The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1909-04-07
IN
THE CHRYSAL|S
ARE FROM the INLAND EMPIRE
Stirring Novel by Harold Kramer
Deals in Friendly Way With East
crn Washington.

Several towns in the Inland Empire
furnish the leading characters and
the locale for the principal scenes of
old NJ. Kramer, editor of The Times az
Frankfort, Ind, who passed several
years as newspaper writer in eastern
Washington in the early COS. The
author deals with situations of the
strongest emotions and passions that
humanity can know in convincing
way, holding the interest to the last
word of che 400-odd pages. This is
the first recognition of the Spokane
country in literature. and it is pre-
dicted by the publishers. Lothrop. Lee
&c Shepard Company. Boston, that the
story will be dramatized for the stage,
to be presented early in the season of
1909-10.
Mr.. Kramer deals with the Inland
Empire in friendly way. These are
the words in which he gives his mi
tial sketch of Spokane:
Lying at the northern edge of the
'Palouse country as every son of
Washington styles it, and close to
where the Occur d'Alenes lift them
selves in rugged grandeur. Spokane
draws tribute from hundreds of sur
rounding miles of that inland Empire.
The marvel of the great Northwest
that Marcus Whitman saved for the
United States of America by q ride
of 1000 miles to Washington, Spo-
kane boasts of most of the wonders
and delights of the com mercial centers
Of the east, with few of their grimy
sorrows. and no city Of this continent
is more pictuesQuely framed by nature.
'Thirty-iiVc miles away Lake Occur
q Alenc has for it's outlet the Spokane
river and through all these miles. be-
tween rocky walls the river rushes on
NTH everincreasing force until with Il
mighty roar it ilings itself in marvel
Gus cataracts over stony precipices in
the very heart of the city, and the
voice of the falls is the voice of in
dustry, a voice whose power is ex-
celled in America by Niagara alone.
Hundreds Of miles to the westward
the beacons of Seattle and Tacoma
send their lights far out through the
mists of Puget sound and ships follow
the seas highways from remote COR
ncrs of the globe to their doclls;i and,
too, close beside this sunset sea Olym-
pia proclaims to the world that it is
the capital, that here statesmen as
scmblc'to enact the laws and appropri-
ate from the states treasury.
But, Notwithstanding the truthful
ness of all this, it is in Spokane that
the politicians foregathcr to smile and
smile-and grip the threats of their
antagonists. 1t is in Spokane, with
the breath of the tlowcr-splashed Pa
louise valley sweeping across her
troubled breast and with the eye of
natures god looking down upon her
from the Occur GnAlenes' grim watch
towers. that dcstinies are made and
unmadc and revealed later in Olym-
pia on the sound"
The story opens with Yale-Har-
ward foot ball game and moves quick
y to Spokane. the action taking place
five years afterWard III the Palouse and
Big Bend districts. II is a present day
romance of the Northwest, a drama
of lives and hearts OF people in whose
veins red blood flows. 1t tells of Sch
Layton, young lawyer in Spokane.
whose life has been embittcred BY
events which occurred several years
prior To the opening of the story, and
how he was brought from his get-whAt
acknowledgements life to better
things by the strength of charac ter of
Tess Barr, who came from nowhere.
Tess gives the keynote to the story
when she says to Layton:
"a chrysalis is an ugly thing. but it
contains possibilities thai are beautiful.
Maybe your heart has been Il chrysa-
lis"
Gradually the change Is brought
about until Layton. turning his back on
the years of longing for revenge on
Warren Nelson, Il banker and finan-
cier in Spokane. who caused the elder
Layton 10 commit suicide. harkens ia
the voice of his conscience and saves
the bank from ruin. The run on the
financial institution. called the Falls
City bank, was brought about by a