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tolerance may thrive. That essential point of the harmonious balance is very subtly developed in the two best chapters of the book, entitled "The Greeks" and "The Pure of Life." The World War, by throwing the world completely out of balance, has produced that terrific recrudescence of intolerance we are witnessing. A consequence of Mr. Van Loon's humorous tolerance toward intolerance is that when he really gives himself a loose rein and speaks his mind about the Innocents and the Calvins he is extremely effective, indeed devastating.

Really, it is, after all, a good deal of a book; for Mr. Van Loon is a humanist, a humorist, learned without pedantry, and master of a lucid style. Why, then, with these gifts and accomplishments, should he cheapen himself, make himself "a motley to the view," aping the pseudo-wit of the columnists, "goring his own thoughts," and descending to mere slang and downright silliness? It is a pathetic spectacle this, of a genuine humorist posing for a cheap wit.

A suggestion, Mr. Van Loon! Call in the issue, and write that book on Tolerance of which you are capable.

Miscellaneous

COAL: FACTS AND REMEDIES. By Edward T. Devine. The American Review Service Press, Bloomington, Ill.

Dr. Devine was a member of the United States Coal Commission of 1922-3. He gives us here, not a summary of the Commission's report, except in one chapter, but a readable, fairminded, and sympathetic account of the industry from the mine to the house coal-bin-ownership, production, costs, working and living conditions, accidents, transportation, marketing, and profits. Finally he devotes many pages to careful consideration of what can be done in the way of remedy by owners, miners, operators, railroads, the Inter-State Commerce Commission, the President, Congress, and "you and I." We wish that every member of Congress would read this book.

Notes on New Books LETTERS TO KATIE. By Sir Edward BurneJones. The Macmillan Company, New York. $3. Letters from the famous artist to a little girl, with many illustrations by his own hand.

THE LIFE OF HENRY B. WRIGHT. By George Stewart, Jr. The Association Press, New York. $3.

The life of a religious worker.

WAR AND PEACE. By Lyof N. Tolstoi. lated by Nathan Haskell Dole.

Y. Crowell Company, New York.

An edition in one volume.

the Tennessee Anti-Evolution Act, at Dayton, July 10 to 21, 1925, including speeches and arguments of attorneys."

THE LIGHT IN THE VALLEY. By Mabel Wagnalls. The Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York. $1.50.

A biography of Anna Willis Wagnalls. WHAT AND WHY IS MAN? By Richard La Rue Swain. The Macmillan Company, New York. $1.75.

Discussions of God, of creation, of sin, of the fall of man, of Jesus, of prayer, and of human life.

THE HEALING EVANGEL. By A. J. Gayner Banks. The Morehouse Publishing Company, Milwaukee. $2.

A study of Christian healing and the Gospel.

DOCTOR TRANSIT. By I. S.
New York.
$2.

Boni & Liveright,

A novel dealing with the sexual transformation of a young married couple-the man becoming a woman, the woman a man. Pseudo-scientific, and as a story, in spite of its apparently sensational subject, it is rather dull.

HOOKED RUGS AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. By Anna M. Laise Phillips. The Macmillan Company, New York. $2.

We were brought up to believe that it was wrong to hook rugs or any other form of property, but, in view of the number of respectable ladies writing books about hooked rugs, the ban must have been lifted. These moderns!

THINGS SEEN AND HEARD. By Edgar J. Goodspeed. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. $2.

Essays from the "Atlantic Monthly" and elsewhere.

THE CONQUEST OF DISEASE. By David Masters. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. $2.50. Modern warfare against disease.

The

RUDE RURAL RHYMES. By Bob Adams. Macmillan Company, New York. $2. Poetry of the Walt Mason school. This, however, is printed as verse and not as prose, and it seems to lack Walt Mason's humor.

PRIAPUS AND THE POOL. By Conrad Aiken. Boni & Liveright, New York. $2.

The title poem and some of the others contained herein were first published a number of years ago in a limited edition. The present volume contains twenty-one additional poems.

THE SHOW. By John

Charles

Galsworthy. Scribner's Sons, New York. $1. A play in three acts, first produced in London in July, 1925.

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THE HISTORY OF THE PHARAOHS.

By Arthur Weigall. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. $6. This is the first volume of a work by the late Inspector-General of Antiquities for the Egyptian Government. It covers the historic period before the first dynastythat is, from about 5500 B.C., through the eleventh dynasty, ending about 2112 B.C. CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL THOUGHT IN ENGLAND. By Lewis Rockow. The Macmillan Company, New York. $5. By a member of the Faculty of Syracuse University. The book is a discussion of modern and sometimes radical political philosophers like Sydney Webb, Ramsay MacDonald, Laski, and Norman Angell. BALCONY STORIES. By Grace King. The Macmillan Company, New York. $2.

A new edition of this collection of stories of New Orleans. Always much enjoyed, this edition contains new stories.

Trans

The Thomas $2.50.

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WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS COURT TRIAL. Tennessee Evolution Case. The National Book Company, Cincinnati. $2.

This purports to be "a complete stenographic report of the famous court test of

A new edition, revised and enlarged, of a book first published about eight years ago.

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Rolls and Discs

By LAWRENCE JACOB ABBOTT

Phonograph Records

A VICTORY BALL-FANTASY (Schelling). Played
by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra,
conducted by William Mengelberg. In four
parts, on two records. Victor.

Ernest Schelling's symphonic poem,
portraying a dance in celebration of vic-
tory, which is broken into by obsessions
of war memories, is strikingly modern in
thought and treatment. It is music that
hurts. Its pungency at first repels. But
after several hearings the dissonance be-
comes meaningful; the grotesque themes
become more and more hauntingly beau-
tiful. Frankly theatrical in its use of
drum, tam-tam, and bugle, it is neverthe-
less inspiring as a commentary on the
late war. Both the performance and the
reproduction are good enough to make of
it a living thing.

As a record it is also of interest as one of the few modern compositions available in disc form. Notable among others are Stravinsky's "Fire Bird Suite" (Victor) and Ravel's Septet (Columbia). For those who have not the opportunity to follow the newer trends in music through concerts such records as these are most enlightening.

NEGRO SPIRITUAL MELODY (Dvorák-Kreisler);

SONG OF THE VOLGA BOATMEN-Para-
phrase (Arranged by Kreisler). Played by
Fritz Kreisler. Victor.

Kreisler again, with his ever warm and
resonant tone! All objections to his

Wanted Cartoons "playing down" to audiences through the

THE

HE OUTLOOK wishes to receive cartoons from its readers, clipped from their favorite newspaper. Each cartoon should have the sender's name and address together with the name and date of the newspaper from which it is taken pinned or pasted to its back.

Cartoons should be mailed flat, not rolled. We pay one dollar ($1) for each cartoon which we find available for reproduction. Some readers in the past have lost payment to which they were entitled because they failed to give the information which we require. It is impossible for us to acknowledge or return cartoons which prove unavailable for publication.

The Editors of The Outlook 120 East 16th Street New York

pieces he selects he overcomes by the
In-
expressiveness he puts into them.
stead of exploiting instrument and vir-
tuoso by a show piece with a vacuity of
musical ideas, he contents himself with
putting new beauty into the simplest
music. The "Negro Melody," a re-
arrangement of the slow movement of
the "New World Symphony," is the bet-
ter of the two selections. The piano ac-
companiment, though faint, is excellently
orthophonic.

QUARTET IN E FLAT, Op. 74-Harp Quartet
(Beethoven).
the
Played by
Lener String
Quartet of Budapest. In eight parts, on four
records. Columbia.

With allowance for the fact that this
set of records, like all the others recorded
in England, are produced mechanically
and lack the "high lights" in range and
contrast of loudness and softness that
mark the new electrically made records
(this difference is to be noticed chiefly
on the new machines), this performance
of a typically Beethoven quartet is vivid
and illuminating. The work itself is
straightforward and melodious. Its title

does not signify the presence of a harp: it refers to the beautiful plucked-string passages in the first movement that suggest a harp strongly.

QUARTET IN A MINOR, Op. 132 (Beethoven). Played by the Lener String Quartet of Budapest. In ten parts, on five records. Columbia.

One of Beethoven's very latest and most cryptic works. Its beauty becomes more evident in the latter half of the quartet. The third movement moves serenely and majestically like a great chorale, while the finale has a grandeur, a subtlety, and a clash of tones that is kindred to Bach. The composition is not of instant appeal, but when played over and over again grows in meaning and beauty.

SIEGFRIED IDYLL (Wagner). Played by the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by
Bruno Walter. In four parts, on two records.
Columbia.

Several months ago another Britishmade recording of the "Siegfried Idyll" was reveiewed by this department. Then it was Albert Coates who conducted. Unless a side-by-side comparison were made, it would be hard to judge between the two performances. The calm, soothing beauty of this apotheosis of the lullaby is the sort to make each last performance seem the best. There are some enchantingly delicate effects in it.

KUJAWIAK (Wieniawski); HEJRE KATI (Hubay). Played by Cecilia Hansen. Victor.

Cecilia Hansen has a warm, full tone and a virile violin technique. Both numbers are based on dance rhythms. Wieniawski's well-known mazurka contains an alternation of robust passages, featuring excellent plucked-string effects and eloquent melodic phrases.

MELODY (Gluck-Sgambati); TURKISH MARCH (Mozart). Played by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Victor.

Two melodious numbers from a classical age played with great skill-but, at the same time, too mechanically-by Rachmaninoff. The piano sounds clearly and forcefully, but lacks the trueness of tone of the Kreisler accompaniments. Is it perhaps that the piano, when placed too near the recording microphone, loses the true tone-quality it has when recorded from a greater distance?

THE LOST CHORD (Sullivan). Played by Edward P. Kimball, Mormon Tabernacle Organ. GREAT IS JEHOVAH (Schubert-Parks). Sung by Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Victor.

Musically this record is not remarkable. It is interesting because it was recorded at Salt Lake City; the record

In writing to the above advertisers, please mention The Outlook

gives a hint of the echoes of the great tabernacle, imparting to the music a different quality from that of studio-made music.

Piano Rolls

CAPRICE ESPAGNOL (Moszkowski). Played by Josef Hofmann. Duo-Art.

As might be expected when a Russian writes something Spanish, the "Caprice" abounds in exciting rhythms. It is a show piece and is musically interesting as well. Hofmann plays it with fiery technique. We cannot recall any other piano roll that shows so clearly the playing of a masterful pianist.

SAKUNTALA OVERTURE (Goldmark). Played

by Milton Suskind and Julius Buerger, conducted by Artur Bodanzky. In two rolls. Ampíco.

Here is a wholly enjoyable transcription of orchestral music. Bodanzky crams the interpretation full of orchestral feeling. By skillful technique, the performers have "depianized" the piano, and for the moment the listener forgets the lack of instrumental color and feels himself in the presence of a full orchestra. The music itself is interesting; it has both lyric charm and a dramatic intensity akin to Beethoven.

EIGHT VARIATIONS ON THE THEME “TANDELN UND SCHERZEN" (Beethoven). Played by Ethel Leginska. Duo-Art.

Miss Leginska's crisp, sharp playing is a pleasure to hear in Beethoven. The composition is uneven in interest, but at times is Beethoven as we should like to have him always.

BALLADE, Op. 52, No. 4 (Chopin). Played by Julius Chaloff. Ampico.

NOCTURNE, Op. 37, No. 1 (Chopin). Played by Ignaz Friedman. Duo-Art.

Both are orthodox Chopin interpretations. The "Ballade" is diffused with wistfulness, and is less banal than most of the oft-aped Chopin sounds to our ears to-day. The "Nocturne" is distinguished by its chorale-like passage of religious fervor.

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We're Not the Only Ones

who know what a rich and varied store of experience and advice there is in the Hotel and Travel Bureau. An inquirer tells us: "The envelope containing your very helpful circulars arrived this morning. The whole affair is so full of interesting suggestions and surprises that I want to thank you for the pains, time, and sympathy evidenced by your answer to my inquiry."

That's what each inquirer receivesa complete answer to questions and that something more-suggestions and individual interest.

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Franz Schubert in giving to the world. his symphonies, operas, and songs brought these great creators of melody undying fame but very little money. Although they toiled with the day-andnight persistency of a Burbank or an Edison, their brain work, strictly speaking, did not pay.

Up to the day of his death Richard Wagner was practically supported by his friends. Schubert died in poverty, and Mozart was buried in a pauper's grave. Beethoven, quite true, left a small legacy, but his case was an exception. As a matter of fact, Mendelssohn was the only composer who lived and died untroubled by the wolf at the door, but this was because he was the son of well-to-do parents. Like Washington Irving, he never had to write for his bread.

With these two general exceptions, our great music of the last two centuries was conceived in poverty, reared in struggle and heart-breaking disappointments. Most of its creators died not knowing that their music was going to live. When the opera "Carmen" was first produced, it was a failure, and its composer, Bizet, died a broken-hearted man.

Classical music is sold everywhere, and for fifty years here in America symphonies, grand operas, and concerts have been largely attended; but it has been the publisher, the singer, and the instrumentalist who have taken in the moneyseldom, if ever, the composer.

The reason for this begins to be plain when one realizes that the writer of a great symphony or an opera is a good deal like an inventor. He is a highly specialized man, usually in only one line. His creations, from the point of their conception to the last note on their final pages, have engrossed his entire thought and time. His life-work is to take "the stuff that dreams are made of" and put it down in black and white. He catches his inspiration out of thin air and transcribes it, with his technical knowledge of musical theory, onto paper, that the eyes of others may read and the stranger artist play or sing. But until the composition is finally complete it is not a bankable proposition.

Unlike the novelist, the composer cannot dictate his thought to a trained stenographer or typewriter. Unlike the painter or sculptor, he cannot place his finished product against a wall and say: "There it is. Look at it. How do you like it?" The musical composition must be played-it must be heard. The composer cannot very well carry a symphony orchestra or a grand opera company around with him; consequently his product, for the most part, must be accepted on faith.

There are no general arrangements in this world for paying a composer a salary during the time spent on working out his brain creations. Kings and countesses used to subsidize composers so that they might compose in peace; occasionally rich music patrons have done the same thing for young students, but almost never for composers.

Without a bank account, therefore, the man who starts in to spend all his time in writing music is a self-confessed bankrupt, according to all business standards. He is bound to be. He has to live, it is presumed; therefore, without outside financial assistance, he runs into debt. Your real composer cannot help composing. That's the tragic part of it.

It is all very well to say: "Why not take a job as a salesman and spend the evenings in composition?" Right there, however, the hitch occurs. The man who can give the world a great opera or a great symphony can no more mix business with his creative inspiration than he can stir oil into water. There are no business offices up in the sky. A bird may either fly or walk, but it cannot do both at the same time.

Regarding the purely mechanical labor required in composition, take the full score of "Butterfly," for instance, or "Tannhäuser." In each of these scores there are easily over one million notes and musical notations. Take a pencil and start making just dots on a piece of paper. Do it as fast as you can. How far can you keep up the count?

Roughly speaking, the time necessary to complete an opera is from two to three years. Debussy spent six years on his "Pelleas et Melisande." Now Puccini and Wagner and Debussy had practically to engrave their final full scores, so that, somewhat like a double-entry ledger, they were legible, understandable to other musicians, and without flaw. But, unlike the commercial engraver, these composers drew no salary while doing this. They simply took chances on getting some returns on this labor later on, after the work was produced.

The most startling thing of all is that the inspired modern composer of to-day is facing the same handicaps that faced Schubert, Wagner, and Mozart. One reasons, Why compose at all? The answer to that is that real composers can't help composing. If the world calls them inspired freaks, that is probably the fault of the world, not of the man who comGrand-opera performances and concert halls continue to be crowded, and it is natural that musical literature must be added to as time goes on. Meanwhile the composer is the goat, and very unjustly so.

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In writing to the above advertisers, please mention The Outlook

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