Evening star., 1935-12-29

legitimate material in her book Be
yond this, her account is concerned
with Bennett as man and artist,
combination which was never broken,
as she saw it.
The ITO letters make up the major
part of the volume, and in them the
question of taste cannot be answered
quite so happily. Some of them at
least would seem to have little in
tereSt for the general public, to which
the book must necessarily be regarded
as being intended. In view Of the
delicate perception used III the
portrait" this cannot but be re-
gretted. On the whole, however. the
book is blamelesS, and certainly it
contains material of value to any
Bennett admirer.
OLD BILL LOOKS AT EUROPE. BY
Bruce Bairnsfather. With illustra-
tions by the author. New York:
Dodge Publishing Co.
TOR what seems an intolerable num-
u ber of weeks, the eyesight of re-
viewers has been expended almost
altogether on books of kind that
can be epitomized by an imaginary
paragraph which will be given below.
This paragraph, be it repeated, is
imaginary. 1t did not appear in any
of the aforesaid WorkS-or anywhere
else. It is what may be called an
Aftermath of the Literary Social Con-
science. 1t comes floating horribly
up out of the reviewers subconscious
mind in those dark moments when
the iron resolution to carry on be-
comes the consistency of sherbet and
the awful stark staring question IS
there to be confronted-Are Book Re-
viewing and Life, After All, Worth
While? This imaginary paragraph fol-
lows:
THE country in which we live is
called America. 1t is rich in natural
resources. It was founded by its
founders. Many of us are descended
from forbearS who came to America
from Europe in recent years. These
forbears were immigrants. Their de-
scendants are the descendants of i'm
migrants, but still America is not
Europe America is America. Fascism
is Fascism, Communism is Com
munism, the machine has come to
stay, so where is culture? We must
pay the price of our materialism,
unless we can think up way to
keep from paying it. But-have we
really been materialists after all?
Yes. No. We are independent and
sturdy and there is a great deal of
unemployment. So what is ahead of
us. after all? Out of this depression
will come a great new dream and
America, reborn, will go forward. Or
backward. Or maybe sideways. Or
into war Or into Fascism. Or into
Communism, or the dump. But the
President is great leader. But the
President is not great leader. Amer
lea is America-we have had a de-
pression-Communism is FaScism-
car loadings were off two points last
week-economics are shot to hill.
America is not Europe and-drat it
all-where is culture?"
Thus the literary trend.
After many weeks of such books
reviewers everywhere will be delighted
to announce the return of two bright
spirits too long absent from us. These
are Bruce Bairnsfather;s Old Bill and
archy, Don Marquis educated, liberal
and immoral cockroach." All hail!
Old Bill is looking at Europe. He
has made a map to facilitate his sur
vey, and on this diverting chart one
finds the lands of Yugo Hysteria,
Botheronia, Thermos and Lupescu.
archy is embroiled in labor troubles
the outcome, one fears, of the fe-
brile cockroach temperament. After
years of life as virtual serf archy
has gone on strike. He was replaced
by a scab, be it said to the everlasting
shame Of his boss, by another cock
roach named Henry. But in the end
archy won his point, for the public
rallied round him. A sample of an
ultimatum left on the boss desk fol-
lows:
unless you yield to
archys demands the strike
will spread the water bugs
are going out in
sympathy with archy and the
vers Dhre poets union -.
Is this commonplace? Well, let us
take leaf from the economists and
look at the statistics. There are, let
us say, 100 bright young men In the
Nation and 99A of them have written
books on whether America is Europe.
There is only one Old Bill. And
alack the day-there is only one
archy. We shall cherish them while
they last. AS things look now, there
may never be another such as either.
SAMUEL PEPYS: THE YEARS OF
PERIL. BY Arthur Bryant. New
York: The Macmillan Co.
THIS is the second volume of pro-
jected trilogy on the life Of the
famous diarist. The first appeared in
1888, Samuel Pepys: The Man in
the Making" The third is scheduled
for 1886. 1t will be called, Samuel
Pepys: The Savior Of the Navy"
Reading the present volume, one
must stop and marvel that man
could be so widely and indeed so COM