Omaha daily bee., 1920-12-14

Rutzebeck, Boni & L'verisht. NeN"
York.
Ranking we'll with any travel stor-
ic.. of the year is this romance OF
fact" tale of the struggles OF
Young Danish-American III Alaska.
Partly its strength lies in the re-
markable series of adventures which
the youth experiences, but even more
in the unfaiing pluck and nerve OF
the man in overcoming obstacles ot
every kind, and in the extremely
simple way the tale is told. The very
simplicity of the description of ma
ture and of his experiences, the odd
Figures of speech, give the book an
unusual appeal.
Rutzebeck, or Svend Norman, a.
he calls himself in the book, had just
been discharged from the army al
Los Angeles. He meets a girl, Mar
ian, and falls in love with her. He
finds that She too, is most anxious
to visit Alaska, and that she IS at
least ready to be friend 10 him
SO he starts north to build home
in Alaska. He writes diary OF his
daily experiences to send back to
her. 1t is this diary which forms
the book and which, i'll turn, won
the girls love. ...
With little money he beat his
way north, undergoing many hard,
ships on the way, but sticking it out
In Alaska he goes prospecting toi
gold, but his partner proves worth
less and lie has to abandon the at
tempt. He travels 100 miles witt
only $l.50 worth of grub" Des'
perate from hunger when he reache! i
Skagway, he breaks into a store te
get something to eat Then he be
comes fugitive from justice. Thric'
he is caught and each time he es
capes in a most sensational manner
Finally he gives in and serves his Is
months in the penitentiary. Later
he is able to secure homestead III
Viking cove, and on a second trip
brings Marian back with him.,
Typical of the stirring experiences
and the forceful, unusual style, is
that part relating to one OF his
breaks for liberty. He crossed a
glacier and a range of mountains
considered impossible, even by the
Indians. and he did not have any
food or proper clothing He fol-
lowed the trails made by the bear
and lynx, and says OF the trip. j
felt as if l were one of them, just
an animal moving along. Just a bit
of vagrant life without a den, NOV
ing on and on. 1t seemed to me
that the bears were friends compared
to what | was getting away from.
| felt like lost louse on the crust
of the earth" Again, when he took
a rabbit away from lynx he said;
"Yes, I sat down there and tore the
red, bloody meat with my teeth
while the lynx circled around me in
the brush, yawling angrily. 1t tasted
good to me and | ate every bit ex-
cept the skin and CUTS. 1t gave me
strength and again | moved UP TIE
everlasting upward trail.
THE MAKING OF HERBERT Hoov,
Err" by Rose Wilder Lane. Published
by the Century Co. New York.
The present campaign that Her
bert Hoover is making to raise funds
to feed the starving children OF
Europe, is once more bringing him
prominently into the limelight. And
since the war he has been probably.
the most widely known and es-~
teemed American in private life. So
it is that this book has unusual m
terest aside from the fact that his
life teens with romantic incidents.
The author. in Interesting fashion,
depicts his boyhood, how he was left
an orphan, how he worked his way
through college, and then struggled
to establish himself as mining en-
gineer. AT one time he worked as. a
miner. Then she details how he
climbed into a position of world
prominence. Mrs. Lane was assisted
in writing this book by C',af'es j.
Field, classma.e OF MI. Hcovers,
er Stanford 1rivercitv