1937-07-29 — Page 10

10

LIVING ON

THE

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. THURSDAY, JULY

29, 1937.

BOOKS Edited by Roger Pippett

WHEELS Galactic

TWENTY years ago only gypsies lived in Caravans. To-day many thousands of people have chosen homes on wheels, and probably more of them, are "thousand-n-year men" than gypsies.

They

do not simply tise their caravana for holidays, but live in them all the year round, and if you that they suggest in conversation must find it hard to get a bath or ask if they do not get tired of scratch meals, they will laugh, knowing that you are all thinking of caravans in egins of those old rickety vehicles where you went up steps to bed.

"re-discovered" caravan was

The

་་

in Britain five or six years ago, and It is estimated that between 50,000 and 75.000 people will spend their *holidays on wheels this year.

reasons.

Caravana as a permanent residence have not yet become so popular in Britnin as they are in Amerlea, for Although the Keveral Hardened traffer enthusiast thinks of winter week-ends in the *nothing

open, he is not able, like the Ameri can caravanner, to follow the sun, going to California or Florida for the winter and to the North when the sun becomes hot.

Then, again, British roads and re- gulations do not favour the large curavan. The average is probably about 14 feet long, against the typl- cal American caravan 20 feet long

weighing nearly 4,000 lbs. Per- hops, also, the nomadle habit is more strongly developed in the Americans: it is not so long since the covered waggons rolled across the prairies. With Telephone Complete

American visitors to the Corona- tion have shown how comfortable living in a caravan on be Mi. Cornelius.

un. Vanderbilt, jun, brought his luxurious caravan to London after covering some 4,000 miles in the United States, parked it in a garage conveniently near the centre of the Coronation cele

celebrations, had the telephone connected, and was able to pursue his work as an author probably in more comfort than if he

stayed al

hotel

There were a few shillings a week to pay the "ground landlord," but that was all, and his tour all through Europe will cost the price of petrol and food and little more.

An increasing number of American authors--not all famous

ones--are

making their homes on wheels. Last winter 100,000 people in caravans are estimated to have visited Florida ond amongst them were at least a score of

writers.

I know of only one writer in Bri- trim who tried the "all the year round" working on wheels. He found the movement from place to place stimulating, and when he appeared at dinners, luncheons, and other functions, he was not lers well turned out than those who lived in houses made with stone or brick. The idea bad to be abandoned in the end owing to the dimeulty of the children, going to school.

Doon to Salesmen

But it is not only writers who find it convenient to work on wheels. In America it t is reckoned that at least 100,000 people live permanently in their caravans, and few of them are men and women of telsure.

Many are salesmen who have a large territory to cover. Formerly

they

had to leave their homes for weeks and even months at a time, so that their wives and children were almost strangers to them, Now they take their homes with them, parking the caravan at a convenient centre and paying their visita by

car.

America has the great advantage for this type of worker on wheels that there are specially bullt carovan Barking places. The town of Sara- sola hns Jald down a 80-acre caravan parle with water and electricity

'points" laid on to each berth.

The roads of the parks are con- erated and electrically lighted, so that

vamount

unt practically

to model they housing estates which differ little from normal ones except that the houses are always moving off to maite room for new ones,

Artists have found the permanent home on wheels has the advantage not only of bringing them cheaply to new scenes, but also of providing their market. A "one man show in each large town costs next to nothing and, of course, the novelty nitracts of holding it in a caravan attention.

There are craft workers constantly on the road. The demand for the articles they make in any one town is too limited to justify opening a shop, but visiting a new town every three or four days, they are able to make steady sales.

Last amongst those who work on wheels may be mentioned the people with a message. It may be propa- ganda for some brand of groceries or an educative or religious campaign.

Home-Made

"Apart from the cost of food, a home on wheels costs little beyond "ground rent," which is a few still- lings a week. The most luxurious may have electrle lighting generated own plants, but most use from their compressed gas for heating and lighting. The cost would be about 33.0

week. the

rest you can have the de- gree of luxury you require. Some are equipped with telephone between caravan and towing car, refrigera- lors, shower baths, air conditioning. and every other luxury of the modern service flat.

For

to

The cost of super-caravans order may be between £5,000 and £8,000. The standard ones rango from less than 100 up to £850,

UTOPIA

STAR MAKER

Dy Olaf Stapledon (Methuen, 88. Gd.)

N that most exciting and orig- inni prophecy, Last and First Men, Mr. Blapledon traced the Here, with futuro of mankind.

equal imaginative drive and a stil! wider sweep, he outlines the future of the universe up to its final cur- taln, a Galactic Utopia or League of Milky Ways,

We meet the le teller of this super-story brooding, one night upon n hit above his home. Brooding over his wife and family, the letters pilling up to be answered and the socks to the Brooding also be darned. world in particular and the nature of things it general,

Wanderings

on

Suddenly a nt of gladiness shakes hin. The glowing windows of his house dwindle, And he is soaring through space at an incredible spred a on his tour of the worlds in and beyond the Milky-Way, ...

JU14

Z

At first his only thought in to get back to earth again. "I hurried from to star, a lost dog looking for its master,... Star after lar searched, but far more I passed in. patiently, recognising at once think they were too large and tenuous and young to be our luminary."

And then he Ands himself slowly floating down towards the surface of a small planet inhabited by creatures with bird-like legs, green hair and Men. spouting mouths-the Outer

There he spends many years wander Ing from mind to mind and country to country, observing the similarities and the differencen of these parody- satires of humanity to our own world of men.

In the company of an Other Man philosopher ho watches the planet go down in war, while between the smoka clouds the Other Bun occasionally ap pears with even a daytime star,

Worlds Unknown

Then he is off again, visiting world after world-worlds of nautilolus or shipmen," in which the starboard- born become workers and the port- born masters, submarine world or huge fish-men with crab-liko partners riding in hollows behind their skulls, worlds of plant-men with slender trunks and feafy heads.

And each of these teeming worlds la dying mostly from greed or ignor anco or sloth. As for the plant-men, an attractive race, they perished from 100 much contemplation. One by one the blissful and no longer human Inhabitants of that world passed from ccstasy to sickness, despondency, un-. comprehending bewilderment, and on to denili,"

our

But we must leave them, traveller, who is by now a disembodied intelligence mingling with other wan- derers through space, is flying forward to the Society of Worlds, which, after aeans of interstellar struggle, mergea into the Gaineile Utopia,

Before that could happen, “flects of worlds. natumi and artificial, manoeuvred among the stars to outwit one another and dentroyed each other with long-ranga jeta of sub-atomalo energy.

...Whole planetary systems were annihilated. Many a world-spirit found a sudden and Many a lowly race that had no part in the strife was slaughtered in the celestial warfare that raged around it."

The alory now swings to its climax with a stammering--and inevitably un- satisfactory-necait of the traveller's account of his meeting with the Star Maker or Life Force or Spirit of the Universe. And then-he la waking up on the hill above his home, back to earth again.

After a superbl; concentrated vision. ary panorama of the world—our world -the book closes with the watcher seeing the whole planet, the whole rock-grain, with its busy swarms," ng en arena where two antagonists were preparing for a critical combat

Brilliant Fantasy

"One antagonist appeared as the will to dare for the sake of the new, the longed for, the reasonable and Joyful world, in which every man and woman may have scope to live fully and live in the service of mankind.

"The other seemed essentially the myopic fear of the unknown-or was it moro sinister? Was & the cunning will for private mastery, which to mented for its own ends the archaic, reason-hating and vindictive passion of the tribe?"

That, in briefest outline, a Star Maker, in many ways the most bril liant fantasy of a most brilliant fan- tastat. It has made me reach for my reviewing index and take out unticsl- tatingly that dustiest and most pre- clous card-the one marked “Master- piece."

R. P.

Knight of Nazidom

A

BWASTIKA NIGHT

By Murray Constantine (Gollancz, 78. 66.)

FTER Mr. Stapledon's im- mensities, the seventh con- tury of the Hitlerlan Era, in which this striking story is stared, seems pretty small beer. It is, too, for most of the men and all the women who are existing in it.

By then, I gather, the Nazi Empire sprawis over the whole Europe (in cluding, of course, Britain) and Africa, with the Japanese snarling at it from Asia and the Americna. And civilian- tion, as we know it, is to all intents and purposes extinct

In churches built in the shape of swastikan the worship of God the Thunderer and the Holy Adolf Hitler gees, sonorously and endlessly on and on and on. A feudal world, with a characteristically Germanie Order of Kalghia and their ruthless satellites in power.

As for the women, theirs is the up- happiest lot of all, Penned up in its

wwwwwwwww

Rapid

Reviews

I WAS A FROBATIONER, by Corinna Johnson Kern (Chapman and Hall, 10. 60.). A record of the apprentice days of an American hospital nurse. written with a sense of reality which makes you forget that it happened as far away as San Francisco, nearly forty years ago.

THE TONGUES OF MEN, by J. 2. Firth (The Changing World Library. Waltz, 21, 64), in which you may. learn the algnificance of languages. With chapters on *** Adami, the Speaking Animal," Graven

Ximages and "The Expansion of Europe and the Discovery of Babel" THE ENGLISH HERITAGE, by Eas Welldon Finn (Joinemann, Ti. sd.). An attempt to "collate the concreto memorials of English history," and to explain their importance in the tradition of the country as a whole, from pre-Celtic times to the dawn of the Industrial Age. MIDDLE MIST, by Nella Muskett (Hutchinson, 7. 6d.). Babine was dilappointed woman-baulked in hor career aan surgeon'and dis- illusioned in love. Then she lured her employer into marrying her. And that seemed a mistake, tog-at first. Romantia,

Hundreds of Americans bulld their own homes. I have before me plans for a trailer 23 feet long and six feet wide.

wooden houses they mope and whimper and grovel and bear dilldren for the Great Male Ones of the Earth, the boys being taken from them when they, are eighteen months old.

An intolerable state of affairs. And Alfred, that untidy, rebellious, middle- nged Englishman, made up his mind to end it. Searching through Germany for his old friend, Hermann, ho stumbles accidentally on his oppor tunity.

Von Hess, Knight and a member of a traditional ruling family, possesses a book written by ons of his ancestors shortly after. Hitler's Hfetime. It fella the truth about the origins of the Nazi cult and domination and it contains n fnded photograph which means more to Alfred than all the great art of tho world means to you and me.

For he has been taught to bellove that the Führer was a blond, bearded glant who saved mankind from bar- Barism. And the photograph shows him a little man with a black tooth brush moustacha talking to an un bellevably handsome young woman

How the Knight sends Allred back to England with the book, how he hides it in a skeleton guarded dug-out at Stonehenge, how he starts his revolt in the cause of humanity-Mr. Con- stantine tells us all that and more in this most exelting, sensitive and alg nincant story.

You may not agree with all the philosophising. But you'll find your- self cheering Alfred on long before you reo,the last of him. Which is just what Mr. Constantine wants you to do.

-I. P.

Looking toward the peak of Everest.

"A GOD'S VIEW"

CAMP SIX

By F. 6. Smythe (Hodder and Stoughton, 18s.)

Mi

OUNTAINS have no man- ners-especially when they happen to be the Himal-

Such Bendish winds and ayas. lashing blizzards blow on Everest that the seasoned climber Is almost inclined to agree with the Tibetans and believe that ice gods and devils mock them from the great poaks.

The weather defeated the 1933 attempt, as Mr. Smythe reminds us

that wicked band of yellow rock below the summit or the insidious lethargy that overcomes men at twenty-eight thousand feet....

Mr. Smythe has gone out to the Himalayas again-this time to explore a hidden valley of rare flowers. And you may be sure that he is keeping a wary eye on Everest with the next attempt in mind.

P.

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TO SAN FRANCISCO NEW YORK AND BOSTON

Via Shanghai, Kobe, Yokohama, Honolulu, San Francisco, Panama Canal and Havana,

Midnight Aug,

Pros. Tatt

Pres. Hoover Pres. Lincoln

Pres. Coolidge

Pres. Wilson

Pres, Hoover

TO BEATTLE, VICTORIA

TITE EXPRESS ROUTE".

Via Shanghal, Kobe and Yoko- hamd

:

10 Pres. Jackson Noon. Aug. 21 Pret. Jefferson Midnight Sept. Noon Sept. 0,00 n.m. Oct. Noon Oct.

7 Pres. McKinley

EUROPE, NEW YORK

AND BOSTON

Vin Manila, Singapore, Penang. Colombo, Bombay, Suez Canal, Naples. Genoa and Marsellics.

8.00 a.m. Aug. Pres. Harrison

0.00 a.m. Aug.

Pres. Polk

Pres. Pierce

Pres. Van Buren

Pres. Garfeld

Pres. Hayes

L

18 Pres. Grant

6 Pres. Jackson

18 Pres. Jefferson

Midnight July 30 Midnight Aug. 18 Midnight Aug. 27 Midnight Sept. 10 Midnight Sept. 24 Midnight Oct.

MANILA

THE MOST FREQUENT SERVICE

Next Sallings,

1 Pres. Harrison 15 Pres. Taft 8.00 am. Aug. 29 Pres. Jefferson 8.00 a.m, Sept. 12 Pres. Hoover 8.00 a.m. Sept. 201 Pres Polk

8.00 a.m. Oct. 10 Pres. McKinley

7

9.00 am, Aug. Midnight Aug. 6.00 pm. Aug. 9.00 pm. Aug. 13 0.00 am. Aug. 15 6.00 p.m. Aug. 31

MOST FREQUENT SERVICE ON THE PACIFIC

DOLLAR STEAMSHIP

AMERICAN

THE

MAIL

PEDDER BUILDING-HONG KONG. CANTON BRANCH)-21, FRENCH CONCESSION.

LINES

LINE

SWEDISH EAST ASIATIC

Ca LrB

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MS. "NAGARA”

M.S. SHANTUNG“

OUTWARDS.

Salling about .29th Aug. .29th Sept.

To SHANGHAI, YOKOHAMA, KOBE and OSAKA. M.S. "SHANTUNG"

Passenger Rates:

Itong Kong to Algiers

THE BASQUE ARISTOCRAT Agents:

in this splendidly written (but I HAVE known only one Basque

never overwritten) personal ac- count of his adventures, which ends with the story of his final, unaccompanied assault on the last few hundred feet.

Before ha turned back. he shovelled a space in the floury anow and looked round and down. *** The earth was so far beneath; it seemed impossible I could ever re- gain it... Somervell's descrip-

ion of the scene is simplest and best: 'A god's view.""

Yes, Evereat beat him. But there is no bitterness in this superbly straightforward and exciting book, which is full of a generous sense of comradeship (Mr. Smythe never forgets those wiry hilimen, the porters) and A quiet conviction that, sooner or later, the top will be won.

Meanwhile, there are memories. Listen to this description of a Himalayan dawn.

"The sun was П long time arriving.

Through the gauze- covered window of the tent I could see it shining on the slopes above. It reached the ice- pin- nacles and a reflected opalescent glow Invested the camp. Then a brilliant light was suddenly spilled on the ridge of my tent.

"Quickly it spread downwards, and

the frost-stiffened fabric gloamed as though encrusted with powdered Jewels. Soon the whole of one side of the tent was alight. and particles of rime began to fall from the roof, pattering on my sleeping-bag, lodging in my beard, exploring my face like cold finger- Lips."

A fascinating story-whether the author 13 discussing frostbite or frozen sardines or the lee axo dropped by Mallory or Irvine or

NINETEEN YEARS

OF

THE POST-WAR HISTORY

THE BRITISH WORKING-CLASS By Allen Hutt (Gollancs, 63.)

W

'As the lack of success of the Labour Governments of 1974 and 1929 due to the fact that Labour, although in office, was not in power-or was it due to inefficient leadership? :

Allen Hult, in this Intest book of his, vigorously advances the view that Labour oven with a clear majority would have been no more sucocssful, that it might well have been less so,

He maintains that these two Doy- craments had considerable adminis trative powers which they could have used-and that Goverments, Uko in- dividuala, must expect their capacity

The home constructor is given the fullest instructions on making it and equipping it with electric ghing and plumbing. It provides beds for

to be tested by how they behave in adversity rather than by how they be have when all the advantages are on their eida

No history is quite so exciting as recent history, and this book makes the most of la ability to hold the reader's attention. It sweeps through the past nineteen years and, besides setting out the events that took place, throw in a, running statement of opinion on thèm na well.

Mr. ffutt accuses the Labour leader- ship of willingness to compromise with Capitalism, failure to be continually on the offensive, chicken-heartedness during the Nailonal Strike, failure to mobiliso British opinion in defence of Spain and folly in rejecting “unity." Bomeone who is not a Communist will now have to sit down and write another

working-clas post-War

W. O. o. 8,

and he was an oristocrat. He told me all Busques are nobles.

He kept a small second-hand shop in a South American port. I had come ashore to see the town while the ship lay in dock and foolishly left my camera on board. In a side street 1 saw the little shop, and in the window was a used camera. I the old entered, hoplag 10 camera for a few shitu

The interior of the shop was dark, and it was a jumble of cond-hand

every descrip- Foods of tlon. Firearms and furniture, paint- were ings and plated silverware plied "everywhere. From behind 's great old-fashioned wardrobe a little old man appeared.

He was only about five feet in height, and his thin, dark face was adorned with a straggling white moustache. He greeted me with a polite "Buenos dias." I asked him about the camera, and he took it from the window. As we discussed the article in terms of shillings and pesos I noticed that he spoke a pecu- Eur Spanish quite different from any of the South American versions, and I asked him from what part of Spain he came. He told me he was a Bas- que.

•

事

Having decided to take the camera at the reasonable cost of 25, 1 noticed a strange coat-of-arms on the wall. The arms were painted on an unusual shield, and a fantastic dragon was the main decoration. Intrigued by the curlostly thing. I asked the price. The old Basque smiled as he pointed to the shield.

of the

"Ah, this shield, senor, la not for sale. These are the arms of my family!" He went on to tell me how every Basque is of noble descent, and how every family has its coat of arins. He described his home with Its coat-of-arms painted above the door, and spoke of the greatness of the Basque people.

I was enchanted by the fire in the old man's speech. Suddenly he turn- ed and drew a glittering object from

corner. "See,

a

Hong Kong to Antwerp or London

GILMAN & CO., LTD.

Hongkong.

.18th Aug.

.£49 £53

G. E. HUYGEN Canton.

OUR BRITISH CROSSWORDS

14

ACROSS

136

1 A tied tin mug (ansg.).

9 Possibly not very polite langu-

age, but probably true.

10 Chinese craft starts this kind

of spree.

13

11 An open space one way, and an

enclosed space the other.

a stopped You couldn't buy clock with this on the lure pur- chase system. (Two words, 2,

13. Showing how Bess won, though not unmoved, in the Lakes.

16 Two articles combine as the

result of friction.

he erled, "here is a good 17 Goes beyond free admission. blade!" He twirled the 10 I'll give you "what for," rapier in his hand before he handed 20 If you don't want French meat, send it back and you'll get fibs It to me. It certainly was a benuti ful plece of work. The slender i

was en-21 Pastel. (Anag.). blade, surprisingly to point. It was 23 Always taken in the Vensel graved from hilt

polished like fine silver,

་ ་ ན་

or ...

by

24 You may obtain

weight in Switzerland, or in China,

The old man took the rapler. "Look! Every Basque was a swords-27 Doormat material.

my 20 Here is a succulent bivalve: call man" he cried, and before astonished eyes he sprang into the Ini.

only clear space in the floor and per- 20 Tum for an insane emperor.

formed all the passes of an accom plished fencer.

32

un-

town. affords a suitable Lounge-not oak-panelled. Gone was the

old second-hand 33 This covering is generally pretty

even, but it could be evener, saw a Basque hero of dealer, and old. could never have belleved 34 Invald. the old man capable of such nihletic 35 It might be a knave;

doubtedly gives pain with a movements,

I

glad cry. (Hyphen, 7, 4). When placed my 258. on the

DOWN counter and picked up my purchase the old Basque gave a parting shot. three, shower bath, sink, running Take it for twenty!" he said. “And water, and would cost to make at remember a Basque aristocrat." home about £200.

history.

M. D. Hull

I did and have..

Miller Watson.

2 We, having good sense, are in

France.

3 Though probably black, it can

easily turn to pink

4 Mean.

5 Phy more, till cash has been

collected for it.

6 Centre of learning on the out-

skirts of Easthampton.

7 Such wise sayings are deadly. B Lamb's tails, we hear, come

from this.

12 A tax for a king, perhaps, but not one of the King's Taxes. 14 A falling in duty.

18 In the belfry, perchance. 19 Useful lens.

22 Stay.

25 You'll have to get it into your this before you write it down.

20 Though untidy, his heart is full

of love.

27 B.R.Y.

130 Dil-holding earth.

31 Look for an equal.

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