Evening star., 1937-03-20
ONE MILLION WORDS ON LOVE
The TRAMP and His Woman Exquisite New Book-Max
Miller Scores Again With the Best Book on 'Un-
changing" Mexco-Other Recent Works.

| them.
That is the story, but it is done
| with much fine detail The customs
of the Colonials, the feudal manner
of their society, the mingled barbarity
| and richness, the broad nature of their
talk, the roistering quality of their
observation-disclosures are presented
in convincing fashion and are still
refreshingly different from the ordi-
nary concept of Puritan existence.
| The book Is now on the best-seller
list, but it has more than that to
recommend it.
YOUNG ROBERT. BY George Albee.
New York: Reynal & Hitchcock.
THIS is novel of character, de-
voted to the deviations from the
| ordinary of its hero, Robert Lime
wright, son Of San Francisco laborer,
in the early part of the century. Rob-
ert Is imaginative, fiery, tough-mind-
ed and brave-a superior person gen.
orally. He leads turbulent life
and meets an appropriately pointless
death.
Books devoted to extolling an au-
thors favorite can easily be banal,
and this one has it's moments of ba-
nality. AS whole, however, it hangs
together. 1t deserves mention because
it goes out of the beaten track in
seeking human values; that is to say,
while it Is a conventional type of novel
| in form, 1t is not in content. 1t can
not be described here as having any
particular merit beyond that of an
original outlook, but, since it does
have that, it holds promise. When
Mr.. Albee writes another book, the
reviewer will look for it. 1t might
be pretty good.
MEXICO AROUND ME. BY Max
Miller. Illustrated by Everett Gee
jackson. New York: Reynal e.
Hitchcock.
! 1T is, of course, always pleasure to
read book by Max Miller. For
Max Miller is that kind of writer. His
prose is practically perfect and his
mind is ingenious and shrewd. There
have, unhappily, been four books on
Mexico so far this year and there
were IL last year Still--it is a pleas
ure to read Max Miller. Even to a
book reviewer-yes, even to a book re-
viewer-his present work is pleasure.
Mr. Miller, fortunately seems to be
man who can take his Mexico or
leave it, and that in itself is a great
ic Ia
take Mexico to his bosom and cry over
it. He doesn't go native. He does
about what his title suggests. He re-
mains himself and looks at Me 'co
around him. After reading the afore-
mentioned ID works on the country to
the south, the reviewer has no hesita-
tion whatsoever in saying that Max
Miller's is immeasurably the best. But
then the subject really has nothing to
do with books goodness. The point
is that Max Miller knows how to write
and most of the ID other writer's did
not. They only wanted to tell you
about Mexico. Ardor like that is a
mistake, invariably.
Mr. Miller wandered, with apparent
aimlessness, around cities which have
been publicized SO agonizingly that a
sensitive person must have positive
shame at entering them. and also
managed to get into spots that are
off the tourist beat. But whether he
is writing about the ruins of Oaxaca,
or the little known village of Ixtepec,
he is equally entertaining. AS has
/ hppn ho 70
( Even Mexico cannot be b. nal when a
/ writer knows that. 1t is the Inter
prefer who makes tedium out of rea-
sonable human customs.
! Mexico Around Me" is a mingling
of present-day impressions and re-
/ Elections on the past. In sum, the
/ book concludes that the country
changes in essentials about as little
as any country can and that its sur
/ face upheavals revolutions to us) are
! little more than shifts Of dealers in the
old army game-the game of skinning
! the Indian. The Indian, he says, has
! been made into national hero by the
present dispensation, but "the catch
| is that he is not the one who caShes
in on the lucre. The oratory is for
him and about him, and it sounds
well, but some one else always seems
to get the pay-off. The Indian is really
| nothing more than the emblematic
| flag, as In our own country, when
politicians get to talking and wav-
| ing their arms
| A cynical work, perhaps. But some
how cynical works carry so much more
conviction!
| GOLD OF OPHIR. BY Sydney Green
bic and Marjorie Barstow Greenbie.
New York: Wilson Erickson, Inc.
THIS is not new book. 1t was
first published about dozen years
ago. The present edition is its sec
ond one and is revised The work is
mentioned here because it seems likely
to be interesting to many people. 1t
Is the story of the trade between
America and China, detailed, humanity
set down, immensely interesting. AS
Rufus Rockwell Wilson says in his
istence as trading nation with the
China trade" Yet fe-J records of this
trade, in interesting form, are readily
available.
Gold of Ophir" describes the rise
of the clipper ships, the negotiations
with the mandarins on the basis of
witch trading was carried on long in
advance of any treaty; the hong mer-
chants; the development Of the direct
route across the Pacific; the problems
of navigation and piracy and many
other richly picturesque aspects of our
dealing with the Orient. It Is worth
commencing to those with an interest
in our relations with China and the
East.
AMERICAN HURLY-BURLY. BY Err
=, nest Sutherland Bates and Alan
Williams. New York: Robert M.
Mcbride & Co.