BOOKS CRIMSON REVIEWS PLAYS

Mount Everest is as yet unscaled, but Lowell Thomas and his party are optimistic of future success. Speaking at the Majestic Theatre, and illustrating his lecture with movies, colored pictures, and Eastern music, Mr. Thomas tells the story of the attempt which almost succeeded. But his lecture is chiefly based on the strange events of the expedition before it reached the mountain proper Many scenes never before filmed are shown, such as those of a Tibetan devil dance in one of the highest monasteries in the world. This is accompanied by weird music from the orchestra and is strangely attractive.

The expedition started in India, and Hindu fanatics, and snake-charmers, and fire-eaters are shown in turn. Then the explorers passed through Baluchistan to the famous Vale of Kashmir, and on the Napal, the mountain country. Passing through giant forests, where the temperature averaged 100 degrees, they finally reached the timber-line; and farther beyond came to the pinnacle-perched Tibetan monasteries. One of these, at a height of 16,000-feet, is the highest abode of living creatures in the world. Here the inhabitants drink immense quantities of tea, and here polyandry the opposite of polygamy is the rule.

Then comer the story of the ascent of the East glacier, culminating in the reaching of the Northeastern ridge, and the failure of the expedition due to storms, and the giving out of the oxygen tanks. The end is the assertion of Bruce--the leader of the party "you wait till 1924!" It will be interesting to hear of this second expedition, and to know whether the king of mountains shall be conquered. Meanwhile the story of the first attempt is full of strangeness and adventure