Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-20
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the Bookloper

Few books of biographical nature,
even though they be professed accounts
Of adventure, are so full of dramatic
anecdotes which often pass the bounds
of probability as 1.-THE Story of San
Michele" by AXel Munthe The author,
a Swede, the youngest man ever to re-
ceive the M d. degree in France. a
student with Charcot at the Salpetriere,
became a fashionable nerve specialist
in Paris and later in Rome. He found
refuge from neurotic patients and
jealous colleagues and other ills of life,
including insomnia, at Anacapri, high
up on the Island of Capri, reached by
III steps, supposed to have been built
by Tiberius. He purchased from
Mastro Vincenzo his little house and
garden on the site of villa of Tiberius,
then a ruined chapel farther UP the
mountain side, finally the whole noun
tain, which he made into bird sanctu-
airy. He named his home San Michele
from the ruined chapel, and after many
Summers of work, with the Anacapri
peasants working under his direction,
he transformed the whole into a maze
Of loggias, colonnades, cypress avenues
and gardens, with Greek theater and
an antique sphinx looking from the
Rdt uDCb Wy b4lC Out ONcI LIlC Sea-
The building was done without archi-
tect or proper drawing. DR.. Munthe
sketched roughly his ideas with char
coal on Whitewashed wall and MAESTRO
Nicola, his head worker, who had an
inherited genius for building columns,
carried out the ideas. Much of the
building material was "roba di Tim
berio," valuable stone and marble dug
from the Roman ruins below the garden
OCfrr 60 -
San Michele" is not entirely or even
chiefly devoted to the account of the
building Of this remarkable mountain
home. It is chapters or fragments of
the varied and tense life Of DR.. Munthe,
as physician, traveller, animal lover,
neutrality-suspicious. he would prob
ably not like the use of that last term,
for he represents himself as something
of a misanthrope.
One of the most ironic and gruesome
episodes in THE Story of San Michele"
is that of an occasion when DIR. Munthe
agreed to accompany a Swedish boy
dying of consumption from San Reno to
his home in Sweden. The boy died at
Heidelberg and the doctor, in order to
save the family expense, embalmed the
body himself. The next day, about to
leave, he found that the German law
required corpses to be accompanied and
faced the necessity of making the long
journey in the van. At the last mo-
ment he encountered a professional
Electromagnetic" named Zaccharias
SchWeinfuSS, who was ACCOMPANYING
the corpse of a Russian general to
Nijni-Novgorod and agreed also to take
charge of the Swedish boys coffin. At
Stockholm the doctor was informed by
a colleague, the family doctor of the
deceased boy, that the mother wished
to have the coffin opened. "Of course.
would never have embalmed the body
myself" says DR.. Munthe. had such a
possibility ever entered my head. 1
knew l had meant well, but done badly,
that in all probability the opening of
the coffin would reveal a terrible sight.
My first thought was to bolt and take
the night train for Paris. My second
thought was to stay where I was and
play the game There was no time to
lose. Shortly after midnight I de-
scended to the vault under the church
accompanied by the custodian of the
cemetery and a workman who was to
open the two collins When the
lid Of the inner lead coffin was
unSoldered the two men stood back
in silent reverence before the awe of
death. took the lantern from the Gus
todian and uncovered the face The
lantern fell on the floor l reeled back
as If struck by an invisible hand" The
body in the coffin was that of the Rus
sian general; the body of the Swedish
boy had gone on into the heart of Rus
STA. Il called on Prof. Bruzelius in the
early morning. / told him that the
sight / had seen in the night would
haunt the poor mother for life, that he
must at all costs prevent the opening
of the coffin" The next day at the flu
neral the clergyman said that ut was
at least a comfort to those who stood
mourning around his premature grave
that he had come back to rest among
his own people in the land of his birth"
X
The episode of the monkey Billy, one
Of the miscellaneous family at San
Michele. composed of the doctor himself,
numerous Anacapri peasant workers,
cats, dogs, tortoises, an owl, mongoose,
birds, and monkeys, is more cheerful,
though 1t also has to do with funeral.
During an absence of the doctor from
the island, Don Giacinto richest and
most greedy man in Capri, had died and
his BODY was placed in magnificent
CONN on an equally magnificent cata-
faIque and left to lie in state in the
cathedral of San Costanzo. During the
night some Vandal broke into the cathe-
dral and had knocked down the burning
candelaDra and set fire to the coffin.
Public opinion was divided in theory as
TO the cause. Some people said 1t was
IL Demonio who had knocked down the
wax candelabra by the catafalQue to set
Don Glacinto on fire. Others said that
1t had been done by band of brigands
VINO had come to steal the silver statue
OF San Costanzo. Meanwhile. the Sin
daco and the municipal councillors had
sent TO Sorrento for the carbinieri and
were beginning an investigation. The
people OF Anacapri were frankly delight
ed, for the feud between the Capresi and
the Anacapresi was centuries old, and
were already preparing a celebration
with holiday, Sunday clothes Are
works, and band. Other damage had
been done in Capri, probably bv the
same vandal" The famous exhibition
painting of Prof. Raffaele Parmigiano.
I1ber1o Swimming in the Blue Grotto,"
had been splaShed all over with daubs
OF ultramarine and other canvases had
been torn from their frames. When the
DOCTOR arrived at the pergola occupied
by Billy, where that very human mon
key was engaged in teasing tortoise he
noticed that Billy's fingernails were bril-
liantly colored with ultramarine and
that his tail was scorched. Before at
lacking the problem of justice and adj
Justment ahead of him, he INDUCED in
the ironic comment: Billy. 1 rather
liked your retouches to 'Tiberio Swim
ming in the Blue Grotto.' I Thought IL
an Improvement on the original. ID re-
minded me OF picture 1 saw last year
in the Salon Of the F'uturists in Paris"
X y
Lieut. Col. Arthur Osburn. in his
book. Must England Lose India9"
answers his own question by the state
ment The writer looks forward to
a time when the United States of India
VIII dwell contented within the orbit of