The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-12-22

Richard Harding Davis has written
a new book, Real Soldiers of For
tune" just published by the Scribners,
which deals with the thrilling stories
Of the lives of a number of the most
adventurous and picturesque men of
our own day. In his novel, Soldiers
of Fortune" he described brilliantly
the ideal adventurer, but in this book
he gives sketches of real men who did
far more wonderful things. and went
through far more exciting adventures,
than any of his fictitious heroes. "A
Soldier of Fortune" he says, in the
strict sense of the phrase, is a man
who, for pay, or for love of adventure,
fights under the flag of any country.
In the bigger sense he is the knight
OF war who, in any walk of life, makes
his own fortune; who. when he sees
it coming, leaps to meet 1t. and turns
| it to his advantage" Following out
this idea, he has written about men
and careers so diverse as Captain Nc
Griffen, who commanded a Chinese
battleship at the Battle of the Yalu :;
greatest of all flibusters, who con-
quered Nicaragua, and whose schemes
and battles read like the widest ro-
nance; Baron Harden-H Hickey, who at
tempted just a few years ago to found
/ a kingdom on the little island of Trinf-
dad off the Brazilian coast; General
MacIver, q veteran of eighteen wars,
and who has fought under the flags of
| tons; and Winston Spencer Churchill,
whose career is as lively and adventur-
| Gus as any of them, and whose future
apparently holds as many chances as
his brief but strenuous past. Burn
ham, too, chief of scouts in the Boer
war, Is described in a vigorous and ex-
ceedingly interesting chapter. These
most congenial subjects Mr.. Davis tells
about in a clear-cut, vivid, and thor
Oughly interesting way that brings out
finely the picturesque and thrilling ca
reers of these soldiers of fortune of
our own day
The Macmillan company is publish
| ing this week the long-awaited book
on Mars and Its Canals by Profess
sor Percival Lowell. Professor Lowell
is, the famous director of the Lowell
! observatory at Flagstaff. Arizona, and
probably the foremost living authority
on the subject to which his book is
| devoted Mars and Its Canals" is an
eminently readable and popular ac-
count of the progress and results of
Marian observation, while its high
scientific value will be unQuestioned.
| In preparing his sumptuous produc-
ton of his latest success, THE Rose of
the Rancho" David Belasco obviously
consulted the literature of his subject
lustration of which is provided by the
quotation in the programme of a pas
sage from George Wharton James I'm
and Out of the Old Missions of Califor-
nia,' which Little. Brown & Co. pub
lish. The scene of the first act Of the
play is laid in the garden of the mis-
sion at San Juan BaDtiste, Southern
California, and the history of that par
ticular mission is the topic of an inter-
esting chapter in Mr.. James book
Further Fortunes of Pinkey Per-
kins.' by Captain Harold Hammond,
u. s. A, has been published by the
Century company. The average boy
in the average village is happier than
any king-though he never knows 1t
till enchanted boyhood lies behind him.
Because PiEkey is a boy in whom faith