The Wichita daily eagle., 1895-12-15
THAT PRISONER OF zENDA.

novels. The larger cities OF the coun-
Try are now applauding rapturousiy
dramatizatiOn of the book. Prisoner
of Zenda." After the holidays it will
be put upon the stage in London and
of course its production there will
cinch its success.
''The Prisoner of Zenda' is a fake.
1t is a fake that makes the Oklahoma
man who sends out the prairie-tre dis
asters green with envy; likewise the
Cheyenne man who gets up the Indian
scares in Jackson's Hole; also the fel-
low in Podunk, Indiana, who brings
fathers and sons together after es-
arrangements of quarter of century;
also those Armenian massacre arusts
in Constantinople; as well as the fatal
feud virtuouso of Kentucky, and the
"dreadful-f ght ht-at-an-illicit-stilr cor
respondent in North Carolina.
None Of these fellows is in it
minute with 1.-The Prisoner of Zenda'
and they know it the minute they
read it.
"Zenda." the castle, is a fake. Zenda
is situated in a kingdom right in the
center of Europe, reached by railroads
and telegraph lines. This kingdom Is
Ruritania. Ruritania is also fake.
The capital of this important king
dom is Strelsau. a city full of ambasSa-
dors from foreign countries; contain
ing thousands of people: cardinal;
cathedral and a standing army. Strel-
sau and the rest are all fakes.
Locating this mythical kingdom
right in the center of Germany, the
author sets an English adventurer on
foot. The adyenturer is a daredevil
with a gorgeous head Of red hair and
a long nose common to his family,
which had been anciently allied to the
ruling family in Ruritania. The day
he reaches Zenda the young king is 10
be crowned. The king is drugged by
a treacherous brother. A conniving
and sagacious officer of the army, a
friend of the king, sees only one way
out of the difficulty-to crown the ad-
venturer who closely resembles the
king. While the king sleeps in his
drunken stupor the adyenturer Is
crowned. An attempt to recover the
real king is frustrated by the treacher-
Gus brother who imprisons him under
the foundations of the castle. The
mock king is forced to carry on his
plan of being king until such time as
he can rescue the real king. He has
to make love to the princess to whom
the real king is popularity betrothed-
He falls earnestly in love with her.
His conduct of the kingdom is one of
the richest things in literature. He
made a daisy monarch, and was so
different from the real king, who was
a weakling, that the people marveled
at the change and came to love him.
So did the princess, who also wept
with delight over the change that had
come mysteriously over her love.
AS the plot thickens things get blood
Ter and bloodier People are killed
off right and left. Encounters with
swords, daggers and rifles are tangled
into every page.
But the story is fascinating-chiefy
because it is a fake. Its plot and
conduct is medieval; its dialogues in
tensely modern. Its plot was picked
up somewhere in history five hundred
years ago; it's dialogue was selected
from a crowd of modern poker play
ers. 1t was one Of Bocacio's tales in
long trousers, frock coat and a plug
hat. But the reader follows it through
with an ever-growing interest. And
vet at the same time, he knows that
il is all fake, that such a thing is
impossible; that even its parallel is
ridicuolously impossible; that its char
acters are as improbably mythical as
the Grecian gods.
IL is simply a slendid fake, deceiving
no one, but entertaining everybody,
as all good fakes should.