READERS' COLUMN.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1915, Page 6

READERS' COLUMN.

(By James Wortley). DOWN BY THE SiO GRANDE. "Heart of the Sunset," by Rex licaeh, author of ''The Ne'er-do-well," etc. London: Hodder and Stoughtou (per A. S. Brooker, Devon Street). The Texan territory 011 the northern banks of the Rio Grande, which is moie Mexican than American, is a thrilling and fitting setting for the sf.jry which Rex Beach has to tell. Alaire Austin, the capable wife of a drunken stationholder, is the heroine. Brought up in Mexican territory (her father's ranch of La Feria is well over the border) and with the strictness of convent life, she knows nothing much of vourig companionship?. While away in Europe she idolises her only playmate of early childhood, Ed. Austin, and on her return marries him out of hand. Unfortunately for her, his good qualities existed only 111 the imagination, and Mrs. Austin is thrown back on her own resources for companionships and interests. Ed's conduct is so flagrant that his father forces him to give the wife full control of the ranch . This she manages with conspicuous success, and Austin is thus able to have more to spend than is good for him. In his gaming pursuits he becomes mixed up with cattle-lifting companions, and in still more serious political plots with the various Mexican factions over the border In General Longorio we have a skilful portrayal of what has been considered a typical Central American adventurer. Cruel, passionate, revengeful, he makes every one of the illiterate peons bow to his will, and with the promptitude of the Hun he punishes the slightest lack of attention to his orders. But Dave Law, the Ranger, is more than a match for the fiery generallisimo of the Mexican forces, and when the latter doe 3 away with Ed. Austin it is Dave who reaps a r 'eh reward, and not Longorio. Professedly the book gives a great deal of life lived on the border, and if it is at all accurate, there is little to wonder at the tales of j lawlessness we liear of. CAPE COO AGAIN. "Thankful's Inheritance," by Joseph C. Lincoln. New York and London: D. Appleton and Co. (per A. S. Brooker) (Thankful keeps a boarding establishment at Wellmouth in a house left to her by an uncle. Through this house pass numbers of those laughable and lovable characters which cluster about the Cape and dwell in the memory of the many thousands who revel in Mr. Lincoln's books. The laughs are many and hearty, even if Thankful's house is haunted. Captain—l think they must be all captains at Cape Cod —Obed Bangs is just as magnificent a fellow in his way as Cap'n Eri. Poor fellow, he does get keel-hauled, as he* calls it, when proposing to Thankful, but when he doesn't want to make it hard for her and so — but read for yourself: it is spoilt in the telling of it piecemeal. The Old ghost stirs up a lot of excitement, which takes some quelling, and upsets plans that take some adjusting. NOTES. The first edition of Gene Stratton Porter's new book, which came out on August 17, and was recently mentioned in this column, consisted of three hundred thousand copies. From the time the manuscript was received by the publishers, eight months were occupied in arranging, compiling and printing the book. Comment is rife with reference to the rapidity with which cheap editions follow the standard three-and-sixpenny book, even while a book is going strong. This has been amply illustrated just now in the issue of "Freckles" and "The Way of an Eagle" in the shilling nets. Both these books were experiencing growing sales at three-and-six when the cheaper book was published. From a bookseller's point of view this is possibly disastrous, but if the books are good, surely the public, and a much larger public, too, benefit thereby. Only books of general excellence reach the hall-mark of a popular edition, and thus the larger the number of which such books are read the better, for folks will read, if it's only penny illustrated?. In the August Bookman George Sampson writes critically and sympathetically of Samuel Butler, the famed \uthor of "Erewhon." For New Zealand the article has especial attraction, in that it is illustrated with a sketch of Butler's New Zealand home, Mesopotamia station, near Christchureh.