Evening star., 1937-03-27

MAXINE DAVIS,
Author of "They Shall Not
Want" fMacmiHan).
fed admiration for President Roose-
velt But how his mind turns to
Clemenceau when he writes of human
greatness! Clearly "the terrible old
man" made a profound impression on
him, and the chapters descriptive of
the Tigers epic RACES and savage
kills are unquestionably written out
Of an emotion that still lives.
The reviewer has seldom read more
stirring piece than the brief chapter
called "Armistice Night With Clemen-
ceau," which tells how the man who
had answered all objections to his
regime merely with the snarled Il
wage war; as long as war had to be
waged, the most powerful man in
the world at that time, the one men,
Der of the French government who
stayed in Paris when the Germans
were within 10 miles OF the city
how he, on hearing of peace, came
not to balcony or the top Of a
flight OF oratorical steps or banquet
table but to the street, accompanied
only by his aged sister-"a modest
couple, Slightly shabby, dressed with
Etray,Dt, :y,fn1lnotI,o1.c C die
regard of evolving fashions. They
clung together, swayed by the crowd.
A fragile, little old lady, gray of hair
and face: an old man, sturdy, heavy
body on short legs. His swarthy face,
his Mongolian eyes and moustache
were shadowed by q slouch hat. He
seemed Indifferent to the tears
down his cheeks, though
his gray gloves now and then twitched
his hat lower over his eyes
He was sublimely alone
Clemenceau, alone, without even an
agent de police. without single Sc
cret service operative, had trudged
down from his tiny fat in the Rue
Franklin, called for his sister. sailed
forth to participate just like anybody
in the great rejoicing
His incognito, of course, could not
last. Eyes Observation-Disclosures:
rattling antique French oaths roared
forth 'Clemenceaun - Thunder Of
God. but it is the Tiger!'-'But-here
is the sacre Old One himself!!!'-
Then a roar, a long roar Of love and
joy: *Vive Clemenceauv
And so on-until the old man tot
tered INTO a nearby hotel to escape.
and when they came to him there to
tell him that the crowds were drag
ging the captured German cannon
from their bases, and asked him to
give the order to stop 1t, he re-
piled, The war is won. The can
non? Give them to the children to
play with"
What a story! And it loses nothing
in the telling. But Mr.. Williams sees
no Clemenceau about today, but only
politicians, nor OF the whole crop
of postwar eminences can he give
statesmanly rank to any save two
BRAND and Streseman They might
have made peace, he says, If life had
been spared to them.
Mr.. Williams is above all things q
reporter, and while his book contains q
goodly amount of comment and pur-
ports to be a summing up of world
conditions, its best bits are those
which follow repertorial formula. AS
has been indicated, he sees war as
almost inevitable, and in this he agrees
with all experienced correspondents
to date. America, this time, he says.
ought to have her eyes open and
chose deliberately, rather than ac-
cording TO the Establishments of for
eign propaganda. In other words,
America ought to have proflted by
experience. But If war comes what
nation in the world can say that it has
prof1ted by experience? Mr.. Williams
offers no answer to this question. In
stead he prophecies that war will start
in CzechosloVakia. That was Serbia,
was it not, back in 1914?
SMIRE. BY Branch Cabell. Garden
City: Doubleday Doran IL Co.
IT HARDLY seems necessary TO re-
view a book by James Branch
Cabell. Those who read his work
why, they will read it. And there
is a disheartening lack of humor in
the idea Of explaining it to those who
will not understand. Mr.. Cabell, even
as other writer's, even as Mr.. War
wick Deeping or Mrs Fanny Heaslip
Lea, finds his own public. 1t is a
reviewers peculiar problem that his
public will by preference do its own
Interpreting
Suffice it to say, then, that the
present work is the third of the series
of which "Smirt" and Smith" are
the first two. Coming closer to the
matter, one may add that it Is, in Mr..
Cabells own words, IAN acceptance
in the third person" And that, on
the basis Of the text, seems to mean
an acceptance Of a writer's fate, as
Mr. Cabell himself has experienced it.
And that. in general, is the fate
of man who comes to live in the
world Of common sense after having
created worlds of his own that were
beyond common sense. 1t is. in par
ticular, the progress of Smire-Who
at one time was an omnipotent deity
and at vet another a minor but still
an authentic god-through the world
Of history, as it exists in his imagina-
tion-or, one understands, as he pre-
ferred TO arrange it. He makes the
progress as reminjscence and en-
counters himself-in number OF
forms--on the road. When he comes
at last to the end OF his journey, he
enters, by Charon's ferry Operating
in the reverse Of its customary di-
rection), into the condition of being
a famous author with domicile In