Evening star., 1935-11-10

are plots. But only until recent years
has any one denied that a story
any story-ought to have two points
beginning and an end. To begin
nowhere and proceed nowhither,
however, has become fashion of
great good standing, while to pre-
serve an air of mystery, profundity
and high dissillusion the while makes
an author practically sure of being
thought a new light arisen in the
armament Style or charm? Let them
be admired by whomsoever will. there
are some SO unregenerate as to prefer
in a story-a story. Four out of nine
teen seems somehow an undistin-
guished average.
YEARBOOK. ByWilliam Lyon Phelps.
New York The Macmillan Co.
CINCE this book is compiled from
- DR.. Phelps widely syndicated
column, it hardly needs more than a
mention. In form 1t is diary, and for
each day there is recorded the doctor s
written conversation" Volume pub
lication seems a happy thought for
th2 wide public that enjoys Dr. Phelps
observations on life and letters and
one predicts for the book hearty
reception.
GOD SHAKES CREATION. BY
David Cohn. New York: Harper
e. Brothers.
THIS is a book Of Well-written essays
about the Mississippi Delta coun-
try. the country which, says the au-
thor, begins in the lobby of the Pea
body Hotel in Memphis and ends on
Catfish Row in Vicksburg. Mr.. Cohn
was born in the territory of which
he writes and was educated at the
University of Virginia. One feels that
he knows his subject.
The book. however. is less remark
able for the information which its
essays contain than for the spirit
brought to their composition. Mr..
Cohn treats of the Hoodoo cult. the
share cropper problem. the crime
problem. the Mississippi River, and so
on, and one has heard most of the
facts which he has to tell, although
one has not always heard them so
literately put. What must impress
the reader is the impartial attitude
which this author adopts toward the
social riddles of which he treats. He
is not a reformer nor an apologist. 1t
&c t1prrc nj he
are reasonable. His book. therefore,
becomes one that anybody-eXcept a
reformer or an apologist-can read
and enjoy.
CATS. THEIR CARE AND TRAIN
ING. HABITS AND HISTORY. BY
Eleanor Booth Simmons. New
York: McGraw Hill Book Co.
EOR those who have for the health
of their cats more than an urbane
solicitude, this book will contain use
tul information. For in part it reads
ike those engaging pamphlets which
one may collect in the waiting rooms
of visiting nurse clinics-colds and
what they lead to. mothers and their
young, right feeding. diseases of nerves
and brain. the importance of nursing
and SO forth.
But for those who cannot feel that
a cat is ever quite an intimate animal,
for those who retain for the feline race
a friendliness in which respect is a
considerable ingredient, these aspects
of cat ownership are not of more than
theoretical interest. Such friends of
cats will prefer to leave illnesses to
doctors But they may still find much
to interest them in Miss Simmons
book.
For other chapters treat Of such
delightful branches of the subject as
the soul of the cat, Christ and the
cat. the sacred cats of Egypt. literary
cats, witch cats. cat ghosts, the mys-
terry of the Mainland so on. And
even more delightful are the photo
graphs-all too few In number, one
is sorry to report.
Miss Simmons is we'll qualified to
write, of course. She is the conductor
of the New York Sun column, Cats
and Their Care" and director of pub
licity for the Speyer Hospital for
Animals in New York City. She
writes with so implicit an acceptance
of the condition that cats-if not
exactly human-are still people. that
no one who shares the viewpoint can
help liking her book.
GODS WHO DIE As Told to Julian
Ian Co.
A THOUGH the facts of this book
seem to be well authenticated,
the narrative Is of such constant and
absorbing interest that the reader is
unlikely to care much about that
aspect of the work. It is the story
of "Samoa's Greatest Adventurer,"