The San Francisco call., 1910-01-09
"The Land of Purple Shadows"


BY Idah Meacham Strobridge, author Of ''The
Loom Of the Desert" etc. Published at the
Artemisia bindery. Los Angeles. Price s1.75.
Readers who have been fortunate
enough to see In Miners Mirage
Land" and THE Loom of the Desert"
wiz need no hint to read the new
volume from the same pen. The stories
in the first two books were almost all
about the Nevada desert and the books
positively smened' of the sagebrush.
Mrs. Strobridge was eminently fitted
TO write those stories of the desert. for
she had spent many years among the
miners and ranchers and the Indians
and Chinese. and all of them seemed
20 oonfide the secrets of their inner
most souls to her.
In her latest book, The Land of
Purple Shadows" Mrs Strobridge has
without doubt done her most finished
work. One feels that she has been
educating her readers in the other two
books-teaching them all about the
complished. she dwells more upon it's
lure and mystery and does not try to
interest them fn the mere tales she
has to tell.
The first sketch. In Quiet Can
yons." is a fine piece of word painting,
and quite the best thing this author
has produced. Should there ever be a
collection of western classics this tale
belongs among them. for it is the
spirit of California. In it the author
gives US little vignettes of the quiet
canyons on both sides of the noun
tains, lying so near the busy cities
that they can be reached in a short
ride and yet So far from the noise, the
hustle and haste of civilization that
one might almost be i'm another world.
To quote
The coral red upon that bush which
catches on your clothing as you ride
by is the seed buds of wild sweet
brier which earlier in the year made
the creek banks lovely with a mass of
pink and fragrant bloom Rose bushes
and the bushes of the wild gooseberry
are turning red and yellow as New
England's autumn woods"
Is any picture of California COM
plete without the birds?
And the birds! They are every
where. Go where you will in these
canyons. the birds are there. Though
the trail of fire has passed through
here. yet a meadow lark flies away as
YOU approach and you catch the CLINT
Of yellow on his breast. You frighten
little Paiute squirrels and a hare by
your tread. There are caves in the
limestone cliffs where impudent wood
rats build their nests"
The silence of the woods is perfectly
pictured in this:
Down the canyon you ride and come
upon a grove of aspens, where there is
always a whispering sound going
through their shivering leaves as they
stand in the midst of the circlng ST.
lence. It is not the soughing of the
wind as you have heard It through the
trees in pine forest, but a gossiping,
whispering little wind which says
Things of you-not to you-as you pass
by"
Every chapter is interesting and none
viii be skipped. Several OF them
clamor for quotation in their entirety,
notably Under the Campanerio," which
out by Mission Dolores. One chapter
entitled Hawks" is as fierce as it's
name and contains many different views
OF the lonely denizens OF the mountains.
Another, one Day at Pachecos," is an
echo from pioneer days, and the great
est stage driver OF western history is
told OF in In the Days of Hank Monk"
'Subduing a Little Savage" tells the
history of a Piute Indian who was
brought up In the authors own family.
But he wandered away when he grew
up. for he fell under the influence Of
the vices Of the white man and all their
training went for naught.
No review of Mrs. Strobridges book
is complete without reference to her
bindery. Some years ago she left Ne
vada and established herself in the
suburbs of Los Angeles, where she has
opened the Artemisia bookbindery.
Here she does her writing and also
much Of the work of binding with her
own hands. The work is extremely ar
tistic but practical withal. She has
not made the mistake so many have In
her line of work. of going 10 extremes.
The printing and binding are excellent
and the present book is illustrated by
Maynard Dixon most satisfactorily. The
books. the work and the author de-
serve praise and commepdation un-
stinted.