The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-13
BOOKS WITH A WESTERN FLAVOR

lpliance. our as yet undisciplined folly. in sending to our state legislatures and To
 that general business office of ours at
 Washington, herd of mismanagers shat seem each year to grow more inefficient
 and contemptible. whether branded Tepub- 1 lcan or democrat" But how are we to
 do at home without this true, ideal Amer | iican? He has his hands full, and fills our
 hearts here. with business he can not be spared from; he is planting our home l fields, rearing our home stock, developing our home resources and our home indus tries, editing our papers, physicing our people, helping us to know and abide by
 our laws. The politician is often with
 that better man cannot be spared for. Much wisdom and virtue in the Mister preface if it be not the main cause and purpose of the book. So while revelling in the narrowing events brought about by accepting Gift Horse" or in the ac- count, true and youched for of how Scipio when Extra Dry" became high way robber, and how "Timberline' went back to the scene of a crime that was not his. and the rest of the stories of advan- ture. Do not neglect to read the preface.
 Yellowstone Nights by Herbert Quick.
 tDoDbS GhCIiii, lHoidhdPoiis.y
 Some good enough little tales were one
 not left with the feeling that the author
 is trying to bunco the reader all around.
 First we have the cinch that the William sons with initials) cannot keep wholly
 to themselves-it is a pity they cannot.
 Forewarned forearmed. For if the Will liamsons with initials) could get ont a patent on their idea of a novel the reader Icould know when he stood at a book stall and saw much advertised New Williamson with initials) that there was offered a tolerable guide book with an ntolerabe story intertwined. But now here is Herbert Quick, who has done bet ter things, working the same game on an lunsuspecting public. We have a; lot of geysers. Obsidian cliffs, Twin lakes, Roar ing mountains, ct cetera, and lot of tourists. Of the doings of these last sort of running tale without events Is
 made. And these tourists are made to
 tell in turn stories at the nightly camps 1 in the great park. Now isn't that several "unkindest cuts at once. guide book,
 a string of long stories, a tumble of short stories. All to be taken at once. More over the pages abound in things like this: "The tales are just as astonishing with out the leg-ends-"he asked me for good ness sake to stop till he got the cross- talk out of the receiver. said I'd be glad to dispense with all his cross talk.'' The hero of the long-story string and of several of the short tales is called "Billy He'll" since he is hard to put a pardon upon one who would make a pun like these There are few things to be en- |countered anywhere as snug as Billy's Introduction of himself. My nan,e's Hel-
 merston, and my people have been pretty well known for two or three hundred wears up in Vermont. where we live-in
 teaching, preaching. book writing, rural sort of way, you know. I'm Tech man Iclass of 'O6--but haven't anything to boast of on any score. I'm merely telling Iyou these things because there seems to be no one else to tell you" Billy might have mentioned among his assets a good bit of narrowly based conceit; but de- spite all, the precisan becomes the nero
 and wins the heroine. A volume of short
 stories Is a delightful thing, but unfor- tunately, say the publishers, not popuar so when they come to us they must come lmasquerading in all sorts of queer dis guises. When the disguises in this in-
 stance of guide book and long-strong-
 novel, are stripped off the short stories themselves are good enough reading
 l"In Her Own Right" by John Reed 1 Scott. U4ippincott, Philadelphia), s1.25 | The story opens in 8 city of the middle
 west. The hero, Croyden, loses all his
 fortune with the fall of brokerage house
 and moves to the east. The westerner usually comes east when his fortune is made. not lost; but q differeht course for
 the hero Of this stirring romance. In a