Evening star., 1925-07-12
Reviews of the Summers New Books

prises does adventure wait at che
door. Many a young fellow, setting
out from the editorial room, feels ad.
venture standing IN wait for him, feels
its tug upon his sleeve. follows its lead
and discovers daily a new world care
fully hidden under the common plain
and unstirring top of things. The
unadventurous do not even see adven-
ture. The easily.tired soon fall be-
hind it, But a few go along to find
out what is really coming off in the
world
This is the story of one of these few.
On the whole. a plausible story; one
to be accepted, | should think, as a
fair picture of the newspaper mans
career. This young man sets out with
vision before him. To be sure, he
never quite catches up with 1t. This
is a part of the realism of the story
as whole. But he has something to
take along with him beside dream
an amazing persistence, a fine stock
of patience, the quick turn of ingenu-
lty upon demand the ready response
to emergency, the prime quality Of
initiative. Otherwise not a remarkable
fellow. But in the newspaper bust
ness this is an equipment that spells
getting ahead; not all the time, for
this appears to be a real story of what
might easily have come to pass. He
has the common run of obstacles
women. the chief of these, as Is the
case with every young man. A spe-
cially good hold this author seems to
have upon the universal handicap to
youth of the male persuasion. How
ever, with this, as well as with every
other aspect of the matter, the story
Is IN foi nd
sistency. And the story sums to one
of excellent quality, to one of keen
interest throughout. A plausible and
dramatic invention.
THE CAROLINIAN. BY Rafael Saba.
TIM, author of Scaramouche, etc.
Boston: Houghton-M Miffiin Com,
pany.
SABATINI is a good literary econ
- omist, though this, to be sure, is
not within his calculations. Neverthe-
less. instead of creating his field of
action out of next TO nothing he de-
liberately pre-empts one that is already
in settled state of cultivation. An
immense saving of labor. this, to one
in when, as in Sabatini. the sense of
history is keen and true. or all the
romancerS now contributing to the
general entertainment this one is the
most receptive, both to the facts and
to the drama of history. That he
chooses this field as the medium OF ad
venture because it calls for less of
work on his part no one believes.
That it does offer a vivid and brilliant
background of action, that it's rounded
areas of fact do add to the realism of
romance, are points that Sabatini does
OF certainty take into account See
'Scaramouche," Captain Blood and
The Sea Hawk" and now The Caro-
linian," as evidence thereof.
The Carolinian" is a tale of the
days of the American Revolution. Set
primarily in the leisured and stately
colonial life of the South, it's course
follows the separation of two sets OF
frtends-royalists on the one hand and
an ardent revolutionary on the other
this, historically speaking, one Of
the neglected aspects of the movement
for independence, yet one of its most
poignant features, nevertheless, Saba
TIM makes it the keynote of this ro-
nance. On one side a young man
following gallantly the fortunes of war
on the side of the colonists; on the
other an equally ardent royalist,
whose daughter takes sides with her
father, not with her lover A vicissi-
tous romance, such as young love con-
trives to fashion the world over,
emerges from this opposing sense of
patriotic fealty. A stirring adventure
of war, centering upon the heroism
and devotion of this youth, while por-
traying the general action and spirit
of the war itself, steps vividly to the
fore here as romance that has within
1t good value of history back of the
thrilling events which round it to
prime adventure.
THE MONSTER BY Harrington
Hext, author of Number ST." etc.
New York: The Macmillan Com
pany.
A CLEVER instinct, the one that
sent this writer to the most mys.
ufying of all the sources of crime:
that is, to the double nature of man
himself. The good and evil struggling
together in each mothers son of us is
the seat of the worlds great bewiIder-
ment, the basis of all of its philosophy
and religion, the impulse behind most
of it's art. So. cannily, for the pur-
pose Of his own plans of mystification
in nothing more than an adventure in
current fiction, Harrington Hext makes
use of mans oldest and biggest puzzle.
Into plain and humdrum community,
where every ones life is, seemingly,
an open book to his neighbor, where
patterns, he throws not one crime but
a series of these. Immediately pur-
suit becomes chiefly the chase of
shadows and many a decoying will-o'-
the-wisp thrown out by the imagina-
ton and half-superstition of a small
and isolated and greatly frightened
community. Oh, yes, to be sure, there
is an inflow of the familiar experts in
crime detection. All in all, it is a good
chase, handled with discretion in the
quality of it's clues, turned at the
right moment to other signs of even
more plausibility. Enough of this to-
ing and fro-ing to make an exciting
story of the man-hunt-perennia Joy
to the human. Then, late in the game,
there is the swift and conclusive ex-
posure of the one in whom God and
the devil are making their immemo-
rial stand for possession. The ma
jority will like best the general run of
the story, its swift action, it's adni.
rable setting contributing suitable at
mospheres to the whole, it's subordi.
nate but pleasing love story. A few
will like best the good psychology, the
clear in-seeing upon the unbelievable
heart of man-of every man.
THE COMPLETE LIMERICK BOOK.
BY Langford Reed. Illustrated
by III. A. Bateman. New York:
q. +. Putnam's Sons.
"T"HERE was young fellow named Reed,
Il Who said: There's a need--a great
For a limerick book
So he wrote one. and look
Here's the book that he wrote-now pro-
And by way of the book that he
wrote" you will find to your hand a