Evening star., 1937-05-01
By Mary.Carter Robwfs.
THE WOODROW WILSON'S. BY
Eleanor Wilson McAdoo. New
York: The Macmillan Co.

that does not mean that it
Is too personal to have value as a
bit of Wilson history. For it is easy
to discount Mrs. McAdoo's enthusi-
asms, and when that is done there
remains a picture of the war Presi-
dent which ought not to be ig-
nored 1t dates from before the failure
of Wilson in health and self-confi-
dence, it is of the Wilson whom Amer
lea knew before the unsuccess of his
plans for securing world peace had
embittered him.
OF late this early memory has
been almost lost in the nearneSS OF
our more recent memories Of him as
III and disillusioned. In bringing
back the younger Wilson to our
minds, Mrs. McAdoo has accomplished
something of real though minor his
torical service, and the sometimes
kittenish manner of her expression
ought not to discredit this fact.
The book begins with her own first
recollections of her father and ends
With the death of her mother in the
White House. 1t treats of Wilson S
administration of Princeton, of his
activities in the governorship of New
Jersey and of his presidential cam
paign, as these matters seemed to
the author when she was herself a
young woman, and the theme of her
memories is largely the splendor and
goodness of her parent. But she
has a good mind for episodes, too,
and her personal enthusiasm is fire.
ouently illustrated by excellent anec-
dotes.
She quotes her father, for exam
pie, as saying, on being notified OF
his nomination for the presidency and
pressed by reporters for statement,
You might say that Gov. Wilson re-
ceived the news in riot of silence" d"
Again when, on having the word OF
the nomination brought to him at
his home, he discovered that Joseph
Tumulty had had brass band con-
cealed behind the shrubbery of the
lawn in order that music might burst
forth spontaneously with his ap-
pearance, he inquired whether Tum-
ulty had also instructed the musicians
to Stink away silently in case of
defeat"
In another place she tells of Will
cons reaction to the news that Theo-
dore Roosevelt had been wounded
by a fanatic while making his rival
campaign for the presidency. Faith
er sent telegram expressing SYM
pathy," she writes, and then an
nounced that he would make no
speeches as long as Roosevelt was
unable to do So He laughed as he
told us of his decision. I couldn't
see why it was funny, and when
questioned him he said, Teddy will
have apoplexy when he hears of this.
We were told that it did enrage him,
but he made no comment of any sort.
The Wilson who used to 60 to
Keith'S, the Wilson who loved linn
ericks and little private jokes, the
man who believed serenely in the
rightness of his ideals and who had
not yet encountered opposition-this
Is the man who is portrayed in the
present work. 1t revives in way
all the old pre-war spirit of America
as divided into good and bad by lines
of perfect precision and in which
every right-thinking person, as they
were called, had a favorite project
for reform and believed that it was NO
more than his duty to prosecute it,
We are apt to forget that naive gen.
Grafton which came before our own
postwar awakening, and it is a sal
utary thing to find it re-created in
spirit so of its own time as is the
case in this book by Eleanor Wilson
McAdoo. Her work deserves reading
as an indication of the change of
American thought in the past two
decades.
MERMAID TAVERN. BY George w.
Cronyn. New York: Knight Pub
lications.
THERE is thing about this novel
which ought to please readers, and
there is another thing about it which
ought to please critics; it is fitted out
with lively and wen-built plot for the
first. and it shows itself to be the
product of vast research for the second.
1t Is story of Kit Marlowe, and how
he lived and wrote and died in the
England of Elizabeth. Its abundant
physical action and complicated in
trigle should keep readers well awake,
while, as to critics, they will be able
to engage in intricate wars, if the mood
takes them, over the authenticity OF
Mr. Cronyn's Elizabethanisms. In spite
of this dual bounty, however, the pres
ent reviewer finds the book lacking in
one important respect-it has no
characters.
The elaborate plot, with its equally
elaborate setting, seems to have been
worked out on the preliminary plan of
using A, B and c for heroes and viii
lains-for defenders and destroyers;
after which, when the last detail has
been fitted smoothly in, names have
been assigned to the parts. Marlowe
himself we are told, is a fiery and
tender genius; words are put into Mar
loves mouth to show us that he is
indeed that. Notwithstanding, Mar
lowe does not live He is a name,
famplng through well-set scenes. And
other characters are similarly without
roundneSs.
AS to the possible critical war over
the setting, however, the reviewer
wishes to take sides with the pros. The
setting seems excellently done. The
novel is not one of those in which a
few stage properties are asked to give
the illusion of an era. 1t reeks with
the stencil Of Elizabethan crudities and
CLEANS with color of the times glory
A great deal of praise is due the vast
work which obviously has gone into
so elaborate creation of an era. With
SO great an accomplishment to its
credit, the book perhaps should not be
blamed for its lack of convincing men
and women. 1t can be fairly said, at
any rate, that, as such men and women