The Washington times., 1922-06-04
THISDESERT YARN
ISDEFI0ENT IN
CAL0R|ES
Wild Tale of Sheikery Fails to
Live Up to Promise OF
Gaudy Cover.
By ANIES KENDRICK.

ness on the part of the pub
fishers of 1.-The Sheik," we were
spared the travail of reading that
sand-lot opus, and many's the time
we have manifested a sinful pride
In being able to virtuously affirm
our complete ignorance of it.
And now retribution has over
taken us. Through some fortui-
tous combination Of circumstances
we recently found in our mail
work with highly ornate paper
jacket whereon a fellow with Arab
costume, with a white lady clasped
tightly in his arms, galloped furt-
ously over the desert. The title,
"a Son Of the Sahara" smote our
vision. We swooned.
Welladay, as Don Marquis would
say, tits all in the days work, and
we proceed with the story, for
which Louise Gerard assumes full
responsibility as author and the
Macaulay Company as publishers.
Though 1t is apparently the in
tention Of the author to make the
book shockingly naughty, she has
succeeded in turning out a piece
of goods where dullness is only
exceeded by absurdity. To our
way of thinking there Is not a
thrill in it, nor situation that IL
not forecast far in advance and
Immediately apparent to the most
careless reader.
All, its attempts at portrayal of
high-voltage passion leave us un-
moved, and we derive never
glow when the hapless maid
stands ungarbed in the harem of
swears later on that he never
even risked a peep at her, but
then, he wasn't an Arab at all,
nor, in our estimation, much of
white man. either. Arrived at this
point, we forbear further comment.
and place the book out of reach
OF the children.
GLADLY do we turn from such
clap-trap to write of Old Don
Marquis, best of all columnists,
who rejoices our soul with his
latest book, "Sonnets to Red
Haired Lady" Doubleday, Page
& Coz
Thirty flaming heroines, thirty
pensive memories of former wives,
are hymned by the gentlemal
with a blue beard" in the form
of sonnets that by turn are COM
parable with the best in the Ian
guage and burlesques unapproaCh.
able in humor.
Misfortune of one sort or an.
other overtakes the thirty wives
upon whose memory the sonnetetr
dwells wistfully in the lines ad-
dressed to Suzanne, my comet
and my star" Take the case Of
Wife Number One. She merely
let her hair go quite too far
In culinary ways. beaned her, Sue:
She looked So wistful as she pa sssd
That dear, lost woman, Sue. All,
welladay.
And the philosophic gentleman
with the blue beard invariably
ends his tragic recital of the
demise OF each wife with that *
pressive "WelIaday." as the true
believer would sigh "Kismet."
Sonnet XIX is fair example
Of the mixture Of sublime and
ridiculous. and we quote in full
for the delectation of the readtr:
All ardours, prisms, glamours, gems OF
gold
All flame Of wit, and fiery blood OF
wine
Have bent their brightness in that hair
of thine.
Worn as thy woven crown. or all un-
And blown by smorous winds, grown
overbold
II gives the twilight hack the morn
ings shine,
And all fresh hearts put tendrils forth
to twine
Them with thy living glory. fold on
fold.
Thy hair II falls in tides OF
turbulence
Across the lyric wonder OF thy throat,
In tides that drown my dazzled visions
sense
Said wife Nineteen: Your sonnets get
my goat"
I cried Your hair is like drsb colored
hay"
! choked her with It. Sue An.
welladay.
The other thirty.five are Just rs
good.
The second part Of the book.
"Famous Love Affairs IL u re-
creation OF the dramatic moments
In the lives Of some Of the famous
lovers who have strewn the path
OF history with the wreckage Of
their hearts. Paris. we learn
wasa pretty gent
His lamps were quite hypnotic,