Evening star., 1937-01-23

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life in q river, with romantic gypsies
singing and weeping over her demise.
1t is not q bad little story. One
feels that it might make the plot Of
q very, very minor opera. The gypsies'
choruses would be 50 picturesque.
THE DIARY OF SELMA LAGERLOF.
Garden City: Doubleday. Doran
& Co.
THIS is q touching little hook-the
= journal of the great Swedish nov-
elist when she was very young. 1t was
written in the Winter OF Miss Lager
lof's 18th year, when she went from
her country home tn Varmland to
have, under the care of her aunt, .
season in the capital. It Is a record
of her reactions to the new environ-
ment, given continuity by very slight,
dreamlike little romance which she
wove for herself and then wrote down.
She met, on the train going to
Stockholm, q university student who
knew her brother He was friendly to
her and later told her brother that he
thought her the most interesting girl
he had ever known, an opinion that Is
perfectly comprehensive, since one
cannot imagine that among the young
ladies of his acquaintance there were
many future Lagerlofs. But she. BE-
ing at the age when imagination takes
q romantic turn, could not dispose OF
him with q brief mental verdict; she
continued to think Of him and to won
der. She decided that he was the
child of q certain prince, and again
she feared that he was involved In
tragic student suicide. In all her oc-
cupations that Winter she wove her
dreams about her friendly fellow
traveller.
And then, just as she was to leave,
she saw him again. He was in COM
pany of his parents and she realized
with disappointment that his father
was more likely to be a grocer than
q prince-it was unthinkabie that he
should be a romantic royal exile. And
with him was a young lady to whom
he had been engaged-only, as young
Selma Lagerlof learned with satisfac-
ton, the engagement had recently
been broken. Not" she says. that
think he will come to love me (she
never saw him again), but Froken
Won X. (the fiancee) does not look
kind"
And that was the end Of 1t. She
rode back on the train, possessed by
the idea, she says, that he, too, was
a passenger-but, If he was, she did
not see him. It Is quaint little
work, and . touchingly intimate reve-
lation OF common humanity In great
genius.
! WE CAN DEFEND AMERICA. BY
Maj. Gen. Hagood. Garden City:
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
THE recent retirement Of Maj. Gen.
l. Hagood, after the controversy CEN
tering about his removal and rein
statement from his command, has
freed him, so his publishers tell US, to
express his opinion on national de-
fense with complete frankness. The
present book is that expression. 1t
should be read with interest by those
who believe the problem of peace or
war to be governable thing.
The generals belief inclines along
that line. He considers 1t quite within
the limits Of possibility to keep Amer
| lea out of future wars, but only, as he
makes plain, i. we develop strong de-
fensive mechanism. The function Of
armed forces today, as he sees 1t. is as
important as it has ever been, but with
a different direction. For whereas
formerly a nation maintained strong
military force generally for purposes
of aggression, today the reason for
such forces is defense-as the general
sees 1t.
He believes emphatically that the
service which strong army and navy
renders its country today is to keep
it out Of war. The fact that all his
tory shows that great armies, where
they have been built up, have been
used for offense troubles him not at
all He is writing about the future.
He considers that the course OF events
to come will be different from that OF
events that have been.
In the case Of our own country, we
have, almost ideally, says the general,
a defensive position. From the de-
fensive standpoint we are the strong
est nation on earth, as he sees 1t. We
have only to strengthen our natural
blessings in this regard to render our
selves secure from attack, he says, and
then proceeds to outline what he feels
would be the best methods to follow In
arriving at this dSirable end.
While other military strategists have
in recent months published very diff
ferent views on our position, the opin-
ion of Gen. Hagood must be received
with respect. When military men be-
gin to Join pacifists in writing about
the maintenance Of peace, then 1t
might seem that we are beginning to
get somewhere. Ideals are admirable,
but expert counsel Is none the less
eficacious in making them something
more than dreams.
NAVY BLUE AND GOLD. By George
Bruce. New York: william Caslon
Co.
IT is going to be very hard for any
one with q mind not preternat.
urally correct to read this novel with
out roars of ribald laughter. but, by
the same token, it will be worth the
while of irreverent souls to go through
its astonishing pages just to get the
therapeutic benefit Of the hilarity
which it will provoke. Nothing fun
nier, and nothing written with more
deadly serious intent, has come to the
reviewers notice In several decades.
It is . story Of Annapolis, told in
terms Of very strong men and very
clean emotions. To quote the blub, 1t
is as clean as the wind that laves
the face Of Q sailorman, poignant as
the shrilling Of q bos'un's pipe, STIR
ring as the brazen challenge OF
trumpet, soft rs the last lingering
note Of Taps" Now, isn't that lovely