New-York tribune., 1919-07-19
By HeywooG Broun

Talbot Mundy has span an excellent
tale of adventure in The Ivory Trail"
(BobbS. MerrilN. Not cnlv has he
woven an exciting group Of incidents
together, but he mas painted colorful
background and put robust life into
some Of his characters. Georges Cout-
lass, tke staggering Greek. is a CAPT
tai creation. None OF the others is as
good as this, but all have more reality
than one is led to expect in a literary
melodrama. Although the book is
filled with hairbreath escapes from
lions and lcopards and crocodiics and
Germans there is nothing which taxes
the creduhty CT .he reader TO the
breaking point.
Much Of the book concerns condi-
tions in German East Africa before
the war and an exceedingly severe in
dictment is drawn against the Germans
for their treatment OF the natives.
Most of it carries ring of conviction
In some respects Mr. Mundy falls
short OF first class artistry. He knows
how to create better than he knows
how to cut. Sugges:-on plays but a
small part in his story telling system.
He does not seem to realize that a
more telling effect might be obtained
by description of the flogging of one
native than several accounts of the
flogging of many natives. There are
also times when we would prefer him
to use smaller number Of etrcncc
words drawn from the nativc dialects.
Footnotes seem out Of place in SO stir
ring a tale of adventure.
The book is a long one, but it holds
the interest In further tribute to the
story telling skill of Mr. Mundy it
should be stated that he is able to
crowd so much action into the volume
that not until the very end does the
reader suddenly remember that he has
gone through the entire All pages
without so much as 4 passing glance
at heroine. Mr.. Mundy has invented
only a vlllalnness and an assistant
vl!lalness and he has managed to make
"The Ivory Trail" spin along entirely
under the stimulus of those phases of
romance which have nothing to do with
love. This in itself is an achieve
ment.
Very little of Pearl Whites auto
biography. Just Ne" (Doran), strikes
US as being veracious. We find as
great difficulty in recognizing the touch
OF the author as we ever did in the
Autobiography of Jess Willard" The
language seems to us synthetic sort
OF slang without authenticity. If Miss
White actually penned or typed the
book herself she has done it under
the constant admonition of some one
to write just as you talk This is
no easy feat and is rarely achieved by
unframed writer's. 1t does not seem to
US that Miss White has succeeded.
We doubt whether even a moving pict-
ure star could be quite as breezy as the
heroine of this book.
Same Old Bill, Eh Mable." (Stokes)
which is the third OF E. Streeters
books, brings up the question in our
mind as to just how much of their
success is due to substance and how
much to form. In the present book we
find good deal of humorous observa-
tions of life in France from the point
Of view of a soldier. Not all of it is
brand new in conception, but it is often
bright and amusing for all that The
slang and the misspelling we find a
positive handicap. Bill thinks pretty
accurately as doughboy might, but
his language has almost no relation to
the talk of the army. This much of
the Mable books is sheer formula.
Bill spells plenty of long words sue
cessfuIly and falls down on little ones.
The book makes practically no con-
tributon TO Mr.. Menckens American
language. And yet we suppose the first
OF Mr.. Streeter's books might have
sold no more than couple of hundred
thousand if it had been called simply
"Dear Mabel
# it is true that the public will have
n WI