Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-04

Jcrrold.
C INCE Hichens succeeded in trans
ferring the Sahara into a land of
~ romance American writer's. In in
creasing numbers, are turning their at
tenIion to sketehy tales of our own
great desert and its picturesque char
acters. The big novel of the American
waste places has not yet come, but
we have instead short stories, tense
with interest and distinct in character.
Idah Meacham Strobridge, Los An
geles writer, recently has published a
volume of these desert tales under the
title of 1.-THE Loom of the Desert. The
book is most artistic in appearance, for
Mrs. Strobridge is an adept in book
bindery, and the tales themselves viii
appeal with potent charm to men and
women who have felt the lure OF the
sand and the alkali.
Mrs. Strobridge's tales are staged in
what she calls the land of silence, space
and the great Winds" The undercur-
rent of sadness and sin, noticeable in
many of the stories, accords we'll with
the dreariness of the great gray waste
whence the warp and the woof or the
literary fabric was drawn,
Two of the strongest and most vivid
of the tales are THE Revolt of Martha
Scott" and "An Old Squaw," the latter
an exceptionally fine pen portrait.
The Loom of the Desert. BY Idah
Meacham Strobridge; Los Angeles, the
Baumgardt Publishing company.
When he wrote adams Clay" Cos
mo Hamilton took as his text certain
lines of Kipling's vampire" Naturally,
therefore. it follows that his story is
an unpleasant one. That it is Well
written and presented in so attractive
guise that it's nauseous dose is half
swallowed before its bitter taste is
perceived, is merely due to the au-
thor's fine sense of dramatic situa-
tions and to his marked excellence of
style. 1t is unfortunate, however, that
writer of such ability should have
found no better subject for his pen
than this tale of degenerate men and
women.
The novel in shorter form was pub
lished some time ago in a magazine,
but the more complete tale, instead
of redeeming any of the characters,
merely emphasizes still stronger their
gift for treachery and deception. The
only figure in the tale at all worth
knowing is the trusting young farmer
who is used as a target for her prac-
ticad coquetry by the woman whose
These letters. which purport to give
an account of the writer's various
conquests, are often suggestive and
are always indelicate; though it may
well be that they provide an accurate
picture of the woman's character.
Adams Clay" BY Cosmo Hamil-
ton; New York, Brentano's.
Margaret" by II. Rider Haggard, is
e a OF Of a1x
ture, but in place of "She" and her
worshipers. and in place of mythical
country situated somewhere in the
heart of unmapped Africa, the reade4
IS introduced to English men and maids
T. the days of Henry VII. Spain and
the inquisition, the conflict between
Christian and Jew, abduction, ship
wreck and auto da fe. Like all of
Haggard's romances, the action of the
tale moves briskly and the interest of
the reader is unflagging from first to
last.
Margaret BY II. Rider Haggard.
New York: Harper & Bros.
Perhaps it's the soil; perhaps it's the
air. but at all events Indiana has pro-
Guced more successful authors than
any one state. First it was Charles
Maj0r with his When Knighthood
Was in Flower" then Booth Tarlxing-
ton with his Monsieur Beaucair." This
was followed with Meredith Nicholson
and his House of a Thousand Can
dies" and now comes Edward Sails
bury Field with his six Cylinder
Courtship.'
Mr.. Field was born in Indianapolis;
he was raised there; he went to school
there. He has Travelled all over Eu-
rope in a big six-cylinder car, and 1t
was while spending last spring on the
Riviera in company with his cousin,
Lloyd Osborne, that he laid the plot
CT his six Cylinder Courtship." His
story sparkles. bubbles and effervesces
with the joy of living. The person who
can read two pages of a six Cylinder
Courtship" without being carried alone
with the sweep of the story needs ]
liver regulator.
A Six Cylinder Courtship. BY EG-
ward Salisbury Field.