The Washington times., 1901-10-06

character of the Sir Anthony Gloster'
tyne. ambitious for his son and anxious
to make the lad "a gentleman" The
character of the old bookmaker, All
Harris. alias Mortimer Gordon, is exceed
ingly well drawn and one seems to have
known him in the flesh, after reading the
book He is a rough. imperious, simple,
kindly. and vulgar old fellow, with low
able traits. but also some very irritating
ones: In fact he is the sort OF person
whom one sees in real life. The heroine
is the daughter of an aristocratic colonel
in reduced circumstances, and the minor
characters are skillfully sketched. The
individuality Of the son is not as salts
factory in its realism. az that of the
father, but is fairly We. done. (New
York: r. f. Fenno & Co. SL5O)
'Brockman's Maverick by Joseph n.
Quail, is a breezy Western tale with a
cowboy for a hero-unless the maverick"
should be called the hero instead The
youngster certainly commands ones at
tention and liking from the moment he
appears until the end of the book The
book is fun of incident and adventure,
and there is a plot which, though slight,
is carefully worked out. The real inter
est of the story, however. lies IN the
pictures of cowboy character and life.
There is one chapter which describes a
stirring fight between cowboys and
gamblers in frontier town, which is the
real dramatic crisis of the book. The
cream Of this chapter may be skinned in
two pages. which are worth reproducing
by themselves. They describe the res
cue of the besieged ranchmen by their
comrades, whom the maverick has
warned; and the extract gives a fair idea
of the authors style:
Away off to the west there was a
rumble and a rush like that which
heralds an approaching storm. In
the midst of 1t they heard thin voice
piping the camp cry. 1t floated up to
them clearly. though seemingly ever
so far away:
'Aha-i-e-yah ow-wah! Aha-i-e-yah
ow-wah.
=" The maverick, by all that's lucky
shouted Langford. He's bringing up
the hunt
mighty cheer, in when even Brock
man Joined. though ever so family. 1t
was spontaneous tribute to the NAV
erick.
There were other wells back there
along the road. They could dis
tinguish them easily now-the YIN
yip-yipi" of the Herald men and the
screaming laugh of the IkardItes their
lex wasn't doing things by halves He
had brought the entire camp to the
rescue.
The mobbers heard them. also. and
they fell out by twos and threes and
hunted cover until not more than
twenty remained. These, headed by
the Goodwinites, made a last desper-
ate effort to rush the besieged cow
boys; but before they could carry the
place the men from camp were among
them. shouting like fiends and shoot
ing into them from all sides
Panic-stricken, the mobbers fed in
every direction. Then followed a
shooting-up of the town that has he
come historic on the Northern frontier
of Texas From end to end of the
settlement the invaders spurred their
horses, shooting into windows and
doorways, and volleying at shadows
and yelling like demons until every
light was eXtinguished, every inhabi-
tant burrowed out OF sight: until the
very dogs were stricken dumb with
fright and crouched shivering with
their tails between their legs. Then.
and only then, was the wrath of the
cowboys appeased. Their natural enc
mics the gamblers, had received a
drubbing the memory of which could
never be effaced."
There are illustrations by David F.
Thomson. and a cover design by Dan
Smith. (New York: Quail & Warner:
S125)