Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-01-17
% IDA GILBERT -MYERT
The Adventure ofM: Justice Holmes -
Nez0 Novel BY Oi0er La Fargo and
Other Recent Books.


ing churches has been a thriving industry in
every form of religion So here it takes on the
familiar zeal, the sometimes questionable meas
ures and methods that are SO likely to mark
the height of every civic enterprise. The
point, however, is that this activity runs true
to form, to the Israehtish form of promotion
and achievement. Cleverly projected, this
racial brand of getting things done. Amusing,
since it is not designedly bitter in its irony.
The rabbi is paragon OF ZEAL ingenuity and
success in raising money for the "milllon-dol-
lar temple" The wet blanket of all this fren-
zied ardor is another Jew, Adam Krasoff, ready
to point disparltieS between the high spiritual
ity of the project and the stark materialsm
Of method employed to bring It to fruition.
The theme itself is commonplace Of social
endeavor. Its treatment holds with any set
of people under the drive of collective purpose.
It's high point rises out of the racial traits that
inevitably come out in this spiritual revival
Of the Jewish community Clearly perceptive
Is the writer, adroit in character standings,
amusing il stresses here and there but hap
PLY. not carried away with the desire to make
grotesque that which is merely racially differ
ent, as the Gentle himself is also raeially Pc
culiar, from where the Jew stands.
PEACOCK'S FEATHER BY George S. He'll
man. indianapolis: The Bobhs-MerrilI Com
pany.
A VERY old matter, this-one, as you see from
the names. King Croesus, Aesop the
fable maker and q beautiful lady. Yet, here
is the prime story substance of every age. The
same adventure walks the open today and will
be on parade also tomorrow
king. His beautiful paramour. wise and
ugly adviser to the king Croesus, the lovely
Delarai, Aesop. The vanity of the woman, the
possessiveness of the king, the sagacity of
Aesop, open in warning, invulnerabe, SEEM
ingly, to the Witchery of Delarai.
The basic material counted here Is so per-
sistent as the foundation of human nature that
the authors chief concern is to hold the old
incident to the proprieties of its time and
setting and, at the same time to make clear
the perennial quality of motive and action as
these dominate man in this age, in every age.
And this think Mr.. Hellman has done in an
exceptional manner. Certainly one reading,
partakes of the royal externals of the court
of old Croesus Certainly he realizes that
Delarai and Aesop silently engaged IN a
warfare of their own. Reading, one accepts
the earlier day in its historic trappings, con-
ceding to the author a competent and artistic
seizure of the setting that he has chosen, of
the characters that he has engaged. But, at
the same time, he is keenly conscious that this
is the drama Of embodied human attributes.
Male possessiveness vanity in woman. The
power of wisdom and sagacity in deep con-
Germs, no matter how ugly or unimpressive the
holder of such wisdom may be- To keep the
ancient havors and yet to project the living,
and current, quality of the basic element of
this new Aesop fable was the business of Mr..
Holman business that he has turned out
with intelligence and intuition. with a certain
grip on the true value of history foundation
for current drama itself.
THE MAN FROM SING SING. By E. Phillips
'Oppenheim. Boston: Little, Brown and
Company.
THE mere way of the story is no longer mat
ter of concern to Mr. Oppenheim. He,
without doubt, could unwind during sound
sleep another of the facile inventions by which
he is so well known. The business Of this
writer is to strike a new line of misdoing q
new order of malefactor. But crime is so very
old that its varieties seemingly exhausted
Criminals are of such long standing to have
become wearyingly unoriginal
But a popular writer cannot give up. The
public must have its horrors for their hours
of gentle diversion under the lamplight. And
so Mr.. Oppenheim takes new twist to his
mind and turns upon that fine old topic of
betraying friend A durable theme that has
been doing business since Bible days and be-
FORE To make sure of himself Mr.. Oppenheim
then lifts the matter to the level of high
finance where immunities from the law are
many and various.
And So on the witness stand Reuben Angels
suddenly turns traitor and swears his partner
Moran Chambers into Sing Sing for a quite
stable term. A conclusive security for Angels,
or so it looks. And SO it would have been in
reality even in the loose actualities of legal
procedures as these are made manifest But,
a novelist is at work here So the mere laws
of man do not count. Chambers escapes. There
the story begins. The story of pursuit, Of clever
devices to cfrcumvent the unfafthful friend in
many a financial escapade where the two had
so often operated together for the neecmg
innumerable innOcentS. Untlrng, clever, SuaVe,