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Show -TODAY'S BOOK Bought Island To Save Birds FromMankind By ELIZABETH C. JAMES TITHEN memory runs free to seek the treasures among books, it always comes to rest upon the tales by Dr. Axel Munthe. "The Story of San Michele" Is the life story of a man you should know. Nothing in the book is more appealing ap-pealing than the author's love of animals. ani-mals. His knowledge of the ways of birds, monkeys, dogs, and wild animals makes the book almost an animal ani-mal story. Resentment Resent-ment against confining confin-ing animals in cages led him to state that in a zoo, the monkeys mon-keys are on the outside, out-side, looking in. Hunting as a sport was nauseous to Dr. Munthe, and he will come when the Elizabeth mere pleasure of James killing will die out in man. As long as it is there, man has no claim to call himself civilized, civ-ilized, he is a mere barbarian, a missing link between his wild ancestors an-cestors who slew each other with stone axes for a piece of raw flesh and the man of the future." This attitude was by no means an assumed front: Dr. Munthe bought the Isle of Capri in the Bay of Naples because it was the only way "LISTENED" TO LIFE In writing a preface to the American edition of "The Story of San Michele," Dr. Munthe interpreted in-terpreted his own book. He comments com-ments on the reviewers who had already published analyses of his book and presents reasons why he disagrees with some of their comments. His book had been called The Memoirs of a Doctor and The Autobiography of Dr. Munthe. Both of the comments appear inaccurate to him, for his purpose was to present life, omitting omit-ting himself as much as possible. possi-ble. He hoped to listen to the Voice of Life and to record what he heard. that he could stop the cruel and wholesale slaying of birds there. The Italian fishermen had a practice prac-tice of catching a few of these birds and of blinding them, then fastening them to act as decoys for the other birds. Their plaintive cries caused the other birds to come to see what could be their plight and they in turn were caught in nets by the thousands. These multitudes multi-tudes of birds were sold to be worn alive on chains on gala days. , Book Is Vivid. Dr. Munthe appealed to the government gov-ernment to stop this, but to no avail.' So he bought the island. At the end of his book, the old doctor pictures his trial in Heaven and the birds plead for him before the sternness stern-ness of Moses! A critic has said that Dr. Munthe, like Petrarch and Chaucer, has filled his book so full of narrative and incident, that short story writers writ-ers could use it for endless sources of ideas. This is true. There are narratives connected with medical study in France and later with his association with Pasteur and Charcot; there are stories of vacations vaca-tions to Norway and Lapland, and down to Italy; there are human "interest "in-terest stories dealing with the lives of his friends and patients. Another of his medical stories is that of the mixed coffins. When Dr. Munthe was practicing medicine medi-cine in Paris, he had as a patient a young man from Norway who had an incurable illness. At the death of the boy, the family asked Dr. Munthe to escort the body to Norway Nor-way personally. In the freight car where he was required by law to travel with a coffin, he met another man who was escorting to the coast the body of a Russian general. Both men were to take boats at the coast, one for Norway, the other for Russia. Mixed Funerals. In Norway Dr. Munthe met the family and reamed of their plan to open the coffin. Privately he opened it himself, to see about the embalming. embalm-ing. What he saw caused him to reel backward and to turn white. The black bushy beard of the Russian Rus-sian general greeted him. Dr. Munthe persuaded the mother not to see her son. And to this day, the Russian general lies in Norway and the Norwegian boy lies in Russia. His personal acquaintance with Death took a different turn after Dr. Munthe had practiced medicine for some years. At first Death was a personal enemy to be fought by the bed of one patient; later Death became a force controlling the destiny of mankind. For Dr. Munthe was a volunteer to the plague of Naples, when people died a thousand a day of cholera. For readers who like to meet a man who takes life zestfully, Dr. Munthe is recommended. Evidently Evident-ly others have the same opinion, for the copy of "The Story of San Michele" belonging to this writer is from the sixty-third edition. 6 Bell Syndicate WNU Service. |