Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-17
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. C.. M.

b by way OF 'PurltanS Progress" arthur
Train steps out into the past of this
country. His errand, to recapture the
f, high points of its career, to size up for
letter or worse the quality of its pro-
EEreSSion into the present, the promise
of its already poised leap into the
future.
| So, this is history. American at that
| and of the Puritan brand A world
| chapter so new and so near as to in
| capacitate it for any competition with
| the ancientry of far regions wrapped
| with gorgeous interweaves of fact, ira
| dition, legend, myth and plain fiction.
II indifference chance to be your tack
toward this adventure, better turn
around and start again. For the true
concern of the enterprise in hand is
directly with you and your family and
| the neighbors roundabout, with today
and tomorrow. Mr.. Train has simply
taken long running start to reach you
| by way of those greatly influential Puri-
tans. your forbears and his.
A personal story wins where the i'm
| personal account falls away into slack
places of the mind. This is a personal
story of the authors father and grand
| father, with several greats" of the
| tribe thrown in. The story of your
| folks, too. Puritans, many of them,
| dyed in the wool over in England where
the trouble began.
Another account for the clear seduc-
| ton of this enterprise is that it begins
| with the moment, this moment. Just a
live incident to project the dizzying
| present Of motor cars, airships, music
| all over the place from daybreak till
| another dawn, business on the air
| shouting its wares, politics and society
screaming over the radio. The world
awning. The air we breathe blatant
| with money and competition and excite
ment and confusion. And here we are
| going along.
Now If Mr. Train had been the real
thing in erudition and proper method
he would have set out from Plymouth
Rock, or beyond, coming on in staid
and orderly fashion up to this period
OF miracles. If he had done this his
| listeners would, more than likely, have
| fallen asleep even with him, or would
| have turned On the radio for something
alive and doing. A count for readers,
| and for him. that he has more of drama
| IN his makeup than of pedagogical
purpose and plan.
Orderly as order itself, the story. once
| this authors individuality of approach
| and procedure has been established
The general history of the United
/ states Is recorded, In the main, by way
- 40 Wal d Lie oGOIy III mana QOeS nOt
| oepart greatly from the rule. It's points
| OF stress give to it the good measure of
| originality and fresh vision that it SO
| clearly possesses. Such emphasis fol-
| lows the trail of the Puritan through
the growth of the United States. makes
clear his influence, individually strong
ana as rule benehcent, upon all vital
concerns within the expanding Repub-
| nc. Hating war-or SO he Says-the
| RI %
! Mexican, Civil, Spanish-American and
the World War, fighting the battles of
righteousness with the Lord of Hosts
so he says.
Arthur Train comes to us here bring
| ing vitalizing richness of new fact
about the life and influence of the
/ Puritan, these dug from innumerable
neglected and hidden corners. The high
| point OF disclosure, however, is that the
puritan is right now on the JOB doing
llS duty In most dismaying are of
| Incense as vigorously as he did three
centuries ago. Ever the supersleuth in
| discovering sinners, ever the honest ad-
| Vocate Of real Satan whose home fires
| the Puritan kept burning, ever the
| greatest foe Of wrongdoing, ever dis
trustful OF pleasure as a vile of the
Adversary-the Puritan Is not only very
! much alive today, as Arthur Train
Il,
| but never before has he had quite so
Herculean a job on his hands as he has
right now in battling the new freedom,
! which, truly, is calculated to make even
| looser and laXer monitors stand dazed
and distraught.
Gathering, in effect, that this Is still
| Puritanical world in most of its i'm
| portant phases, sharing in a measure
| the problems that the Puritan sees to-
HqV-Hhlpf1U thncn 1.icion ~
| licenses and ATTITUDES of youth, from
the loose family bond, from the devo-
| ton to pleasure rather than to duty
| nevertheless this good optimist and
| finely tried humanitarian refuses to see
| gloom alone as the only medium of
| progress. On the other hand, out of an eX-
| perience second to none in the shadier
! regions of current life, Arthur Train,
| happily and hopefully and most com
| municably, transmits to readers good
! and promising outlook that is based
| upon his own wide and deep intercourse
with man in every possible circum-
! stance.
| Absorbing throughout, stirring upon
| every page, is this outlook upon Amer
| lea, past and present, by way of the
| continuing vigor of the Puritan in every
considerable aspect of our national ad-
vance.
| A brilliant thing that, nevertheless, is
| packed with the good substance of fact
| and with the keen perception of a pro-
! fesSional in human nature. Not the
best of the Arthur Train stories gives,
! as entertainment alone, more of dra-
matte power than does this serious out
look, so srnilingly presented, upon the
! Puritan in America.
| X x X X
THE INTERNATIONAL CITY OF
a,.f
Stanford University Press.
One of the stanford Books. in World
| Politics." a series of immediate interest
and usefulness, sourced in live scholar
| ship and projected in keen recognition
of modern political conditions with the
| problems that these so Often include.
DR.. Stuart's study of Tangier consti-
| tutes single chapter in the growth of
| Observation-Disclosures somewhat recent
outgroWth of the increasing contiguity
of nations. The distinct usefulness of
the book lies in the simplicity of pre-
| senting single item, complete and
seizable, out of the infinite completely
| and obscurity of internationalism in its
| full scope of action and effect. Under
| this consideration, Tangier the Interna-
| tional stands out as a growth, as an
| eventuality rooted in certain conditions.
1t could, finally, have been nothing
else than a center of joined national
interests, than an international admin
istrative field. The approach to this
final status of that particular point on
| thu earths surface reads like any other
vital concern of the human tribe. Po-
sition alone in the beginning settled the
| destiny of this town. European trade
met there in rivalry. European hunger
for larger domains of control counted
upon this corner of Africa as one of
individual possession. There are few
| such points on the earth. Not many
of them. And all of than, simply out
of the riyalries of nations, must become
| just that which Tangier already Is. The
| first chanter Of this study gives the his