Evening star., 1926-06-11
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

written by George Alfred Henty, al
| though in those days he did not
| know the &c. A. Henty" on the title
page stood for 50 much.
Some parents, and not a few critics,
have seen fit to deprecate the "Henty
books" branding them as inaccurate
but there have always been those
to frown at everything that is In
! tereStingi
Henty, who died In 1902. had been
through many stirring campaigns
himself as a war correspondent, 30
he knew from first-hand about war
and warning men. In mere details
he may have been somewhat inaccu-
rate but he did paint this spirit of
great times and gave to thousands
of boys their first taste for history.
He took epochs from the dull cate
CORY of dates and "eras" and made
them living. breathing periods of
living men, working, striving, fight
ing for God and country, as they
saw it.
Reading over the titles brought
back 4 world of memories to us, for
we, too, in our day, We're Il greedy
reader of Henty books and the proud
| owner, if we recall rightly, of some
40 or more.
Young Buglers," "In Times of Peril"
Under brakes Flag" THE Lion of
the North" with Lee in Virginia, -
by Pike and Dyke" I'm the Irish
Brigade" with Robert OF Pretoria" "
THE Cat of Bubastes." G. A. Henty
| ranged from ancient to modern times
to allow play for his various pairs
of young heroes.
The Henty books are clean. force
full reading for youngsters and We
understand are as much in vogue
! today as they We're 20 or 80 wears
ago. lienty commenced writing
I them in 1871, and wrote the last
one in the year he died.
x i x
! At this point in our survey the host
| stopped us to point out Il non-eXist-
ent bookshelf. 1t was not there, he
| said, and yet it was there, If / got
what he meant. We told him we
| thought we did.
On the non-existent shelf, then,
he went on, with smile on his lips
you Will see a huge pile Of 32-page
books, each one clad in q flaming
cover of red, green and other hues.
They are, as Your heart happily
! tells you, the dreaded dime novels
"AAASiA A'SaNk 81 DoN. j WISH Ilttt
kept q closet full OF them, that /
might turn them over to my own boy
| today.
My good mother did not want me
to read them, because other good
mothers had told her they were bad
for boys AS a matter of fact, they
We're good for boys, since they taught
and instilled only honor, bravery, de
termination and every other good
quality
If a one of the good mothers Of my
| boyhood would have gone to the trou-
bic OF reading the dime novels
which in reality We're nickel novels
she would have seen shortly that the
stories We're almost absurd in their
insistence on fair play, and SO on.
w hat groWn-up person, for in
stance. could possibly stand the
righteous Frank Merriwell? Would
he not much rather have lost a ball
game than accept an umpire's de.
cision which gave him the game, if
he thought for an instant, in the pure
recesses Of his manly heart, that the
umpire was wrong?
lie most certainly would and he
most certainly did, and SO did all the
other heroes OF Pluck and Luck.
Fred Fearnot,' Old King Brady Nick
Carter The Liberty boys of TO and
the rest of them"
tomorrow we will complete our de.
scription of the special bookcase in
our special friends library.