The Republican journal., 1912-10-24
Some New Books.
A WONDER. WORKING HERO.

A WONDER WORKING HERO.
What an alert, clever and ambitious
and isolated country when backed by
the energies of a resourceful mind and
the imagination of George Randolph
Chester, cannot be fully comprehended
until one has read 1.-The Jingo," Mr..
Chester's newest book. "Get Rich Quick
Wallingford, whose prosperous exist
ence is due to Mr.. Chester, has no ad-
vantage of the woodworking hero of
1.-The Jingo." This irrepress BILE young
man finds himself, through the unhappy
medium of shipwreck, among a new
people-the inhabitants of one Of those
islands that have their place in fiction
but not in an atlas. However. this
busy young individual begins to Ameri-
canize customs and people with rapid
ity that is irresistible. The speed by
which changes are accomplished and
the National speech is made to include
American slang creates more mirth than
may easily be described. 1.-The lingo"
is one of those books that keep you con-
tinuously laughing and reading from pre-
face to fms. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-
Merrill Company.
PLOT LAID IN KLONDIKE.
Jack London gives to the readers OF
''Smoke Bellew" a remarkably virie
story of the adventures of young man
in the Klondike. 1t deals with the de-
yelopment of character which follows
the young mans entrance to that region
under unusual circumstances. "Smoke
Bellew'' has never been prepared for
such an experience and because of an
indulgent mother, whose fondness for
her son made him less vigorous and man.
ly in habits and manners at least, seems
at first untitled for the hardy life or
wild country. Indeed, Bellew is busy at
work for newspaper performing ''in-
side" work, as it is called, and without,
to all intents and purposes. desire for
the hardships of the frozen North. When
his uncle, whose confidence in his nephew
is none too great, proposes the trip to
the Klondike he finds the latter most Ell
thusiastic and eager for the journey.
They start Immediately and from that
moment forward there comes to the young
man series of the most thrilling hap
penings, all of which enables him to find
himself and give life a new meaning.
He becomes known for his courage and
with partner named Shorty exc
cutes many feats of daring. The love
interest, too, is powerful and is typical
of the Klondike, where real comrade-
ship and seif-sacrifce are the qualities
of which true affection is born. Jack
London's ability to draw vivid pictures
of that wonderful country aud his skill
to depict characters that actually 1--we
are widely known and here they are
exemplified most absorbingly. "Smoke
Bellew' is real book of adventure.
New York: The Century Company.
THE DESTROYING ANGEL"
Although Louis Joseph Vance in his
latest book, THE Destroying Angel
has abandoned the mystic "B. B. com.
bination that characterized the titles OF
its predecessors, he has not abandoned
that combination of plotting and love,
Of wild adventure in matter of-fact set.
tings, that made so widely popular ''The
Bandbox," 1.-The Brass Bowl" and the
Test.
There are really two parts to the new
story, with an interval of several years
between them. Hugh Whitaker, pro s.
porous young New York lawyer, is told
that because of hopeless malady he
has but six months to live. With this
news comes jilting from the girl he
loved, and Whitaker runs off to coun-
try town hotel to commit suicide. There,
however, he meets Mary Ladislas, de.
serted by the man with whom she had
eloped, and in a spirit of quixoticism,
believing himself so soon to die, he
marries her. Then, abandoning thought
of suicide, he goes away from America.
A near miracle cures him, while an acct
dent makes it appear that he has been
lost at sea. When, therefore, at the
end of several years he returns to New
York, rich and prosperous, it is like the
return of ghost.
What happened thereafter it would be
unfair to the author to tell, but all who
know Mr.. Vance must be aware that
plenty of things do happen, and of the
most unexpected nature.
1t is not Whitaker who is fthe ode
stroying angel" though the wreck he
makes of certain plans and plottings
would render the title not inappropriate.
Rather was it his mission to end the
"angeps" career of destruction, and he
who will know how Whitaker accom-
plished it must read one of the most ex-
citing, absorbing books of the year
Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
McCUTCHEON AT HIS BEST.
Is there any book more satisfying ir
the end than one which leaves the reader
overjoyed with the outcome, but dis
mayed by the vagueness and almost in
completeness into which the author al.
lows 1t to fade away? Does not every
one love a book which, when all is said
and done, still leaves space in the read.
er's mind to be filled by his musings and
meditations?
That, at least, may be said of George
Barr McCutcheon's Hollow of Hel
Hand, p" which has just been published in
book form, after successful serial run,
for at the end the reader is left ample
food for thought. But that is not all.
1t has been said by some that this book
is greater one than "Graustark" OF
any other of McCutcheon's previous
novels.
Surely this author never before Great
ed so many remarkable types at once
and threaded their way unerringly
through a plot of such puzzling intri-
cacy. Here is plot in which events are
subordinate to character rulings, and, in
fact, determined by them to some de-
gree.
1t is Sin the hollow of her hand" that
Sara Wrandall, wife of the murdered
Challis Wrandall, faithless husband,
holds the whole snobbish Wrandall fam
lily and the fate of a very beautiful, low
able girl, the murderess, whom she
,pootc hU ohapGa and protaofe -, -.