Evening star., 1923-03-13
NEW BOOKS
=. AT RANDOM
BLOWING WEATHER.. John r. Nc
Intyre. The Century Company.

Intyre. The Century Company.
A brimming cup Of volstead brew
to your good health. John Mcintyre!
May you live long and prosper to do
the like again! Could you? One won
ders. No matter. You've done 1t
once. in any event
u 4 + r
To himself, one day, John Mcintyre
said that he would write down ad-
venture, q tale Of clear romance. with
the sea in it and the world astir
around It, Upon the sea there should
be far sailings blown by the winds OF
the other side OF the world. Ana
there should be storms. and wrecks.
and mutiny, and murder even: Ana
the evil deeds af1oat should link up
with foul designs ashore. There
! should be love, too, in this romance:
He himself would create the man and
the woman. He himself would see to
it that they were made In the spirit
of high emprise-no fiddlinE thing OIL
moods and passion should pass here
for the pure gold of love itself. And
around these two he would set such
things agoing as would prove the
venture should have a fine free-boot-
ing swing to it-but no Hawkins
here, nor Dampier. nor Morgan. nor
Teach. nor any other Of that over
"OTkeQ Ola DTOOQ Oh DuCSduCClS. iiC
would let these lie for another nap
in the good bed Of forgetting while
, he sought fresher men for the work
| in hand. All this he said there should
| be in this adventure that he would
| write down.
But-where the time, the space, the
| mood? Not in the present certainly
| nor in the near past. For true ro-
nance demands distance to gather
the purple bloom of enchantment
| Besides, piracy in these nearer years
| is as dull as the days work. indeed a
part of it, So. moving backward to
get good standing ground, John Nc
| Intyre found himself at the line
which separates the nineteenth cen
| tury from the eighteenth. Only a
| step or so into that older century
| and his adventure was set. For, there
! to his hand. for the using, history it
| self had shaped events as if with no
| other design than to give reality to
\ the form and feature of his projected
romance. He stood facing the high
period. Out from the north Atlantic
\ ports white wings were spreading
to breast the waves, like fiocks OF
huge sea birds. To the West Indies
and the far east they sailed. homing
| again in one year, two years. with
cargoes that turned the warehouses
of home ports into mammoth vaults
! of rich exotic merchandise. And at
| that moment, too. England and
France were at war, pestering the
| seas with privateers that took scant
| note of the rights of neutral craft
! Aud there We're other ships. also, in
Inocent looking enough. that, outside
| the law. slipped away upon the sinis-
ter business of plunder and whatever
! stood in between. Such was the
background which time and place
spread for the adventure.
= X
| The clipper trade had. in the course
! of time, made the Rufus Stevens Sons
a rich and powerful concern. Its
ships rivaled the best in number and
/ capacity Its warehouses stretched
/ in opulence along the waterfront Its
! man power. from dock hand to clerk
in counting house. was a unit of Zeal
! in the business of old Rufus Stevens
| Its foreign connections were sound
and productive. Its local influence
was of the highest Then. in the full
ness of years, Rufus Stevens wen,
| in his stead. Charles had the vision
of old Rufus. He, too. saw new ships
| and bigger ones. But on the side
of balance and business genius, the
| son was long way off from the
! father But what matter? The good
1
the momentum given it by the foun-
; der And everybody loved Charles
/ even if he could not always turn his
! dreams to solid ledger accounts. Then
a disturbing thing happened. y rich
cargo ship was lost with no word
coming back as to the where and the
how of this disaster. And this hap
! pencd again. Rufus stevens Sons
| shivered a little, but went its steady
way Old Rufus himself. looking
rf
/; own clippers at secret anchorage ano
from il he might have seen. also
smaller craft speeding furtiVeiH
away to lonely spots along the coas,
where confederateS took over ana me
away the bales of fair merchandlse
p! He might have seen all this and, ii
! he had, shrewd old Rufus would nave
! known that his beloved house was ur
! against the most ins1dious anc
dangerous of all foes-those of his
!; mediate situation.
x = :: X
The business Of the adventure it
self was to save the house of Rutu:
, Stevens Sons from its enemies. IN
der the easy rule of Charles cupidit1
had found it's place in the. persona
! ambitions of a clever subordinate
From this center a web of conspiracy
had spun out. including certain lant
Il x =
mess. in a plot for self-enrichment
The ruin of the house would be {
simple sequence in this plan. An
! thony Stevens, grandson, taxing W
the cause of his grandfather ana M;
uncle. proved himself. finally, to bt
the equal in both brain and bra"1
of the whole ruffianly conspiratoria
band around him. This youth wa:
the subject of constant attack. usu
ally of the ambush brand. KIDNAPPING
to lone places. knife thrusts III th'
dark. drawn pistols facing him a
street turnings. rough land tumble
fist fights. expert and sinister wres
tlinc bouts-these were all in the day
work for this amazing hero. a young
French girl--the only woman any
where around IN TINS storE.accom
,uauying her father on business er
rand to the house of Stevens Sons
sometimes shared the dangers of An
fhony stevens and sometimes rescued
him. All the time she was. to him
AN object of interest, question, per
plexity, till finally questions becam
answers and the two entered into :
high partnership of confidence ant
;love. There is a deal more here-bu
read il for yourself. That John Nc
ntyre lived up to his promise il
Writing down this adventure, yo1
Yourself will prove by jumping hea'
foremost into every fracas and thel
iout again, hot for the next one
tCould any of it have happened? Rea'
lone daily press issue of our own Ell
lightened times. There's your an
Swer.
X X X X
Certain very marked points o
workman ship stand out in this goo
warn. One is the authors choice o
background - the most romanti
period of American sea history, tn
time of the clipper-ship supremacy
Besides, he uses this period with sucl
.discretion, with so keen d sense o
the drama in it, that the mere settins
contributes distinctly to the realis
tic effect Of the action itself. Th
jland setting also receives the sam