The Washington times., 1931-09-22
True to Type
THE "VESTRIS" RECALLED,
IN REMARKABLE FICTION;
SLEUTHS WHO'S WHO
-Rv GILBERT SEI-DES.

The November gale which terrorzed the world three
years ago when the S. S. Vesrs sank, has been far
forgotten that the report of litigation damages,
made public the other day, surprise. The
shock is gone; the will protest that act of
God wrecked their vessel the claimants will allege neg
gence In five years, perhaps settlements will be made
and the name the Vestrs will join that of the Titanic
and a few others, remembered only excitement.
Neither the owners the next-ofkn of the drowned
will offer novelette, in their testimony, and in fact
S. S. San Pedro by James Gould Cozzens does not ex-
plain the sinking of the Vestrs on which it is openly
based 1t does something infinitely beter it makes the
sinking an appalling actuality 1t is written by man
who knows ships and knows human beings and knows
how to write so that in three ways the record becomes
clearer and interesting than the original fact
The Sense Of Doom
You begin with visit to the departing vessel a
ghastv figure Doctor Percival with gray and fleshess
face is reassurng the captain of the San Pedro about
his health the ship is loaded; the doctor goes ashore
and in strange way the fate of the vessel is written
1t holds off there must be life first the life OF the
crew and of the passengers before the blow begins and
the ship starts listing Nothing happens suddenly;
"everything going to be all right The captains will
is parayzed; he is old and will not accept suggestions
from his interiors; it is against his tradition to aban
don ship Meanwhile, the San Pedro takes water to
the fury of the Scots engineer:
"He did not know where much water was coming
FROM but was, he felt than match for It,
He would have his bIges dry before morning IL II
came that, he could and would dump out the whole
blasted He'd have dirty water in his depart
ment"
Hoping for Miracles
The technical man knows his job; the statesman in
command believes that something Will happen, a
miracle to save him. The two wireless operators talk
grimy of Bicard rum mouthwash-to take out
the taste of salt water. When it is too lat the order
to abandon is given; the boats smash. The wil-ess
captain insists the discipline of the sea: "Ottlcers
will carry out orders to the best of their ability.
"And then without pause warning she went
The whole story is admirable. 1t omits all the lit
erary fireworks of shipwreck at sea; it is not a
chrome with lightning flashes. The disaster IS teit
through the human beings who experienced IT, with
their wit and courage and fear and stupidity; the
record is set down without hystera in a little over a
hundred pages of clean and simple writing
English Detectives
Two things about English mystery stories always
affect the American reader. One is the constant
plant of the detective against the British legal system;
after tons of evidence has been collected the deec
tive always says "The Yard wouldn't dare to make
arrest without proof Or "The Crown would refuse to
prosecute such fmsy evidence 1t appears that
the British take the assumption OF innocence quite
seriously.
The second thing is the high literary of the
stories. Mr. Kenneth Mcgowan, in his book called
prepared a series of Who's Who's of the great detec-
tives of fiction; and it appears that the English deec-
tive ranges from lord to barristeratlaw and his
hobbies from book-collectng to marionettes
Nearly all the detectives write little themselves You
do not know that Mr. Fortune has written Faacies
in Burgundy and that the blind Max Carrados (whose
mother an American) wrote Unedted Greek
Coins. Only the most intellectual of the authors
Coles, who famous economsts-have created de-
tective Sup Wilson, who is not intellectual himself
Sleuths is not biography of detectives; the Who's
Who takes page for each and the rest of the book
is given to sample stories, each illustrating the
method of the detective in action. Mr.. Mcgowan has
managed to find Father Brown story which is first
rate and not too often reprinted; Peter Whinsey
which is highly dvertng; and altogether has collected
% excellent English and American stories. 1t is the
best collection since the Omnibus of Crime
Miss West as Dramatist
would like to see the printed text of Mae Vests
play "The Constant Sinner" Although it made
from her novel of the name (or some other
name, because there a title shift in midstream)
the text of the play ought to be Illuminating Miss West
who is actress of exceptional gifts, writes plays
if she had any but her in her life At
one crisis in "The Constant Sinner the principal char
acter (payed by hersel goes to Sleep and she would
all the cast go to sleep if that occurred to her.
gardles of the audience She has marvellous capacity
for real conversations and then shifts to the dules
dialogue in the world for 10 minutes at time.