Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-14
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. G.. M.


Lucky, all around, that the Lyle
Saxons did not come over in the May
! flower. Had they, this history-bent
craftsman of their nth generation would
now be engrossed in sharpening his
words to the sting of witch fires and
| original sin, or rolling them to the
thunders of an angry Jehovah, or lifting
, them to the chill beauty of northern
| mountains, or dragging them to the
| slow responses of q thin reluctant soil
and to the dull monotone of unrelieved
| labor.
Again, happily, the Lyle-Saxons came
| by another way, through a more hos
pitable door that opened upon land
Of tropical sunshine, where the soil was
tree and swinging vine, busy in a
perpetual rivalry of beauty and lure.
And to this wide reckoning there had
| already been eager response out of the
! Old World. French refugee and adj
venturer, Spanish explorer and dis
| coverer and priest, white Americans
from UP North, Creole. Negro and
| indiana population of as lush variety
and richness as the climate and the soil
had achieved in natural resources and
pictured landscape. Strange things
incentive. Strange things did happen.
It was In such setting that the Lyle
Saxon of the adventure in hand had
his start and his growth. AS just a
little lad "Ole Man River" was hts pal
and .playfellow. Nightly, the songs of
the bayou put him to sleep. At day
break a thousand bird-calls sounded
time to get up" This little lad grew
! bigger, as the tribe has 6. way of doing,
and all the time there was soaking
deeper and deeper into his heart the
magic Of the Mississippi, of New Orleans,
of Louisiana. An honest fellow, obvious
! ly, not given to Sinking his debts. SO,
| upon making the discovery that he was
one of the wordy Lyle-Saxons he did
not run of to Timbuctoo or other I'M
known corner of the earth for some
marvel of strangeness to practice his
gift upon. Not at all. He stayed at
home. He renewed-rathsr he expand
ed-h1S acquaintance with his lifelong
neighbor, the Mississippi, and then he
wrote the story of that life as he dis
covered 1t. And We reaped the benefit by
reading Father Mississippi"-tha ire
mendous fellow who through centuries
has been bringing soil from mountain
and hill to lowland, spreading it out
beside him and setting towns and cities
along his way in clean stretch from
Canada to the Gulf. Father Mississippi"
turned out to be the story of giant
| a giant of usually kindly mood and
useful service. But, upon occasion, the
Big River became a monster of sudden
RACES, of wanton and cruel destruction.
A very human story, this of the Father
| of Waters. After it came the fairy tale
of Fabulous New Orleans" Certainly
no other city of the New World-few Of
any world-are so concentrated of
fragrances and glanours and enchant-
ments as is New Orleans-that French
Spanish Creole -American-Negro- Indian
kaleidoscope Of romance, adventure and
plain chronicle.
For the book In hand, odd Louisiana, :"
its author stepped back, farther away
| from his subject. He moved out, lit
| tie, from his warm personal entangle-
ments with river and city. He appears
| to have readjusted the perspective for
| the sake of right placements Of both
fact and its implications. Records OF
historic content-impressive and au-
thentic-are here. Off1cial documents,
old newspaper files, neglected letters,
| legends and tales passing from father
sum of life in the commonwealth Of
Louisiana. Politics, society, war, gov
eminent, religion, education, trade
the complete run of historic evidence
rounds here to an interesting and con-
vincing state chronicle. But-all said
and done, all the demands of both
scholarship and Intellectual conscience
met in full-it turns out, In great good
luck tor the rest of us, that when Lyle
Saxon gets good and ready" and be-
gins to work, 1t Is the story teller, the
picture maker, the poet remembering
things, the artist reseeing old beauties
and gathering new ones-it Is all of
these that sit down to do the work.
And that is quite surprising count for
Lyle Saxon and his books about his
own quarter Of the world.
So, let us say it at once and get it
out Of the way, "Old Louisiana" Is good
and all that. So were the other two
books by this writer.
Plantation People" Masters and
Slaves" "Leisurely Times" "Splendor
and Rust'-these are views under
which the story of Louisiana gathers
and projects itself. A single family,
THE Gay Dangerfields," embodies the
substance Of plantation life in a series
Of personal pictures which embrace the
perpetual visitings from house to
house, the hunting and dancing, the
eating and drinking the reckless waste,
the idleness, the consequent unrest. the
slow lapse into restricted circumstances
and into ultimate poverty. Under these
superficial manifestations Mr.. Saxon
unfailingly sets the economic founda-
ton upon which this kind of life pros
pers or fails. Indeed, the whole ac-
counting here-whether 1t be of social
institution or political practice-goes
down always, but most unobtrusively,
to that rock bottom of history every
where, economic resource and condition.
Masters and Slaves" traces the gradual
rise of slavery and its entailments in
the industrial problem of all slave
holding communities. Here are Incl
dents to tell of the slave himself in his
reaction to his place in the immediate
world of his own existence. Here is the
story of Temba, who murdered his
master, and the strange story Of Pauline,
the AmaZonian negress who tortured
her mistress and the children through
a jealous passion for the lord of the
manor. Pauline was hanged-to be sure.
The master?
Then there comes the great era for
the plantation, the years leading di-
rectly to the Civil War-years of pros
perity, of more leisure and gayety, of
larger land holdings. of finer mansions,
of more slaves for field and household
each plantation a feudal domain of
greater or less extent, of corresponding
social prestige and influence. And, after
the war, come the lean years-poverty,
encouragement. resentment, inactivity
the falling into decay of great houses.
the neglect of lands. the growing rust
of disuse-the melancholy charm of
splendors almost forgotten in the
blurred years of deprivation and UNI
ambition.
The Young Mans Diary and IAN
Old Woman's Letters" give vivid and
Illuminating Views of those old days
of care-free and generous and unfore.
seeing existence. Definite in even small
detail, communicable in spirit and
unrA ithaca htNL Iintat e d.