New-York tribune., 1922-09-10

per q Bros.
THE wHELPs or TIE woLT. BY
paty.
DUST Or THE DESERT. ny Robert
Wellcs Ritchie. podd, Mead &. Co.
GIFT or THE DESERT. By Randall
Parrish. A. G. MoClurg Il Co.
NJ LORD OF THE WHITE ROAD. By
Cedric Fraser. b. Appleton & Co.
6-.Na URELY a barbecue should be
MsaS given to Rex Beach by his old
time admirers to celebrate his
H. v return from the far country Of
Hollywood to his 6ctional birth
right 1t does not happen often. Some
OF the prodigals might conceivably be
glad to come back, during these lean
years of the movies, when even the
husks are not so plentiful, but they
can't. They have lost their cunning
in all but scenario construction.
Mr.. beach has Bourbon streak in
him; he may not have learned any
thing (of novel writing, that is), but
he has forgotten nothing. And, UNI
like the Bourbons, he knew something
to begin with. He knew how to turn
out lively, colorful, full-blooded story
CT frontier life. He had the trick Of
action that never becomes mechanical,
of character drawing that, while broad
IN outline, Is not caricature nor stock
type. He knew how to build his tale
around his people; he had always a
genuine interest and insight into
human nature. He had gusto, as IL he
enjoyed writing and ne could COM
municate 1t to his readers.
All these gifts are still his, as eyi-
denced by Glowing Gold" He has
chosen the Texas oil fields for his
scene, for the same reason that made
him years ago not only write of the
Klondike, but go to the, Klondike be-
fore he wrote at all. The material
suits his talent; he is at home in such
nings, crude if you like, but vital and
fresh. The er-refnements of an
old civilization do not greatly interest
him. His cultured people are mere
puppets But his simple folk are
real. Poor old Ma Briskow, for in
stance, the farm wife, is a triumph OF
sympathetic portraiture. The hard,
penurious years had roughened her
hands and stopped her gaunt old body,
but her heart was that of child.
When the golden stream gushed from
beyond imagining, she had only one
wish-she wanted to 90 to the noun
tains. Luckier than most people, she
realized her dream. She at least never
knew how pathetic she was, even in
that. This is the best bit of writing
Rex Beach has ever done; not SO much
technically or stylistically as by the
strength of it's sincerity He felt for
that starved old woman.
The story as whole only matters
in so far as it brings the characters
into play, but it serves that purpose
excellently. Calvin Gray, the hero, one
takes at first for another Get-Rich-
Quick Wallingford; he has all the
mannerisms of high cfsss icon
man." but he turns out to be rather an
honest adventurer, modern swash-
buckler, and romantic. He has grudge
and a mission; the latter to redeem
his reputation, the former to revenge
himself on the man who destroyed it
by getting him cashiered from the
American army in France. Naturally,
he achieves both; but he is not in
fallible; he fails to win the girl he
loves. He is very we'll drawn; but the
girls father, the retired Texas ranger,
old Tom Parker, is even better. The
scene where Tom gets the Indian sign
on the "bad man" could not be i'm
realistic. Great stuff; the whole a
notable book of its kind. Nobody should
miss 1t who enjoys what one may call
outdoor fiction of the first rank.
Any one merely glancing at George
Marsh's "Whelps of the Wolf" may be
discouraged by the thought that here
is just another one of those machine
made stories of "the great frozen
North" finding in it the French Cana
dian voyageur, the black-eyed Julie, the
good Mission priest, the Hudson's Bav
factor and the faithful husky dog.
Such a notion would be deplorably in
error. This book has fresh and
genuine quality; it is written from
first hand knowledge and love of the
country and its people, and the author
has natural gift of good, straight
forward English. One need hardly
look for purple patches and fowery
prose in such story; they would be
out of place. But it is clear and
graphic and unaffected, and the people
depicted are all alive, individual. In
short, it's darned good reading, and
leaves one with definite and convinc-
ing picture of the Hudson Bay country
in mind.
Jean Marcel, the young trapper, in
the beginning of the story sets out for
the Esquimau villages on the edge of
the Arctic to buy a husky dog team,
passing through the unpeopled barrens,
where no Indians nor halfbreeds will
go because they fear the evil spirit, the
Windigo, which haunts those solitudes.
Jean fears neither man nor ghost; he
wins through, and by saving the life