Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-11
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
I. C. M.


Lowell Thomas India adventure
turned out, finally, to be 10000 miles
wide and two years deep where, at the
start, it promised but q small fraction
Of either such time or space.
II had thought of India as q country
one could see and be satisfied to come
away from in a month or two. But in
stead OF two months stayed two years.
Even then I was not content. I wanted
to remain on and on" Good evidence
by a world-wise man of the surprising
charm so generally claimed for India by
travellers ana reporters.
This was the way of it. On q night
in camp at the edge OF the desert Of
Sinai some one asked, Have you ever
heard of Black Pagoda2" Not so much
by way of question, but quite tremen-
dous in its effect upon Lowell Thomas,
nomad, vagabond, man of restless and
fidgety feet. In no time at all he was
on his way to the "Pagoda" and, in
cidentally, on his way to another
Thomas adventure. He describes this
wonder of an ancient day and civili-
zation. A great temple, It's outer walls
crowded with carvings-huge and mon
strous, oVerlaid with dense handiwork
OF the rarest delicacy--all dedicated to
the gods Of fecundity, to the repro
dllntive powers Of the natural world and
Of animate life as well. Here is q pic
torialized religion, an act Of religious
homage to the great gods Of power and
vengeance.
through the temperate areas and on to
the Himalayas this man whose curl
osity is as eager as his feet are tireless
takes his way. Nothing appears TO es-
cape him. The look of the land in its
moods OF nssd and stream, of hill and
tangled jungle: the appearance Of the
people in Their rigidly defined orders of
rank and caste, in their occupations
here and their ingrained idleness there;
the historic source OF some current Gus
tom, the quality OF religion making
headway toward better world through
100 Fahrenhett" In this one, the COM
mon rivalries of race, antagonistic. re-
ligious practices and beliefs, diverse
civilizations, the new against the incon-
cetvably old-all these outreaching So
llcitations and hundreds Of others aSsail
this traveller, so wide open to the lure
OF far places and strange peoples.
AT one time Thomas is plain census
taker-nothing else. Like q veritable
Yankee, he makes exact enumerations
and classifications. Little budgets of
fact-the population of this. area OF
that one, its racial proportions, the oc-
equations of the people, the products OF
their industry and the distribution of
these. Painstaking and dependable ap-
pear to be the current accountings of
this modern man of business. Much
more Of the time, however, Thomas is
the pure adventurer, a treasure seeker,
digging around some surface rite or
ceremony or custom to find the deep
rootage from which it sprung. Out
from such ardent, and arduous, delv-
hT1nOC ~ q cf foc
cinating truth sourced in the Dravidian
stock, then on up through the Aryan
into the vast conglomerate of the pres
ent. About once q minute this spade
man comes to the top with q fresh
trophy in hand. Here are strange tales
of goddesses-KaH and innumerable
others. Not an illogical belief, that in
goddesses. If perpetuity of life is the
absorbing passion Of man, If the female
Is biologicaly the agent of such ever
lastingness, then, Of course, the god
dess and not the god. So the heather
reasoned, not counting, not knowing of
any spiritual significance such as the
modern religion has bestowed upon
man. SO the goddess ruled in those
ancient days. Then the matriarch.
Then-well that is another story. In
stead Of wandering like this, Thomas
tells Of the things at hand-bIack
magic, the yoga. the serpent-power,
temple rites mysterious and appalling,
the guru or wise man sitting by the
roadside dispensing the lessons Of the
past, the wisdom OF the present, faint,
gauZy emblems Of the future.
A vast and kaleidoscope panorama.
The marvel Is that 1t can be ordered
to the confines of any single book In
an effort of conferred information and
illumination. 1t has been done before.
Triumphantly 1t is done here by this
picturesque adventurer. The other name
of Lowell Thomas. with Lawrence in
Arabia" he won his title. With a dozen
books since then he has ably main
tained 1t. 1t Is not too much to say,
also, that 1.-THE Black Pagoda" Is a dis
tinct achievement even among its own
distinguished book confreres of the
Lowell Thomas clan. Richly dressed in
ebon and gold, 1.-THE Black Pagoda -
with its sumptuous story and its lavish
picturings, is something of a spectacle,
as it Is indubitably an absorbing story
OF fact gathered, first-hand, out Of
India.
ATOLLS OF THE SUN. Frederick
O'Brien. The Century Co.
There is good reason for the reissue
OF this beloved travel book, "Atolls of
bAAC Oull. Al Vic HcW DOOk~tTlDc,
"Vagabond Books" Frederick O'Briens
story of the South Seas holds high place.
Some other author-memberS of the new
order are Lowell Thomas, Alexander
Powell, Harry Hervey, William Nc
Govern, Blair Niles, Eleanor Mordaunt,
whose fine books of travel and adven-
ture are now available to everybody
The Vagabond used to be quite out
side the pale. Now he sits happily
within the respectable family circle.
To this spot in his infinite variety of
temperament and outlook and accom-
plishment he comes as the most well
come of all the travellers with book in
his pack. Especially important in re-
Spect to these writing rovers is the mat
ter Of mood and temperament. s"Atolls
of the Sun" stands as a case in point.
Frederick O'Brien is poet before he is
anything else. A streak of the wanderer
in him combines with the lyrist, and
the two set out to see the world. The
first place for them is, naturally, those
magic islands of the South Seas There
these two, together, loiter and loaf and
live. They soak up the ineffable sun
shine Of Tahiti, its sea, its shores, its
people and all their ways. Then the
two begin to tell us about it in words
that sound like singing, though they
step of sedately as plain progression.
Now and then some reader is of the
stripe who does not know that two and
two make five quite as often and as
convincingly as they sum to four. He
says-such reader says-that O'Brien's
account is fanciful, more poetry than
sober prose. 1t is fanciful, and beauti-
full and, without doubt, true. AS poets
cannot be expected to give us sunshine
by the medium of mere paint, he
washes it into the picture with the
poets eye and the great artists hand
A dreamer sees the visions which we
know are there, but which without his
help we cannot reach. And so we read
and read again some books for the ar