The Washington herald., 1913-10-12

home State from the rapacious rail-
road crowd, the kidnapping of Blount
when he recklessly leaves the over
land" after a slight accident, by tim
Der thieves, who take him to be a gov
ernment forestry inspector, and his
reaching home Unexpectedly are very
pleasing descriptions.
THE THIRTEENTH JUROR. By Frederick
TreTOr Hill New York-The Century Company.
Frederick Trevor Hills THE Thir-
teenth Juror" on its very face, is the
story of the case OF the Farm Supply
Company against Gedney, or of the Trust
against the independent manufacturer.
In point and effect it is the story of
such law delays" and juggling as a
rich and resOurceful party can employ for
the purpose of wearing out a weaker op-
ponent. The author does not tell his
story in argumentative phrases. He pic
lures the court, the lawyers. and the
proceedings, tells the day-by-day incl
dents OF the trial, follows the attendant
throng OF cOunsellors. witnesses, and
others to their hotel and reports their
daily chatter between sessions.
The story has the strength. the aspect
and the interest of a real life instance.
Its combination of values should secure
for il a wide reading. and it may well in
circle of appreciative readers, but II is
not nearly SO large as the merits of his
stories of the practice and perversion Of
the law of the land require. His pur
pose it to touch the possible interest OF
every citizen; he is a capital story teller.
The way of a large interest to crush a
small concern by preventing its just
cause from coming to trial was dealt
with in Mr.. Hills former work THE
plce" he presented a striking instance
of a criminal case, as seen from the
jury box; and now in THE Thirteenth
Juror" he exposes the connection between
politics and the bench. Read this book:
it will add considerably to your stock of
information, and perhaps, II you are
conscientious, you may do some hard
thinking. And while reading you will
make the acquaintance of shrewd poll
tician of the right sort, the proprietor
Of the Reeve House, Pete" Reeve, in a
county seat, and of a judge who is
placed between two fires in the matter
Of his anxiety TO secure a denomination.
but who is not the fool his court clerk
believes him to be.
But, above all. Mr.. Hill has written an
up-to-date novel with never a woman in
ii. Mark that,
HIS GREAT ADVENTURE BY Robert Herrck.
New Yurk-The Macmillan Company.
This novel contains no traces OF the
Herrick, whose reputation has been made
as an analyst of human character 1t
is a narrative Of events that have never
happened and that never could happen
1t is all artifce and il reveals the painful
efforts of its writer to create something
in fiction that is out of his sphere No
obstacle is encountered by Mr.. Herrick
in pIunging into this story. Its action
moves swiftly and its facility and rapid
iIy reveal the hand Of an experienced
novelist.
\ needy playwright is wandering de
spondently through the streets of New
York: His thin, sallOw face was un-
shaven. and his eyes were trimmed by
round steel spectacles that gave him an
almost owlsh expression. An air OF de-
lection hung about him as he loitered
by the curb. not the imaginative express
sion Of youth soon to float before the
sun of life, but rather the settled gloom