Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-08-13
NOTES


When Harold MacGrath the we'll
known novelist, went abroad last year
he made a Decline for his beloved
Paris He was standing one day by the
famous cooked hat OF Napoleon In the
Loucrc, with hero-worship evident on
his face a young man approach ed
him. and in voluable French struck up
q conversation about the emperor. The
two enthusiasts waXed eloquent. Elo-
euence led to confidence The young
man at last poured out a claim to be
himself the great grandson OF Ma
poleon! Oh yes, a barsinister of course
pretty peasant girl OF Bavaria
was the mother Of this left-handed line
Of which he was the last. Napoleon
he said. granted a baronetcy, a parcel
q land and a purse to his BaVarian
son In 1913. Then Waterloo came. and
with IL vanished the empire, the
oaronetcy was wiped out. For years
the matter was forgotten. The docu-
ments In the case. the letters Of patent
the deeds ana titles TO the land, and
the single Napoleonic scrawl gathered
dust in loft. Then, after three gem
eraiions he, the last OF the race. in
clearing up the salable things in his
house. had stumbled on the scant but
thrilling history OF his forebears
This was but the beginning Of his
talk 10 MacGrath. Coherent up TO this
point his words thereafter became
wilder and wilder. as he uttered his
dreams Of recovering the imperial glory
and breathed revolution into the au-
,hors astonlshed ears. Long before
Jhis Of course. MacGrath had led him
cut Of the Louvre and into a park Tx
Cted. bewildered. doubtful whether mis-
f..es
OF unatich or the real thing, at length
MacGrath parted from this Napoleon
~ who promised to meet him the next
day at his hotel. with the proofs and
the papers.
But the man never showed up Mac
Graih tried to find him, but in vain. He
never heard OF him again. The Amer
lean romancer felt that the joke--and
the drnks-werc on him.
But now MacGrath has evened up
the score. He has made his extraord-
mary friend OF an hour the hero OF
romance destined, no doubt. like all the
MacGrath books. to he a "best-seller."
The great grandson Of Napoleon fig
ures in "A Splendid Hazard, Do figures as
a man Of force ana brillianCy, little
Insane over the matter Of his birth and
fired with mad hope Of recovering the
imperial power
Do you remember the Napoleon craze
OF few years back-the craze that
gave us Cpzcns of plays about the EN-
pre- such as "L'Aiglon" and MADAME
sans Gene" and dozens of stories such
as 'Brigadier Gerard" and when
Falmond Came to Pontiac ?" DO you
remember how Il was thought they
mad exhausted the last possibilities OF
romance in the Great Shadow OF the
Little Corporal2
Wei Harold MacGrath comes along
with "A Splendid Hazard to show
mat 80 far from being exhausted the
sainour OF the great name may be
'ast as alurinEly as ever about tale
adventure and romance.
Louvre.
,Ieorge Randolph Chester has not the
esunctlon OF being a Hoosicr author,
w ne comes close TO il. That b. to
1S! h. lived for time at Connersville,
nooslerana, and married a, Corners
,Ne girl Further. IL was during his
aehce in the state Of pawpaws and
80 that he wrote his great story,
ne strike Breaker" which brought
I'm INTO special. prominence IN the feld
VI notion. Since then he has had more
stories. long and short, printed in the
.sn-ClaSs magazines than any other
american writer.
hr Chester got his training on
newspaper He was the most remark
~e" reporter t..at the Cincinnati En-
Ssiier ever had on its stan. He could
,,u.Ne FIRST page column Of intense
interest out OF anything No matter
ahat me assignment. Chester produced
we scoop And in the midst of fast