Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-26

generally, they say: "Given good roads
and fine weather. it is the ideal pleasure
vehicle of the present day. It combines
the practical with the picturesque, 1t is a
compromise between the stage coach and
the train" The book has a double value
in that to it's descriptive excellence is
added schedule-like detail which should
be of advantage to other motorists who
contemplate similar journey over RIB
bon Roads,"
COTTAGE PIE; A Country Spread. BY
A. Neil Lyons. New York: John Lane
Company.
There is no frontispiece portrait to
go by" but every page Of the book
gives assurance that its author must be
quantity humorous soul to be able to
write such quantity humorous sketches.
To these ingredients in the making of
his Cottage Pie must also be added the
sweetness of wholesome philosophy and a
gentle condoning of all shortcomings,
even though the offenders be the gar
dener who is his outdoor tyrant and the
home ruler whom he likes to call my
Mrs. PETIT According to the despotic
Mr. Tracy. the hero lives in q little old
ruin in Sludge lane." but the reader
knows better. 1t is a very pretty cot
tage with vines and a garden. And there
side, to show the owners faith In his fel-
low MAINLAND the gate opens on lane
that must be lovely, because 1t is an Eng
Hsh lane. and the time is summer
Each chapter is separate bit or
story woven around the type 1t describes.
Sometimes the type Is caught in the lane;
sometimes it hangs over the gate ana
sometimes, again, it enters the ccttase
and takes tea. Once it stole rose from
the tub outside the gate, and-out that
,1,n$ lnr
THE LITTLE kINGs 4 Story Of the
Childhood Of Louis XIV, King OF
France. BY Charles Major. author OF
etc. New York: The Macmillan
Company Washington: Brentano S
This book of childhood adventures has
for it's hero the royal boy whom his
tory calls the Grand Monarch of France.
The story begins with a Christmas
day escape from the dull ceremonies
Of the palace. when. with his nurse
Sweet Mam'selle," the little king slips
into the streets Of Paris. and, for the
first time in his court-starVed me-
meets another child, who treats him as
if he were an ordinary boy OF the
people. This secret outing. which re-
suits in both dangers and delights, en-
ables the little king to rescue an In
nocent man from prison, to save poor
woman from want and to DO otner
beautiful things to show that. no mat
ter how historians may differ as to the
character of Louis XIV as a ruler,
there was no doubt about his kindness
as boy.
The story of the little kings Christ
mas makes the book especially ap.
propriate as a Christmas gift. the text
having for additional attractions beau
tifully colored pictures and a blue
binding Powered with the lilies or
France.
"REMINISCENCES OF 4 RANCHMAN
BY Edgar Beecher Bronson. author
OF "In Closed Territory. the Reo
Blooded" Chicago: A. c.; McClurs
& CO.
This writer of virile stories Of outdoor
life. of men with iron in their blood Oh
courage and endurance and all masculine
virtues. has given us another breezy de-
lightful book This time it is series or
stories Of frontier life in the old days.
Even though the reader know nothing
of the western life. he cannot help feel
ing that the characters are real, and that'
indeed, the story is a personal experience
of how one physically weak man regained
health in the rough environment. Mr..
Bronson takes his reader "out across the
rolling yellow pillows of the plains,
through the profound silences of burning
deserts, whose colors would fire the art
lists brain to frenzy, up into the mag
niticent uplifts of the Sierras. with their
singing brooks and roaring torrents, their
majestic redwoods and fragrant pines
their smiling, flowery glades and sinister
bald submits, their warm. sheltered hooks
and grim. pitiless glaeiers-out beyond
,nr,fc U-ha
rain himself man must confront the raw
forces of animate and inanimate nature.
He tells Of the peculiar western types
Of the Indians giving up their lands 70
the white invaders, Of the missions ano
of the gradual claiming of the territory