Evening star., 1933-01-15

"a present worthy OF Apollo" Tne Roman
philosopher Seneca rejecting on some of the
horrible possibilities of life, said: Leisure
without books is death, and burial of man
alive" "a book is friend that never deceives
US was the feeling of the French writer Gull
bert Pixerecourt. An old-fashioned moral comes
from the Reverend Isaac Watts, hymn writer
of the eighteenth century: But thanks to my
friends for their care in my breeding, who
taught me betines to love working and read
ing"
INTERPRETATIONS 1s31-1932. BY Walter
Lippmann Selected and edited by Allan
Nevine. New York: The Macmillan Co.
INDEPENDENT-thoug words which
we think Of as applying to Walter Lipp-
mann, whether he writes of morals, culture or
national and international affairs. This vol
ume, composed of selections from Mr.. Lipp-
mann's syndicated newspaper editorials Of the
past year, Is perhaps as crowded a record OF
tumaltuous events as can be found in our his
tory, not even excepting war years. The world
wide economic 'transition," as some euphemis-
tically call it. being weary of the word depres-
sion, is necessarily the heart of the book. Its
manifestations in our own country; in Great
Britain where the gold standard was part OF
the wreckage; in Germany, saved temporarily
by moratorium; in France, not so badly on as
most countries; are all carefully traced ana
inter-re1ated.
Some of the specific topics are "Mr Hoover:
His Task and How He Dealt with It." Con-
gress: Its Task and How 1t Dealt with It."
America: the War Debts and European De-
preston" '"The Crisis in the Far East: Amert-
can Policy" 1.-THE Two National Conventions
and Their Work" In his last chapter, "The
Social Scene" Mr.. Lippmann comments un-
reservedly on some Of the destructive phases
of the social situation in our country as the
uoo oIrroc- o,,f1
eteering, lack Of economic planning unjusti-
fable pressure of organized minorities upon
legislative bodies. He deplores "the feeling OF
the ordinary man that he is impotent and de-
feated. For unless he can translate his indig-
nation into action, he will lose it and become
demoralized, and the public spirit upon which
everything else depends will evaporate in
words" In all his discussions, Mr.. Lippmann
Is something Of the moralist-not such bad
thing in any period. and especially today.
MY LIFE IN THE MoSLEM EAST BY Emma
Cochran Ponafidine Indianapolis: The
Bobbs- Merrill Co.
COMETHING over a year ago, Nine Pona-
- tidine's story of her own life in Russia be-
fore and during the revolution, Russia, My
Home" had wide reading among those VINO
prefer concrete fact to abstract economic and
political discussion. Her management of her
husbands Russian estate at BortniN before
the revolution, her heroic meeting of the dam
gers and hardships which came with the taking
over of the estate by the Soviet government,
and her final escape from Russia, with her
two sons, across the frozen Gulf of Finland, on
top of a smuggler's load of rugs, all revealed
her as a woman Of unusual courage and re-
sourcefulness. This second book, My Life IN
the Moslem East" telling of her earlier life in
many ways reveals preparation for endurance
Of the ordeal which was to come.
Nine Ponafdine is an American woman,
daughter of American missionaries in Persia,
and was born in Persia during raid of the
Kurds over the border of Turkish Kurdistan,
not far from the Cochran home. THE kurdish
Terror" was constant element in her child
hood. Her education was desultory until her
sixteenth year. when she came to the United
States for real schooling. This included some
months in the nursing school of the Buffalo
General Hospital, and what she learned there
was not only to be very useful in her future
= life in the East, but was to assist in saving her
life and the lives of her husband and sons
during the Russian revolution. Soon after her
return to Persia she married to Pierre
Ponafidine, attached to the Russian consulate
at Tabriz
Their marriage was a very happy one in spite
Of some warnings from friends concerning the
dangers of international marriages. "He made
me feel that was not a stranger, that Russia
was my home, while at the same time he 10y
ally upheld me in my individual independence"
Mr.. Ponafdines diplomatic duties took them
to Baghdad Bombay, Constantinople and to
various smaller and more primitive places In
the East with frequent intervals in their Rus
sian home. Always they studied the social life
ABOUT them, applying to it trained intelligence
ana humanitarian sympathies. Fighting a
cholera epidemic In Baghdad and the white
slave traffic in Constantinople were among their
crusades The book is written in the same
simple, conversational effective style as that
of Prussia. My Home"