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

of trees. Just the wild life of animals
roundabout, as sagacious within their
sphere of existence as man himself
appears to be. Just the marvel of Sum-
mer and Winter, joined by the surpass-
ing loneliness of Spring and the rich
glory of Autumn. Just working in the
soil, cooperating with it for its lush
and varied products. Just these things
made the life of John Burroughs great
and surprising one. Then, his friends
too, the sort of man and woman that
he naturally drew to him. Close to the
ground, all of them, close to work, close
to the straight outlook and the vigorous
grip with both mind and hand-Walt
Whitman, Roosevelt, Edison, Henry Ford
and FireStone and others. All of his
own grain, all of his lean and Sinewy
fiber. And, luckily for the rest of us
Burroughs learned to write, to write in
his way--the direct and simple short
cut of saying things, yet never so con-
denSed as to exclude the deep feeling for
the natural world around him, the so
beautiful natural world. And this
Journal, this 67-year confidence, that is
passed on to us here, stands as one of
his greatest acts Of friendliness to men
and women everywhere admitting all of
us to this surprising life of intimacy
0AA0 A0VC Will t11C
the natural things. / know a boy
he's a man how but 1 still call him a
boy-who has a school for boys up on
the Hudson, up John Burroughs way
And into that school he has put the
John Burroughs spirit-work in the
open, living with the woods Summer and
WINTER, learning the ways Of outdoor
things and loving them, loving trees not
one Of which can be felled without
absolute cause for the act, and never
one taken out OF the ground without its
place being taken by a carefully selected
successor able to carry on the glory and
tradition of the older tree. Consciously
and deliberately has this boy. this man,
imbued the place with much Of John
Burroughs-straight thinking and feel
ing and doing, respect and love and
Difference to the soil, the mothering
soll-sentimentS and activities that build
human stuff Of the best-John Bur-
roughs' stuff. Well. to go back to THE
Heart OF Burroughs Journals',-here il
Is, compact book, easy to handle, easy
to read and most easy to let into the
soul OF any reader who Is in some de-
gree akin to the stripe of Burroughs and
MS friends-the Fords and EdisonS and
Wh1tmans and Roosevelts and the rest
OF the plain nature-loving family.
y X +
THE WANDERER. BY Alain- Fournier.
Translated from the French by
Francoise Delisle. Boston: Hough-
ton Miffiin Co.
IN effect this story is as wide as
human nature itself. In fact, how
ever, 1t includes no more than a village
corner OF France and the small activi-
ties OF little school set down therein.
A place for boys to study and play in,
place Tor the making of friendships
and dislikes, for the setting out from
home for what may befaIl' And one
day there came to the school q new
hoy-that signal boy who by his differ
enceS from the common run around him
takes his place by conceded right as
leader. The new boy. Admiral Meaul-
mes" immediately assumes command of
this tale, carrying 1t through school,
days and ON into the affairs Of life. As
Tor the record itself. nothing could be
simpler, clearer, more eye-to-eye than
is this one. A lovely stretch of France,
homtng men and women of contented
life, of plain work, of few diversions.
1t Is the new boy, this Meaulnes, who
iniects into it the reach of its impact,
the searching character of its appeal.
For this is the ''wanderer." the restless
one, the adventurer. running away and
returning, going and coming, through
out the years and throughout the story,
Everybody Is VANDERBILT his mind.
at least. However firmly the feet may
be set IN a certain narrow path, the
mind Is free to ny away to the far
corners OF the earth. And 1t does this,
else life would be too little and too dull
Tor enduring. Dreams and visions of
lovely remote things, of going to these,
OF finding other dreams and following
them-we all have these. And, here,
1t makes the tie between US and the
hero OF this tale. A ruthless youngster,
an unminding man-selflsh, heartleSs in
his behaviorS. But-what matterl He
follows the call of the far dream and
thinks he is happy. Make much Of this
lovely bit Of story-making. Written is
years ago, the flrst venture in the field
OF fiction. 1t was obscured by the over
weight of war interests. Literature had
no Office in those days. So its author,
more or less forgetting his story, went
away to the war. He did not come
back. Therefore. read this beautiful
gesture toward romance that Is all
clarity, simplicity, beauty. reality.
y
THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY.
BY William E. Barton, author Of 1.-THE
Great Good Man." etc. Indianapolis:
The Bobbs-MerTill Co.
HAPPILY here william E. Barton has
= i drawn from his storehouse of his
tory tales Of the boy Washington.
Some Of these are familiar stories.
Many more of them point to fresh re-
search and new testing on the part Of
the author. Here we find a rather
ungainly youth, mostly hands and feet;
shy fellow, tremendously conscious Of
himself, especially when the lovely girls
were around. They we're all lovely It
seemed to this blushing youth. The
record goes on to tell of the young
engineer on In the west-the Far West