The Washington herald., 1912-10-27
By A. D. JACOBSON.

~ A. d. jacobson.
The City that waA" niuantsd. ms Dohs
Merrill Company, indianapolis Pnce. NN
There have been many mystery stories
published within the last yen years
The Red Button" 10 also q mystery
story. but 1t may safely be said that Mr.
Irwin is the first to make his chief char.
acter, his leading detective. a woman
But Mr.. Irwin does things differently
and in Rosalie La Grange, as she ID
known from her early days as a medium,
he has a real creation.
Large, handsome, or rather comely.
having gained rather than lost by her
forty-odd years, with the shrewdness OF
trained attorney. q natural love for
adventure and romance. the instincts Of
a lady and the grammar of that part OF
New York which has a grammar all its
own, and, above all, with heart to
match her hand. Rosaiie is extraordinar-
lily magnetic. She may be described az
one Of natures noble women. q rough
less for its roughness.
Novelty of character and intimacy of
expression add much to the pleasure the
reader derives from this story. 1t Is a
story without a villain. despite the fact
that IL is a murder story: for the only
unpleasant character in the cast is Capt.
Hanska, the man who Is killed. On the
contrary, he is thrown with a very pleas
ant group Of people.
Mr.. Irwin Is a final authority on the
charlatanism of mediums, fortune tellers.
and other of like ilk. and many Of the
interesting discoveries he made during
his years OF research along these lines
are here set forth for the entertainment
of his readers.
THE cABUsAc MYSTERY: BY x. and He.keth
Prichard. Color fruntispiece. Stursis Walton
Company, New York Price. SIS
The motive of this story Of London and
Paris lies In a sons desire to clear the
memory of his murdered father from the
charge of selling diplomatic secrets to
foreign political agents and to discover
the murderer and bring him to justice.
In it the acquaintance Is made of a
group of diplomats and others whose
vivid and interesting personalities make
them well worth the meeting. The heros
love for one of the charming group Of
women to whom the reader is introduced
and the difficulties in the way Of his
winning her play an important part in
the novel,
RUSSIAN WONDER TALES: By Post Wheeler.
former secretary Of the United States Embassy
at st. Petersburg. The Century Company. New
York Price. $50
This handsome volume opens to Eng
lish readers a new story of folk lore The
Russian skazki (skazatz-to telD are the
mass of folk tales distributed widely
throughout all the Russias. Handed
down by constant repetition from genera
tion to generation. a possession common
to peasants hut and princes palace
from a time when history did not exist,
they are to-day. from Archangel to the
Black Sea, and from Siberia to the
Baltic, almost as much a part of the life
of the people as the language itself.
Their adventures are linked to a hun
dred phrases in common parlance; their
heroes peer from every page of Slavonic
literature, and the deliver in historic
debris finds each stratum sown thick
with skazka shards to the very bedrock
Of legend.
There are, perhaps. no wonder tales
alive to-day as fascinating as these.
Romance and adventure go hand in hand
all set forth with that touch OF magic
which makes such old tales as these ever
young. -7~"'-
MRS LANCELOT: By M,urice Hewlett author Of
The Forest Lorers" With eight illustrations
The Century Company. New York. Price. SIS.
This is a story in Hewlett's character
istic style of the love of three men for
the beautiful Mrs. Lancelot, a pale queen
of the London social world in the
Georgian period. The dramatis personae
are Charles Lancelot. a complacent and
imperturbable gentleman: the Duke of
Devices. himself the great man of af-
fairs, who has been ''the duke among
dukes. formerly he was .the mar
Quis' among marquises: Gervaise Poore.
a luscious and perfervid young poet. and
Georgianna Strangways, Of the hyacin-
thine eyes-dangerous eyes when kindled.
The curiously interviewer story of
these four hearts, the high romance of
the ending are set down by a hand that
is a master at romance. and the readers
attention is held by the fascination Of
the beautiful woman who moves through
the pages.
WHY GO To CoLLEGEs By Clayton sedsvick
Cooper anthor Of College Men and the Bible"
The Century Company. Nov York. Price. H.5
sane. convincing. suggestive discus
sion of the American college man and
the American college problems Of to-
day. Mr.. Cooper spent ten years travel
ing among American college men and
many months visiting the leading educa-
tional institutions OF Europe and the
East before entering upon the writing of
this book, and 1t is his strong conviction
that the chief need of our North Ameri !
can educational system is to focus at
tention upon the individual student,
rather than upon his environment, |
either in the curriculum or in the COL !
lege buildings.
No writer for many years has written |
with such understanding and helpfulness |
of the college student as he has, and |
the book is not only interesting and stim-
ulating reading; 1t is a notable contribu-
tion toward the solution of the problem /
of preparing the young men OF our ma
tion for leadership and useful citizen
ship.
THE DRIFTING DIAMoND: By Lincoln Colcord. |
Published by the Macmillan Company, New
York.
Mystery and adventure are blended In |
Lincoln Colcord's first novel, THE Drift
ing Diamond" which is published this
week. In many ways the story is sug-
gestive of the sea tales Of Joseph Con-
rad. Vigorous untamed, carrying the
reader along in the sweep Of its narra-
tive, marked by many an evidence Of anil
OF life on the ocean, all
of which one finds in Conrad's books,
there is also that in the style Of writing
which indicates that Mr.. Colcord has
come under the older authors SPELL The
Of the real with the mythi-
cal has often been attempted by authors,
but never with such amazing results as
Mr.. Colcord produces in this novel
THE Drifting Diamond Is a short
story, easy to read. It's action is not
by unnecessary details 1t il