Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-04
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
l. C. M.

linson. Harper &c Bros.
at could hardly have happened had
I not-yesterday, last week, five years
ago or ten, or more-done this or that.
gone here or there"
A statement of cause and effect, so
simnle and commonplace as to include
practically everybody within its recog-
milton and use.
Today is fashioned out Of the yes
terdavs-shaped, colored, projected by
these The present is but the past.
moving forward united and invincible,
to set up it's claim, to demand its due
from that which is, in essence, its own
definite creation.
Such-expanded to the measure of
national limits and international over
lappings-is the theme of the new Tom
linson novel. The past, so rounded
here, is of English pattern, naturally.
Yet. the matter concluded, would serve
to cover every land and nationality now
existent. cover it as neatly as lid fits
to its own bucket. Sixteen years ago
a seemingly unacceptable urgency of de-
nand and drive created world crisis
which produced war UNNECESSARILY
greater in destruction than savapery or
barbarism was ever able to achieve-in
an era boastful of its humanitarian pur-
pose, besides.
"All Our Yesterdays" is a story of the
Great War. Patterning upon the event
| itself Mr.. TomlinSon devotes the bulk
of his attention to planting the
seeds of war. The final third of the
story pictures the slaughter itself. The
record goes back, away back to the
Boer War. For it was then that new
phase of English megalomania set in
new sensitlVeness, ready grievance
over fancied sights to national pride
and slurs upon national prestige. Then
rose, refurbished, the English fiction of
the little island" dependent upon
wider imperial domain for continued
existence. War and conquest consti-
| tuted the heart of this fiction Then
began anew the training of English
youth to the tradition of EnglandS
glory. Then was fabricated the hokum
of the new patriotism, under whose per-
! suasion the lads of Britain were ex-
pected to rush forward in gladness to
quiet for the moment the noisy hunger
of Unsuitable cannon.
Mr.. Tomlinson traverSes this long ap-
| proach to the Great War in great
elaboration. For in this 30-year span
between the Boer War and the World
| War lies, scattered all over Europe, the
seed Of the great conflict, its tending
and its harvesting-to the desolation of
millionS-to the advantage of nothing
of nobody, either as individual men or
in the collective sense of nations.
The story begins with a portent
Down on the London docks monster
! ship is being launched-on a day 80
years ago-with circumstance of pride
and pageantry. One dull-wit opines
that it is "too big, II swallow us all
+ we don't look out''-a sentiment that
meets prompt reputation in the rough
fisticuffs Of the dockman. English
patriotism working. From this point a
leisurely movement gathers up in con-
vincing drama one significant moment
after another wherein the content of
future war lies, as notwithstanding as
a moth in its cocoon. Only few
people are called upon to set this drama
to action, to deliver its ultimate of
effect and significance. A few working
men, a group Of newsmen, journalists
and correspondents for Spying out the
land" and gathering up the facts and
implications of fact. Shadowy law
makers and remote military leaders are
useful chiefly as suggestive of the plain
security Of their respective positions. It
is the rank and file of feeling and
opinion, the rank and file of actual
service, that occupy the front here-all
pawns, to be sure, moving by command,
by order emanating from the safe
hinterland of G. H. @. Yet, the only
reliable sources, after all, Of the state
of mind and feeling Of the people. Once
in a while one of these speaks out in
blasphemouS spirit, saying that they'd
all better refuse to stir step. Several
times does this clearly renegade notion
find voice. Yet-and yet-that is what
finally will come. This is not Mr..
| Tomlinson talking. He leaves the
thought with Bill, or Jim. That finally"
was my own clearly improper interpola-
ton.
In the scope of its conception, in
the SoundneSs of its thesis, in the con-
vincing picture of its demonstration,
in its tragedy-personal and national,
IN its effect OF world tragedy-in the
narrowing scenes of war itself and in
the quality of its story projection, here
IS great story. The one that was
expected from Mr.. Tomlinson. A true
Statesman-in spirit and power-con-
ceived this novel. And a dramatist
of special and peculiar gift delivered
1t to readers. There may be greater
and more useful war books than this
one. I don't believe it, nor do recall
one with anything like the reach and
depth of spirit that animates "Al Our
Yesterdays"
A tribute to readers generally that
H. M. Tomlinson and Manuel Kom-
roff are persistent with books that
continue to be in undiminished demand
All Our Yesterdays" and "Coronet."
X 4 X
BOURRU: SOLDIER OF FRANCE.
Jean deS VigneS Rouges. Trans
lated by Ernest Hunter Wright. E.
p. Dutton & Co.
A single French soldier, "Bourrll";
single hill of France, Vauquois,
fought over and over again-these two
stand for millions of soldiers on the
one hand and for hundreds of war
shattered hills Of France on the other.
Simplification carried to excess, do you
say? Read the story first and only then
offer an opinion. Vauquois becomes a
shrine to the French soldiery around
1t, or calvary of their deep desire,
as 1t week by week and month by
month Is raked by German shells that
fail to destroy it utterly, and rather
impart to 1t magic of imprSgnability
which to the boys advancing toward
1t and retreating from it becomes to
them a sort of religious possession.
Yet this story of war is not keyed to
any degree OF spiritual uplift. Such
OF this as 1t contains is implicit within
the substance of the matter, something
with which the writer is so abSorbingly
concerned. It is with attack and re-
pulse, with attack and transient vic
tory-these two playing fast and loose
with Vauquois through weeks Of ex-
tstence that is of indescrib-
able bitterness as it is, in part,
set down here. Bourru and his COM
panions, a mere shifting handful OF
these, are the war; in so far as Vauquois,
"unconquerable France" is concerned.
The lines Of trench, the front line and
that supporting one, out of which men
crawl, slipping in deep mud, grasping
an arm or leg for leverage, hardly