Evening star., 1934-12-09
Tales of Well Known Folk
In Art, Literature, Politics
Vice Presidents Return Stirs Speakership
Riddle Anew-Senator Borah Facetious?
Cobb Talks Corn Whisky.

S4,000,000 was the gift of Mr.. Edward
S. Harkness.
Mr.. Ludwig lewiston was never
more delightful than last Sunday night
when he lectured before the Jewish
Community Center. 1t was really
charming drawing room talk, at times
almost confidential. He had an anus
ing way of adjusting his necktie; as
he took hold of either end of the bow
knot and gave it little twitch he
drove home some telling point. In
other words, the necktie was used as
an emphasis and at the same time dis
played a remarkable pair of hands
that seemed in their gestures to en-
body the soul of his argument. And
that argument was that his people
can produce real literature only if
they go to the deep sources within
themselves, instead Of trying to imi-
tate what the Anglo American does
even better"
He gave Fannie Hurst and Edna
Ferber-those best sellers-a bit of a
dig when he said they had chosen to
initiate and were in consequence
second raters in trying to do what
natives of the blood did so much bet
ter When asked who he considered
most promising of Jewish American
writer's, he named Irving Fineman,
author of Hear ye Sons" When
asked which of his own books he
thought best he said THE Island
Within" The Last Days of Shylock"
and book of short stories. Mr..
lewiston did not mention Mid
Channel" which is most delightful.
Mr.. j. B. Priestly has rambled
through England seeking out obscure
corners and getting a world of forth
right information which might have
slumbered for years had he not taken
the trip, and now he has completed
a leisurely journey through a part of
the StateS-going as far West as
Arizona. If he met Representative
Isabelle GreenWay out there it was
just a little thrill for a way-Worn
traveller
On the whole the British writer
and popular novelist was pleased with
what he saw-and grateful for what
he did not see-and was somewhat
surprised at the real personal senti-
ment he found everywhere for Presi-
dent Roosevelt. He particularly liked
the West and says he prefers the
democracy of America to the social
muddle of English life. He expresses
great impatience with some American
writer's who he thinks are contemptious
of democracy and advocate an aristo-
cratic system. These shall be name
less here.
Mr.. Priestly finds American chill
dren too precocious cities man
ners here are bad . Say, listen,
brother" is peculiar to city manners
=. good manners he found more fire.
quently in the West . and he likes
the word folks Rooms here are
too hot . trains too slow .. auto
mobiles too fast makeup too thick.
tobacco too sweet; but the pies glo-
rious and 'fattening" At any rate.
Mr.. Priestly was more polite and COM
plimentary than Mr.. George Bernard
Shaw and Charles Dickens-of an
other century. He should have gone
down South. It's rather remarkable
what large amounts of money Ameri-
can newspapers and magazines pay
foreigners to dwell upon obvious facts
and criticize Americanisms.
During his last illness Nathaniel
Hawthorne said: If I could only 90
to England, think the sea and the
sight Of the old home would set me
right" And now this home, which he
occupied when American consul to
Liverpool. and which he called
dream house." is to be turned into
an apartment house
Overlooking the Mersey at Rock
ferry on the Birkenhead shore, it has
been visited by thousands of tourists
from the States and has been a kind of
mecca for writer's and historians. Mr.
Hawthorne occupied the house for 4
years. between 1S53-1857, and fire.
quently spoke of the time spent there
as among the happiest days of his life.
Like most people who are given to in
trospection, Hawthorne was fond of
the sea.
Recently radio fans have had the
most exciting and unusual thrill over
hearing the children of the men with
Admiral Byrd telling their papas good
night. It's almost uncanny when one
stops to think. And this calls to mind
Jeanette Mirsky's book To the North"
Oh its subtitle The Story Of Arctic
Exploration from Earliest Times to the
Present" It's like a picture, so vivid
it seems at times. Vilhjalmur Stef-
annson writes the introduction, giving
an analysis of the place which the
book fills in the history of Polar eX-
ploration. Miss Mirsky sometimes as
sumes the heroic style in her writing,
which is almost thrilling.
It's not such a far cry from the
North Pole, and Jeannette Mirsky's
book, ITO Kentucky" when Irwin
Cobb is doing a bit of public service
himself in trying to help out Mr..
Joseph H. Choate, jr.. chairman of
the Federal Alcohol Control Admin
istration, by giving him a definition
in detail of corn whisky. This def
milton has been copied on an average
of twice a day since Mr. Cobb first
gave it to the press, but perhaps the