Evening star., 1933-01-22

Harry A. Franck New York: The Gen.
tury CO.
| lARRY FRANCK, sometimes called the
! J prince Of vagabonds," has descended from
real vagabonding through South America, Mex
ico the West Indies. China, Japan, the East
Indies, Greece, Turkey and Iceland, to . long
leisurely tour through Great Britain and Ire
land, such as any of us might possibly take at
any time. But we should not be too critical Of
his choice, for after ALL we look over his List
Of books. we are forced to admit that he has
covered nearly every corner Of the world
nearly, but not quite. So we shall still antici-
pate book or perhaps two books, entirely on
Africa. During 16 months of travel in the
British Isles, by all types of conveyance, includ-
ing that most beloved of the hiker, he formed
some opinions which he does not hesitate to
express, being mindful of "the English men
and women who. safely at home again from q
month in New York tell the world what is the
matter with u.s." Yet, he hastens to say, II am
very fond of EnglanS, and on the whole like
the English"
Playing the tramp part of Mr.. Francks
game in seeing the England that tourists do not
see. So he worked his way through Oxford"
not the institution of learning but the town,
and passed a night at spike or municipal
lodging house, where his tobacco pouch and
matches were officially taken away from him by
one attendant at the door and casually tossed
back to him few moments later by another
attendant He explored the London slums SINH
larly and concludes that there is no difficulty
in fooling the English. All you need to do Is to
put on some old clothes drop your 'aitches' or
otherwise depart from correct speech, and say
Sir They have been used for centuries to
judging people by these signs only, used to
dukes who are In appearance and manner shop
boys and to workmen who look physically as
dukes should that it never occurs to them to
peer q bit below the vocabulary" Some of the
subjects selected for description or discussion
are The Land of Little Fires Cornwall and
Tin Nine" This Royal Family Business"
Reading English Newspapers Wheeling In
Wales" Visiting Some Public Schools" and
Lost in Manx Fog" As in his other books
Mr.. Franck conveys considerable information In
pleasant, informal way, without attempting
to 90 far beneath the surface.
ROYAL FLUSH. By Margaret Irwin. New
York: Harcourt, Brace g. Co.
h lot one of the most conspicuous Of the
Stuarts, neither king nor queen, IS the
subject OF this historical novel, in which, the
author tells us, none Of the characters q. . IS
imaginary" The heroine is the Princess Hen
r1etta Anne, daughter of Charles and sister
OF Charles II, whose diminutive name was Mi
nette. At the opening of the story, Minette and
her mother, Queen Henrietta Maria of England
French princess by birth, are in hiding in a
cold, almost unfurnished, vast room of the
Palace Of the Louvre. The child is shivering In
huge bed, under a single thin blanket: the
mother, haggard with dsheveled graying hair
sits at table dips her quill again and again
into an ink-horn and writes-writes-wr
The child falls into restless sleep and is
aroused by the despairing voice of her mother
saying to the English Able Montagu, who has
come to visit her: There is no God" Not long
afterward the news is brought to the Queen
that her petitions to the English Parliament
and her appeals for help to st. Germain no
longer have even faint hope Of success-for
Charles I Is dead "foully murdered" she is
told by Lord Jermyn.
The child Minette is brought up at the French
court of her cousin Louis XIV. marries Philippe,
Duke OF Orleans, brother of the King and be-
comes one Of the most brilliant women Of her
age Royal Flush" differs from most historical
novels In its Semblance of reality Though
much better done and not at all machine made,
1t has something in common with the old-fash-
ioned novels of Louise Muhlbach, who charmed
her generation and one or two succeeding ones
with her hctional accounts of the personal
lives Of Frederick the Great and other Prus-
sian Austrian and French royalties. The COM
mon denominator between those old romances
and this very modern one is the human, per-
sonal treatment Of historical personages with
everyday life. All the different members Of
the interlocking Stuart and Bourbon families
furnish varied characters for this novel which
was q choice Of the London Book Society,"