Evening star., 1925-06-14
BY IDA GILBERT MYERS.

Pened In the case at nand. MOI tndt
Jefferson Harmon is one of these
wild men. Far from it. 1t is the
.deep-seated strain of human nature
that comes to the surface here as
faint shadow of what the entrance
of this modern barbarian means to
the plain political situation upon
which it impinges so influentially.
robust story that will interest read
ers of sturdy reading taste.
THE SCARLET COCKEREL. BY C.
Nj. Sublette. Frontispiece by Frank
M. Rines. Boston: The Atlantic
Monthly Press.
"A tale wherein is set down a rec
ord of the strange and exceptional
adventures of Blaise de Breault and
Martin Belcastel in the New World
as members of expeditions sent out
by the great Coligny"-so reads the
subtitle of this record of adventure.
In substance 1t is romance of the
French Huguenot colonists in the
Carolinas, where today their descend
ants form a substantial part of these
States, contributing to the common
life more than one relic of the six
teenth century France brought to
this side by their prosecuted and filee-
ing ancestors. The story begins yiv-
idly In Paris. where the emissaries
of Catherine de Medici and the great
cardinal are hunting down every Prot
estant to his destruction. A double
duel and flight to the galiot lying
off lie Havre gives exciting start to
a tale that on this side of the water,
settles to the business of cautious
explorations along the coast and UP
the wide river mouths, to intercourse
with the Indians and, for the highest
of it's action and color, to the diff
culties that beset the coloniStS from
the Spaniards in Florida. While the
tale is one of adventure, it Is also one
with the colors of history itself full
upon it. But history is adventure, or
most certainly was to the early set
tiers of the New World. In plain,
and convincing fashion
Mr.. Sublette follows the facts Of the
time and place under consideration,
giving to these the point and appeal
of adventure through the many ex-
periences OF the Scarlet Cockerel,"
Young Balise de Breault and his friend
and adviser, the more settled Martin
This turns out to be
prize story, the prize won by Mr..
Sublette in a contest designed as
to the young writer of ad-
venture tales. Charles Boardman
Hawes, who died in the Summer of
1928.
HIS WIFE-IN-LAW. BY Marie Com
way Oemler, author of "Slippy
McGee," etc. New York: The
Century Co.
You go along with this writer every
step of the way, and go in gladness-
though you know the tale to be moth
ing more nor less than one of them
made-up novel storieS," as my good
old grandmother in sorrow and con-
used to call them, when
she had found herself listening with
one ear at least to the reading OF
story. You go along here because of
the sweeping tide of this authors in
ventive ingenuity, not because you be-
lieve that a brilliant young 1rishmah
a lovely girl and carried her
off to a lone island, marrying her
there out of hand just to save her
soul. But you like the fellow. Any
body would And, having accepted
the initial sin against realism and con-
and all the rest of it, you
simply can't resist wanting to see
what the man is going to do by way
of training this lovely and spoiled
young woman to the serious business
of being a useful member of society.
Having gone thus far, the struggle be-
comes so sporting on both sides that,
no matter if it is all a made-up affair,
here is no such thing as leaving in
The middle of it. Sheer romance,
without a doubt. But so rich and
ready in invention, so compact of good
sense on the one hand, of wit and
numor and charming incident on the
other, that one goes along under the
growing conviction that it all ought
20 be true If it isn't. The action
eads in undiminished interest to wide
y separated places and then homes
pack again to the place from which
It started-an island lying off the
coast of Georgia, an island that the
author freights with a many-sided
oveliness and charm that must
nave come straight from it's own
spell over her own heart. An out
age to let a tale of this sort lapse
o some gloomy realistic ending. No
ianger. A flying figure of romance,
his author presents herself to one,
through the glamour of this purely ro-
mantle flight.
NAJIB. BY Albert Payson Terhune,
author of The Heart of a Dog"
etc. New York: George H. Doran
Co.
An antimony mine not far out from
Jerusalem, an American mining en-
5ineer, young Logan Kirby; a Syrian
servant, friend and shadow of Kirby;
the "Najib," who names the story,
and a perfect swarm of willy natives
schemes against the hated
provide the material
out of which Albert Payson Terhune
proves that his surprising dog stories
are not conclusive evidence of ability
to write an equally good story of the
Far East and it's desert inhabitants
turned in manifold Vaccinations
against the object of theirS super
stitious hatred. There is too much of
Najib here-too much of his astonish-
ing powers of mongrel speech and
generally inconsequential behavior
Much too little of him, on the other
hand, to set up beside one of the splen
did dogs about which, about whom,
Mr.. Terhune writes with so much of
and love. Get back to
your dogs. Albert Payson Terhune.
THE PIRATE OF PITTSBURGH.
BY II. +. o. Whitman. Boston.
Houghton Miff1in Co.
1t is the daily paper that helps one
to take up a story like this, believing
every word of it to be true and en-
joying it besides. kidnapping a young
woman. Easy. Done every day. Alb
Quoting a young man. Why not?
Carrying them both off to a yacht
where an orgy of business sets in
rum runners and ships
along shore, holding up a liner,
breaking down a mutiny on the yacht
tself-just a few specimens of what
really did go on upon that yacht,
whose master. the Pirate of Pitts
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