Evening star., 1928-12-23
REVIEWS OF WINTER BOOKS
Writer Deals With Spain and Its PeopeThe New Orleans
Early Days-Noves and Travel Books From
the Publishers

sense or good heart. And, of course,
Mr.. Gibbs meant just that, even though
he Is so fierce about her. The story
ends with this girl and boy bending
over the father-past any help then
The boy Is saying-now, this Is not
pretty word, and we don't use it over
here-he is saying, What a stinker
I've been"-and he has, II we know
what that is. Just savage romance
about things pretty much as they are,
though not quite. And If anything is
going to be done about it, this flapper
girl is going to do 1t.
" Il y
CARAVANS TO SANTA FE. BY Aida
Sims Malkus illustrated by Marie
A. Lawson. New York: Harper and
Brothers.
A HUNDRED years ago you might
"A have seen in Santa Fe the counter
part of the little village that gives set
ting to this romance of the West. Quite
away from the rest of the world were
the few settlers of the hamlet. So they
lived as their forbears had lived, the
life Of old Spain. In this respect the
story gives out an interesting and use
full picture of corner of life within the
borders of the United States, corner
WHICH IIUluS W IkllS Udy ACIltIlAoOCLt
touches of that early period. The
romance itself is of the tempestuous
sort that people of hot blood, the world
over, summon when the tender passion
Is in action. A trader from New Or
leans loves a beautiful Spanish girl Of
Santa Fe. Rivals, intrigues, difficulties
of many a sort stand in the way Of
this courtship. At the end, the happy
end, we find the two, not only in love
with each other, but one of them, the
girl, newly in love with America rather
than with old Spain. "And so Steven
and Consuelo lived in the land of the
Red Trails end and built for the COM
ing of the empire from the East. Though
the trail was crimsoned for quarter
of q century afterward with the blood
of pioneers, and the prairies encarna-
dined with the dying buffalo, still the
silver caravans came" The feel OF
history is in this beautifully simple
story of a corner of the Great West.
LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. By
Washington Irving. Illustrated by
Arthur Rackham. Philadelphia
David Mckay Co.
| T READ it again last night. Never
with deeper enjoyment. Well worth
keeping in mind Is this legend of the
Dutch corner Of New York State, writ
ten by the smooth hand and sly humor
of one of the best loved of our earlier
writer's. Good history is here, the his
tory Of local customs, Of the common
ways Of life among our forbears. Good
literature is here and children, e if let
alone and not crowded into it by a
taskmaster, have a deep sense of the
worth while as against the worthless
So, let them take this book and having
done so, leave them with it in the peace
of spontaneous enjoyment. 1t is a
beautiful volume. Arthur Rackham was
the inspired man, surely, when he re-
created Ichabod Crane, when he set the
headless horseman out o. nights to
scare almost to death the people OF
Sleepy Hollow. and to settle, for good
and all, the hopes Of Ichabod reaching
out after pretty Katrina Van Tassel
A book to have for ones own. It is
30 beautiful In both looks and behavior
y y X \
lust word by the way: Two novels
of excellent worth. already in cir
culation. have been given the distinc-
ton OF holiday externals by their pub
fishers. They deserve 1t, as they de-
serve also an increasing tribute from
steadily growing crowd Of readers.
One of these novels is Blowing
Weather" by John T. Mcintyre (Stokes) !.
The other Is Drums" by James Boyd
(Scribner). Both deal with the early
years of American life, deal with 1t in
accuracy, In a spirit of intense drama,
in the colors of high adventure Here
is history of the immediate and endur-
ing sort. Both of these romances will
grow in use and popularity. They win
be going concerns long after the tide
Of erotic nonsense has faded away out
| of current reading