Evening star., 1932-07-24

when Tim johnson of the American legation
in Athens wooed the lovely girl with passion,
besought her to become his WIFE, to go with
him to America where everything awaited her.
the cardinal sin of flial disobedience faded to
a trif1ing errancy. The maid of Athens be-
came an American wife And the Greek fates
turned uneasily in their secret places Of
waiting. The New World offered to this girl
disappointment and emptiness that the
rich life of Athens had never shown. A little
of apprehension too, possessed her. When her
baby was born dead, fear shook her body and
dimmed her courage. When word came that
her father was dying of grief, panic seized her
and she fled, alone, back to the beloved home
to her dying father, whom she reached in time
for forgiveness and tears and a hopeless grief
And was this expiation? Were the fates
tent with this of penitence? Not yet-Greek
tragedy this where payment is to the uttermost.
Not even this, though, this true classic
vival done in terms of modern fiction, will be
counted by sCme of those who know as the
highest point in Mr.. Strothers work. They
may say that this Is set by the way in which
the writer has built the full Athenan scene into
the feelings and deep consciousness of the read
er. Patient, informed, intelligent sensitive
artistry has done this. For us, beside him in
Athens itself, he creates the feel of soil, the
bend Of sky, line Of mountain and valley of
hill and plain, all verdant with tree and vine
throbbing pulse Of the tdeless sea below tenn
pies serene and enduring as the rocks which
built them. Customs OF the home of the Athe-
nian streets Ghmpses of historic episode,
flashes of Homeric legend all bent to a revela-
ton Of the ancientry Of this land which was
old, old when the tragedy of Jesus, not so far
away, set the called Christian And this
blend of beauty and action and belief brewed
the soul Of Greece from which emerged its art
its drama and literature.
This, it seems to me-this amazing back
r,l,to oh
ground Of our own partaking-is the surprising
achievement in Mr.. Strothers' novel whose
name is unequivocally great" a great novel.
THE OMNIBUS OF SPORT. Edited by Grant
land Rice and Har6rd Powell Harpers New
York and Lon.on.
REVIEWED BY c. E. NELSON
ONE of the really surprising things about
~ this big book is the manne~ in which the
newspaper writer's surpass their brothers of
the fiction craft. In the first place, the plan
OF the Compilers was to gather the very best
of sport stories, both f1ctional and true, from
magazines, books and newspapers; then, to
place them into various groups-foot ball. ten
mis-, base ball, racing, etc. 1t is evident that
there was no intention Of purposely showing
up" the writer's Of fiction, but this has been
accomplished. The newspaper sport writer's,
who are given more leeway in their work than
OtNef newspaper Wr1tSrS, nave WrlLten some
little masterpieces of the sport world; the
creations of the fictioneers fall quite low IN
comparison.
1t may be that the compilers did not 60
deeply enough in their selection of short stories,
for this reviewer is able to name several that
should have place in the omnibus, yet they
receive mention. Or, it may be simply a
of Judgment Of the editors; they prefer
certain story, while do not. Anyway, it
would be difficult to satisfy all readers of such
volume. All men who interested in
sport-and who is not?-have particular stories
in mind for such a volume; all would have
made certain changes in this book.
However, the reader can find little fault with
the newspaper selectons-the real stories Of
sport-true storiss embellished to fit the sport
pages. The best of these are, doubt, con-
cerned with our major" sports of base ball,
foot ball and racing. Dogs and hunting and
polo come in for their share of writing, but
these do not thrill us to such large extent.
The base ball and foot ball stories especially
pleasing because the compilers have discarded
an old iSea-that home run in the last of the
ninth or touchdown in the last minute of
play necessary to make hero in either Of
the two sports.
But the authors have done a splendid job
This is book for men. It is book which
should have a prominent place in mans
library, where he can pick it up every once in
a while and read about a world series, Derby
or a Yale-Princeton game.
ROBBERS ROOST. BY Zane Grey, author
Of Arizona Ames," etc. New York. Har-
per & Bros.
hILES of canyon country its steep and
wi ragged walls painted in tans and grays,
in reds and orange, its paths downward and
out again not made for footwork of either man
or beast, but instead for crawling, creeping,
slipping. sliding creatures Above the canyons
wide mesa stretches that move out toward dis
tant mountain ranges and the panorama cast
by sunsets Of unbelievably spectacular artistry.
Ranchers, cattle men, cattle thieves, plain rob-
bers-such the material with which Zane Grey
still holds in reading thrall an undiminished
crowd of followers. The awlessness without
which Zane Grey novel could make little