Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-11
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the Booklover

large, plump volume entitled 'R. "
r." expecting, from the reviews and
from the subtitle, THE Life and Times
of Rembrandt van Rim" to find a biog-
raphy of Rembrandt. Perhaps the au-
thor, Hendrix Willem van Loon, in
tended in the beginning to write life
OF Rembrandt, perhaps not, but the
actual performance is much more a
life OF his own medical ancestor, joan
mis- van Loon, friend of Rembrandt
than 1t is Of Rembrandt himself. Rem
brandt comes into and goes out OF the
picture frequently, but is at no time its
center. The foreword, supposed to have
been written by DR.. JoanniS van Loon
| October 8, 1869, tells of the funeral and
burial Of Rembrandt, paid for by his
| friend. The doctor then goes back, for
| the plump book purports to be his reni-
niscences, and tells how he first met
| Rembrandt and of their second meet
! ing at the bedside of the mortally Ill
Saskia, Rembrandt'S first wife. Shortly
/ however, the doctor becomes more in
| tereSted in his own life, with its strug-
| gle for the advancement of medicine
or we should rather say, Mr.. Hendrix
van Loon becomes more interested in It.
We have only occasional glimpses OF
Rembrandt, when the doctor happens
to call to see Sasha or goes in the eve
ming to play chess with the painter Mt
the invalids bedside. We almost lose
sight of Rembrandt for over 80 chap
tiers, while the doctor tells of his own
family, the loss of his wife, his visit to
America and the war between the
Dutch and the English. The doctors
own story Is interesting enough, for he
was an advanced thinker and a pio-
neer in the use Of anesthetics and hos
pitalization. Dutch life and customs of
that period are also interestingly de-
scribed. But why is the book called
"R. V. r.? Why not, more appropri-
ately, 81. v. L.? Joannis van Loon is
thus described on the title page: DOC
tor Medicinae and Chirurgeon in Ex-
traordinary to vast number of humble
| citizens, whose enduring gratitude has
erected him a monument less perishable
than granite and more enduring than
| porphyry and who, during a most busy
life, yet found time to write down these
personal recollections of the greatest of
his fellow citizens and which are now
for the first time presented Crowded
With as few notes, emendationS and
critical observations as possible) by his
great-great-grandson, nine times re-
moved, Hendrix Willem van Loon"
X
The story Of the last days of Sasha
| In "R. V. r." is sympathetically told
with the realization that she need not
have died in her youth II medical SCI
ence had been farther advanced or
| even If DR.. Joannis van Loon had been
called in sooner and his superior intelli-
gence had not been thwarted by the
! ignorant obStinacy Of SaSkia's nurse. Al
| the time when DR.. Van Loon was sent
! for to come to the house In the An
thonie Breestraat, which Rembrandt
had bought but not paid for, Saskia
was not yet 30 and had borne four
| children, three of whom had died soon
after they were born "of nothing In
particular" The youngest, the baby
| Titus, was lying in a cradle beside the
bed of the sick mother. Sasha was
| very Ill with tuberculosis, several centu-
! ries before that name was used for the
disease. She was lying "in big bed
| that had been built within the wall, for
| only the very rich have thus far taken
to the French custom of sleeping in
| those -postered affairs that stand
in the middle of the room and are ex-
posed to all the drauglts Of the night u
Saskia was of better family than Rem
| brandt, Leyden miller's son, for her
father was that Rombertus van Uylen-
burgh who had been lunching with the
| Prince of Orange when Gerard muir
dered him. He had been burgomaSter
the prince to talk about the political
situation in the north" Sasha had
| been beautiful girl, though perhaps
not as beautiful as Rembrandt had
| made her in his pictures of her, in
which he had delighted to deck her In
jewels and garments of rich texture.
She had faded early, had had no re-
sistance to offer to the ordinary strains
of life DR.. Van Loon knew that she
q. 60 -,
had no chance of recovery. He thought
also that her disease might be conta-
gious and ordered that the child be re-
moved to another room. In this he
was disobeyed by the stubborn nurse,
Geertje, who had taken care Of children
all her life and knew that they should
be with their mothers and be kept from
! fresh air, which was sure to injure
them. Geertje was also already plan
| ming to be the second wife of REM
brandt and the childs sbepmother.
The faithful doctor came to see Sas-
kia regularly urged her not to exert
| herself to rise from her bed, or to hold
| her child. gave her sleeping potions, and
sat by her bed and talked cheeringly.
with the usual foolish stories which are
| the stock in trade of our profession"
more and mere flesh, and the feverish
flush on her cheeks became deeper and
deeper and the succeeding pallor more
and more livid. Two learned medical
| colleagues who had studied the disease
! in Grenoble and London were sent for
and examined the sick woman, and
shock their heads and opined that she
had month, perhaps six weeks, to live.
Rembrandt presented them with proofs
of an etching of the Magi. Sasha went
to sleep wearing in her hair red rose,
| which she had placed there Ito give
herself more festive appearance, be-
fore the arrival of the Antwerp art
dealers" Gas the two doctors had been
| called. to deceive herr. Rembrandt and
DR.. Van Loon settled down to long
quiet game of chess in her bed room
The doctcr played a subtle game and,
| as Rembrandt thought he was winning,
said, Il have your queen and you are
mate in three moves" Before COM
mencing another game, the painter
went to the bed to see that Saskia was
| all right. HE picked up one of the two
candles, went to the bed and pushed
| aside the curtains. Then he turned to
me and whispered: LOOK how quiet she
| is tonight! I never saw her sleep so
scundly. She must be really getting
better stood by his side and put my
| hand upon her heart. Saskla was dead. !"
When all the financial arrangements
were finally concluded, it developed that
we had paid Napoleon about cents an
acre for the million square miles which
Is now the State of Louisiana. 1t seems
cheap enough for land-any kind of
land-but. when we stop to consider
this particular land the stores Of fable,
romance and history which came with
it, we might we'll consider ourselves
Yankee traders Of the most sinister
description. Georges Oudard has writ
ten the story of the discovery of Louisi-
ana by way of both Montreal and the
Gulf Of Mexico in his new book, -Four