Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-23
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookIoper

country is Harry Behn, whose volume
Of poems "Siesta" bears the 1891 date.
Harry Behn was born in McCabe, Ariz.,
! In 1898. After his high school course he
spent a year in rambling about the
Western parks and while in Glacier
was made chief Of the BIackfeet, with
full Indian ceremony, not Just tour
! list stuff" His name as chieftain is
Big Wolf Medicine. He then went
to Stanford University, where he was
the first freshman elected to the staff
OF the Chaparral. He finished his
college course at Harvard. where he
was on the editorial STATS of the
Lampoon ana the Advocate. Back
N Arizona IN 1922. he started the Little
Theater movement in Phoenix. In
1924 he had the American -Scandi-
navian travelling fellowship for study
OF the drama and made his head
quarters in Stockholm In 1924 he
crashed the gates Of moviedom" by his
scenario for THE Big Parade" and fol-
lowed by La Boheme," THE Crowd"
HEIRS Angels" and others. Then
another artistic form drew him and
/ ne ieft the movies for the artists COL
ony In Santa Fe. with the result that
two of his paintings were hung in the
museum there. Last Winter he spent
In Phoenix. writing play and the
poems OF "Siesta." This coming Autumn
ne Is going to join the English depart
fnef1t Of the University of Arizona.
+ y
"Siesta" is dedicated to pamela and
prescott, Mr.. Behn's two small chill
dren. The title poem immediately puts
us In the right mood for all the others.
A wall OF heat haze Folds the earth
ana we are Mind sprawling On the
pooI 81 lime. Time ripping away To
!orgetfulneSs. The poem ''Puye" takee'
its name from a well known cliff dwelI-
ing near Santa Fe, where Now ruined
houses sprawl along the dust Where
weeds grow level with the vision nj
the dead" In THE Return" Is voiced
all the longing of ore who has lived
In and loved the Southwest for the heat
ana color and odor and vegetation and
loneliness OF the desert. Again in this
lonely land My heart has hungered for,
silence confronts the mind And in the
i iu!l md Not less. but more The poem
summer envraps us In drowsy heat.
heat without moisture. Everything Is
summers thrall: No rain will fall"
me phrasing in some of the poems is
not only poetic, but Is full of connota-
TONS Tor any appreciative reader.
whether or not he knows the Southwest
wen. Imaginative pleasure attends such
phrases as water drips in delight"
Iar-oh bells, wind-torn," drift of a
wisp OF mist, the Wondering cave
haunted cliff" mountains blue as
lizard the odor of thorn sundrawn
from the desert" this flaw Of silence
IN the wind" the cool silver tissue Of
twilight, the pigeons coo like folded
SIX" The poems Of "Eiesta" are i'm
presstonistic, with beauty and love of
place for their inspiration.
Charles H. Sheriff. describes In full
detail his recent interview with the
Kaiser at Doom in his book, Bismarck
and Mussolini." Met by secretary
Gen. Sheriff. was escorted to room
hung with gray-green silk and adorned
with old paintings The Kaiser. dressed
in a gray business suit entered plnc-
tiliously, bade his guest be seated, and
sat down himself with the light fun on
his face. The secretary sat with us. !"
Gen. Sheriff. records, but took no part
in the conversation, which was, Of
course, In English, for his majesty
speaks 1t fuently. had expected there
would be a strong British accent but
there was none. Indeed, his English
might have been learned in some Amer
lean University of our Eastern States
AS he sat there, speaking rapidly and
vivaciously, with those amazingly keen
eyes of his, good color thick iron-gray
hair, neatly trimmed beard, supple of
body and frequent of gesture, Il was
incredible that he should be II years
old. He looks less than so. I had never
seen him before, not even from q dis
lance, and what I now saw of bodily
vigor surprised me. The mental vigor
was, Of course, expected. From the be-
ginning to the end of our two hours
and quarter of conversation there was
never hint CT pose No attempt was
made to conceal the smaller arm; in
deed, after i've minutes, one forgot it.
He smoked many cigarettes"
+ 4
"Noguchi,' by GuStave Eckstein, Is
the life story Of DR.. Hideyo Noguchi
member of the research staff of the
Rockefeller Institute, who died while
conducting experiments with yellow
fever in Africa and was buried at sea OF
the African coast The son Of jap
anese peasant farmer, he was terribly
burned as child and the surgical
treatment which partially restored the
use of his hands caused In him the in
terest which resulted in his coming to
America, where he was assisted by DR..
SilaS Weir Mitchell. His Rockefeller
Investigations included discoveries in
connection with the germ of infantile
paralysis, q serum to ccunteract snake
poison and the treatment of trachoma.
X X u
That Moslem civilization was the
birthplace of modern science and that
the Moslems were the rebuilders of Eu-
ropsan civilization is the novel claim of
Robert Briffault in his Rational Evo-
luton" This stimulating book Is really
q brief outline of history. His thesis
is that there has been considerable
progress is modern times in material
culture and in social justice and that
the basis OF this progress has been an
intellectual honesty which the author
calls rationaiiSm. The most important
contribution to that rationalisrn from
ancient times was Greek culture. The
modern period really began with the
Middle Ages, and the best we have in
intellectual and moral culture is q
legacy from Accommodation. The
rationRlism Of the Arabs, according to
the author, passed into Christian
thought and finally diSpeiled its dogmas,
to replace them with the methods and
cultural outlook of modern science. The
present volume is rewritten version
of book first published in 1919 with
the title The Making of Humanity"
THE chief obstacle which stands in the
way of clearing up the world he says
in his final chapter, lis the Justification
of human thought by inoculated preju-
dices Mans world is the product Of
his mind. What he has achieved is the
products Of his rational intelligence.
Problems, wether economic, or
emotional, or moral, can be effectually
confronted by no other means than by
honesty or rational thought Humanity
must insist on refusing all substitutes"
X
James Fenimore Cooper was first an
aristocratic country gentleman of
Cooperstown, N. Y, and secondarily a
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