The times., 1898-11-06
A Dool, cf the WEST.

Crooked Trails" by Frederic Reming-
ton, is semi-pictorial. semi-literary and
wholly fascinating volume To those who
have seen PONY Tracks 1t will not be
necessary TO describe this new sketchbook
of the West. 1t is the same sort of book.
on smaller scale
Considered purely as literature the book
is not worth much. rs style is that of
the special correspondent, careless of ex-
preston, II only the meaning is convey
ed. 1t is merely a group of miscellaneous
sketches of frontier and army life, graph
ic, picturesque and alive with interest
and foremost, writer but always an
artist first, and then a word-painter.
An artist is very often a good story
teller. with certain happy gift of phras-
ing; but he is almost never finished wri-
ter. Perhaps du Maurier was the only
artist-author whose genius was equally
great in both forms of expression. just
as he was. perhaps, the only writer who
could use French and English with equal
ease and grace. But, for all that, the two
gifts-picture-nlaking and story telling
often go together, and Mr.. Remington
is fairly good example of this. The H.
lustrations are decidedly the best of the
book, of course, but the stories are fitted
to the pictures.
'Massais Crooked Trail" story of
Montana Indian warfare, is one of the
best. Another tale. not Mr.. Remington's
own. but document which he has fished
out of the records of Colonial New
France and called THE Spirit of Mahon-
gui, has a weird fascination of its own.
Mr.. Remington's introduction is spicy
and 10 the point. He says of his author
ity, LIE chevalier BailloQuet:
Many will not believe him in these days for
cut Of their puny volition they will analyze and
Out Of their discomfort they will scof. But TO
those say: Go TO your microbes, your statis-
tics. your volts, and your bicycles and leave me
the truth of other days
Another ancient document is Joshua
Goodenough's Old Letter." dated June.
HISS. A sketch of a life fast disappearing
and picturesque as that of the Argonauts
OF 'is, is How the Law Got Into the
Chaparraf'-the story of the Texas
Rangers" told by one of them The old
ranger assures his listeners that there is
but one weapon-the six-shooter when
properly handled. He tells of certain In
dian allies of the rangers-the Tahuahua-
cans-of whom he says, drily:
The Tahuahuacars say that The first one Of their
race wss brought into the world by wolf How
an TO liver said the Tahuahuacan The same
81 VIC DO, said the wolf, and when they wera
with me, that is just about how t:,ey lived
reckon it's Necessary to tell you about the old
woman who was found in our lines She wa.
looking at the and making incantations. a.
crssing Us out generally and elevsting her voice
she said the Comanches would get even for this
days wors- | directed my Indians to let her
alone, but l was informed afterwards that that
A just what they didn't do.''
At tais point the colonel's cigar went out and
Directly he followed.
The foregoing scrap OF narrative is a
fair example of the style of the book It
u terse. lively, slightly cynical, and pos
seeses humor as dry as sage-brush.
Mr.. Remington spent some time with
the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry at their
Western posts. and two or three of the
sketches have to do with them. Other
chapters besides those already mentioned
are THE Blue Quail of the Cactus" "a
Sergeant Of the Orphan Troop" ''The
Essentials at Fort Adobe" Cracker Cow
boys Of Florida" 1.-The Strange Days
that Game to Jimmie Friday" and THE
soledad Girls" In the Fort Adobe" pa
per are some interesting facts on the rid
ing Of our cavalrymen. and after reading
Mr.. Remington's description and looking
at Mr. Remingten's pictures OF these
genuine Rough Riders Of the plains. one
quite understands the amaze of the Ger
man husser who witnessed these evo.u-
tions for the first time at Montauk. He
said: $50 that is what you call doing
stunts. is itf do not think that We will
introduce those evolutions in the Ger
man army at present. don't know where
we should find the men to do them"
The long-limbed. Indian-faced. soft
hated Western soldier appears in these
pictures. as the recent war has made him
familiar to US. There is also the Indian
of the plains-not of romance-shorn of
his majestic Chingachgook air. but some
times an impressive figure for all that
and last but not least, the Remington
horse. Remington is the Landseer Of the
Western plains, and he was born to draw
mustangs and Indian ponies and cavalry
chargers. Crooked Trails should be
part of the personal property of every
book-lover who loves a horse. (New
York: Harper & Bros.)