Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-06
~ BIBLE REVISIONS AZ LITERATURE
STORY of the Last Frontier.

1f0fs W last n AbnaEAs
A brief synopsis OF this story will
not be amiss. The scene Is laid in
the FAR Canadian Northwest. a land
that is drawing SO many settlers
from the United States. lured by its
still virgin prairie. where the finest
wheat in the world can be grown,
that the migration has become a ma
tional problem. To save the reputs-
ton of q scapegrace friend, Jack
Prescott impersonates Cyril JernynE-
ham to the latteras visitors. Jernyng-
ham disappears and the evidence
points strongly to murder and TO
Prescott as his murderer. Watched
by the police and confronted by the
family Of the missing man, Jack 3
only chance to clear himself lies in
producing bis supposed victim. He,
therefore. eludes those watching him
and makes an adventurous journey
to the northern wilderness, following
the trail from one mountain range
to another-now in a little railroad
camp. now In miners tent high
upon the snow peaks. now in belt
of timber that stretches down TO
the creek Of gold. The courage and
faith of a beautiful girl heartens him
Oh MS long journey
But this brief synopsis can give
no idea Of the beauty of the story
or the wonderful picture of the
bonndless prairie that the author has
succeeded In representing In word-
painting. Homer, in one of his
endless celebrations of his desc-ip-
tive phrases, has called the ocean
many sounding. It would seem that
the phrase might well be applied To
the prairie. Those who have ridden
through its wastes on some starry
summers night, the bright sky above
and the dark earth beneath. sense
of boundess, illimita BILE space over
PIONEERING the mind and air of an
ineffable purity and sweetness fill
ing the lungs, will recall the strange,
mysterious hum pulsating in the air.
like a vast overtone, the waves
of sound receding toward a horizon
imagined, but never seen.
But this glamour of the prairie, this
endless space of quivering sound,
bears another message in the arctic
winter Of the northwest plain. The
sound is then of baleful, cracking
frost, of snow that returns an cleo
trio, ominous snap as one treads upon
it, of air scintillating with cutting,
steely particles that fill the lungs with
pain as one breathes them: of biz
yards, when the vault is one piti1ess,
white, falling cloud; the wind a
shrieking demon that appalls the
stoutest heart
1t is the remembrance of scenes and
sounds like these that stir the mag
nation as one reads Prescott, of Sas-
katehewan." In few novels of the
day have the natural phenomena
chosen by an author as the back
ground Of his tale been more wildly
painted, and the story itself. the plot
and the love episode are told with
grace and lifelike coloring. Among
| the characters in the book there is
none painted with more skill than
nyngham, who, when she comes in
contact with Jack Prescott, the virile,
| brave son of the last frontier for
| gets her prudish scruples. her devo-
| ton TO English society conventions,
and finally yields SO far to the call OF
nature that she not only loves, but
passionately desires the man. Alas.
| for the feminine nature. When she
| finds that Prescott loves Muriel, her
beautiful friend. her own love turns
| to hate.
The book deserves success and a
wide dissemination. 1t may be pre-
dicted that both will reward the au-
thor and the publishers.
.PRESCOTT OF SASKATCHEWAN,
by Harold Bindloss. author Of Winston
| of the Prairie etc. illustrated by w
| Herbert Dunston. Frederick A. Stokes
Company, New York, publishers. s1-3c
net.