davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1951-04-22
Hunster Memorial

Howard University's department
Of art is showing through April
80 a memorial exhibition Of oil
paintings by Thomas Watson Hum
ster, born 100 years ago. It COM
prises 80 works, assembled by
Prof. James v. Herring. head of
Howard's art faculty, lent by the
Barnett Alden Gallery and 18 pri-
vate owners.
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio,
Hunster came to Washington in
his early 20s. planning to go to
Paris to study art. George F. T.
Cook, then superintendent of col
cred schools here. persuaded the
young artist to stay and develop
an art department. Despite Hun
ster's lack of experience and train
ing, and lack of funds, facilities
and equipment. he performed the
Herculean task, and headed the
art department of divisions 1913
for nearly half a century, retiring
in 1922.
An illustrated catalogue of the
show is introduced by a sympa-
thetic critique of Hunster's own
painting and a comprehensive
biography by Stanton L. Wormley
of Howard's faculty. Prof. Worm
ley points out the virtues and
also the faults of these paintings
by an artist who subordinated his
own talent to the demands Of ad-
ministrative and executive duties
throughout most Of his life.
Evening star., 1951-04-22

by his simple color schemes. He
seems to be partial to a limited
palette Of warm blues. grays, earth
red. chalky white and greenish
yellow. usually muted. He occa-
sionally uses these colors in
brighter tones. with jewel-like
notes Of vermillion and other as
sertive colors.
A large majority Of the 16 paint
ings in the Whyte Gallery show
were inspired by waterfront mo-
tifs, wharves. bridges. seacoast.
fishing vessels. drying nets, etc.
There is also an excellent still
life, Fish and Shrimp" which
won the $500 first prize in oils, in
the golden anniversary exhibition
of the New Orleans Art Associa-
ton at the Isaac Delgado Museum
last month. Mr.. Lewis has been
studying in New Orleans the past
winter on q Tiffany scholarship.
Several New Orleans subjects are
included in his Whyte Gallery
show.
Little gems in the collection are
EAST River Bridge" "Decoys" and
Near the Bay" I like best Of all
his larger Waterfront" a beauti-
full painting with q fine compost.
ton and brighter colors.
Evening star., 1951-04-22
Mary Garden
Sets Her Story
To Music
MARY GARDENS STORY

MARY GARDENS STORY
by Mary Garden and Louis
|Biancolli. (Simon & .Schuster;. J.
|$3.75.J
Mary Garden has lived most Of
her life In the glare Of publicity
She never even blinked. appar-
emily, IL this record is to be be-
lieved. According to those who
saw and heard her, Mary Garden
in her great French opera roles,
she had a mesmerizing stage pres
ence. Although her voice was not
or the highest order, she coule
use 1t to color her Interpretation
so that she achieved an emo
tional effect that is truly incom-
parable in operatic history.
AS she remarks frequently ir
the course Of this free-wheeling
memoir. she began at the top,
stayed at the top and left at the
top. When her voice began to
|go. she wisely bowed out. But if
her voice was subject to times
thrust. her ego has been inde-
structible. Miss Garden has ap-
|parently been immune to the
sings and arrows of outrageous
fortune. From every 'feud she
emerged triumphant. from every
trial victorious. Even the loss Of
IA million dollars during the year
she managed the Chicago Opera
she brushes aside. AS, for example,
although she never fell in love,
she was the only woman many
men ever loved. The rather helter-
skelter accounts of these affairs.
with no names mentioned, read
sometimes like the script for a
silent movie, with suicide and
murder threatened, death-bed
messages and so on.
At the end, she says demurely,
MY passion was opera. and that
was the only real romance Of
my life."
Evening star., 1951-04-22
Pertaining to Sea Coasts

John Chapman Lewis covers the
waterfront in his one-man show
at the Whyte Gallery through
May S. This Washington artist
has come q long way since his
first solo exhibition here in the
mid-fortieS at the, Artists Co.
operative on M street. He showed
obvious promise then, which has
been realized. Mr.. Lewis is tai
ented and industrious, and has
developed distinctive persona,
style. He states his objectives In
a new book (to be reviewed here
shortly in which he is one of
SO contemporary artists whose
work is analyzed.
He tells how he works out his
compositions from sketches made
from nature, eliminating what he
considers irrelevant to the finished
painting, but seeking to retain the
basic shapes. He obtains unity
not only by his relationships, but
Evening star., 1951-04-22

when her husband died, and after
a while she said: How kind in
some to die. adding impatience to
the rapture Of our thought of
heaven"
The letters do not bear out, I
believe, the editors contention
that they show Emily Dickinson
as "a consummate lover of life. -
She was too fey for that. She
bolted at visitors. She ran
at the sight Of the new colored
gardener ("When the head of the
Nation shies. it confuses the
foot"). But she was one Of those
New England spinsters of the last
century who quietly enriched the
world. Genius CLEANS, fitfully but
unmistakably on these pages.
Evening star., 1951-04-22
French Economists S
Condensed History
Is Tour de Force

THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD
IN 300 PAGES
BY Rome Sedillot. Translated
from the French by Gerard Hop
kins. (Harcourt. Brace: $3J
On glancing at the title, you
might think the author, a noted
French economist, had been braSh
indeed. The task he set for himself
might seem impossible. Read the
book. and you'll find out that he
not only was able to write COM
prehensive history in 300 pages,
but to do it amazingly well.
Mr.. Sedillot's history is no mere
chronology with explanatory
notes. 1t is a fascinating nara
tive that summarizes most of the
significant movements. transitions
and events of recorded time. The
story does not even seem hurried.
It is simply and clearly written,
but by no means elementary. The
drama of history is not reduced to
the primer Of our mediums of mass
enlightenment. The author is q
historian with Q philosophy. And
yet he makes it clear that he did
not set out to prove any one thing
or to develop a historical theory.
He does see history as a succession
of people-nationalities or racial
groups-who have taken the spot
light for a time and given away
to another.
Naturally there was no room for
the extended biographies of con-
spicuous figures we have come to
expect in histories or for descrip-
tionS of battles or councils. But
few significant persons or events
are left out, and the book is a re-
markable feat of concise and often
epigrammatic summarizing.
The world today 'tfar from be-
coming united, is breaking up," he
feels. And he points to the many
small countries into which the old
empires and nations have been
devided. The military might of the
Soviets "calls to mind that of
GenghiS Khan rather than of a
modern state" Looking at scien-
tific progress, Mr.. Sedillot thinks
that concern for material we'll
being has dealt a death blow at
the life of the spirit. The quail
ity of art is diminishing" In 12.-
900 years man "has discovered,
more about the world and very
little about himself"
CARTER BROOKE JONES.
Evening star., 1951-04-22
Occupied Germany
Kay Boyle Theme

THE SMOKING MOUNTAIN
BY Kay Boyle. (McGras1-Hill;;
$500
No one who has read Kay
Boyle's short stories needs to be
told how meticulous and elegant
a writer she is. But in many ways
the most interesting things about
this new volume, devoted entirely
to occupied Germany, is the long,
non-fiction introduction which
she has written as a keynote. 1t
lis a report on the trial of q no
torious Nazi official, and Miss
Boyle, who has lived in Occupied
Germany since 1916. acquits her
self as nobly, If not as volubly,
as Rebecca West in wringing every
last ounce of drama from the at
mosphere in the courtroom.
Despite the uniform settings,
the stories have remarkable range
and are not so bitter as one might
expect from such a Francophile
author. She does not judge only
the Germans; she judges their
conquerors, too. And if they are
self-pitying, unreconstructed, the
Americans have been greedy, cal
lous and prejudiced. It is a tense
and Sullen state, and Miss Boyle
catches it's subleties-the degrada-
ton of the conquered and the
decadence Of the conquerors-in
Summer Evening"" All of the
stories bite deep and Miss Boyle
has probably summed up their
effect best when she has one of
her characters, an American civil
ian occupation clerk, say, st see
Germany like some isolated terri
tory, like a lepers' colony, an in
fected island which free men con-
quered, and who have, because
of this, become ailing and evil
and no longer free"
MARY McGp0pv
Evening star., 1951-04-22

South Pacific again, but: IF there
is anything any of us can do to
encourage an understanding of
Asia and its Pacific approaches
we should do it." Mr.. Michener
also had a great curiosity con-
cerning what effect the wartime
occupation Of American troops
and the fighting had on certain
islands in the several elapsed
years.
He spent the better part Of a
postwar year cruising around
Tahiti. the Fiji Islands. Guadal-
canal, New Guinea, Australia and
New Zealand.
Could he recapture the charm
and drama he managed to weld so
successfully in "Tales of the
South Pacific? At least he had
a purpose more significant than
merely prospecting again through
a region which once had yielded
treasure.
Mr.. Michener has used a Curl
GUS and rather distracting tech
mic. He has written a factual
summary of each country he
visited and followed that with a
short story dealing with the same
theme. The stories, he says, are
entirely fiction, though they OBJ
viously were suggested by typical
situations.
The book, particularly the fac
tual portion, is both interesting
and informative. He sums up the
differing attributes of islanders
admirably.
Playboys Of the Pacific.
For instance, Tahiti is Poly
nesia," the most typical part.
Tahitians "are generous, cour-
ageous and comic. In pursuit
Of money they are irresponsible.
Evening star., 1951-04-22

In pursuit of happiness they are
dedicated. They are the perpetual
adolescents of the ocean, the play
boys of the Pacific"
But it may surprise you to learn
that in any part of Polynesia the
cost of living is so per cent higher
than in, say. Illinois. In Tahiti,
of course. the cost is twice as
much" You also discover that the
French government of Tahiti
doesn't want tourists-too many
turn into northumberland has
put such restrictions in their way
as requiring a deposit of $4,000,
to be repaid in monthly INSTALL
ments. A new governor had come
out from Paris, however. deter
mined to remove the insult under
which Americans had suffered" !"
A visa is hard to obtain. but Mr..
Michener found Americans who
could get there welcomed whole
heartedly.
What of the languorous coral
beaches where, according to the
romancers, a man could live on
coconuts and sea food and find
a susceptible girl to share a lotus
life? The beaches are still there.
also the girls. but Mr.. Michener
is not one to let the beauty of
dazzling shores and gorgeous
mountains blind him to tropical
diseases and the treacherous ways
Of jungles.
Less than q century ago the
Fijians were cannibals and fierce
warriors. Today, most Of them
converted to Christianity by mis-
sionaries, they are the gentlest
people in the South Seas. And
Indians. imported from India by
the British. threaten to take over
the Fiji Islands. Indians are the
largest segment and the most in
tractable.
I found the non-f1ction passages
the more rewarding. The short
stories suffer from the effort to
use fiction to prove a thesis-a
method seldom wholly effective.
Some. like 'The Story" derive IN
development from both Maupas-
SAINT and o. Henry. They are well
done. but their elaborate plots
make them seem artificial, despite
their authentic atmosphere.
Return to Paradise" is the May
selection Of the Book-of-the-
Month Club.
Evening star., 1951-04-22

The Devil in Velvet. BY John
Dickson Carr. (Harper & Bros;
So.
John Dickson Carr is beginning
to love history more than mystery,
but he's still not totally lost to-
his whodunit following. This one.
has a puzzle in it, although it's
$50 years old. Carr's hero makes
a pact with the devil to move him
back in history to the reign of
King Charles II. His, goal is to
prevent murder-in other words,
to change history. He knows the
murder occurred but the historical
accounts of the incident fail to
reveal the murderer. Mr.. Carr's
loving attention to historic detail
sometimes gets In the way of his
plot. but the plot is ingenious
enough to survive.
4 + 4 4
Curtains for Three, by Rex Stout.
(Viking Press; $2.50.).
Nero Wol1es IN mis- latest three
some, is called on to prove an
old suicide was murder. to break
an apparently unshakable alibi
and to unveil a stranger auda-
cious enough to perform the fatal
deed in Wolfe's own front room.
Flock!ng through the pages are
orchid fanciers, opera singers,
equeStrians and sundry others
with more money than virtue.
The irreverent might ascribe much
of Wolfe'S success to lucky guess
work but he does some fancy de-
ducing in this slick trio of tales.
n k* n
Never Look Back. BY Mignon G..
Eberhart. (Random House;
$500
The odor of cyanide in a bedside
thermos, an obvious attempt to
lure her onto the balcony Of her
penthouse apartment and thu
Evening star., 1951-04-22
Marcel Ayme's $ Book
Us French Satire
AT Its Wittiest
THE MIRACULOUS BARBER

4444i GM11k11SOA0O0 08a1SoGN
BY Marcel Ayme. fHarper, $3.J
The France Of the mid-1930s,
at least a cross-section of it. is
scrutinized with merciless urban
ity in a novel that is both amusing
and devastating. It Is French
satire at its wittiest and most
penetrating-satire which seems
to be realism because it hardly
overdraws its victims.
Mr.. Ayme describes a France
that was ripening to be plucked
by the first enemy that came
along. It was. to change the
figure. a country falling apart in
Ia welter of political and economic
|dissension and corruption. The
author does not spare his country
men by SO much as a parenthesis,
and yet he is never vindictive
or indignant. but. like all first
rate satirists, he lets the elements
which he is exposing tell their
own story without editorial super
vision. The objective calmness of
the narrative adds greatly to its
savage humor.
There is no use going into the
story. 1t is a typically French
complexity Of business, sex and
politics. But Mr.. Ayme's easy
cutting blade does not fail to dis
sect every one in sight-the Ance-
lots. mother and three daughters.
spouting phrases from the new
literature they hadn't read, the
|avant-garde stuff; the f1yweight
boxer turned novelist at the in
sistence of his patron, the Com
Imunists and all the other confused
|components of the Popular Front,
the business executives quaking in
fear of strikes and revolutions.
There is. finally, the barber, a
minor character, who receives the
ministers of state at his shop and
makes all their decisions.
Eric Sutton's translation does
not seem ever to get between the
author and the reader. Whatever
else you read or pass up this
spring, don't overlook 1.-THE Mi
|raculous Barber"
CARTER BROOKE JONES.
Evening star., 1951-04-22
Crime and Mystery
Reviewed by Miriom ottenbero
The Devil in Velvet. By John death
Dickson Carr. (Harper & Bros: woman

death plunge Of an unidentified
woman in black from her terrace
all lead Maggie Brooke to suspect
that some one harbors an acute
dislike for her. These fears become
even more pointed when some one
takes some potshots at her during
an abortive robbery. A less coura-
geous type would have run to the
law but our heroine grits her teeth
and conf1des in all the wrong
people. Those old standbys-love
and greed-provide the working
motivations in a standard Eber-
hart item about the penthouse
set.
Evening star., 1951-04-22
4 ri
Galleries Present
: New Exhibitions
In Wide Variety
By Florence S. Berryman

Several new exhibitions have
opened in the past few days, or
will open this afternoon, which
offer much variety and interest.
The Adams Clement Collection
recently given by Miss Mary
Louisa Adams Clement to the Ma
sional Collection of Fine Arts and
he United States National Mu-
seum's Department Of History
was inaugurated last Wednesday
afternoon with special program
at which Mrs. Katharine McCook
Knox. General U. S. Grant III and
the secretary Of the Smithsonian
were speakers. This collection
given in memory Of the donors
mother, Louisa Catherine Adams
Clement, will be permanently on
view.
At the Institute Of Contempo-
rary Arts, Alexander Calder YVES
present Tuesday at the opening of
q one-man show of his work, in
Guiding his famous mobiles and
some of his standing sculptures.
An exhibition of old flower
prints will open this afternoon
at the National Gallery of Art.
And at Watkins Gallery, American
University, the spring annual
exhibition of contemporary paint
ings will open, to remain for a
month. From this annual show
the gallery habitually selects a
painting to be added to the C. Law
Watkins memorial collection. All
of these exhibitions will be re-
viewed in detail in these columns.
Il
Evening star., 1951-04-22

The Roosevelts dined out sew
eral times a week. One week.
when Mrs. Roosevelt was not here,
Roosevelt dined out every night.
he wrote his sister. At one dinner
he took in Mrs. Phil Sheridan
who is always very charming and
very well read-but she does play
poker"
He met practically every one
who was interesting. Kipling he
found "a pleasant little man." but
"underhred." In a later letter he
was to judge him by different
standards and was to concede he
was "a writer of genius"
This is one Of the indications
not too emphatic-that when all
eight volumes are published the
letters may show what might be
described as "The Education of
Theodore Roosevelt" The formal
schooling was completed at Har-
ward where Roosevelt stood 10th
in his class. But, he wrote his
sister: "Only one gentleman stands
ahead Of me-"
A Reformer.
Roosevelt classed himself as 9
|reformer. But when he wanted
Mckinley to appoint him Assistant
Secretary of the Navy he sought
the support of Senator Platt, heao
of the Republican machine in New
York. Roosevelt was then a New
York City police commissioner.
In a letter to Henry Cabot
Lodge to be shown Platt if Lodge
thought it wise, Roosevelt sale
Platt might find it advantageou:
to see that Acting Inspector Nc.
Cullagh was appointed police
chief. McCullagh, Roosevelt
lpointed out. was a follower o1
Platt's. an organization man wht
would surely remain q Republi.
can IN foul as well as fail
weather"
The letter has been published
before. by Lodge. but here it Il
preceded and followed by othel
letters in which Roosevelt boast!
that he has administered his Office
without regard to politics.
T. r. lived up to his advocacy o.
the strenuous life as these letter,
show, which carry him through
the preparations for the war with
Spain, his command of the Rough
Riders, his election and service a.
Governor and his nomination anc
election as Vice President.
The Roosevelt Memorial Associ-
alton, the Massachusetts, Institute
of Technology and Harvard, with
Evening star., 1951-04-22
Pictures

The Potomac Appalachian Trail
Club included for the first time
in its biennial exhibition, now on
view in the foyer of the Natural
History Building. United States
National Museum, paintings and
graphic arts as well as photo
graphs by it's members.
A little over half of the show
is devoted to photographs. A
majority of the oils and water
colors are Photographic" in q
sense, the artists having en-
Evening star., 1951-04-22
New Books

FICI1UN,
THE TWILIGHT OF THE ELEPHANT. BY
Elio Vittorini. (New Directions) Trans
lation of the authors myth-like novella
S1.50.
THE MOHAWK LADDER. BY Noel B
Gerson. Doubleday A novel about a
small band of Americans who fought
under Marlborough So.
APRIL SNOW. BY Lillian Budd. dip
pincotto The story of q courageous
THE ENcHASTED. BY Elizabeth Coats
worth. (Pantheon.) The story Of o
young mans strange romance in the
Northern Maine woods. $3.50.
THE COP. By Earl J. Morris. fExposi-
ton Press.) A novel written by the
nrst Negro member Of the Michigan
State Police. $3.50.
Evening star., 1951-04-22
Geometry and GobIets.

Ben Nicholson Is the leading
representative in Great Britain,
Of that tendency in art which has
been called abstract" says Her
bert Read in the introduction to
a de luxe monograph published in
London in 1948. It includes more
than 200 full page plates. many
in colors, Of Nicholson'S work,
along with a biography and other
pertinent material. This and an
other monograph with a critiqueI
by John Summerson, are on dis
play in the Phillips Gallery's
print rooms, where 35. paintings
and drawings by Nicholson are
hung, to remain through April 80.
Visitors who have time, will derive
an idea Of the high regard in
which this English artist is held,
If they examine these books.
For the average person will
probably find Nicholson's work
hard to take. The pencil drawings
are naturalistic in a much sim
|plified way. most Of them land
Scapes and glimpses Of hill towns
In Italy. They are not impressive.
The paintings are cubist or geo.
metric art, composed Of circles,
rectangles and straight lines, with
occasional fragmentary symbols
from such objects as goblets, jugs,
vases, ETC., painted in extremely
reticent color schemes-rnostly
black and white. light brown and
earth red. Mr.. Read continues:
"The simplicity and fewness of
the formal symbols employed by
this artist do not constitute q
limitation on his powers Of in
vention-on the contrary, he rev.
els in the multiplicity of the va
|riationS he can command with
these limited means, for like all
great artists he realizes that
beauty is a product Of self-im-
posed difficulties"
Many people have attempted to
define beauty, and some with more
success than Mr.. Read in the
Iabove remarks. In contemplating
MIR. Nicholson's distractions as
|objects of beauty. some OF us,
no doubt, will recall Somerset
Maugham's comments to the effect
that a thing of beauty is not
necessarily a joy forever-some-
times it is bit of a bore.
Mr.. Nicholson had an impress
|sive background. Both parents
were painters, his father, Sir Will
liam Nicholson, having painted
landscapes, portraits and still life
in the Whistler tradition. Ben
Nicholson, born in 1894, seems to
have gotten of to a slow start,
possibly because Of the weight Of
his fathers reputation, and his
own desire to express himself in a
wholly individual manner. He
spent a year in France, anotHn''
in Italy. a third in Spain, and
some time in Pasadena, Calll.
During his European sojourns. he
learned French and Italian, and
returned to England with only
one painting from each country.
Not until he visited Paris in his
late 20s, and saw the work of the
cubistS, did he seem to find him.
self.
Evening star., 1951-04-22
Waldorf School Movement

The first international exhibi-
tion in Washington of the educa-
tional art work of the Waldorf
School Movement in Europe
the open School for the Open
Society"-was opened few days
ago at United Nations Club to
remain through May II. Thirty
pictures by students Of England.
Norway, Germany, Austria and
the United States demonstrate
what is being done.