Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-15

Mines and Buried Treasures of the South
west BY j. Frank Dobie, author of "A
Vaquero Of the Brush Country" Illustrated
by Ben Carlton Mead Dallas: The South
west Press.
STONISHMENT for second that
4 III this book so clearly remindful of old
~ Greek tales of adventure, war and
wandering, should have issued from
Texas rather than from Massa-
chusetts veSt-pocket of American letters, as
.ucb. Next minute, the fact becomes
sequence of logic Englishmen came across as
settlers along the Atlantic Coast. Once here,
nature took them in hand. Hard climate and
thin soil served to intensity the auster1ty OF
the Puritan in devotion to facts, plain and
literal To the southwark 1t was the same.
Here too. climate and soil did the work, bred
slavery on the one hand and, on the other, in
duced the harmless and sOftening tradition OF
social aristocracy. plain course all up ana
down the seaboard. But to the southwest IL
was far different. There the hot Spanlaro
ramp iged for hidden treasures, for lost mines,
for the Seven Cities of Cibola which, time out
of mind, had lured men, now here, now there,
to incredible darings of pursuit and quest. And
will again these wanton phantom cities.
Coronado and his tribe had no concern for the
sobrieties Of settlement and labor. They were
out for plumber His children still live down
that way. Still hold, Close their secret con-
viction of treasure yet to be found. Still search,
half shamed. for that which no man can re-
sist. The land is still alive with promise for
Coronado's children. And this is the field OF
Frank Dobie's inspiration.
Two or three ifs might have defeated this
re-embodying of the Coronado clan. If the
author had not been also the eager scholar.
ardent to spend 10 years Of delving into
archives for the facts. He is a university pro-
fessor. II he had run true to form this would
have been text book. Inconceivable! But
such would have been. Once more. II Prank
Dobie had not himself been romantic, adj
venturous, englamored by the glitter OF those
early days he would not have put years into the
business Of gathering up the remnants Of that
great in-faring in the legends that remain
Cattlemen, ranchers, miners, proepectorS
soldiers rovers and tramps, all became meat
for this hungry fellow Of the Lone Star State
These defeating possibilities chased into the
limbo where they belong, the splendid adventure
steps confidently out to greet readers every
where. An interesting thought Is renewed by
this book. America written the real America
set down in novel and play and poem, must de-
pend, or 1t looks from here, upon the West,
the Middle West and the Southwest For,
generally speaking, the East appears still to be
studying its English literature lesson, to be
still absorbed in English modes Of thought en-
gagged with the particular turn Of the English
writing hand-even more concerned with all
thiS-Or so it seems-than is the pure Britisher
himself. Well, to get back Here is hand
some and dignihed book personality-text,
fitting and right-to go along with the gorgeous
niad-and- Odyssey, a striking two-in-one of
"Coronado's Children" finishing touch to
this festival of the Southwest Press is the
Literary Guilds choice of the new book for
this month Of February, 1881.
THE CONQUEST OF LIFE. BY Theodore
Koppanyi. Illustrated. New World of
Science Series. New York: D. Appleton g.
Co
I JNORGANIzED, that is in any proper sense.
Dependent, therefore upon the zeal and
enterprise of individual writers and publishers.
Yet, no movement toward wider spread of
fundamental vital fact, is half so important
that which follows the discoveries and APP
plications of science by simple accounts of
these in their reactions upon current life. The
book in hand is of a purpose and plan to
show what many scientist Is doing for the
cause Of useful public instruction. 1.-The Con-
quest Of Life" is, in substance, q study of man
fronting, through better knowledge, upon the
elimination of disease and the lengthening Of
individual life. Simply and by way of fair
approach the author sketches swiftly old con-
ceptions of the nature Of man, physical and
spiritual. From this brief survey he passes on
to that day when the science Of biology began
its microscopic scrutiny Of those cells by way
Of whose Mimitable numbers, organize for
special service and co-ordinated TO r~Stery
OF efhcient completeness, man life, and all other
animate existence, has become the thing that
it, that it will be. The case Of evolution" is
offered, straight or to the straightneSs which
1t has, so far, attained, offered for you to
take or leave, as an open or close mind may
dictate. A study Of the embryo will interest,
though 1t may not push to a partaking part in
being alive most certainly will the follow
ing discussion of the repair of broken body
wheels and Of worn machinery generally. Here
those endocrine glands-material for novelist,
fabulist and pure fun-maker-are shown at
work, the job, Indifferent to the comedy
and tragedy alike. Yielding, meanwhile many
an infallible proof of their own purpose and