Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-03-03

development Of some manifestation Of
human activity from its beginning to
the present time, especially when the
beginning is as far back as 5000 BIC.
Navigation was one of the earliest Of
mans activities, necessarily so, for
man is predatory animal" and he
was restricted in his predatory activi-
ties by the presence of a substance
which then, as now, covered the greater
part Of the globe and which today Is
known to scientists and laymen alike
by the name of water" So it did not
take primitive man long to make the
earliest boat, dugout fashioned from
the heavy bark Of a tree; but Mr.. Van
Loon, eager for first sources, remarks
that really the earliest vessel that
ever cleaved the water" was the hui
man body. From this elementary be-
ginning he follows the methods of
navigation which developed in the
islands Of the Pacific, in China, Egypt
and other Mediterranean countries;
Northern Europe. especially the Scan
d1navian countries, the period of dis
covery which began in 1872, when gun
powder was first used In a naval en-
gagement: the era of the full-rigged
ship, the revolution brought about by
the steam engine, down to the present
time and What of the Future?"
Mr.. Van Looms unconventional
method of writing provides interest,"
ing queries and comments at every
stage Of his book. He raises and
answers such questions as: How is
scurvy responsible for the settlement
OF many Of the Atlantic and Pacific
islands? What are the reasons for
believing that shipbuilding is of
Oriental origin? Why were the ships
OF Columbus such poor examples Of
the shipbuilding art? Were the
very bad culinary and sanitary con-
ditions on the rugged ships of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
unavoidable? What was the origin
OF sailors superstitions, such as those
OF the kraken and the terrible suck
ing fish, which devoured ships? Why
did Holland lose her maritime SUI
premacy? What killed the sailing
vessel? Mr.. Van Looms final chapter.
What of the Future?" makes this
book seem almost an obituary of ships
and navigation. He INDUCES in no
dogmatic prophecies, but shakes his.
head over the prospects of ships in
competition with airplanes. The
steamer. which superseded the sailing
vessel, has had only about a hundred
years OF life and now finds itself faced
with a rival which may drive 1t from
the surface of the ocean. Clipper
ships made money carrying gold pros
pectors around the Horn to Cali
fornia. in four months, If the weather
was good; by the air service from
New York to Los Angeles the trip
takes less than 10 hours. Mr.. Van
Loon sees the possibility that the
harbor Of Cape Town will resemble
the ports Of ancient Rome and that
even New York and London will
cease to be centers of travel, for
transatlantic airplanes can find bet
ter landing places on Long Island and
IN Kent than on Manhattan Island
or along the banks Of the Thames
Warships. he says, are doomed. THE
real future Of the world belongs to
the nation whose aviators have the
strongest nerves and whose chemists
nave invented the most poisonous
gas"
COME AND GET IT. BY Edna Fer
Der. New York: Doubleday,
Doran & Co.
IN THE Wisconsin lumber camps In
the 1850S, when Andy Glasgow
was lumberjack and his son Barney
was a boy Of IS, already beginning
his career as lumberman, there
were two familiar yells from the cook
shack at meal times: Come and get
It'll" and "Set up or we'll throw it
outl" The first Of these became the
unconscious motto Of Barney Glas-
COWS life. Whatever he wanted he
went after, and he usually got It.
But when. along In his SOS, he dis
covered that success. the wealth
which had come to him through mar
rying his employers plain daughter
and through his own grabbing Of
Government timber land, the prestige
of being one Of the biggest million
aires of the West, and complete re-
spectability had left him unsatisfied,
then he went after something which
he failed TO- get-and Barney had
never learned how to meet failure.
Come and Get It." In its ire
mendous vitality Of both characters
and scene, Is one Of Edna Ferber's
best novels, II not the best. Even
"Cimarron." with its historical from