Evening star., 1937-10-30
BRISBANE COME TO JUDGMENT
The Late Comhss Bogapher Finds Heritage of "Mions of
Forgotten Words"-M Peyres Work of Art OH Spanish
Idealist-Some New Windsor Disclosures
By Mary Carter Roberts.
BRISBANE: A CANDID BIOGRAPHY.

BRISBANE: A CANDID BIOGRAPHY.
BY Oliver Carlson. New York:
Stackpole Sons.
THE wonder in the reviewers mind,
on getting this book. was that any
one should have found anything to
say about Arthur Brisbane. For if
ever there was a career perfectly de-
signed to evoke silence on the part of
all beholders, it would seem to have
been his Moreover if he had any
life apart from his public career, it
could not have been such as to arouse
Interest. He was pourer out of
benalitieS, inaccuracies and platitudes.
and even his platitudes were of un-
sound application In the real sense,
therefore. Arthur Brisbane wrote his
own biography with a perfection be-
iyond the reach of any subsequent
Interpreter. 1t is gratifying that the
present interpreter, oliver Carlson,
who was one of the authors of Hearst:
Lord Of San Simeon" realizes as
much The sum of his work is this
that there was nothing to Brisbane
beyond his writing and those endless
columns and editorials of words,
words, wordS-miilions of words had
been forgotten by his readers almost
as rapidly as the issues of the paper
aon which they were printed" That
is about all this book tells us, and
that Of course we knew, anyway.
The book is simply factual. 1t
makes no effort to study motivation
- tI,o r1i nf re
subject and see if there was anything
at all hidden under it. And the facts,
as it turns out, are not sufficient to
make a full-length book, so that Mr..
Carlson has had to pad them notice.
ably with the story of the life OF Al
bert Brisbane, Arthur's father, an
earnest though unsuccessful social
reformer. If there were any connec-
tion between the career of the old
man and that of his son, this might
be understood but Mr.. Carlson does
nothing to tie the two stories together.
He simply puts them side by side.
They make a nice contrast, but no
body can say of the present book that
the handling of Brisbane pere has any
particular relevance.
So it comes down to reading that
Arthur worked for this or that OF Mr..
Hearsts papers in such and such
years, after brief apprenticeshlpS with
Dana and Pulitzer, and that is about
ell there is to it. Toward the end, to
be sure. Mr.. Carlson gives us some OF
Brisbane's associates estimates OF
hin-that he had no sense OF humor
tbut who needed TO be told that, that
he did not care for poetry, that he was
fnssilv penurious in little things, ana
a few other such tags of information.
He aGds to this the statement that an
acquaintance of many years standing
said of him:
Brisbane had a money greed OF
intense. almost hysterical proportions
and there are many who feel that his
immense salary covered other ad-
vantages to Hearst besides journalistic
services.
Of Hearsts attitude toward Brls-
bane. however, MI. Carlson says that
the Lord of San Simeon regarded his
famous columnist as just another job
holder and rejected and edited MS
copy without reverence.
Well there it is-the statement OF
life that was conspicuous without
being significant, of voice tnat was
heard everywhere without being highly
respected. One might say that Bris-
bane in his writing, what every man
1s-sentinentally moral, pusillani-
nous. sloppy-minded, pretentious.
And that. in his life, he was what
every man would like to be-rieh,
powerful and famous No wonder
that Mr.. Oliver Carlson could not fix
any individual identity on him! He
was the essence of dullness-the stuff
OF which most of us are made.
REHEARSAL IN ovIEDO BY Joseph
Peyre Translated from the French
bv r. H. Torres. New York: Knight
Publications.
-ITOSEPH PEYRE is the author OF the
" 1885 Goncourt Prize novel, Gilt
tering Death; it was story OF the
bullrings of Madrid, beautifully
written, fatefully moving tragedy. His
present novel, which also deals with
Spain (as its title indicates, tells
the story of one mans part in the
1884 revolt of the Asturian rebels
against the Spanish Republic. 1t,
too. is written with beauty, 1t is a
fine thing, eminently well worth pos
sessifg
1t does not go into the merits OF
the revolt which is the background for
3ts hero's action. 1t does not even
>F t1n
: It introduces its leading character,
Morenu, at the opening of the fight
ing as he leads a small rebel detach-
4ment into action against the local
barracks of the Civil Guards, and
from that time on Morenu is engaged
in some manner or other with forward
ing the revolt. The revolt is his life.
The reader has to accept it as such.
NJ Peyre makes no comments as to
the rightness or wrongness OF the
issues. He simply shows us man
ohsessed by an idea.
But Morenu's singleness of purpose
Is not the whole extent of the novel.
M. Peyre shows. too, that the course
of human nature is not altered by
war and revolution, and notes that
the Single-hearted 1deaIlSt Is pltted
against folly, treachery and cowardice
in his efforts to bring about reform
by war, just as men are in more
peaceable endeavors. The revolt fails,
Morenu's comrades desert him. Lead
ership passes from those who oppose
unnecessary violence to those who
use the uprising to satisfy personal
aims and personal revenges. Morenu
has sacrificed the life of his sister
in the first battle. AS he sees the
course of events he is afflicted with
doubts as to the worthiness of his
purpose, as to the end for which he
let his sister die. He lives to see
all those who are fine and selflesS
perish, and then perishes himself
This, M. Peyre seems to say. is the
customary course of the idealiSt who