Evening star., 1912-11-16

| their way into the wilderness and have
many strange adventures. emerging un-
scathed and with such credit that Ken
| is promised a trip to Yucatan and later
| to Africa Readers of prior Ken Ward
books will welcome this temperance of
| their favorite.
THE NET. BY Rex Beach. author of
The Spoilers, etc. New York:
| Harper & Bros.
| In his latest book Rex Beach, dscov-
erer of the fiction possibilities of the
Yukon gold fields. harks back into COM
paratiyely ancient history for his plot.
| The myterious. murderous work of the
Sclian Malta. both in its own island
country. is the framework upon which
/. Mr.. Beach has built this tale of killing,
kidnapping and lynching, and the climax
/ is furnished by the episode at New
Orleans more than twenty years ago,
when an orderly, well organized mob OF
1.-The most prominent and influential citi-
| zens'' took eleven Italians out of Jail and
strung them up. afterward riddling the
bod es with bullets.
| The tale is not a pleasant one. al
though one cannot deny the intense in
terest of the story. Further. one can
| not help recalling the fact that the "epi-
sode'' furnishing the storys climax al
| most brought on war, and that the
United States government is not yet
| through paying for the work of that New
Orleans assembly of prominent citizens.
| A love story. of the incomprehensible.
| tense, tragic Italian sort. runs through
the narrative. only reaching its happy
| finale in the closing chapter. And Nor
story, is as obtusely Anglo-Saxon as any
| body could ask.
The Net is an interesting even if un-
pleasant tale: but one feels, while read
| ing it, that Mr.. Beach did much better
| with his Alaskan and far northwest stage
| settings.
HIRAM BLAIR. BY Drew Tufts. IL
! Illustrated by II. s. De Lay. Chicago:
| A. c. McClurg & Co.
This book is a campaign document with
state politics in Indiana for it's theme
Hiram Blair, sheriff and politician, un.
dertakes to defeat Hinckley, a democrat
ic candidate for Congress, to oblige a
| friend, Walter Crane. who wants an
other man elected. Crane, a young law.
yer with no personal interest in the polt-
| ical situation, is induced by his fiancee
| to enter the fight, because 1.-The arrogance
of those Hinckley girls since their father
has gone to Washington is intolerable
and 1 can't endure it 1t is not a lofty
| incentive, but the human nature of 1t Is
| in keeping with the average shallow
cause that results in stupendous effect
| Sam Houston. with no aspirations be-
yond his farm, is fairly kidnapped from
obscurity and put in the race. In the
middle OF a campaign which Is fight
| from start to finish. the fiancee regrets
her unworthy demand on Crane and tells
| him to withdraw. Having enlisted Blair's
support and spent Houston's money or
'foaters' and other political mysteries
| Crane refuses to desert. and the result
is lovers quarrel that ends with the
last chapter The romance has another
cross-current, but the book Is so domi.
mated by politics that not until the con.
| test is over with the best man victorious
does young Dan come into his own.
TAME ANIMALS HAVE KNOWN,
With Apologies to Such Wild
Animals ms May Feel Aggrieved by
Comparison. BY William J. hampton.
| New York: The Neale Publishing
| Company.
| ". j. hampton, known variously as Col
hampton and Judge Lampton-and beine
quite as much entitled to one designation
as the other, having never served on the
bench or in a military organization-has
gladdened the world with another book
Every time Judge-or Col.-Lamptor
writes book the world must needs be-
gin to chuckle and grin and laugh loudly
For Color Judge hampton is one
of those peculiarly gifted people who
never touch pen to paper without pro-
| ducing a result rich in humor. He is
known chiefly by his occasional verses.
but he is also a prose writer as Well and
| this latest book is in the latter medium.
| 1t is natural history treatise. dealing
with a dozen more or less familiar types
under the following titles: "Algernon. an
ASS: Mary. a Dove; Reuben Lamb; Bes-
sic. a Bird: Ezra. d Shark: Araminta, a
Spring Chicken; Hiram, Hog: Maria, a
Cat: Simon. an Ornithorhyncu Hester, a
Mlitantrum; HeZekiah. Lobster, Eliza.
Goose" Further description of the
work is unnecessary. for it sufflces to
know that Color Judge-Lampton
has written it to make it most welcome.
THE WOMEN OF THE DEBATABLE
LAND. BY Alexander Hunter, au-
thor of THE Old National etc.
Illustrated by Miss Elizabeth c.
Harmon. Washington: Golden Pub
fishing Company.
What Mr.. Hunter here styles the de
batable land was otherwise known as
Mosbys Confederacy, being the area
within which that intrepid guerrilla and
his band chiefly operated. 1t comprises
the four Virginia counties of Fairfax,
Prince William. Culpeper and F'auquier.
OF the women of these counties Mr. Hun
n Nm 81 1MON0(