New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-03
BY Samuel Abbott


uALuefzA THE lfAoNrr1cMyr, ny
1 Ssssss ! o. a,a'G Il Published BY D.
THE PATH OF THH KING, by John
Buchsn- Published by George II. DorAn
Company. $3.50.
n oE LINCOLN adds good half
dozen Cape Codders to his list
Of invented people who are
faithful images Of types to be
1ound on the long arm Of Massachu-
sets. Joe has said recently that he
has twisted geography and jumbled
names Of places in mapping the Cape
Cod Of his novels. Those Of his
readers who know the Cape from Prov
incetown to the Falmouths are willing
to stand UP in court and testify under
oath that they can set down many of
his delightfully."- salty people on soil
within mile or two Of their habitat
IN their creators imagination-actua
ground upon and against which he pic
lures them.
Galusha the Magnificent, jos Lin
coins contribution to the summer book
tide Of the year, is built on lines rather
different from the models Of his other
books. In It one finds little group
OF men and women delightfully."- human,
quick Of wit and action, inquisitive of
their neighbors, magnifying their own
domestic affairs in a speech as pro-
vincial as the bayberry Of their fields
and dunes. The clan feeling, 80 evil
cent In all Joe Lincoln's stories, Is es-
pecially marked in Galusha the Mag
nlficent. The plot develops cleavages
ard gusts Of gossip, some Of the latter
anfriendly, but the deep mood of
hrotherly affection that seems to en-
fold like mist the gauntly individual
members Of any Cape Cod village
family, holds and saves in the end
Galusha Bangs, arch@ologist in search
of health, arrives in East Wellmouth
on night storm. Ralph Pulcifer,
the town fnancier, in motley business
ventures, picks him up on the road and
drops him on the porch of the Restabit
Inn, closed and desolate, from which
Galusha slumps through the mud to
the home of Miss Martha Phipps. From
that moment on to the end of the novel
(, the Phipps house is Galusha's abode
and the seat Of his innocent campaign
to right things Of the pocketbook and
the heart. For there is a bad mess
IN the little town-the wreckage Of a
development company left in many
homes in the form Of worthless stock
And there are two young people who
love and desire to wed, but are
thwarted by father who is convinced
that he is guided by the spirit of his
dead wife.
1t is our conviction that good story
is ruined in advance, for a possible
reader, through the condolences Of a
critic or reviewer who confides the sub
stance, the meat of it's plot. The mo-
ments of suspense and surprise lose
their glamour if one is able to antici-
pate them. And SO we leave Galusha
the Magnificent for you to open and
enjoy to the full. 1t is novel ad-
mirably planned, with more than one
chapter marked by the imprint Of Joe
Lincoln at his tiptop Of natural mirth.
The pages on the spiritualistic seance
at the lighthouse are undeniably good,
full Of chuckles. They should be read
aloud in company that relishes
healthy American fun.
A day or two ago, while at lunch
with British novelist, we mentioned
John Buchan and his work. The talk
Immediately skipped over into the field
Of romantic fiction, especially that of
the sixteenth and seventeenth CEN
turtles. Buchan showed clearly in his
Greenmantle, story Of the late war,
that he could turn the trick cleverly
when the thing required was yarn
spiced with high adventure, and now
he hands to US his The Path Of the
King, study Of the trek Of trait,
if SO it may be called, over the cen
turtles. His theme is not one Of REIN
carnation or strictly Of inheritance; it