Tue SnepHenn or te Hunts, By Harold Bell Wright. (Hodder ani Stoughton).
This is one of the American books that, having charmed many to a tear in the land of its birth, is setting out to claim the hearts of the British public. And it is likely to go a long way towards success as so many other books have done that have crossed the Atlantic from West to East. it keeps close to thie simple things of human nature, placed among primitive conditions that have been beyond the reach of the jade ed Englishman for centuries. It is an attractive change from the scenes of conventional life to watch hero, heroine, good angel and conspiring villain gallop along rails through the mist, or clamber up rocky fastnesses, either to bring a blessing or a curse, The book has indeed what will be a weakness in the eyes of some, an idyllic character, that reminds one of "The Sky Pilot" or "The bonnie Brier bush." The author evidently believes with George (Meredith that When we let Romance go we change a sky for a ceiling." This kind of art has its dangers. It gets away from life when it makes its heroes consist of "sugar and spice and all that's nice." while its villains are compounded of "slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails.' And when admiration lights up the scene rather than "the dry light of reason" it tends to exaggera~ tion of an almost mystical kind. This hero. for instance, did not hesitate to throw large men over wagons if they stood in his way, and yet in a conflict with armed desperadoes was rash enough to stand in the full moonlight. Of course there is enough of the boy in most of us to enjoy these triumphs over probability, but that other self in us refuses to be pacified. One more complaint concerning a book that will continue to charm many. Why call the heroine "Sammy Did Mark Twain begin the trick' when he called the girl in "Tom Sawyer" Benny? None the less it is a thoroughly wholesome book leading to a happy conclusion, rich with. local. colouring at the hands of one' who
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.