The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-03-06
GuNTHER,s NEW BOOK.
[From the Chicago Tribune.J


Cuba has gotten into fiction again.
Archibald Clavering Gunter, author of
the f1imsy and famous Mr.. Barnes of
New York. and all the rest of that
ilk, has written a Slashing melodra-
matte novel on the Cuban question. It
is called Dan Balasco of Key West"
and the plot is laid in 1896. From the
standpoint of literature it Is rubbish,
but despite its slang and slipshod Eng
1ish it has undeniable dramatic
strength. If it could be put on the
stage, what a bowling me1odrama it
would make!
Mr.. Gunter takes sides with a ven
geance. His villains are all Spaniards
and his heroes and heroines are all Gu
bans or Cuban sympathizers. Don Ba-
lasco, who does the heavy villainous,
is a Spanish spy. Mastic, the gent"
who does the lofty heroic, is a jump
ir&-jack revenue detective in the en-
ploy of the United States. The liber-
ties that the author allows himself with
facts may be judged by his action in
depicting our government as hand-in-
glove with the Spanish spy. But that
helps out his plot and enables the re-
doubtable Mastic to be on hand in the
final climax at the thrilling moment
Don RalaSco and his nefarious schemes
Millionaire Vanstone and his two
beautiful daughterS-the blacker the
Villains the more beautiful the ladies,
always-have taken up their winter
quarters on one of the Florida keys,
and the young ladies have incidentally
picked up a wounded Cuban floating
around loose at sea and have nursed
him back to life. Then comes Don Ba-
lasco and falls in love with Vanstone,
and when her New York lover comes to
claim her hand the murderous Don
makes this the occasion for a grand
coup d'etat by which to annihilate this
group of Cuban sympathizers,w win glory
and honor from Spain, and incidentally
carry off the heiress as his wife.
There is plenty of hair-raising thrill
in the climax. Talk about actionl A
cage full of cats and monkeys is no
where in comparison. The arch viii
lain goes strutting about the steam
launch muttering blood-curdling things
and when he has drugged all the men
and women on board and has put his
minions into the engine room and pilot
house he steamS away for cuba with all
on board, and with some contraband
arms between decks to insure pursuit
and capture by the Spaniards- Then
when the fair Miss VanStOne awakeS
he delivers his uItimatum- Marry me
in an hour, or see your lover and fam
lily slaughtered.
Carambal If that jumping-jack Mas
tic had not smashed through the door
and fired just when he did Mr.. Gunter
would have had US entangled in an
other international fray before the
rriest would have gotten through the
marriage service But as it is, Mr..
Gunter merely fires a parting ironical
shot in these words: Hush, my boy!
You'll brighten Wall street" But Don
Balasco is thrown overheard, anyway,
with a bullet in his head. like any
other vermin,' and Miss Vanstone and
her Billy live happy ever after.
Mr. Gunters thesis is that the fire
which is burning up Cuba Is too close
for us to escape being scorched our
selves. In his own thrilling dime novel
style he has put the popular conviction
into the form of a story that cannot ran
to strike a responsive chord IN certain
o11aTters-for instance, among the peo-
pie that fill the galleries in the sensa-
tional theaters.