Evening star., 1936-04-25

ART DEALER TELLS A STORY
Ambrose Volard Remnsces Over Interesting Lifetime: Henry
Adams Famous Volume Resued in Popular Edition:
Vaughan Technically Perfect in New Collection

has appeared sometimes as a high
born lady calling for sophisticated
backgrounds, and sometimes as an
illiterate Negress In novels of the genre
known as folk" You may look for
her anywhere, however, with a Ger
tain degree Of assurance. In "The
Sixth Beatitude" she Is an English
housemaid born Of mixed English and
gypsy blood. She holds q family of
ne'er-do-wells together, she has an
assortment of lovers and two illegiti-
mate children. she dies attempting
to save a child from fire. She yearns
in her unlettered soul for good and
beauty, and Is practical in every deed
that she performs.
Miss Halls treatment Is serious to
the point of religious solemnity. One
feels that she is profoundly moved by
her own sad tale. But she does not
move her readers. Sometimes she
just misses the maudlin. And some
times she does not miss it.
SAVAGE PATROL. BY J. G. Hides.
New York: Robert M. Mcbride g.
Co.
THIS grim and amusing book can
be recommended to all those who
are likely to sentimentalize over primi-
tive peoples. either from the viewpoint
Of preserving the superior virtues of
the simple man" or of taking up the
white mans burden. 1t Is the story
Of an English officers efforts to sup
press crime among some of the most
primitive tribes in existence, and, if
it has a moral, it would seem to be
that the simple man is scarcely more
virtuous than the civilized, and that
the efforts of the civilizer are comically
strenuous to small ends.
For Mr.. Hides savages-the more
backward tribes of Papua-were mur-
derers as a prideful accomplishment
and cannibals for fun. And Mr.. Hides,
with his tiny constabulary, tracking
these man-eaters over appalling ter
ritory. displays heroism that Is more
peaceful. but hardly to greater point.
The elaborate and shockingly dan
gerous game of hide-and-seek which
developed between these two groups
of adult males of the human species
becomes, from the armchair stand
point at least, terrifically funny. But
one would hardly care to engage in
it on any closer grounds.
Mr.. Hides, who was born in Papua,
was occupied in enforcing his majesty's
law which says that head hunting. can
nibalism and like time-honored prac-
tices of the simple man" must cease.
The simple man." with a conserva-
tism highly reminiscent Of his civ
ilized brother, was occupied in de-
Tending his customs. Both sides
greatly admired physical courage and
clever strategy. With so much COM
mon ground they endeavored to slay
each other as aimiably as possible.
The cannibals were particularly light
hearted about it. Mr.. Hides, for his
part, avoided any staying wherever
he could. He upheld his civilized
sible) for due process of law.
Not so the simple man." Hearken
to the words of Gopa. cannibal chief
tain who, single-handed, killed men
and reported it as II to the admiring
women of his village. CThey wept
broken -heartedly when he was ar
rested and taken away He was ex-
planning his exploit to the inquiring
Hides.
"You know our fashion. We look
at these people (his neighbors); we
look at them for long time. We
say: They are there; good we kill
them. We think of this all the time
and when our bellies get too hot we
60 and kill them. No more"
He might have added that, having
killed them, they roasted and ate
them, for they did. However, he was
a man of few words. The English
man understood him.
The book is concerned with giving
the action of crime suppression, rather
than its philosophy. Mr.. Hides SEEM
ingly considered it obvious that, hav-
ing accepted his commission, he
should accept the laws behind it. A
foreword to his book, however, offers
some explanation of the British CO.
lonial policy here. This foreword is
by Sir Hubert Murray, K. c. M. G.,
B. A., Lieutenant Governor of Papua.
Says Sir Hubert:
Generally speaking =. our policy
has been to endeavor. as I once put
it many years ago, to transform the
tribe of disappointed warriors into a
race of more or less industrious work.
men, We do not wish them to
become tenth-rate type of European,
and for this reason we are careful
to do what we can to preserve native
custom in all cases where it is not
actually and definitely bad. I must
confess that, to me, many Of these
customs seem unutterably foolish, just
as even the best of native art appears
to me crude and entirely lacking in
inspiration; but probably If were less
ignorant I should be more appreciative.
Zone feels that Sir Hubert is de-
llSIlIlul lcllOW.I Alu, al ally CooC,
If a custom or an art does no harm
and gives pleasure to any one, it would
be an administrative crime to en-
deavor to suppress it merely on
the ground that, to Europeans, 1t seems
absurd"
A benevolent-sounding theme from
which to bring forth so bloody book,
certainly. And an admirable philos-
ophy from which to develop SO des-
perate a game as that which occupied
Mr.. Hides. Happily, distance lends
enchantment. The reader, safely
aware that it happened thousands Of
miles away, can follow the game with
no worse effect than meditation on the
inescapable absurdity of the admit
tedly human species.
THE NEXT HUNDRED YEARS. BY
c. c. Furnas. New York: Reynal
g. Hitchcock.