Evening star., 1926-10-05
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. G.. M.
THE RED GODS CALL" c. E.
Scoggins. The Bobbs- Merrill co.


Scoegins, The Bobbs- Merrill Co.
Romantic invention, downright. Yet,
no finer fiction than "The Red Gods
Call" has come this way in many a
week Of pretty steady reading TO
gather up news items on the passing
books.
But is this fiction, after all? Let's
see.
It has a theme as real as a mans
shoes. If not so wholly obvious as
these One, too, that everybody
claims as his own. Just dreams. to
be sure, this theme. but existence
! would not be livable without the
sting and urge and pull of dreams to
send ones spirit out on cleaning
quests such as change and distance
promise lives too little daring to fare
out upon the hazards Of actuality. The
real adventurers are few. The vicari-
Gus ones are all the rest of us. For
dreams are to men what wings are
to the bird what sunbeams are to the
sod. They are the priceless posses
sion of every man. So, Messrs. Kip
ling and Scoggins have no corner on
| the RED Gods" no monopoly of that
Spring fret" under which every
| mothers son of us chants:
1--WE must go-go-go away from here;
On the other side the world we're
oVerdue!'
And If these gods be real they are
| here going to guide this author right.
| That's the business of Providence
| to watch the feet of the young men.
| Let's see.
Away with Scoggins we go. under
| the Red God Call, away down into
Guatemala. No fiction about this
fJ o. n onfYr ln ND OF
in between lines of latitude and longi-
tude. bounded by seas and bordered
by other authentic countries. A place
substantiated by perfectly plain
geography, by history Of it's own,
J by a present capable Of being checked
up at every point. Look at this veri-
| flying sketch Mountains. One of
| those places that God forgot to finish
10000 feet up and no way to get
| down. Old when the Spaniards came;
| old when Christ was born; nobody
| knows how old. Ball courts, 200 feet
| between walls, where they played a
game like basket ball. Platforms for
sacrifice. where they cut mems hearts
out so their crops would grow. Pal
| aces and temples-empty these 1000
years" The sketch includes the pres
ent. Here are the people-Maya,
Spaniard. Latin American not so
i much blend as layers out Of different
pasts. Here is busineSS--oil. asphalt,
the United Fruit farms raising ba-
| nanas for the States. And here is
revolutiOn-One today. another tOmor-
| row. These not so much the result of
political or economic discomfort as
they are the effect of racial insta-
| billty of temperament. AS for actu-
| aiity, you see. this picture might have
Inv
| with the genius of artistry upon him
| as we'll as the spirit of exact truth.
And wbo or what makes a going
| concern Of this business? Who car
| ries on here? Chiefly Uncle Ben
MurchisOn. And we may as we'll saw
right here that you are. upon hav-
| ing read this story, going to invite
| Ben Murchison to step out and go
| along beside you for the good com
| pany that he is bound to be long
| after you have passed on away from
'The Red Gods Call" Gettin' to be
an old man now, but soundly ripe
like a good apple. Wise, understand
| ing, an old trouble maker down in that
! inf1ammable corner Of the world. an
! anxiety to the authorities at home
lest he get the u. S. A. into an un-
| seemly attitude-well, Gen. Ben
Murchison could carry out almost
| any adventure single-handed But,
beside him here, there is Buck Press
| ley come down from Milo Ind. under
the spur of that tormenting and famil-
lar "spring-fret" that Mr.. Kipling
tells about. 1t is Buck who tells the
story. And there are others here
the excitable people who live here-a
rascal playing the oil game, an old
Spanish family with a lovely daugh-
| ter. But it is. mostly, Buck and Ben.
| Around these, revolutions swing, in
industry plays its outwitting game,
| love is not entirely absent from the
situation-for Buck Is a young blade
who can't keep his mind forever on
| fighting duels and regular war bat
| ties, on looking after asphalt conces-
| sions and the like of all this From
start to finish there is a tremendous
| to-do of exciting action. But. hap
| PLY, all Of 1t steps off in tune with
the place in it's past and it's present.
with the people in their temperament
and outlook. with the individual in
his special brand of nobility on the
one hand or of rascality on the other.
| Here is a really captivating story
| whose foundation is plain geogra phv
]
| added an individual artistry that
evokes the glamour of Guatemala, its
| contrast of mountain and mesa and
| creeping jungle, the last a sinister
| thing burying ancient cities deem be-
meath it's centuries of growth. There
| Is an actual evocation here. You feel
/! that glamour and that curiously bale
| full jungle spirit. The artist makes
| fine use here of the medium of con-
| trast-that buried Guatemala with
the present, that ancient people with
| those of todav, the country Itself with
| Milo, Ind, the home Of Buck Press
| lev, with it's wide streets and white
| structures and clubs and community
centers. all up to the minute in Mid
| west progress.
| So we have here a genuine adven-
| ture-fction, we call it-whose every
! thread is reality A delightful reality.
| too. set out in manner as little like
the stilted stuff Of most story writing
| as can he imagined. Indeed, this
isn't writing: it's just talk-straight.
| spicy. vernacular. picturesque talk.
It wanders as talk does, breaks off
and starts in again, laughs, steps
aside to gather in something rlong
the way. hut it never leaves its real
course, after all. A most lifel1ke
performance. YOU see. I believe I'm
lbeing ravagant-seemingly extrav-
|agant-about this romance. But you
read It; You'll see. 7 couldn't go to
tbed for the thing. and sleeping is my
strong point.
| X X
! A month ago I had book by T. A.
Willard describing the 30-year passion
of a man to excavate the ancient
cities of the Mavas. 'The City of
the Sacred Well brought out dra-
maticany and beautifully the buried
life Of these ancient peoples. A
deeplv interesting book on a subject