Evening star., 1938-12-25

early days OF our own country q
considerable part of our trade rested
on the smuggler's ingenuity and
courage. All this is interesting and
new, and the book can be read with
genuine Entertainment.
1t Is not consecutive history
of the smuggler's profession, to be
sure. 1t gives instead a series of
sketches. There are chapters de-
voted to famous smuggling gangs.
to famous individual smugglers, to
conditions under which smuggling
f1ourished in various periods and to
efforts made by harassed govern
ments to suppress the blithe spirits
who declined to pay tribute on their
labors which they felt to be un-
just. 1t makes it plain that snug
Cling has been held in varying
kinds of repute at different times.
In certain periods of English his
tory, for example, Mr.. Farjeon tells
us that whole populations along the
coast were in silent league with the
blockade runners, allowed their
churches to be used as storehouses
for the contraband goods and re-
sisted high rewards offered by the
government for the capture of the
malefactors. At other times snug
Cling. underwent the same kind of
corruption which overlook bootleg
ging in our country in the prohi-
bition era-it became the cloak un-
der which gangs of terrorists car
ried out all kinds of crimes. In
the main, however, Mr.. Farjeon
seems to feel that the professional
smuggler who dealt in commodities
which were staples of the people
has been a good fellow rather than
a bad one. AS said, the book is in
teresting and lively reading.
OSCAR WILDE. BY Leslie and
Sewen Stokes. New York: Ran
dom House.
This play has had the somewhat
dubious distinction of rating as a
smash hit of New York's current
theatrical season-dubious, that is,
because a smash hit is often nothing
but a smash hit, as witnesseth many
a slice of unmemorable ham. The
present hit, however, has been men,
toned as having literary merit of its
own, and so here we have it, in book
form, to edify such lovers of litera-
ture as cannot attend the theatrical
spectacle.
The reviewer has read it all, and
she is afraid now that she will have
to deliver one of her customary dis
agreeable verdicts. oscar Wilde is
a neat bit of work, certainly, but it
seems to her that such merit as it
possesses is so strictly Of the theater
that, short of a clever performance,
the piece would fall fiat. or come
dangerously near it. The funda-
mental interest in the thing lies in
an extraneous circumstance-that is,
in the circumstance that Wilde's his
tory is still remembered and that an
audience will feel curiosity about the
Interpretation to be placed by the
authors on the well-knoWn facts
The reviewer is reasonably sure that,
if the play were to be produced ex-
actly as it is written, save that the
leading character were not histor-
ical figure. audiences would have
little use for it. In other words, the
interest depends upon history rather
than upon the intrinsic merit of one
play.
This is not to be taken as mean
ing that the play is devoid of merit,
however. 1t is neat, as said before.
But it is extremely simple. 1t offers
no more continuity than is nat
urally to be found within three sue
cessive pictures-one of Wilde in the
hey-day of his success and popu-
larity, one of Wilde at his trial, and
one of Wilde a broken man after
his release from prison. Its stage
effects depend entirely on the
Wildean manner of wit, and that
manner Is of course still amusing,
even though dreadfully dated. There
is no action at all, only succession
of dialogues in which Oscar. up