Evening star., 1947-06-15
MokingFiends'
DownmMexico'
TheHord Way |
>Hdrcourt,
THERE is A TYRANT IN
EVERY COUNTRY
BY Gilbert Neiman. (Hdrcourt
Brace & Co.. $3.)
Reviewed by
CARTER BROOKE JONES.

CARTER BROOKE JONES.
Freddie Conner was straw boss
over a bunch of Mexicans heaving
coal in a Chicago yard. He hated
them because they were lazy and
because he could not understand
their language and their ways. He
thought they also were cowardly
until he got into a, fight with the
one he detested most.
When Freddie, having discovered
that people you pick fight with
don't always observe the Queensberry
rules, got out of the hospital, he had
lost his job. He was blamed for
stirring up trouble, which he GER
tainly did. He hated Mexicans worse
than ever, though he wasn't quite
sure why-it wasn't entirely his
attitude toward the coal crew. He
began to study Spanish evenings and
planned to go to Mexico and find
out what the people actually were
like.
The chance came when he an
swered an advertisement for a
Spanish-speaking chauffeur to drive
a businessman to Mexico. Freddie
didn't speak Spanish yet, nor was
he a college graduate, another
requisite, but he bluffed his way
into the job. Before he and his
uncommunicative employer, Unman,
got to Monterrey, Freddie suspected
that he had signed up with some
kind of racket. How extensive 1t
was, how sinister, he never dreamed.
In Tough Spot.
The husky youth soon learned
that his job of chauffeur was only a
coverup. He was told to pose as
Unman's secretary. That also was
a bluff. He was being tested. If he
made good, by their" standards, he
might have riches. If he failed, he
gathered from whispered conf
dences here and there, he wouldn't
be fired and he couldn't quit; he'd
simply vanish from the earth.
Meanwhile, in Monterrey, in Mex
leo City and in remote town, be-
tween breathless adventures, he was
learning to know the language and
the people. He found it harder and
harder to hate" those people; he
felt ''they were not as degraded as
they seemed to the critical North
American eye," and mot half as lost
as Chicago's automatons." He ended
by liking and respecting them deep
1y, especially the Indians and the
humble castes, with their infinite
patience, their courage and their
generosity.
Freddie's growing sympathy for
the exploited majority led him in
and out of favor with the mysteri-
GUS syndicate he was enmeshed in,
depending on the intrigue of the
moment He discovered, in the end,
that the gang was international in
scope and had the purpose of dom
mating Mexico and seizing its
wealth. Other countries were on
the list. Since the year was 1888,
there were strong fascist influences
and Germans at the helm.
"a Rattling Good Story"
The time came when the young
man repudiated and defied the
higherups On the scene, who worked
for invisible masters. What hap
pened then forms climax no re-
viewer should spoil by disclosing.
Mr.. Neiman has written what used
to be called a rafting good story
This f1rst-person first novel has its
literary faults, surely, but the author
surmounts them with a gusto that
carries you along, with suspense i
that seldom lags.
Mr.. Neiman is enamored of fine, |
f1orid figures of speech, of soaring |
superlatives. And sometimes the
narrative, cluttered with lush Ian
guage, comes to a dead halt. But !
not often. Not knowing Mexico, I
can't say how accurately he has por-
trayed Mexicans, but at least he
has approached them with SYM
pathy and with apparent under
standing. Which is the most you
could expect of newcomer in any
-