Evening star., 1936-02-19
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
BANJO ON MY KNEE. BY Harry
Hamilton. Indianapolis: Bobbs-
Marearet Cermond.

The music goes round and round
on Old Man River and comes out at
New Orleans, with Old Newt filling the
soft Southern evenings with melody
from his magical one-man band and the
the Introduction of an entirely new
group Of characters to American folk
literature. These are Tennessee fisher
folk. They are as distinctive in type
as are the Cape Codders, the deep
mountain Virginians, the early frontiers.
men and, to come little nearer home,
the Tangier Islanders. They are the
aristocrats Of group that may be
called-for want Of more adequately
descriptive term-river squatters, for
they live on shanty boats tethered to
the river banks. For those who live
on land they entertain little of either
trust or love.
Pure Joy is the essence of Banjo on
My Knee" as it rolls along the famous
Mississippi with the adventures of Old
Newt and Lena, Pearl and Ernie and
others whose homes are the shanty boats
tethered to Island Twenty one, of the
Tennessee shoreline. 1t is Mr.. Hamil-
toms first novel, but it bears the mark
OF an artist who has a profound under
standing and a sincere affection for his
characters. He lived among them, abb
sorbing their simple philosophy, respect
ing and admiring their traditional pride
and bearing with them the triumphs
and the tragedies that are the lot of
all mankind.
Old Newt and his neighbors have
little interest in the world beyond
Pecan Point, which is the nearest center
OF supplies. They are law unto them
selves handling their own births, deaths,
murders and drownings without either
care or knowledge of land forces of pro-
lection, regulation or justice. Most of
them do not know that Europe was the
scene of four years Of bloodshed until
Old Newt receives a post card from his
foot-looSe and fancy-free son, saying
that he Is on his way from Italy to
France and that from there he will
start home. If Ernie had stayed at
home with his wife, as he should have
done, and not gone of periodically to
see the world, Old Newt, Lena and Pearl
would never have strayed into SO many
strange adventures. But Ernie cannot
hear boat whistle without needing its
call, despite his devotion to Pearl and
his father and his pride in Old Nevis
artistic achievement.
To the river folk and to Old Newt
himself the JOY of life is the sweet
music which he extracts from a con-
traption of his own rigging which con-
Sists OF drum, banjo, cymbals and
a harmonica-which Newt calls a French
harp. Ernie comes home, stays few
weeks and is gone again. But this time
Pearl is honestly convinced that she has
been deserted once too often, so she
leaves for New Orleans with an itinerant
photographer, who promises her a job
and is disguSted when he learns that
Pearl believes him. The adventures
begin when Old Newt and Lena start
down the Mississippi in a skiff for New
Orleans to find Pearl and save the fam
lily honor. Wherever he stops Old Newt
sets up his magical music contraption
and plays for the pleasure of all who
like to listen-and everybody does. So
they make their way to New Orleans,
with "Gal-on-a LOG" "St. Louis Blues"
Root Hawg er Die" Treetop Tall" and
other songs familiar to the bank dwell
ers filling the evening air with gladness
and winning food for the odd pair on
their long journey.
Newt has never played for money, but
he finds living expensive and not to his
liking in New Orleans. 1t is playing for
money, however, that eventually leads to
the finding of Pearl, but not until many
experiences have been accumulated, not
only by the three most concerned, but
by many of the self sufficient smart ones
of the big Southern town who see in
Old Newt an opportunity to have some
fun and glory at his expense. Well,
shrewd men and women of all big towns
have tried many times to out-Smart
"hick" and been sadly fooled.
Are the adventures all over when Pearl
is found and the family happily reunited
in New Orleans? Not bit of It'll There
is the long journey home, and one Of
them is missing when the hour of de-
parture arrives. And more adventures
await them when they get home. Flood,
epidemic, jealousy and violent death
visit Island Twenty-One, and another
perilous trip down the Mississippi brings
to happy, astonishing close a story
that possesses more genuine humor,
sound philosophy and substantial worthi-
ness than any publication in many
months can boast. Its realism Is that
of authenticity, and its charm Is the
unSpoiled and natural portrayal OF its
characters. It's people win immediate
sympathy, and Lena is the most Hre-
sistible mongrel of dogdom.
kx
STARS AND TELESCOPES. BY James
Stokley. New York: Harper &
Brothers.
An especially timely publication to be
released tomorrow is this volume that
has been written to meet the steadily
growing demand that has grown out OF
the general interest in the three plane
tariums now in operation for an under
standable book on the celestial universe.
Mr.. Stokley has based his work largely
upon the most common requests for in
formation, and has so arranged and an
notated 1t that even the most paSSively
interested layman will find himself be-
coming deeply interested and athirst for
more as his knowledge is increased
through the simplicity and the scien-
tific correctness of this volume.
1t traces the science Of astronomy from
its earliest superstitions down to the
great modern astronomers and gives,
also. the history of telescope observa-
tion and Of the making of the great
telescopes Of the world, including the
200-inch master lens which only
few months ago emerged from its ten
months cooling process and is to be
set up at Mount Palomar, California.
Every phase of astronomy in which the
student and the layman is interested
has been treated with regard to the
ability OF the unframed mind, and an