Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-08

~ mindful of such inOffenSive fry. Not
SO in the old days, however, when craft
was small and whales were big-big enough to
swallow Jonah; able, tOo presumably, to take
a mere boat down at one huge gulp. When'
therefore, "leviathan of the deep came into
view there were ON shipboard terror and DIS
may. BY experience, I assume, the crew mad
learned that to throw some bulk into the sea
say an empty tub-roused the curiosity OF the
beast, for the moment checked in an unmls-
taxable plan of attack. In that instant OF
arrest the little craft scuddled away into some
providential obscurity of mood set up by benign
sea pillows.
THAT subterfuge of the tub" has been of
great service on land, too, at one point or
another of impending danger. Writers, In par
ticular have found it of good service when
"free speech" was more of phrase than fact
when under the metaphor of the tub" they
made bold to faunt authority, to criticize high
place and exalted deeds.
Nobody else has, so far, used the aIegory OF
the protecting tub to so great advantage as
has Jonathan Swift. "a Tale Of a Tub Is q
new story. Just on the press. To be sure, it
was written quite bit over 200 years ago. And,
to be sure again, mad Swift" has been dead
and gone 1856 years next october 10. new
story nevertheless, since human affairs change
but little at heart and since this ironic genius
commanded vision and its medium of speech,
perennial in point contemporaneouS In eacn
passing period
You know the "tale" You read it in school,
Just as you read that bitterest of satires by the
same author in school Just as you have been
laughing ever since at the schoolmasters who
so innocently made use Of "Gulliver'S Travels"
as an adventure story for children. Are still
doing it, very likely.
However 90 over both of them again in order
to catch the spirit of this man. the moods of
his fronting upon the world around him. Read
"The Tub" for the consumnaate art which made
such def Intervening Of the facts and the
narrative used to cover these facts Read it
again so that you may agree with Swift, who in
his old age so it is told, exclaimed upon re-
reading of the great aIegory, What genius I
had when wrote that book"
A further inducement for another reading is
the Columbia University Press edition Of Swift's
"a Tale of Tub" A finely impressive volume
TO see and feel. Edited by Edward Hodnett,
illustrated with wood cuts executed by Warren
ChappeI from designs by Charles Locke and
printed IN New York City at the George Grady
Press"
FINDING LITERATURE ON THE WESTERN
PLAINS. By John william Rogers With
. representative photography of books Of the
Southwest BY J. Frank Dobie. Dallas:
The Southwest Press.
MCoRoNADos CHILDREN" recent book
choice of the Literary Guild opens a
doOr of keen interest toward the Southwest,
new field of American literature. An original
and significant source Of native literary art
The book In hand not big book, sketches
the high points Of Frank Dobie's 1o-year hunt
for the body OF legend from which "Coronado's
Children" was drawn, legends sprung from
the soil of Texas and nourished by it's history.
Here also is classified list of books belonging
to this quarter and short sketches Of the
th0rs Of these. An attractive book-trim, COM
pact, an up-and-conng print personality to
which skilled book makers have paid full due.
A limited edition, this, not for sale. I'm proud
and grateful personally.
Frank Dobie in his long quest, points out a
striking difference between legends, literary
legends of the Old World and those of the New
World Over there the woman stood, in those
old tales as the hand Of destiny, the arbiter Of
mans fate-Venus Helen Of Troy, Joan of Arc
and many another. Here at has been a world
of men exploring unknown continents, subduing
wildernesses and savage tribes, butchering buff
faloes trailing millions of long-horned cattle
wilder than buffaloes, digging gold out of the
mountains, and pumping oil out Of the hot
earth beneath the plains" Such the stuff, the
clear man-stuff, out Of which these are made,
cut OF which there is Towering down in the
Southwest a unique and impressive literature.
Finding Literature On the Western Plains"
offers an admirable starting point for explora-
ton Of the new literary lode that is onening
up under the deep local interest and good serv-
ice Of the people Of Texas toward this end.
Add to this Frank Dobie's new book and one is
well on the way toward a realization Of the
Southwest as positive and prolific source of
native literature in the New World.
SIT ALONE. BY Waldemar Ager.
Translated from the Norwegian by Charles
Wharton Stork. New York: Harper g.
Bros.
Nor loneliness AlOne-ness, instead. 1t. the
essence, pure and perfect of "I Sit
Alone"
81 sit alone in a little shack out here on
the prairie, a1d the time seems long to me-"
As cadenced as the opening Of the "Iliad" AS
measured as the marching feet of the