New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-06-15
BR4TE ROMANCE.
Ama@ing Aduentures an Egypt and
IN France

The author of The Gates of Kant has used
with considerable success a formula that mas
been made very familiar in modern fiction. espe-
ciay by Mr. Rider Haggard Indeed one mas
scarcely read the first three four chapters or
this book before memories of she come 'ioop-
ing back \ard as the narrative proceeds uleS7
recolections increase. There is one scene III
the present volume which sends the memory
straight 10 a certain place Of bones raVerseu /"
the pages of "Ayesha." But this does nor III inc
least affect the readers enjoyment OF A"'
Gates Of KANT" 1t is deIghtful ouh"lo VI
.,ss,,,1a things the impossibilities being car
ried off in a light, plausible 1ashioh 'i"'' ~
work 90 tba kind. is half the battle The ad-
ventures related by the Baroness Orczy are
foreshadowed in the private museum of an OLD
English Egyptologist Seated amid his mum
mics and other cheerful relics, he pores over
mysterious document which holds the key to
dark period in the history Of Egypt. His the
cries as TO the existence Of great people living
beyond the UNEMPLOYED wastes Of the Lihyan
desert are laughed to scoTn by his learned con-
ter?lporaries and he dies too soon to wrest from
the records in his possession. the proofs that ne
is right. Fortunately for him and for the pur-
poses of this romance. when he dies his son
takes up his task and with a single comraoe'
who is supposed to tell the story goes forth TO
find the missing kingdom. He finds II. and
having done so, affords the reader a great deaf
Of innocent entertainment.
Kant is a hard place TO come at. and when
you reach its walls - slippery, unscalable
heigbts-you are at loss as to how you are
ever going to pass through them. You look up
at huge slab Of FURNISHED copper and con-
ttnue TO wonder. Incidentally your nerves get
a little Jumpy for all around you are the bones
of the criminals who have been thrown out OF
KANT to starve. But If you wait long enough
you are bound to get inside. Some indiscreet
Kamtian commits a crime. the copper door is
opened. and when the drugged evildoer is
lowered TO the earth at the end OF a rope and
automatically deposited. you and your comrade
take his place and promptly carried into
Kant. No guards modest you the copper
door is closed and you stroll through dark tun-
nels into the secret precincts Of vast temple.
TO be sure, a couple Of cobras put out their
tongues at YOU but you indifferently smother
them with your cloaks and go on to see what
the priests of the temple doing. If the high
panjandrum Of them all happens 10 be convers~
ing with the queen Of the realm you wave him
aside declare that you are the we'll beloved Of
Ra and announce that you have come to marry
the LADY and rule the state. You need have
doubt as your ability TO do all this for It "a
precisely what Mr.. Hugh Tankervie does and
we hold that he sets admirable example. well
worth following for he has prodigiously good
time and even contrives to escape with his life.
How good a time he has may be imagined when
we say that the adventures at which have
glanced form only prelude to the career which
he and Dir. Mark Emmett take up In Kant It
is a brief career, but 1t is crowded and glorious
and the Baroness Orczy has made out Of 1t
very amusing book.
Mr.. Mccarthy has gone to France for the stuff
Of his new novel. 10 the France Of Louis XI and
Master Francois Villon II is with the poet that
he is chiefly concerned. He shows us to him
married by extraordinary good luck to the Lady
Katharine de Vaucelles, but sadly tormented by
untoWard circumstances when he goes with his
bride 10 take up his lordship of Montcorbier, I'm
Poitou. There in meadow. milking COW, he
finds maid who sings to him this ditty:
Needles and pins,
When mans married
His trouble begins.
He wonders II It is true. and while he wonders
his world begins 10 tumble about his ears. The
mobiles Of the region have no mind 10 welcome
an upstart poet, and a rascally poet at that,
and though he appears as one enjoying the
kings favor, they 1aunt him to his face. This
bewilders him. momentarily, and he is less ex
neditious than his wife would wish him to be in
defending his new dignities. Whereupon Master
VilIor is made, at home and abroad. most un-
happy man. But he is gallant fellow. and
,hrewd once he has grasped the situation he
proceeds to deal with il in a manner electrify-
inc 70 the whole province. The plot thckens,
hut he has learned how to take care Of himself.
and plays his part like a man down to the
,ret+v climax with which Mr.. Mccarthy winds
no his pretty tale. 1t is not at all a convincing
yilIon that is presented 10 us in these pages,
-oearded as a study OF character, but the
central figure in spirited narrative Mr.. Me
cartby's substitute does very we'll Needles
and pins is a clever bit of summer fiction
NOTICES IN AMERICA AND EUROPE.
Corresnondence of Notes and Queries"
With reference to the curt notices instanced
nv Mr. HENS from America, the Swiss seem 10
nave adonted the American system In transiat-
ing into English American some of the no.
tees 10 be seen al railway stations and else
where Thus the notice begging people not TO
spit on the floor is to be seen in French, German,
Italian and English in all tramcars. railway car
riages etc The notice in the first three lam
guages IS couched in the most courteous terms:
You are particularly requested TO be SO good as
TO abstain from splitting on the floor The Eng
ala, an, American translation runs as follows: