Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-10
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. C. NJ.

l
PAUL DU CFIAILLU: Gorilla Hunter
Michel Vaucaire. Englished by En-
lily Pepper Watts. New York: Har-
per 81 Bros.
| That Dark Continent" Is pretty
much out in the open nowadays. Mis-
sionary and American SLAYER, soldier
! adventurer, trader, hunter and empire
builder have served in implanted CO.
operation to let in the light, to pry atar
the jungle-locked, desert-barred gates
/ of Africa.
Names gathered hit-or-miss note
high points in the long and interfnit-
tent disclosures Of Africa, earth's last
secret, and still mysterious, region
Stanley. Gordon, Livingstone, Kitchener,
certainly Paul du Chaillu. Among them,
too, Aloysius Horn, trader, man Of the
passing minute.
Not new to print, Paul Chaillu
Much has already been written about
this man, who, around the middle OF
| the last century, began his career as
African hunter While the literal
achievements of Chaillu remain, OF
course, unchanged, both specific scene
and general outlook are so strikingly
different as to give the work of this
4
for it new overlooking. Under such
review, Chaillu takes legitimate place
among modern scientists. whose aims
are to expand the domain of general
knowledge. Not merely to satisfy the
cravings Of the individual for adven-
ture solely on his own account.
And SO another book about Paul du
Chaillu steps out for reading welcome
| Here the hunter becomes man of sci
ence," cleaning from the mysterious
continent hitherto unstudied forms OF
life which today have place in more
I than one of the scientific museums OF
! the country.
The story, as such, Is deeply inter
esting. AS boy Chaillu lived in Africa
with his father, trader. He to follow
the same career. At this time he came
finally to know many of the tribes,
their various forms of speech, their
tribal customs-customs of religion and
! warfare. in the main, these-1nuch
like our own in intent. though differing
widely in methods of fulfillment. The
| father died. Suddenly. Paul gave up
the trader project: left Africa for Eu-
rope and then for America. Still, the
! lure of Africa held. So, after a period
of reparation-which included becom-
ing citizen of the United States-the
young man, under the patronage Of
Science itself, returned to the place
where his boyhood had been passed.
This is the story of Paul du Chaillu's
] biggame hunting in Africa. The story
of his definite contribution to scien-
tific knowledge. BY way of it the
reader faces tribe after tribe, each
| rejoicing, no doubt, in it's own unpro-
| nounceable name. Faces, too, the
changing front of Africa-desert, jun
gle, mountain, great rivers, tiny patches
of cultivation, hut shelters and mystic
| ceremonial. Here, the paradise of ami
mails. Beasts of every unbelievable pat
| tern, they, too, tribal in habit; they,
| too. possessed of ritual and ceremony.
Here ends the successful quest of
| the gorilla. that creature who missed
| being human by so scant margin as
! to rouse in man himself terror and
| wonder and pity.
| A packed adventure Of vivid effect,
| wherein an exotic region and distinctly
| alien forms of life move into the i'm
mediate interest and personal concern
of the reader. Yet, after ALL it is the
man himself that counts; it always is.
Here Is a knowing man and wise
| one. A man who moves through dan
| gers on the strength of being himself
| of friendly intent, of giving as we'll as
| Of getting. of going much more than
| halfway to meet these bewildered
| SdFdSGS, VI interpreting JIlST thoughts
| and moods rather than of expecting
| them to understand him. His feelings
! against his own errand are calculated
| to count with any reader To hunt
| the gorilla was so much like making
| war upon his own kind so much like
| nan-hunt, that one, trying to con-
! vert himself to the proper demands
| of scientific knowledge, goes along, but
! he goes reluctantly and bit ashamed,
ffac% III Il
| story! Fine, because the man Is that.
| Despite the great scenic gesture of the
| Continent itself, despite its still un-
| explored treasure Of many sorts, it is
| the human element, this very Paul du
! Chaillu, who gives to his adventure its
| highest value of comprehension, of
| mellow accounting. And to this both
/ the biographer and the translator have
| held fast, to the end that the chronicle
takes its place beside kindred explora-
tons that are, in the current day,
being pursued within the same region.
! A great adventure for our sharing.
l. 4 X +
A few years ago, three or four, a new
man and new book stepped proudly
/ out for inspection and certain approval
That was the beginning of a whirlwind
sweep of Trader Horn over the coun-
try, under the "good-speed" of Simon
and Schuster. Yet, had it not been for
a woman sitting on her front porch of
| in Johannesburg there would have been
no man-not in print; no book and no
moving picture.
This morning, here in Washington
with the 30" city of South Africa as
| close in atmosphere as the Capital it
self, or closer, it is to the art of Ethel
reda Lewis in Selling upon Trader
Horn and clapping him into print that
we are in such immediate debt. For
| last night we took the magic carpet of
| the movie" and were transported to
! the very places where this unique
trader built himself into the African
scene so vitality and so reyealingly. The
! special trail set for us was that involv-
ing 1.-The white goddess" held in both
fear and veneration by the tribal leg
ends of the country. BY way of Horn s
perilous jungle trip through the coun-
| try and his many tradings, the picture
makes its way in scenic recordings that
are marvel of beauty and mystery and
menace. A friendly adventure, so it
seems. But forest drums begin to
sound, afar and over there, and nearer.
Danger The fanatical tribes gather
ing to the "juju" savage magic dances
and rites, sacrificial in general char
acter. Such the spirit and the man.
ner of the new moving picture drawn
| from Mrs. Lewis Trader Horn" The
story is that of reaching the Isorgi
village, where the fiercest of the black
tribes live. The search is for white
child said to have been held by the
natives a score of years before. They
find the village@ They are captured
! but you saw the picture last night, so
why try the hopeless business of tell
| ing how it was" Why not, instead,
! stop to consider minute the wondrouS
art that has so magically transferred a
distant span of earth in its full native
content to a screen before which we
sit, partaking- partaking- of
the savage adventures of natives in
| South Africa.