Evening star., 1922-03-05
COOMER ALI. BY S. B. H. Hurst.
New York: Harper & Bros.


- that there was but one God
and Mohammed was his
prophet Then one day Coomer All
stood straight and cried. ITS a lie!
There Is 20 God-and there never
was! That was when the Hooghli in
q devastating rampage swept the wife
and child of Coomer Ali out to sea.
So, Coomer Ali boarded the rusty old
brig of Capt. Armit. for he would go
to Mecca, the very shrine Of the
prophet, there to confound and over
throw this false religion. Now Capt.
Armit, three hundred years ago or so,
might have been a Drake or a Haw-
kins. In the passage of time, how
ever. his piracy had fallen to petty
thieving, his spacious plans to half
baked schemes that he was afraid to
to his aid one. Brown. half-caste.
who was born to plottings and slick,
nefarious achievements. These are
the three who on board the brig
Nizam sail from Calcutta down
around the point and up to Bombay
for a pilgrim load to Mecca. then
across and. in the last stage Of the
journey. by camel to the great MO-
hammedan shrine itself. A fresh chelo
for adventure this. A fresh line OF
action. A promising combination OF
human elements to support the par
ticular spirit of this adventure. The
promise passes into fulflllment In this
robust man-siZe novel. The autnor
has been sailing these eastern seas
since he was sixteen years old. he is
now around forty. He knows the sea
IN this particular quarter SO lnti-
mately that he expresses 1t In terms
of deep understanding. He knows the
inside. and the outside OF the sort oi
man that would make up this adVen-
ture. This double knowledge he sets
into a partnership that produces here
a novel of SO vigorous an appear that
to try to resist it is not worth one
while. And why try to resist SO keen
a pleasure as waits one in this ao-
venture which, by virtue of its Pc
culiar freshness and strength, ap-
pears to one as wholly new KIND OIL
adventure.
THE HEAD OF THE HOUSE OF
COOMBE. By Frances Hodgson
Burnett, author of Little Lord
Fauntleroy," etc. New York: Fred
erick A. Stokes Company.
A "slice of a house" between two
mansions in Mayfair here provides
of Feather" beautiful young
widow. impecunious besides-save for
the left-hand generosity of the head
of the house of Coombe. That which
gives CnlS OCn6TWlSe
situation an Immediate and poignant
appeal is Robin, the little daughter
of Feather Gareth-Lawless. What
might have been merely clever dra-
ma of the smart-and-loose set OF
London society becomes, by virtue of
Robins existence. the tragic story
of little girl who is forced by vir-
tuous world to take over the obloquy
of her mothers frailty. And with this
little girls story Mrs Burnett does as
hna nj
years ago. she did with the little boy
who made her famous. 1t Is danger
Gus for grown person to try to get
back into the feelings and thoughts
of child. Ninety-nine times out OF
hundred this person becomes maudlin.
Not Mrs. Burnett, for here is true
and touching picture of a not uncom-
mon cause of suffering among chill
dren: The story carries Robin for
ward to her eighteenth year, and the
opening of the war. Behind her are
most interesting personalities-her
mother. Coombe himself, Donal Muir,
who will some day be the head of the
house of Coombe; Dowie. her nurse,
and perfect in his or her place. One
other stands out on a level with Robin
herself as surprising in appeal And
this story is. really. but a prologue,
for-soon, one hopes-there will be
the story Of Robin as a young woman
in the midst of the demands Of war
upon all England. And in this par
ticular romance one has tremendous
"one other person" as well as interest
in a further acquaintance with Robin
herself. very charming and deli
cate invention. this, by way of which
this author strengthens herself sub
stantially in the hearts of her read
erS.
ADVENTURES IN SWAZILAND; The
Of pxy
Owen Rowe O'Niel. Illustrated
from photographs. New York:
The Century Company.
The keen and unbroken interest of
this book lies in it's vividness, in its
power to take the reader over bodily
down here. And this power in turn
rises out of the fact that Mr.. O'Niel
in his own person lived the substance
of this story. He saw these things
and took part in them from a little
boy onward. His playmates and serv-
/ ants were the little Kaffir boys. His
nurse was native woman. He was
only a lad when. under the protec-
tion Of his uncle, he went into Swazi-
land for the first time and saw on
BILE customs that were a part of the
common life of these savage tribes.
Tribute in gold and gin from Dom
Paul kept the restless Swazis quiet.
1t was the uncle of young O'Niel who
went each new moon to pay this trib-
ute. He often took the boy with him.
and this is how we come to see the
Swazis at a practical first hand. AS
a man he was initiated into the Swazi
tribe. This story is packed with in
cident-always interesting, sometimes
incredible, yet we know that it Is all
true. Educated in England and
America, DIR. O'Niel belongs to the
South Africa of which he writes here
in such vividness of picture, touched
with an Imagination that lifts the
ing. An amazing and captivating
story of fact.
THIS WORLD OF OURS. By ]. H.
Curle, author of 1.-The Shadow
Show" etc. New York: George H.
Doran Company.
He said, Il will go down every gold
mine in the world" BY nature a
traveller. by profession a mining en-
gineer. the authors resolution Is not
so vain as 1t might otherwise appear.
He really did go down something like
five hundred gold mines scattered
among thirty-eight different coun-
tries. But that was not enough for
this man of the prodigious wander
lust. He dropped the mining and de-
voted himself to the travelling. This
book is, in part, a record of the great
experience. With what seems like
an impossible swiftness. the adven-
turer moves from country to country,
from continent to continent, from the
eastern to the western hemisphere.
A love of motion. feeling for the
friendliness for the humans along the
way. an insight upon conditions gen.
erally-these qualities and powers In
the author serve to hand over to one
here book of stirring effect, Of wide-
IL S~tA s0 ~ %~