Evening star., 1935-07-28
LIGHTHOUSES AND BOOKS FURNISH ROMANTIC SETTINGS
NOTES FOR A NOVEL ON SPAIN
W. Somerset Maugham as Young Man Had Grand Scheme
for Depicting Swashbuckling Hero, but
Let It Die Until Now.

ican- Mercury sort of thing. 1t would
also seem that, If he wished, he might
do much better. He might develop
his capacity for feeling with the mar
ticulate and become something more
than a mere genre writer. Both possi-
bilities are indicated in the present
work. The theatrical ending inclines
toward the former, but there are con-
sistent implications throughout his
book of human understanding of more
that a perfunctory literary variety.
We are told that he is now at work
on a new novel. It's title is a trif1e
diSheartening-"The Madman Beats a
Drum" 1t has somewhat too much of
a Tullyish sound. But on the evidence
of the present work the book will be
worth looking into. One can only
wait and see.
MARK TWAIN WIT AND WISDOM.
Edited by Cyril Clemens. With a
Foreword by Stephen Leacock.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.
SAID Dorothy Parker in a earlier
volume of hers:
Those who call him cheap and shoddy
Shall do so DER my lifeless body
She was writing of Charles Dickens.
She is quoted here in honor of Mark
Twain. She is too wise to object to
having his name added to Dickens in
such a sentiment.
The present work is a volume of
Mark Twain anecdotes. They have
been contributed In many cases by
eminent men and women. OF them
Stephen Leacock remarks, in his beau
tifully written foreword, "Of one or
two stories in the present volume I
have heard it said by the pedantic
that they are as old as the Greeks.
To which can only reply that in that
case the Greeks stole them from Mark
Twain"
There Is little more to be said than
his. If you love Mark Twain, buy this
book. There is material in it that
you will want to have. And If you
don't love him, may the Lord have
mercy on your soul.
AMERICA FACES THE BARRI-
CADES. BY John Spivak. New
York: Covici-F -Friede.
THIS book contains some arresting
material. 1t is avowedly Com
munistic, but still it may be read with
interest by the conservative. For
the Communists, whatever one may
hear to the contrary, are not skillful
as propagandists. They most as
suredly have not learned the art of
insinuating. They tack their special
pleading on with dreadful obviousnesS,
like the moral to an Aesop fable or
the tag line to a sonnet, so that any
one who wants the facts without the
argument has not the slightest trouble
in separating the two. And the facts
in Mr.. Spivak's book, while not news,
are interesting and Illuminating.
They are gathered from observa-
ton of conditions up and down the
Nation. Mr.. Spivak has interviewed
workers, business men, farmers, civic
leaders, dispensers of relief, labor or
ganizers and so on through the vari-
GUS levels of the citizenry which are
compelled, whether they like it or not,
to take cognizance of the current ma
tional dyspepsia called conditions"
What he would have us believe is
that he found mistreated workers
everywhere fatefully waiting-waiting
while callous employers, with cynical
capitaistic laughter, grew steadily
richer and richer. This Dickensian
picture, however, is not what his book
actually shows at all.
The thing that it does show, and
because of which it is here reviewed,
is a Nationwide state of bewilder-
ment, combined with truly astonish-
ing apathy. Every one, business man
or laborer, showed fear of the time S
drift and increasing inability to cope
with it. And no one, beyond re-
membered tags of slogans or cliches
of thought, had an idea Of what was
happening or notion Of his own as
to what could be done.
Mr.. Spivak tells us, for example
that the workers are turning to the
red agitators," but without the least
knowledge Of what they mean by the
term. He also says that in many
cases the business men blame the
reds" 1t is apparent to the reader
however, that the two groups, instead
of being opposed, are painfully alike
They are both seeking words
word to rationalize their trouble for
them. What a comedy for the Master
PhilologiSt!
In so far as they have agreed any,
where on formula of hope, it is this
Maybe the President can pull us out
Of it," Even the Communistic Mr.,
Spivak admits that the President has
popular confidence.
The picture which emerges is q
gray one, rather than a red-of a
grayness that seems likely to absorb
unlimited quantities of all other colors.
For there are three things that you
cannot do. One is enter clam in q
foot race. Another is light fire of wet
grass. And another is start revolu-
tion without anger.
And, whether Mr.. Spivak likes it
or not, anger is the property of very,
very highly privileged few. In Amer
lea at least it is not likely that it will
lend itself to public ownership.
DEATHBLOW HILL. BY Phoebe At
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