF both
domestic and international scope.
In q word, this book, projected in the
full power of modern methods OF re-
search, presented in the spirit of true
comprehension and sympathy, and then
offered in a power Of dramatic art that
Is simple and straight moving-thiS
book Is for you, and me and all of Us,
to be reading at this very point of time
In the political procession forming today
all over the country.
y 4 r Il
THE HEART OF BURROUGHS
JOURNAL. Edited by Clara BarruS.
Boston: Houghton Miflin Co.
THE essence Of 81 years of individual
= life. of John Burroughs life, Is the
gift offered by this volume. And It Is
a gift, this record of self-revelation from
one of the greatest Of the lovers Of the
natural world around him. The value
Of John Burroughs may, to some, be
obscured by the simple, homespun quail
ity Of the man who through the nearby
sight and sound and smell and feel of
growing and living things, built up a
wealth of knowledge about the ways of
nature, the significance Of nature. Out
of this, too-out Of this mode of life and
this rich body of fact, Burroughs evolved
satisfying philosophy Of existence as
well. All this, besides, was gained with
SO little Of parade, so little of gesture,
with nothing at all Of pretense and