Evening star., 1935-12-15
NEW BOOKS REVIEWED
Sir Phillip Gibbs Analyses Conditions in Life
of Modern England.

hasten of to address literary gath
erings in the afternoons. But still .
he did do it, marking with care the
point at which he left of each sue
cessive day. As he could truly say,
Lord Byron never did anything like
that. And now he has beaten Ham
nibal at his game by riding an ele-
phant over the Alps. This, he says,
he did because he thought it would
be amuslng-the irrepreSsible youthI
One feels sorry for the pachyderm.
Dick had time too to dash into Haiti
and photograph the ruins of Sans
Souci and dart up into Russia and
solve the mystery of the death of the
Royal Family. And he discovered too
that the monks of Athos have no
women folk in their land He got
around in Turkey and Arabia too
and briskly interviewed the Emperor
Of Ethiopia. What else he did is left
to the reader. One Halliburton vol-
ume in half a decade is all that any
reviewer can decently be asked to
endure. For the next five years this
O44C WILL tdhC NdIAlAld.
Familiar Spirit.
MARY POPPINS COMES BACK. BY
P. L. Travers. New York: Reynal
and Hitchcock
SOMEWHAT akin to those fairy sis
ters of Charles Kingsley's Water
Babies" Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid and
Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby, is the
fantastic nursemaid-goyerneSs Mary
Poppins, heroine Of P. L. Travers' new
fantasy. Mary Poppins, of course,
has appeared in Miss 1ravers' work
before. She was the subject of an
earlier volume, Mary Poppins," at
the end of which she opened her
umbrella and sailed away over the
housetopS, leaving a cryptic note be-
hind. In this book she returns on
the string of a kite which had been
tarrying unnaturally behind a small
gray cloud. Then. after putting right
number of things and people-all
sadly in need Of her ministrations-
she sails away again not, this time,
on an umbrella. but on a merry-go-
round, which forsakes the earth and
whirls madly up into the blue. An
amusing tale it is. one of those which
can be read by both children and
adults.
Miss Travers, be it said, deserves
gratitude from all readers of books
on Russia for her delightful Moscow
Excursion" which accomplished the
remarkable feat of viewing the cit
liens of the Communist republic as
human beings. She would seem to be
versatile individual and whether she
be dealing in fantasy or political ex-
periments, she is, for a light sure
touch, well worth reading.
Young Man in His Twenties.
THE ISLAND CALLED PHARoS. BY
Archibald Fleming. New York:
Liveright Publishing Corp.
THIS is a book of poems by a young
man in his twenties. Not to deal
too harshly with him, it seems alto
gether likely that he may learn to
write in time-provided that he finds
something to say. His present verse
has occasional phrases and even pas
Sages Of beauty.
Speed With Safety.
IF YOU'RE GOING TO DRIVE FAST.
BY Ray w. Sherman. Thomas Y.
Crowell Co.
IF YOU'RE going to drive fast,
you should by all means meet Ray
W. Sherman through the medium Of
this little volume and get something
of his sane approach to modern traf-
fic problems. 1t is not a dogmatic
treatment and any driver, no matter
how good, can reap profit and enjoy
ment from Shermans clear and enter.
tanning explanation of the difference
between good and bad driving prac-
tices. There is an introduction by
Capt. Edward ". Rickenbacker.
Us E.