Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-01
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BooklOver

good material 1or IonuhuCc-Eomance IN
which he has figured not as hero but
as a villain. Scott in his Quentin
Durward" portrays Louis as the pious
hypocrite, the cruel, capricious master,
the political schemer without scrupleS
and the superstitious patron of astrolo-
gers, Alfred Neumann has very re-
Gently made use of Louis as one of the
two central figures in his romance THE
Devil" His picture resembles that of
Scott in many particulars, but he Is
especially concerned with Louis the
sensualist Pierre champion in his his
tory Louis XII gives another side of
Louis, or another Interpretation, that
of Louis as q modern politician. When
he came to the throne kingly power
was weak. The mobiles of Burgundy
and Brittany were more powerful than
the King. Louis was CALLED by this
state of affairs and did not tameiy
submit to it. He warred on the Dukes
of Burgundy and Brittany and duped
them by the use of his more clever
mind. Charles the Bold Of Burgundy
was his most difficult enemy, but he
managed to defeat and outwit him and
finally to establish the French mon
archy, which lasted until the French
Revolution sent Louis XVI to the scat
fold. Louis XXI was also the first King
of France to consider that the common
people had right to existence. Pos
sibly his ideas on the subject were in
fluenced by the fact that the common
people furnished more taxes and more
soldiers If they were fed than If they
were starved. But Louis really liked
peasants better than he did mobiles
Scott represents him, with historical
accuracy, as dressing like a peasant,
frequenting the inns Of the people In a
we'll known disguise and seeking the So
ciety of persons of low degree. He had
what today would be called business
ability and organized the affairs of
France on a more busineSSlike basis, an
important feature of which was the ex-
tracing of taxes from the nobility
The biography of Louis XII by M
Champion Is translated and adapted
by Winifred Stephens Whale. 4
~
Belief In witchcraft as one of many
folk beliefs, with all its horrible conse-
quenceS, Is described by George Lyman
Kittredge In "Witchcraft in Old and
New England" Prof. Kittredge indi-
Gates two sources Of the belief in
witches-the belief among all primitive
peoples that systematically some evil
minded persons could do harm 10
others, and the belief that disease arose
from some supernatural cause. Witch
craft in New England was of the same
type as in Old England, and was by no
means of Puritan origin. It was almost
universal at the time, and had long
ancestry from primitive times. ITO be-
lieve in witchcraft in the seventeenth
century was no more discreditable to q
mans head or heart than it was to
believe In spontaneous generation or to
be ignorant OF the germ theory Of dis
ease" In spite of the many notes and
citations in this book, 1t Is a most in
tereSting narrative of the Anglo-Saxon
history OF superstition which is not
yet extinct.
John Gays London" by William
Henry irving, conveys the impression
that eighteenth century London was
even less safe than the traffic maze
which London is today. Highwaymen
and gangsters Of various sorts so in
tested the streets by night that pedes-
TRANS heSttated to venture out, and
even the aristocratic occupants of sedan
chairs were often assaulted and rubbed
The coffee houses and gaming resorts
were the chief hauntS of the man about
town, and in them John Gay author
OF The Beggar's Opera" lost fortune.
But his popularity in London society
did not wane. In the fashionable draw
ing rooms, as well as in the coffee
houses, and in the play houses, of
course, he was always welcome figure
Gay also knew London street life and
told something of 1t in his Trivia
70 find recreations cheaper than those
afforded by the theaters, swarmed 20
witness the hangings at Tyburn, which
were numerous enough to satisfy the
most sensationally minded.
~~ r. n
Myths of the vampire are related and
explained, as far as superstitipns can
be explained, by Montague Summers in
THE Vampire" Vampire traditions
were extant among the ancient Babylo-
mans and Assyrians, the peoples of
Palestine, the early Mexicans, the Chi
nese, MalayS and peoples of India, ond
are by no means non-exiStent today.
The most common tradition is that of
the vampire corpse which comes forth
from its grave at night and sucks the
blood of living victim, who Is then IN
turn condemned to be q vampire after
death. Some traditions were that peo-
pie who had committed crimes or prac-
ttced black magic became vampires
after death; others that the urlbaptized,
the accommodated and suicides had
this fate awaiting them. A very inter-
eSting chapter is THE Vampire in Lit
vampire theme in poetry, drama and
romance. This book would be q great
discovery for a teller Of tales of horror,
like Poe or some later counterpart, or
even amateurs who desire a grueSome
story with which to entertain q Preside
audience on Halloween or a similar
festival
The odd title, 1.-THE Salt-Box House."
used by Jane de Forest Shelton for her
book the subtitle of which Is Eight
zenith Century Life in a New England
Hill Town." needs explanation. A salt
box house is house supposed 10 look
like a Colonial salt box, with the ridge
pole angle far forward and the roof
sloping in the rear to the first story.
This book Is the history of a family
which built one of these houses In 1853
In Connecticut and lived there for sew
eral generations.
X ~.
Charles Nordhoff, whose books "The
Pearl Lagoon" and 1.-THE Derelict" re-
cord the adventures in the South Seas
OF one Charles Selden, knows intimate
~ the scenes which he describes. After
the war, during which he served in the
Lafayette EScadrille and was awarded
the Croix de Guerre, he migrated to
Tahiti with his friend James Norman
Hall. Mr.. Nordhoff married a Tahiti
girl and has become thoroughly accii-
mated in the South Seas. He leads an
existence which is mingling Of trop-
ical leisure and Occidental work, writing
every morning and spending his after
moons and evenings in fishing and
studying ethnology and oceanic philol-
ogy, his hobbies.
4 X r.
"Hobnails and Heather" by Clifton
Isle, with an introduction by Sir Rob-
ert Baden-Powell is the story OF the
first international American Boy Scouts
hike in 1927. The story Is dedicated to