Evening star., 1934-07-01
REVIEW OF The NEW BCOK]


and answer questions, and see that people don't
tease the animals, and keep things orderly, and
put out forest fires and give lectures on nature,
and rescue dudes in danger and most anything
anybody wants done around here" In the
most anything" is included posing for snap
shots side by side with bear. Rangers are
of two types, "old timers" or permanent rangers,
who live in the parks the year round, often
alone in the Winter, with 40 feet of snow in
drifts and the thermometer almost as many
degrees below zero, and day wonders" usu-
ally college men, who enlist for a Summer OF
hard work in the parks
The rangers are good story tellers and some
OF their best "whopperS" are here repeated.
Kings and princes entertained in the parks are
to the rangers just as good as ordinary men,
and Ranger Billy Nelson made a comrade of
King Albert of the Belgians to such an extent
that while preparing a meal he called out:
Say. King. shoot me that side of bacon will
you?" Mr.. Albright and Mr.. Taylor make us
so well acquainted with all the park inhabitants
that we know the characteristics of the dudes
those who stop at hotels or lodges, the sage
bruSherS Chose who camp savages (hired
help. among whom pearl divers (dish-
washers beavers (waitresses), pillow punchers
(chambermaids), gearjammerS (chauffeurs),
bubble queens CaundreSses) and pack rats
(porters and bell boys), as well as the tenden-
cleS OF pears, mountain uOnS wolves, cOyOteS,
deer. skunks and all the smaller animals which
share their park homes with human beings.
The story comes first and the information in
the latter half of the book which tells of the
organization and development of the National
Park Service, and gives descriptions of the
various national parks and monuments national
military parks and cemeteries and battlefield
sites No better guide could be chosen for a
park trip than this book by the best of authori-
ties, and no better story of the parks could
be found for reading at home.
MANS FATE. BY Andre Malraux. Trans
lated by Haakon M Chevalier. New York:
Harrison Smith & Robert Haas.
THE Goncourt Prize is never given for a
pretty tale. Andre Malraux won the Con-
court Prize for 1888 with Mans Fate" ola
Condition HumaineD. 1t is a novel of cha
otic, revolutionary China, of political conflict
between half -Westernized older elements in
China and wholly radical younger elements
following the trail of Communist Russia The
period is that of Chang Kai-shek, revolutionary
war lord who betrayed his followers or if he
is judged more charitab1y changed his aims
after starting his movement Terror and
brutality are the only human passions which
have any potency with the young Chinese ex-
tremistS who plotting the assassination of
Chang kai-shek. The whole story is full of
Aa0ACuo, u utIlleS, suffering ana warfare. 1t
opens half an houI after midnight on March
D. 1927, when Chen Tia Erh Chinese terrorist,
murders an informer in Shanghai and reports
his action to Kyo GiSors, half French, half
japanese organizer of the Shanghai insurrec-
tion and Katov a Russian organizer. Hav-
ing overcome his initial repugnance to killing,
Chen Ia Erh finds in himself desire to live
with death, to go on killing. with the Ger
tainy that he will himself soon be killed
The explosion in Shanghai comes and,
through welter of boodshed and torture,
Chen and his comrades. Kyo. Katov, Lu Yu
Hsuan and Suan. struggle to their deaths. May
Gisors, wife of Kyo. deprived of normal hap
piness, is the victim of the revolution, which
gives her no compensation of exaltation. Old
Gisors, father of Kyo and one-time professor
of sociology at the University of Peking, with
his opium pipe in his mouth, reflects: "One
must not think life with the mind but with
opium every man is madman but
what is human destiny if not life of effort
to unite this mailman and the universe .
on the road of vengeance d. one finds life"
NJ. Malraux, revolutionary in both politics
and French literature. has participated in the
events of which he writes. He has written a
powerful novel-powerful, but repellant and