Evening star., 1936-08-22

- a. 20.
1@HIS new collection Of Carl
Sandburg's verse is long and
monotonOus. But still 1t Is
- good A different way Of say
ing the same thing is that you will
find it hard going if you sit down
and try to read it with continuity. If,
however, you skip around in the vol
ume, you will find many arresting
poems. Sandburg is a verseman whose
work easily becomes monotonous.
Like Whitman, he catalogues great
deal, and even the best of catalogues
will become tiresome after a while.
- In the present volume, however. the
sameness is of theme rather than Of
treatment. There is in fact evidence
of volume planning throughout the
work. 1t is seemingly an effort to
present an impressionistic picture of
"the peoples" mind; the effort is
made by use of conversations in the
peoples tongue, popular expressions,
popular legends, popular riddles, songs
and thoughts. Through it all. of
course, is Mr.. Sandburg's own COM
ment ana obDllgato.
BY "the people" he seems to say, he
means the great inarticulate mass
which has for the sum of its mental
achievement a lowering distrust of
the articulate. Or, as he puts it,
"The people is a tragic and
comic two-face hero and hoodlum;
phantom and gorilla twisting to
moan with gargoyle mouth:
They buy me and sell me
it's q game sometime Ill
break loose ."
while his own comment on the
thought is,
"the people hold to the humdrum
bidding of work and food while
reaching out when it comes their
way for lights beyond the prison
of the five senses, for keepsakes
!. lasting beyond any hunger or
death
This reaching is alive.
THE panderers and liars have
violated and smutted it.
Yet this reaching is alive yet
for lights and keepsakes."
The best Of the volume to many
readers probably will be in its ex-
cursions into the intimate retreats,
mental and physical of the people. u
There is humor and genuine folk
sense in these. He asks, for example,
Another baby in Cleveland. Ohio,
in Cuyahoga County, Ohio-Why
did she ask:
Papa,
what is the moon
supposed to advertiser"
And he gives rich slices of popular
mentality when he rambles on in this
manner:
HE can turn around on a dime.
He has an automobile thirst and
wheelbarrow income.
don't know where I'm going but
I'm on my way.
I'll knock you so high in the air
you'll starve coming down.
A bonanza is a hole in the ground
owned by a champion liar.
All you get from him you can put
in your eye.
He tried to get bird in the hand
and two in the bush but what
he got was horse of another
color.
# the government tried to pay me
for what don't know there
wouldn't be enough money
in all the mints to pay me-"
And so on.
Curiously, this writing differs from
that of the avowed "class- conscious"
poetasters, even as the night differs
from day. Sandburg's might be called
genuine "proletarian' writing, save
that it is the expression of reality
too profound to be caught by such
irrelevant critical tags The people
were before the proletariat; one
opines that they will be after it, too.
And it is of these that Sandburg
writes. He knows them. Their self
appointed prophets often do not.
AFTER ALL. BY Clarence Day. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
THE incredible career of Clarence
Day receives new chapter with
the publication of this posthumous
volume of essays, poems and drawings
Mr.. Day, as the world knows, died last
December At the time of his death,
his Life With Father" had sold 49,
900 copies. 1t has continued to sell
steadily ever since, not infrequently
appearing on the best-seller lists. In
all, says Mr.. Days publisher, $4,000
copies of the Day works have been
bought in this country in the past
year. Yet Mr.. Day himself anticipated
nothing more than a mild approval of
his work when he wrote tiff he an
ticipated that.
The present volume is new material
except for the inclusion of some selec-
tions from the Crows Nest" which
came out in 1921. 1t is humor, aimed
at wide variety Of contemporary
follies. The drawings are the au-
thor's own. and they are delightful.
After ALL" does lack the fruity
originality Of the Father" books, but
1t is still good reading. 1t is humor
able to take its place with our repre-
sentative light essays. 1t is pleasant
to have Clarence Day back with us
His was clear, wise spirit.
YOUNG LOVE BY John Erskine.
Indianapolis: Bobbs- Merrill Co.
THIS is a collection of stories. It
is mentioned because Prof. Erskine
wrote 1t. No comment suggests itself
but this-water is water, no matter
how sparkling. 1t never will be wine
The stories, as the reader will have
guessed, are on the subject of love.
HAIL CAESAR! BY David Darrah.
New York: Hale Cushman & Flint.
WE HAVE here a book from the
pen of another American news
paper man who, having brought upon
himself the disfavor of MuSsolini, was
expelled from the sunshine of the Fas-