AMUSING SIDELIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 92, 15 October 1932, Page 22

AMUSING SIDELIGHTS

Mr. Gf. K. Chesterton is sometimes accused by his critics of an unbending rigidity of mind which Trill never allow him to see anything but the worst in what he dislikes and the best in that of which he approves. He will, so they tellyou, see nothing but what is bad in the Americans, in the northern Europeans, and nothing that is not Srfftiruble in the Latin civilisation and ia the Roman Catholic-Church.'Perhaps one of the most refreshing qualities of his new book of essays, "Sidelights on London and Newer. York," is that we have here Chesterton putting up a case for many of the elements in America which are commonly despised. Thus, ' while he hap little to say for the vast i industrial civilisation, which America has invented, he puts up an eloquent defence for Main Street, as compared with the New Yorkers who so despis.o all that Main Street stands for, that is to say, the small towns of the "West so well described by Mr. Sinclair Lewis. Also he has some very kind remarks to-make about the real gusto for life and enthusiasm, over small things which, at its best, is such a notable quality in the American character Mr. Chesterton has made many voyages across the Atlantic at various times, both before, and after Prohibition, and though he would doubtless claim, that this book is composed . of essays not only on America but on the new ago in general, it is clear that he identifies America with all that is somewhat thickly lumped together as modernism. His remarks on gatecrashing, cocktails, Christian names, and many other of those subjects so beloved of the newspaper paragraphists all really revolve round America and what Mr.. Chesterton has seen there. It must be added that though the subjects of many of Mr. Chesterton's essays in this book are trite enough, he has, with his usual charm, made them sound as fresh as if no newspaper had ever touched them. The pcipetual paradox and the pun are as much in evidence as ever, but somehow in this book he does not seem to have let them run away with' him as much as '. he usually does.