Little Pitchers

AROUND THE WORLD IN ELEVEN YEARS --Patience, Richard and John Abbe--Stokes ($2).

James E. Abbe (rhymes with tabby) is a professional U. S. cameraman (free lance) whose curious business and nomadic ways call him from one country to another at short notice. His wife is comely onetime Actress Polly Platt. In Paris, eleven years ago, the first of their three children was born. Around the World in Eleven Years is a child's-eye-view of the family's subsequent travels, written, so Parents Abbe aver, entirely by the children; and printed unchanged, except for corrections in spelling. Readers last week were whooping with delight over many a Young Abbe observation of elders' ways, were reminded more than once of Daisy Ashford's famed Young Visiters. These little pitchers had very big ears.

A three-child collaboration, the narrative never indicates exactly where the authorship changes hands, but internal evidence indicates that Eldest Abbe Patience did most. She starts the story from the very beginning, with the births of herself and her brothers. "But Papa had a good time before Johnny was born because he discovered how to stop all the traffic in Paris. He would take Mamma out in our Citroen and yell to the agents de police, 'femme enceinte,' which means, 'woman with child,' and the agent de police would stop all the trolley-cars and autos until Papa got by." This system broke down, however, the night the Abbes motored out to Le Bourget to see Lindbergh land. "Then Mamma suddenly got some pains in her belly and Papa and Aigner got sweat on their heads because they couldn't get out of the car with Mamma, and even if Papa yelled 'femme enceinte' it wouldn't do any good, because all the cars were packed in like sardines."

The children were early accustomed to famed people. One day Clemenceau came into their garden, said to Patience, " 'What is your name, little cauliflower?' And I said, 'Patience.' And he said 'Tiens, Tiens.' And then he said 'How is your papa called?' And I said 'Abbe.' So he said 'What a family.' " The children soon got their father's number. "Papa is a very poor business man, but he does no one any harm. He just doesn't understand about money." They remembered many a grownup remark, such as the Frenchman's on "funny people from England": " 'Such bounders. All puffed up and bragging about knowing Augustus Johns, the painter. No real dignity in life.' "

"Once Mamma and I, Patience, went on the little schooner over the channel to Le Havre. All the French were very seasick, but there was one man who was English and he sat himself down and put a robe over him, placed a vomiting pan under his chin and then began to read his paper. He wasn't a bit excited, but the French were groaning and saying 'Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!' and they were all green. Mamma and I stayed well." In Moscow the children went sightseeing. "We went in to see Lenin. He was dead six years but he didn't smell." After living in France, Austria, Germany and Russia the children started off for their first trip to the U. S. They stopped in London on the way were taken to Madame Tussaud's. "In the Chamber of Horrors we saw bloody figures and figures of ladies and gentlemen who .had killed people, and Mamma said, 'Crime doesn't pay.' " On the boat, "Mamma came down to breakfast with us the first two days. She made us eat oatmeal. But then she didn't come down to breakfast any more, so we had pickles and wurst for breakfast. They didn't have any ice-cream for breakfast, but they gave it to us for lunch and dinner." Accustomed as they were to Continental cities, they were surprised that "New York is very crowded. And no one was ever singing or marching and everyone looked angry on the streets. Mamma said that was depression."

Next stop was a friend's ranch in Colorado. The hired man they had was helpful, but "his wife always went out and lay down in the grass after she washed the dishes or did any work, because she said she was delicate. She wasn't a pioneer." Ranch biology they found engrossing. "A steer is a bull they fix so he can't give any germs to the cows to make calves." Neither Republicans nor Democrats could object to their comment on Roosevelt II: "President Roosevelt must be a very rich man because he gives all his money to the people. But we think he ought not to give all his money to the people and ought to save some for when he is old. It would be very sad for him if he was an old man without any money and had to sleep in the park."

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