The evening star and Newark advertiser., 1907-11-23
THE NEW BOOKS
sex Equality an Important Study Of the Woman Prob
lem--A Novel by Harold BindlOss--Eizabeth, N j.,
in la Detective StOry-- -ChiIdrens BOOkS-Magaziues

Brush Parson.' Justin wingate. Ranch
er, and others of that class.
In most such stories strenuous action,
with its thrilling moment. is the key
note sounded. This is also true of ''Win-
ston n the Prairie" but the guns are
not pulled too frequently and the author
has apparently tried to lift the tale to a
higher plane. The struggle with. the soil
permeates 1t all, rather than the smoke OF
the sx-shooter.
Winston, an honest young rancher who
has had years of hard luck and is facing
utter failure. consents, for money he
needed badly, to impersonate Lance Court
horne, a dissolute scoundrel of good
family, so that the latter will not be
suspected of ''rustling' whiskey across
the border The two looked somewhat
alike. After making the exchange Win
ston rides away to lead the troopers off
the others trail, and later hears that he
is accused of having shot soldier Court
horne being in reality the murderer.
Winston decides 20 keep up the imper-
sonation. circumstances rather forcing him
into 1t, and he takes charge OF Court
homes farm lands and so meets Maude
Barrington, niece OF Colonel Darlington,
the leader Of the wheat growers in that
section The story deals largely with WIN
ston's success in living down Courthorne $
bad reputation and turning his land INTO
! dollars by sowing wheat when the marker
was low for a rise. Naturally he gets
the girl in the end. It's good story
properly exciting and properly told.
Putting Elizabeth. N. j., I'm Detective
story.
"That Affair at Elizabeth" BY Burton
E. Stevenson. Henry Holt & Co., New
York.
Well, well, here we are again with re
fined blood-and- thunder, Talk about
dime novels, done into advanced FORM
a la Conan Doyle, this 10 1t. Ana 20
think that it ali happened at Elizabeth,
right at Newark's side door! Fie, he, Mr.
Stevenson, we know better. You can
cause rich. young girl mysteriously TO
sink out of sight half an hour before her
big church wedding without our getting
wise" Much less can you cause woman
to murder a man Cher own brutal husband,
from whom she was separately In her
own home and bury him in her cellar at
midnight and then hang herself. For one
thing women usually don't baik at the
church altar, and they certainly do not
Hike to go into the cellar after dark
What's that? Fiction, you say? Oh,
that's different. But, really, you frighten
U.s. we tHOuSnt lHe ptpeT udu loSb d pib
STORY" for you know you had the New
York "yellows'' filled with it.
But seriously, the yarn is a good one
of it's class-a detective story, with the
detectives left out. Lester, a young New
York lawyer, who solved THE Marathon
Mystery and "The Holiday Case for
Mr.. Stevenson in his previous books, is
again ION the job" This time 1t is the
case of Burke Curtiss and Marcia Law
renee. They are presented as an ideal
love match. The bridegroom is a New
Yorker, and the bride an Elizabeth girl,
who had recently returned from several
years abroad. While the First Presbyte-
rian Church, in Elizabeth, is filled with
guests for the wedding at high noon, the
bride suddenly drops out of sight from her
home. 1t causes great sensation. Lester
Is called Into service and unravels a tan
gled family history, revealing the murder
referred to, through the aid of his friend
newspaper reporter, and finally straight
ening out an apparently hopeless tangls
which Mr.. Stevenson's ingenuity has
woven.