Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-09
% IDA GILBERT MYER
Sir Philip Gibbs Contributes II Disturbing
Story of the WorM atPeace" -Volumes on
Secret Servlce-IHe NezUest NoUeLs.

ming to come. More and more will they appear
since the subject seems to be fashioned fol-
dramatization as well for plain utility
Laurence La Tourette briggs is quite peculiarly
fitted to step into the role of romantic adj
ventuerr py way of aviation. An airrnan whC
knows his job to the extent of having lived il
under every manner Of trial and of having writ
ten more than one air adventure that was
based upon a foundation of actuality in con-
crete fact itself. "On Secret Air Service" is a
superb story In its essentials it is a true
story. Dangerous enterprises of the secret
service stripe lift it to keen excitement of eff.
feet. The clearly accurate account of such
movements as are here set down places the
record fairly in the hands of young en-
thlsiasts of the air. Here is book to learn
by, as well as. book to give an excellent
quality of entertainment. 1t is a very COM
municable story. One actually goes along upon
the various secret errands around Luxembourg
where the matter centers. If the reader is
older and pines for love story here it Is Not
so convincing as the air enterprise, however
but that is of little account. 1t is the swift
and robust account of this secret service OF the
air itself that gives the novel its prompt and
distinct appeal
THE BACK-TO-BACKS BY J. c. Grant New
York: Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith
HELL has ever been one of the ENDORSEMENTS
to its highest achievements. Poet, painter
prophet. singer and psalmist have throughout
the ages sought to objectify the super-fear of
man in regard TO a future life And nova
days art Is as busy with that subject as it al
ways has been. The new difference lies in a
shift of place for this region of the doomed.
From some vague Plutonian shore it has been
brought close. set down within the earth it
self Today there is recognized the hell of
poverty and sickness and hunger and grinding
drudgery that speedily ages the young and as
swiftly sweeps away the old.
The particular he'll with which this terrible
novel has to do lies in England, facing the set
tied RACES of the North Sea. A. coal-minine
settlement. One street reaching from the
mouth OF the coal pit to the graveyard A
Shiny lane of street, black with coal and
sea mists mixed to. gummy sickness that
pulls hard upon tired feet The other name of
that coal-pit town is Haggar. Upon it the sun
never does shine, for the sea mists are auto
Gratis in their own way. Back-to-back along
this thread OF inky highway stand the novels
OF the miners. And within them life tugs
and struggles with ITSELF ashamed, I'm sure, of
doing out such misery to humans glorified like
the rest OF us, by divine act Of creation It
IS with this place and with these people that
]. @. Grant takes turn at the savage art Of
realistic projection. Not a shred of beauty,
not grain Of hope, not CLEAN of gladness
Men and women and children oh, yes, they
AT rare moments one playS-the boy that
played joke on the passing stranger who
wanted TO shake hands with him. Didn't have
right hand to shake with Torn of in the
pit. Well, the other hand. Didn't have any
other hand-that, too, left IN the mine Huge
Joke over which the lad went shouting in
laughter over his handleSs state. A girl--yes
she might have been beautiful. Certainly she
had the courage of lions, Of martyrs
You want to read this story? Better Go it,
Tor without doubt here Is art, perfected In the
grim truth Of human existence In one of its
fathomless depths Of misery. A wonderfully
restrained work, where the urge is clearly
IN the side of-not of excess. since that "a hard
~ poSSible-but of unloading the fun truth Of
the enormous crime Of poverty and its entail
ments Grim, bleak, unbearable, true-and
beautiful
PINNACIES OF PERSONALITY. BY DR.
Henry Clay Risner. Introduction by George
Sons.
HE alliterative title points upon the ton
notch of individual excellence. This
multiplied and massed in concrete example,
sums 70 big bulk Of human worth whose dis
closure under every sort of circumstance is
clearly the useful mission Of DR. Risner And
a gooo mission 1t is since unworth is as a rule
more readily brought into the open than its
opposite
Preacher, traveller, lecturer, writer in Army
service during the World War hunter of men
In every case and all cases. Man is 80 per cent
good. Such is the conviction that despite
preachments to the contrary. sets this adven-
turer in man stuff out to prove that vital
assumption. So, along the road of life he halls
everybody-high and low, poor and rich the
happy and the forlorn. In each he finds and
hauis into the open that which he is uuesting
OF course Everybody finds that which he seeks
Everybody gets that which he gives. Therefore
this friendly, believing, comradely man becomes
engrossed in the enterprise of collecting or
ganfzing, projecting the worthwhileness of the
world as definite instrument of general we'll
being and enlarged happiness. Innumerable