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Lindholm, Manager ii The AMERICAN MERCURY ~~~:~~=~~~A~®~.~~~®~~~~ 6 OF CONTENTS NUMBER I'--~ ~ XXXVII 146 Iff§) ~I February, 193 6 'r:~., ~ WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH CONGRESS? . Lester J. Dickinson 129 ~ ~ 0 My GENERATION. Verse Helene Mullins I36 ~ I?'~ JIM CURLEY, Boss OF MASSACHUSETTS Ray Kierman I 37 ~~ ~ TOES. A Story . Jesse Stuart 152 ~ ~ ROGER CASEMENT Sean O'Faolain 160 5 ~~ PROGRESS TOWARD COLLECTIVISM. '. Albert Jay Nock 168 ~~.. PORTRAIT OF A LIFER No. 77260 175 RENO THE NAUGHTY . Anthony M. Turano 183 ~ GARDEN WITHOUT WALLS. Verse .. Margaret Tynes Fairley 189 ~ c.~ MINORITY RULE IN AMERICA . Charles A. Beard 190 r~.), @ FALL OF RAIN. Verse Danie1W. Smythe I96 ~ ~ HOMECOMING. A Story . Edward Harris Heth 197 ..~ m AMERICANA 207 5 \~ KING OF THE LOBBY. Lewis and Smith 21 I ~.dI ~ A YANKEE LOOKS AT DIXIE. Katharine F. Gerould 217 ~ ~ THE FIRST LIBERAL . S. K. Padover 221 ~.... c. ~ THE CLINIC: r~.) I?~The New Deal in Stamps Ralph A. Barry 229 ~~ ~ The Walking Laboratory of Dr. Beaumont . John Kobler 232 W ~ The Truth About Shaving . Jerome W. Ephraim 236 .~ @ SWEET GRASS. Verse Robert P. TristramCofl1.n 240 ~ r~~ THE LIBRARY: ~ ~ How to Debunk Abraham Lincoln. Edgar Lee Masters 241 ~ ~ An American Sits in Judgment. Ralph Adams Cram 244 ~ ~n The Gay 'Twenties. Ernest Boyd 247 r-,.J @ Concealed Savages of Tudor England . Arthur Machen 250 ~ ~ Briefer Mention 252 ~ m THE CONTRIBUTORS . 255 ~~ ~. CHECK LIST OF NEW BOOKS IV . ~ RECORDED MUSIC Irving Kolodin xiv ~ ~ I?~ Lawrence E. Spivak, Publisher Paul Palmer, Editor ~~ ~ Gordon Carroll, Managing Editor ~7 @I Laurence Stallings, Literary Editor Louis Untermeyer, Poetry Editor ,@ ~~{~~~~ij~~~~~®{~~~~®{~~~~ THE AMERICAN MERCURY is published monthly at 50 Printed in theUiiited States. Copyright. 1936, .by The Amei'ican sUbscript~on, Mercury, Inc. Entered as secondclass matter Jan\1ary 4, 1924, at cents a copy. Annual $5.00 in. U. S. and the post office at Camden. N. J.,- under the Act of March 3, Possessions, Mexico, Cuba, SpaIn and. Colomes, and th~ Republics of Central and South Amenca. Ca~~da, $5.50, 1879. Published mOllthlY,on the 25th .Qfthe month preceding other foreign subscriptions, $6.00 : all rag editlon. .$10.00 the date. Five weeks' advance notice 'required for change' of by the year. The American Mercury, Inc.. publ1~hers. subscribers' addresses. Indexed in The Readers'; Guide .to Publication Office. Federal and 19t~ streets, Camden. N. J. Periodical Literature. No reproduction of content allowed Editorial and general offices, 570 Lexmgton avenue, New York. without permission. iii THE AMERICAN MERCURY BIOGRAPHY WITH NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA. ties in him is resented by many of his spiritual The Memoirs of General de Caulaincourt. admirers. The incongruity between artist and Edited by lean Hanoteau. William Morrow man, so startling to his contemporaries, has been $3·75 6~ x 9~; 422 pp. New York forgotten. Mr. Gwynn's biography has been Caulaincourt, Napoleon's Master of Horse and written'not for scholars but for the well-informed Ambassador to Russia, was also a painstaking general reader. Its purpose is not to throw new and thorough Boswell to the Emperor of the light on any of the' numerous problems con­ French. In these memoirs, published after a nected with Goldsmith's life, but rather to "fol­ lapse of more than 100 years, a new voice low a very lovable man through the ups and speaks for the cause of history, completing the downs of a life in which his chief desire was to record of the haggard days when Napoleon, give pleasure - in his own phrase, to amuse". having met his first Waterloo on the steppes of As such, it is a highly successful achievement. Russia, turned his back on the Grand Army There are illustrations and an index. and took secret flight for Paris. It is an amazing and extraordinary ,story, a unique biography, covering the diplomatic events leading to the SAMUEL PEPYS: The Years of Peril. invasion of Russia, the early progress of the By Arthur Bryant. Macmillan French spearhead, the occupation of Moscow, $3.50 6 x 8%; 466 pp. New York the ultimate retreat of a disorganized army, and This is the second volume of Mr. Bryant's Napoleon's frantic dash by sled and coach for excellent biography of Pepys. It covers the security. For thirteen days and thirteen nights, period between the close of the first published Caulaincourt was Napoleon's confidant on this Diary in 1669 and the start of the second in ride, and he listened as the Emperor talked. His 1683. The concluding volume is scheduled to book brings back to life the moods, the emo­ appear sometime next fall. With the death of tions, the fears, the hopes, the philosophy of a Pepys' wife in 1669, life in the British Navy great dictator. It is the most important recent Office becan1e very' parlous for the little man. contribution to Napoleonic history; it answers a He was forced to defend his public affairs against thousand questions which have, for more than a widespread charges of corruption; people were century, gone unanswered. beginning to suspect that he had grown prosper­ ous not alone through upright conduct in office. He was soon the butt of an angry Parliament, OLIVER GOLDSMITH. which he courageously defied. He was accused By Stephen Gwynn. Henry Holt of. Piracy, Popery, and Treachery by his political $3 '5% x8~; 32 6 pp. New York enemies who, by opposing him, were to reveal "No man was wiser' when he had a pen in to all England his truly great ability both as his hand," said Dr. Johnson of Oliver. Gold­ orator and statesman. Yet, through it all, he smith. Yet few English writers have been more preserved that illusive, intangible quality which pathetic and helpless in their private lives. Gold­ Mr. Bryant calls, simply, character. The volume smith was ugly, vain, ridiculous in dress, and closes with Pepys off to Tangier in. the service out of place in the brilliant literary group of of Charles II. In preparing this portion of the his day. He was a constant butt for such men biography, the author has made use of recent dis­ as Garrick, Burke, Walpole, and Johnson him­ coveries in the Pepysian Library at Cambridge, self. Yet, for all his shortcomings, he was es­ which throw new light on King Charles' investi­ sentially lovable. Today, even the hint of frail- gations into the affairs of the British Navy Office. iv THE AMERICAN MERCURY ~~~~~~ Check fJft of NEW BOO KS The LITERARY BAZAAR FIRST EDITIONS :: RARE BOOKS' :: AUTOGRAPHS' DIAGHILEFF: His Artistic and Private Life. STAMPS :: LITERARY SERVICES By Arnold L. Haskell. Simon and Schuster $3.75 6~ x 912; 359 pp. New York FOREIGN LANGUAGES Working in close collaboration with Walter VISIT OR WRITE THE FRENCH BOOKMAN, 202 West 96th St. (near Broadway). "Headquarters for French Books and Nouvel, who was Diaghileff's life-long friend, Magazines." Careful, prompt attention and reasonable Mr. Haskell has produced what will probably be prices. Bargain Catalogue 5 cents (stamps). regarded as the definitive biography of the great­ OUT-OF-PRINT est impresario of the age.