Evening star., 1934-09-02

forfeits imposed by Tom fiddler.
Prom the game Tom Tiddler's Ground
has also come to signify any debatable
ground or no mans land. Edward
Shanks has aptly used the title for his
vast study of England and Germany
following the World War, when for
those who dared the risk of being
caught there were rich pickings in
boom and imitation periods. Tom
Florey, son of an innkeeper in Polth.
Cornish mining town, is used as a
concrete example of what was the
practice of many without ethical re-
straint and willing to take any chances
for gain, and what will always be
their practice whenever economic ebh
and flow and political currency Jug
Cling afford opportunity.
From boyhood Tom shows unusual
ambition, especially for one fated to
begin existence in the dead little town,
where the inhabitants have only pasts
and outlooks limited by the hills of
the barren Cornish moors, in a fold of
which Polth is tucked. OF course, Tom
| gets away. In Germany, as tutor to
the son of distinguished writer, Dr.
Roebel, he makes his home at Schloss
Zwiebel, a country house of the most
rocco style, all gables and spires and
onion towers, in the mountains
There he meets Undine Nagel, a very
important ingredient in the mixture
of his life. The German episode,
which occupies much space in the
narrative, is full of good character
ization and description Of German life
among the intellectuals Just preceding
the World War.
Back in England, Tom tries to join
the army, but is rejected because of
that little attack of rheumatic fever
he had as a child. The war goes on
without him, but brings him oppor-
tunities. He secures post in q gov
ernment department and rises rapidly.
The English scene is now described as
graphically as was the German scene
earlier. Bureaucracy is god. Tom fits
into good big niche. He marries an
expensive wife. Her money demands
partly account for the philosophy and
practice of grab which he develops
after the war. He might have had a
career of disinterested craftsmanship,
but he chooses otherwise. Corrupt
business operations, extravaganza,
drinking. all the gay and bitter dissi-
patton of the era, disclose Toms
| fundamental weakness. Tom fiddler
| catches him in the end In the final
scene DR.. Roebel, Frau Maia, Undine,
Isabel and all the friends who have
liked him for his personal qualities
and have not quite realized the road
he was travelling. can find nothing to
say but poor Tom" In this novel
and in his earlier big, effective study
of a local group of people, Queer
Street." Mr.. Shanks demonstrates his
ability to adapt the Victorian method
of detailed, frequently shifted mar
ration to present-day subject matter
AS social and character studies, his
work Is more akin to that of Thackeray
than to that of any of the other
Victorians.
TRADERS TO THE NAvAJOS. BY
Frances Gillmor and Louisa Wade
Wetherill. With illustrations. Bos-
ton: Houghton Miff1in Co.
THE Wades and Wetherills were
= moving people; that is, they
were pioneers, moving across the
continent for four generations. Jack
Wade went with his family west
ward to Nevada after the Civil War
and there found his wife, also OF
fighting pioneer blood. They were
the parents Of Louisa Wade, born In
a mining camp. Later, when the
Wades and their neighbors, the Weth-
erills, turned from mining to farm
ing in the Mancos Valley at the foot
Of the Mesa ! Verde, they learned
when massacres by the Utes were TAX
ing place near them, that the Nava-
jos we're not to be feared. Mrs
Wetherill has been friend Of the
Navajos all her life, knows their
language. understands their ways OF
life and methods Of thought and has
received the condolences of many Ct
them. They call her "Asthon Sosi,
or Slim Woman. Her husband, John
Wetherill, carried on some of the
earliest excavations of the~Clih Palace
and other Mesa Verde ruins.
Family experiences with the Nava-
jos and tales told to them by Chief
Hoskinini, Wolfkiller, Not -Glean-Nos-
pah, Yellow Singer and many Navajo
women in their hogans, contribute to
the eventful chapters of this book
The Wetherills became traders and
to their post came both Navajos and
white settlers and travellers in increas-
ing numbers, so that the Wetherills
of Kayenta have become almost as
well-known as the Mesa Verde itself.
John Wetherill has acted as guide to
many scientific expeditions and has
conducted excavations of his own, and
Slim Woman has served in almost
every advisory capacity TO her
Navajo friends, from adding up their
accounts for them with a handful
of corn to acting as executrix OF the
will of Chief Hoskinini, who sent for
her when he was dying. The personal
story of Traders to the Navajos" Is
a very interesting bit Of informal eth
nology. 1t recalls another recent
graphic book about the Indians Of
the Southwest, Mesa Land" by Mrs.
Anna Wilmarth 1ckes.
THE VICOMTE IN THE KITCHEN.
BY Vicomte de Mauduit. New
York: Covici-Friede.
THE Countess of Warwick in her in
PRODUCTION to this epicurean cook
cry book says: 1T has been said, surely
of England, that God sends the food and
the Devil the cooks ." The Vicomte
de Mauduit has come to the assistance
of the English-speaking world. He is
a born cook" The Vicomte's recipes
show that he can be as extravagant
as the most luxurious gourmet could
desire, yet, with true French thrift,
abhors waste and can find a use for
every eatable scrap. So his book is
not for the rich alone He covers the