Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 74

ROCIIESTEU DEMOCRAT AND CIIHOXICLE. SUNDAY. APRIL 2S. 1920 Book The World's Greatest Faker Journey Into Classic Greece 6F Adventure That Thrills A Lively Tale The Prince of Quacks Here Sappho Sang, of Love "Cagliostro," by Johannes von Guenther. Published by Harper Brothers, New York.

Prire $3.50. "Home of Nymphs and Vampires," by George Horton. Published by the Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis. Price $3.50. "The NX'olves ef Chaos," by Hr-oM MarCrath.

Published by Douhleday, Doran Company, Garden City, N. Y. Price $2. CUTTY CI. AY, that Intrepid American soldier and secret agent, middle-aged and wealthy but at III unable to leave the life of luring hazards.

Is again the main figure in a new Harold MrGrath story, "The Wolves of Chaos." The title refers to the Bolshevist and the ruin they are supposed to have wrought, and the action takes place at first. In Russia and then In Paris, where Bolshevist plotters and terrorists, brutal, unscrupulous and insane, are represented as numerous and powerful. With great craft and daring "Cutty" does the unbelievable thing of escaping from that grim and fatal prison In Moscow known as the Petrovski Barracks. No one else ever did. By a miracle he makes his way through many perils to Warsaw, taking with him, unexpectedly, a desperate and beautiful young woman refugee who turns out to be a countess.

He goes on to Pails and there finds Kitty, whom he thought he had always loved, who had married the countess' refugee brother In America, who was made a widow when Bolshevist agents In the United Stales killed him and who Is now In Paris hunting In agony for her little son, stolen by these same agents. "Cutty" discovers that that insane adventuress, Anna Karlovna, has the child and plans to raise him as a debauched creature. Thin begins a long, dangerous duel to get the boy from the dutches of this woman and her cruel band. Begins, too, with the arrival of the countess, a duel between her and Kilty for the love of "Cutty." The escape from Russia is the best pait of the story. The Parisian pnrt becomes too plotty and too nearly static, and at the end the promise of "Cutty" doing hntlle valiantly is hardly made good.

Hut all of it Is entertaining as written in the admirable romantic style of Mr. Mc-Orath. Oh, yes! "The Drums of Jeopardy" figure again. Guess Again I had recently moved Into a new neighborhood and was Invited to a bridge party one afternoon to meet my new neighbors. On my return home another woman and I were discussing character reading.

I bragged about being able to judge people. While still talking on this subject we saw a dirty child playing in the mud. I said. one look at that child and anyone would know she comes from low family and has had no bringing up" Imagine my embarrassment when the woman with me remarked, "That Is my child." Curney Slade. Published by rederick A.

Stnkei Company, New York. Price $2. THIS is an outrageous story, but a clever one. You divide your time between a corner of the Strand, a pearling station in Australia, a masked bail in London, and the bottom of the sea. But in whatever outlandish place Mr.

Siade derides to put you, you have a live'y time and you enjoy the experience. The conversations are highly ridiculous. No one on the fare of the earth, or at the bottom of the sea either, ever made such te-marks as thrse, but you must admit that they are jiving words, crackling with wit. The characters are a most amazing lot geniuses and beauties, but they dance and dive and make love with riotous originality. The outcome of the story, of course, ia unforgiveahie.

It outrages your sense of proportion, and anyway, it doesn't end the way you expected it to end. Rut it is a clever story, leaping along at high speed, jolting you Into laughter, and riving you, on the whole, a merry good ride for your money. Save a Lot of Trouble My work is to figure the interest on serial bonds, and a few days ago I had a hatch of them coming due June 1. That night I dreamed there was an error of one month in the interest, and awoke from the dream. I dismissed it from my mind anil went to sleep.

About, two hours Inter the same dream awoke me and I got up. switched on the light and made a note to look it up the next day. I was not troubled any more in my sleep, but the first, thing I did after reaching the office wa to examine my figures, and sure enough, I had only figured 1ST days instead of IMS days, and would have had a bad mess, except for the lucky M. F. also wrote several books and short stories upon whirh his fame will rest, and proved himself a poet of real merit.

In 1913 he went to Mexico where he disappeared from view. Eventually It was shown that he had been killed by Pancho Villa. This tells little. He was an embittered man soured by misfortune, treated badly by fate and by his fellow men. He fought shams and hypocrisy stoutly, but was wounded as much by the bar lash of his own sword as by the weapons of his opponents.

It is well that, this sympathetic portrait has been drawn by a friendly hand before the memory grows too dim to be areurate. And it Is to be hoped that it will serve to bring after death that general recognition Ambrose Fierce denied him while living. The book is well written and i's accuracy may he depended upon. CAGLIOSTRO! What a flood of memories mention of the name releases. And how they whirl dizzily In a vortex or which unhappy Marie Antoinette Is the renter.

And what a mixture Is represented by (he human element! In the drama whirh merged Into the tragedy of Ihe French Revolution. The prlnre nf the churrh and the prinre nf quarks, the nfftrnuring of the gutter and royalty at It most myal height, greedy jeweler, knaves nd thieves, with Ihe most beautiful of queens and not one loyal friend to her In this mess. What a medley of farts and fancies and hallucinations; such a fantasy as one could hardly find outside of bedlam. This Is what the name of Cagliostro conjures vip from the deeps of memory, even as he conjured up confusion and dishonor and Ihe shadow of death from the depths of social depiavlty In Europe of the late lHt century. It would he crediting him with too much power to say that the French Ttevnlu'lrn was a product nf his dark magic; hut It Is true that his Influence was In that direction, while the affair of the diamond necklace.

In which he was Indirectly concerned, hastened the event. Record of Rascality Any biography of Caglloslro would hava to he a record of rascality almost exceeding the range of the human imagination. Therefore It Is difficult to separate fart from fiction In this life. There is no question that von OuentrW Is romancing at times, but none of what seem to be excursions In that direction are as amazing as the known facts. The life of the self-styled Count Cagliostro is one strong example of truth being stranger than any possible fiction.

There Is one Important matter in which we fancy It possible to detect a marked depnituie from the truth. That. Is where von Guenther hernmrs sentimental over the countess. Hairing two or three Incidents, anil they are made to minister to the necessities of her husband, Countess Cagllostro In this hook Is pictured is a really and soulfully beautiful woman, clean at heart and loyal to her mate In spite of hia quackery. This makes the record more pleasant reading even If probably less truthful.

Knows Ills (art vie Von Guenther knows his Car-lyle. This is manifest more in the way of style than In the subject matter. There are instances where one can almost imagine that he Is reading a quotation from the rynlral Scotchman. But Carlyle'g record Is brief and sketchy compared with this nook. THIS is another fine travel book, but it Is scholarly rather than chatty, witty rather than arrogant, a book about the Isles of Greece rather than about the personal Idiosyncrasies and vicissitudes of the writer.

You would lint know from the hook itself that George Hortnri was United States consul in A'hens, Salonikl, Smyrna and Budapest for 31 years, hut yon would recognize unimpeachable scholarship and authoritative informal ion. Knows His Greece Mr. Horton is intimately familiar with the physical aspect of all the Islands of Greece, and he describes them vividly enough, hut his chief interest is in their history, their language and liter-ture. the thread of legend that connects the classic myths nf the past with the superstitions and folk lore of the present. It is only when he is done with the practical, guide-hook details, and turns to the literary, the romantic, the legendary, that he throws off his awkwardness of style and becomes delightfully at ease, sympathetic, Imaginative, witty.

Shropshire Romance "Prerirus Bane," by Mary Webb. Published by E. T. Duttnn ct Company, New York. Price $2.50.

M' ARY WRrtR barely lived to see (he first dawn-blush of the fame that was to coma to her writings. Stanley Baldwin, then premier of Britain, read "Frecinus Bane" and wrote a commendatory note that started the book upon a vogue such as few' works have had. Mrs. Webb read the note, realized shortly after that she had truly arrived as a writer, then she died. The poshumous fame that, came to "Precious Bane" created a demand for her other books, some of which, though they languished at the time of publication, seem to discriminating readers equal to the one that brought honor.

All of them have been republished, and now "Precious Fane," after going through six regular editions, is republished entirely with an introduction by Stanley Baldwin. So many have read this moving tale of Shropshire that extended comment would be supei fluous. Those few who have not yet had this pleasure may be assured that they have missed something which they ought to neglect no longer F.ach of the numerous Island has its specialties of religion. superstition, of folk lore. Horton has studied them all, ar.1 wherever possible has trace; hem hack to their origins in th classic myths of Greece.

re. cords the most unusual of the'r weird beliefs, tells a number their fairy stories, translates some of their folk songs an I verses, always with a sympathy and an appreciation that amount' almost to credulity. Scene Are Familiar As we go from Island to we locate the familiar scenes ef ong and story: Ins. the buna: place of Homer; Mitylene, th home nf Sappho; Naxos, where Ariadne wept, for the faithless Theseus; Pelos. the hirthplace, of Apollo; Skyros, where Achilles was hidden away by his mother, Crete, where the Minotaur devours his yearly allotment of youths and maidens; Patmos, where St, John had his divine vision.

We visit the sites of ancient and modern archeologiral excavations. We discuss the mortprn polirical and commercial predicament of the islands. We try to penetrate the psychology of the modem Greek people through an understanding of their past. And though we may begin our studv by looking for the marble hives of ancient Greece, we realize before the end of this fascinating book that she is st marvelously alive in the customs and the beliefs of these romantic modem One Anelc of Crime "Politics anil Criminal Prosecution," by Raymond Moley, Published hy Minion, Balrh Company, New York. Price $2 50.

"HIS is no crusading or fanal iral production, nor it is a a muckraking; excursion. Chief Justire Taft once said. "Th enforcement of criminal law in this country Is a disgrace to mir civilization." Professor Moley took this, not as the text of a rhetorical explosion, but as the basis of a painstaking and conservative examination of conditions. It has been said of it that It In "the authentic story nf law cn-forcement in the United States --its waywanlnesa and its decline with a consideration of current proposals for reform, told by tha foremost authority on the subject." That describes it qui' clearly and accurately. Thos who wish to read a calm ander-rierly discussion of this important subject, will do well to get tha book.

CAGLIOSTRO When Genius Ran Wild and the author gives a decidedly different slnnt to his narrative, The hook Is hugely entertaining If it is not at all limes convincing, the reason may be found In the fart that the truth concerning this astounding ch'onc-ter ran never be known. The history of mankind furnishes nothing like him. Horn Giuseppe Balsamn in Sicily, where he kr.ew hunger and want, and where tie began his career as a successful issciil, as Count Gagllnstro, a mighty magician-h was the original rrjuvenatnr, and he could turn lend to gold, It was believed he ranged Knrope from to England, rearhed the pinnacle of rascality In France, and faded out to a llngeilng death in prison at Rome. "Front of brass" Car-lyle called him, and that de-srilbes him exactly. It la doubtful If any better biography or him will ever be written than this one by von Guenther.

The star of rascaldom was a comet whose course was dim and uncertain and rapid, allowing no cxart study. Theie-forr the memory of him must forever he dim and of hazy outline. Rul he can never be entirely forgotten. Ireland in Ferment "Ihe I. stt September," by Elizabeth Bnwen, Publisher) by Lincoln MacVeagh, the Dial Prem, New York.

Prire $2.50. DURING the recent Irish revolution when property was being wantonly destroyed by the rebels and the Blark and-Tana were hunting thorn down with Indifferent success, the well-to-do people of South Ireland, Knglish and Irish alike, tried to remain neutral, continue their social friendliness and ignore the raiding and burnings as If they did not occur. It was a strange and trying stale of nflaiis. All knew that the crater was seething and might burst out at any time; but their house part ics, barrack dances and social functions were kept up until explosions brought them to a tragic end. With one such group of county people thla novel deals, and is so evidently true to life as seen by one who was a part of It, that the book Is Informing In addition to being Interesting as a story.

The author has other novels to her credit, and Is acclaimed an brilliant by the critics and as enjovable by an extensive cllrntele of readers; and this latest romance will enhance her abundantly merited reputation. JIM. mm 'A In iL. by Adolphe tie Castro. Company, iNcw York.

"Portrait of Ambrose; lishrrl by the Century $3.50. AMONG a comparative few Amhiose Rime has become a legend. There are some to whom his absence from the world come as a relief from an annoying and disturbing influence. others know of him vaguely as "one of those wr iting men." To the great mass of American readers he is tin known, which is their misfortune. This is partly due to a fate whose motions and objects are obscure, the fate which has negatived so much of genius; but it was largely owing to tile nature of the man himself that he never found the recognition he deserved.

He was a fighter whose weapon, was the keen lapirr of satire. While such a weapon angers and hurls thine at whom it is thrust, it is not understood Pub-Price by the rubble; It Is too subtle tor them. They aie a'tiacted by smashing blows which ciisfigurj and lots of blood The Man lc ruled Kven to these this portrait drawn by de Castro, a close friend for more than years, will l. veal the man Pierce, if they will take the time a.nl p.uns to study the pen picture. This at least they owe to and to the man whoso neg ect is unpardonable.

Rime was born In Ohio in He served with nonor in the Union army through the Civil War. loiter he went to California, doing newspaper work in San Francisco. For a time he was in London. Back again, he worked on the Hearst pipers. Pining the course of his life he UNCLE ELBY LAUNDERS Studies in Personality By Clifford McBride iii kM 1,1 I i -1 I 1 JV ii i I -tU mMMM WmMSm fc mSSSd.