Evening star., 1948-12-05
lust Between
Ourselves
.By Philip H. Love.

This column Is written for boys
and girls, but surprising number
OF adults read 1t, too. I suppose
that's because most people remain
boys and girls In their hearts, no
matter how old they become.
A plumber doing some work for
me, a man of IS or co., asked: Are
you the fellow who writes that In
Between column, or whatever It's
called, in The Sunday Star"
Eyes, I am" I confessed, not
bothering to correct him as to the
title. you're not going to tell me
you read it?"
Sure I read it-every Sunday. It
reminds me OF when 7 was kid"
A column on the once-popular
boyhood sport of spinning tops
brought a box of the things from
an elderly woman who explained,
in an accompanying note, that
they'd been on a shelf in her novelty
shop for 20 years or more. Another
column, about the steamboats, that
used to chug up and down the Ches-
apeake Bay and the Potomac, st.
Marys and Patuxent Rivers, fetched
a pleasant letter from . Catholic
nun who recalled the wonderful
trips" she had taken to Leonard
town, Md, as girl.
Now comes this note from sill
ver-haired colleague of mine, Rod
Thomas Of the sports staff:
I'm your recent Between Us col
umn on boys books of yore, you
overlooked Horatio Alger, jr.! Come,
give with another piece, and an
other opportunity for the gray
boards to browse in memory through
the fresh, green pastures OF their
hoyhood reading"
Well, I don't know why I neg
lected to mention the Alger books;
they were well up on my list OF
favorites as q boy, and I still re-
member the titles Of some OF them
Ragged Dick" 'Tattered Tom,
PLUCK and Luck" "Phil the Fid-
dler."
Alger wrote more than 100 books
between 1866 and 1899 and their
sales totaled many hundreds OF
thousands. They were available IN
every 5-and-10-cent store when I
was a boy, and I can't recall Q
Christmas that I didn't receive at
least one.
All the Alger books told essen
TALLY the same story: How poor
boy, by hard work, honesty and
courage, srlrmounted every obstacle
to achieve success. Sometimes there
was a mortgage that had to be paid
of in the last chapter to save the
modest home OF the boys widowed
mother.
Although the Alger books encour-
aged boys to be industrious, thrifty,
courageous and Straightforward, to
be loyal to their parents and faith
full to their employers, and to play
fair in all their undertakings, the
public library of my home town
never stocked them, and I am told
that the same was true In Washing
ton. Evidently they were banned,
but I can't imagine why.
y
Other favorites Of my boyhood
that I forgot to mention are the
works of James Fenimore Cooper,
Herman Melville. Robert Louis
Stevenson and Daniel Carter Beard.
If you haven't read Cooper's THE
Last of the Mohicans," The Prai-
rie," Pathfinder" and "Deerslayer"
Melville's "Moby Dick" and Steven
sons Treasure Island" and kid
naped." you've missed lot. Incl
dentally, a new edition of "Kid-
naped," beautifully illustrated by
Lynd Ward, was published recently
by Grosset & Dunlap. And another
old favorite, "Gulliver's Travels, by
Jonathan Swift. with pleasing illus
trations by r. M. Powers and an
interesting introduction by May
Lamberton Becker. has been brought
out by Rainbow Classics.
OF all the authors mentioned
above, none gave my fellow Scouts
and me more pleasure than Dan
Beard. His books on woodcraft
taught us how to make and follow
trails, how to build lean-tos and
pitch tents, how to cook over an
open fire, how to use smoke signals,
etc. still can't read Beard book
without wanting to hike to the
nearest woods and "camp out"