Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-23
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookIouer


to the rope ladder and singing trouba-
dod. plot in medieval love stori So
well recognized is this ! lot that it is
surprising that SO many people con-
tinue reading samples of it indefinitely.
There is a particularly gruesome muir
der in the opening chapter. A famous
detective is called in, and discovers IL
sorts of suspicious circumstances which
the reader knows will Lave nothing to
do with the murderer. The trail viii
grow ! OF only in the last few chapters.
There are several persons in the en-
vironment of the victim who have not
altogether exemplary pasts or who have
motives for hatred which might have
not the murderers. There also is in
the environment sweet, Madonnalike
Wo-.iarl, a '',tlp man, devoted vile,
an upright husband, q lifetime friend, a
philanthropist, q Sunday school teacher,
or lovely young girl. One Of these Is,
OF course, the murderer. A skilled
reader Of mystery stories can almost
unerringly pick out the guilty person in
the first or second chapter by looking
for the one least likely In real life to
nave committed crime. Plots for
stories OF Latin American revolutions
are Q trifle more varied, though there Is
CT siderable sameness about them. There
are always the outgoing and the in
coming dictators, with their adheri1g
plotters. There Is an archplotter, clev-
erer tlan all the rest, who is in his
turn pl tied against and betrayed.
There are dungeons. blown-up railways,
night attacks on haciendas and supply
stations, smuggling of secret papers,
shootings from ambush, jungle scenes,
false messages, and, Of course, q
woman, beautiful, scheming and not too
scrupulous.
Arthur Billiards. Volcano" introduces
many of the stage effects of the con-
ventional romance of Latin American
revolutions, but 1t has also elements of
originality. Its scene is the Republic
of Calboa, whose capital and harbor Is
Conception. mo ships were allowed to
pass into the dock after the evening
shadow Of the fort of Corpus Christi
stretched out across the Narrows and
reached the opposite fortress of the
Moro on the volcanic island of Del
Muerto. that all but blocked the mouth
Of the harbor." Let those who wish get
out an atlas and identify the place.
{ aries. Benton, innocent, but not )
In ocent rs he looks, lands at Concep-
cion on mission which looks very
suspicious to him and would have
tempted no one but a man at the ed
of his resources. His troubles begin
Immediately, and he finds himself
locked up in the court room of the
Acadia and later pacing back and
forth in q dungeon OF the Moro, SUR
veying with horror the instruments of
torture with which 1t Is furnished.
Clever as Benton is, he is something Of
q muddler and would never have eS-
capped from the sadistic Enrico, son of
the dictator, If 1t had not been for his
Haitian servant, Leon, with the timely
assistance OF an eruption of the volcano
Del Muerto. He has abundant oppor-
tunity to discover that the Caribbean
Development Co., by which he has been
sent out to grow oranges on jungle
land, is merely blind for group Of
criminal adventures who are after
buried treasure and securities on the
Benton Is the decoy to draw the atten-
ton OF the present dictator, Jimenez,
while the adventures land in o cove
near the Hacienda Ricardo, equipped
with wrinkled, yellow sketch map,
and make away with the treasure. Ben
tons fate is. Of course, matter OF In
difference to every enc.
= II -
There are several very tense, dra-
matte scenes in "Vo-cano." One is a
night visit through I e jungle Of Ben
ton and Leon to the hut of the voodoo
priestess under gia.t ironwood tree.
Led thither by the beating of the TOM
tom, they find the wiZoned old negress
awaiting them on a rustic throne at the
foot OF the tree. They witness the
and then the charming of the sacred
snake from its bandbox by alf-witted
Negro girl, who dances wildly about in
q trance with the snake coiled about
her. ReaSSured by the ceremony, Leon
sets forth bravely on the desperate en-
terprise before them. But now that he
tBenton) was out of the closeness and
heat of that mystery house, tie clear
air of the night about him, sweet and
clean, he felt little less erlthralled
OF course, he did not believe in this
mumble- tumble. It was hypnotism or
trickery." But 1t was obvious that the
effect on Leon had been very real. His
confidence was exuberant. Once or
twice he stopped and pounded his friend
and master on the back. "It couldn't
have been better. Now we are safe.
We are both friends of the SNAKE" The
climax of the romance Is the eruption
of the volcano Del Muerto. BY q queer
confederation Of circumstances. Benton
Lumpley, chief crook, of the Caribbean
Development Co.: the devilish Enrico
and the fascinating C..rmen Ricardo,
beloved of Benton, are all imnured In
q DUNGEON of the Moro when the most
terrible eruption of Del Muerto ever
known occurs. THE rock heart Of the
mountain ground and groaned deafen-
ingly. A lurid glare, as though all the
sky was aflame, flooded in through the
narrow windows. For a moment the
rending contortions continued, then the
earth noises ceased. Silence-the dread
silence Of fear--held all the world in
awe. From outside there came. family,
shrill shrieks of terror. Then
the 1t shock of all. The solid Stone
floor danced and jerked beneath them.
There was q roar like the explosion of
vast munition dump. Benton was
hurled violently from his cot. Lump
ley, who had been standing up, was
tossed as far as his leg chain would
allow, Carmen was thrown full length
or the aving floor. Above
them there was deafening impact.
There was the rending of masonry-as
cloth ripped. The whole outer wall of
their prison crumpled and fell with q
resounding splash into the Narrows-
pc ed off sheer from the living rock
Il Il 4 X
Volume I of the new Encyclopedias
of the Social Sciences" published dur
ing the past Winter under the editor
ship of Edwin r. A. Seligman and Alvin
johnson, runs ,ly trough the word
Allegiance" There are many volumes
to follow. The publishers announce
meI OF the ground to be covered by
the encyclopaedia includes anthropoi-
ogy, economics, education, history, law,
philosophy, political science, psychology,
social work, sociology, statistics. Prof
E ligman in the introduction defines
the social sciences as those which deal