14
BOOKS
'SHE,"
H. RIDER HAGGARD. AND HIS ART.
of
of
The death this week of Sir E. Ridder Haggard makes. the fol lowing from a fernt issue "John London's Weekly," more than passing interest; When the Rudyards cense from
Kipling
And the Haggards Ride #o
more
the home of Thomas Hardy's fancy. And since nobody knows much about Central Afrien, fancy may be free there, and may riot nt its will
THE FORMULA.
I suppose that the most popular of all the Rider Haggard stories are "She" and "King Solomon's Mines" and its sequels, The Rider Haggard formula is a simple one, Imagine an teknown and cerit country in the heart of Africa, a sort of mysterious. Ruritania,
It is many years since . K. S. Link the life of its people in some wrote these lines, but the time is strange way with the life of the not yet. It may be that the Rumodern world. Send two or three yards do not Kipling quite typical English adventurers inte effectively as they did. but the this strange country, season with Huggard's still Ehle to bookstall magic and serve hot with thrills, victory, Sir R. Rider Haggard and there you are. But remem- was born in 1856. His first book, ber that you would not be there at "Cetywayo and His White Neigh all if the cook, were not
artist gifted Seith bours," was published more than siderable forty yourS ago, and "King genuine imagination,
a con-
Sir B. Rider Haggard's success is due to the fact that, above all
Solomon's Mine" male hin famous in 1885, Since then almost every year has seen a other people in the world, the novel from his pen, and he has English are a nation of adven- just finished another Allan Quarturers,The foundations of the termain story which will be pub
ished by Messi's Hutchinson early next year.
45
British Empire were laid by fidgety Elizabethians, unable to-1 stay quietly and comfortably in their Devonshire homes and com- | Sir It Rider Haggan ispelled by the iter for change and master story-teller. If his stories excitement to make perilous are always made to pattern, it is journeys round this world in a pallern which he has himself rumped and horribly uncomfort. invented. According to the old
able ships. Romans, something new is always. coming out of Africa. But Sir H. -Katar-Huggard. Having oneerlis- covered something comparatively
new in romance in Africa, ren- tinues with infinite address. like a sort of literary conjurer, to bring the same good old thing, varied and modified, out of his African hat.
In his way, he ja as "regional novelist,
Hardy himself.
much a Thomas
He went out to South Africa. when he was a boy of nineteen as secretary to the Governor of
Nalat, ecupying other official positions during the years that followed. Central Africa is the home of his Fancy, as Wessex is
j
Nowadays, while it is given to f¢W44----}+4 {[A!$¢ }**€¢ifl66%{O!; trips to the North Pole pr for ex- peditions, after treasure in the centre of South America, the Great War was a complete, demon stration that the love of adven- ture remains a dominant charac- teristic of the English.
THE CHINA
the
MAIL.
So
beard and hair-altogether a whomsoever can fit a few hoursd magnificent specimen of with colour and adventure. higher type of humanity. Nor one rejoices that Sir H. Rider. did his form belie his face, Haggard's pen is still busy. Ride have never seen wider, shoulderson, Sir Knight, ride on or a deeper cheat,
Add to this that Sir Henry was infnitely chivalrous and courage- ous, a preus chevalier, and who could imagine u more ideal adven- turer Allan Quartermain him- self is equally attractive small, withered, yellow-faced man of sixty-three with thin hands large brown eyes, a head of grizzled hair cut short and stand- ing up like a half-worn scrubbing brush-but, at the same time, "the ablest man, the truest gen tleman, the firmest friend, the finest, sportsman, and, I believe, the best snot in all Afrien."
"SHE"..
The attraction of adventures largely depends on the character of adventurers, and in this re- spect Sir H. Rider Haggard is certainly a deft creator.
--S..D..
ANATOLE FRANCE.
HOW THE MASTER WORKED.
[YESTERDAY'S SOLUTION.
ABCAM
COO20
O ALTER AXIOM a LARK TAJTE KOLE OUR ETHEA RAD DRAWER E TIRADE SAGE BLY
LEA DEFER PEN SBAN LING "AWE YVELO QUEL
GRASER D IND
SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1925,
CHINA MAIL'S CROSS-WORD PUZZLE.
(These cross-word puzzles have been made by experts but our readers are warned to watch out for occasional - M phonetic spellings, such as harbor, plow, and altho.)
}
2
3 14
5
16.
7
1B
10
NAN
12
15
16
..
113.
20
24
ACHE BARGE V.EASCO ERAK
ARRAS
TOP
* nm like Renun. The dubbor of The Life of Jesus' used to scribble down something or other, The and send it to the printers. pools were rotitied to him once, wice," thrice. The fifth proof begun to look like Benau biriself.. As for me, it is after the sixth insist us many as oight proofs. wordy like a kind of leitmotiv. If proof and often the seventh. I
In without imagination, but not it offends you, it probably is not My mostin is right place. Repeat the without palieneo. valible aids to work are paste and word, change the place of the sen Scissors... .* Inspiration' comea, to ·Fence, **
And, to Brousson's ma purely. My pen has nothing | munzemens, he took a huge pair of veal, i da u S It trots ancient paper scissors, und proceed- along. I have never felt the ed to gut up the proofs of the first "The introduction to his stories always excites the curiosity of the of work then, I write thapter of his "leaume d'Are" sen
lloriously.
tende by sentence. Then he pot render. "She"". högins in the
So Antole Prince" explains to the chapter together again, 5tting, at Cambridge of one his secretory, Brousson, and be in adjusting, separating, combining. rooms Ludwig Horace Holly, an abortun tells us how this muster writer casting and recasting a paragraph mally ugly young man: To him used to work. First, in his ascend-as often as thirty times. Vic, comes his friend Vincey, who is ing, aggressive handwriting betory," he cried it length. The
Vincey
rapidly wrote down, on any surup sentences that came last were now dying of consumption.
first. has made Holly the guardian of af paper his thoughts as they came, his only son, and he astounds him The emowl, the wisp of paper, wont
sight to the printers,
with the statement :—
This boy will be the only repre- sentative of one of the most ancient families in the world, that, is. se Tur as familles, can be, trayed. You will laugh at me when I say it, but one day it will he proved an you beyond a doubt that my sixty-fifth or sixty-sixth lineal ancestor was an Egyptian priest of Isis, though he was him- self of Greek extraction and was enel Kallik rates.
THE MYSTERIOUS SHERD, 'Does not that whet the appetite! And one must per force read on to be intrigued by the mysterious sherd of Amenar tas, to discover Ayesha, "She who must be obeyed," thousands of years old and yet young and Lentiful, and greedy to share the adventures until the very, last,
thrif. She is indeed a very
üne yarn.
י
Sir. H. Rider Haggard has most of the qualities demanded of a writer of romance. To mention one thing, he can describe a fight
¦
14
When the best, proofs were no- truck be emphasized certain brute bere and there. A biographical detionary. For mstance, supplied him with the bald statement that
With the fifth set of proof came the verification of epithets. Others, said Anatole France, muude all the force of their sentence depend on the verb. To took the simplest, the most childlike the one that indicated movement best. "But I am careful about my adjectives.
rain, ladly of the Midille Ages
I na of Voltaire's opinion. was rich aid of good renown.
Flat and insipid like a pancado,'" Mthough the adjective agrees was his verdiet, and he took a in nabor and geler with the pleasure in providing de sentence in the noun and the adjective with sting as the lady The- | do not always agree.""
The sixth ronddle was rich, she was said to he
proof of good renown.'
Barned, nod tow he ne
longer suppressede With further sets of proofs came fachled; he
"Bi- new-corrections, This time i was Ari
patisserie he the wedding only the uprooting of warped his secretary, patis- "whn" and "which" and "whose the artifak, the adventi and whom Banish the semi-ins the meringue that ill colon, torx," he directed his scere- Comments how poor the cake is un- ary. it whe admirably suited to dermath the hideous stucén an age of compliments.... It in garland that thinks it can transform dicat as if the period sen- The horet into place."--Fe, too, bener. This is the age of the wens in for pâtisserie, at one time. phenatic letter and the telegraph. The wanted to be picturesque. But Whenever your ena; shorten the wet-how, Guerre à la pâtisserie!
And one always can. tree, Which is the best sentence? The shortest. Beware of sentences that are too ample, too melodious,
you to sleep."
Another set of proofs was return-
declared Anatole synonyms," France. If you see a word re- | pented in my writing," he told his secretary, "don't strike it out and sadistitute a synonym. I have had
Sir H. Rider Haggard invents with the best, Who can forget They rock you first and finally send
heroes built on the model of Amyas Leigh, the sort of hero
the last great fight on the marble staircase of the ginnt Zulu,
And so on, to his conclusion. You are astonished?" he said to Brousson when he first explained his method of work. And no doubt we, like Brousson, have imagined their 'whole pagea, whole chapters
me by inspiration.
That case,
that no Englishman. can resist. Umslopogaus, armed with his ed. "There are no such things as that grace, that lightness of touch. I
Sir Henry Curtis, made famous in "King Solomon's Mines" - und "Allan Quartermain," is the ideal
herd:
mighty battle-axe Inkosikaus? He is a poor creature who does not thrill-when-he reads it.
This is grey and often a dull
Calm, powerful face, clear-cut features, large grey eyes, yellow world, and gratitude is due to weighty reasons for repeating the
LAST CHANCE TO BEE
MME, AND MƆNS DORROS
IN THEIR WONDERFUL,
SONGS and DANCES
also
f
EUGENE O'BRIEN
ira
WORLDS APART”.
(An Interesting Drama in 6 reels)
FINAL SHOW TO DAY, 5.15 & 9.15 p.m.
STARTING SUNDAY TO WEDNESDAY
AT ALL SHOWS
AN UP-TO-THE-MINUTE DRAMA OF LOVE AND PIRATES
{{
WILLIAM FOX
..presents
THE ELEVENTH HOUR
4
WITH CHARLES JONES, SHIRLEY MASON AND A GREAT CAST.
This super feature is the climax of all melodramas because it embodies the thrills of a thousand pictures. Its thrills out-thrill the thrills of a dozen ordinary melodramas. Its thrills comprise the romantic thrill, the demon thrill and the action thrill,
Its thrills aro found' on new ideas, different stunts and amazing daring.
also
JACK DEMPSEY
in
"ALL SWELL ON THE OCEAN"
(The Fifth of the "FIGHT and WIN
serles')
WORLD THEATRE
SCREENLAND.
THE ELEVENTH HOUR.”
That there is a special Pro- vidence protecting the daring motion picture players is demon- strated again in The Eleventh Hour," Bernard Durning's pro- duction of Lincoln J. Carter's most exciting melodrama, in which Shirley Mason and Charles Jones co-star. This sensational William Fox feature, which comes to the World Theatre for four days ran commencing Sunday, is studded with hair-raising thrills "that unfold in breathless success
sion. in on of the daring scenes,, Charles Jones swings head fore most from a ladder suspended from a flying hydroplane and catches Shirley Mason up in his arms from
a motor boat as he
speeds by her. Not satisfied with this stunt you get a semi-close- up of Shirley and Jones climbing the swaying ladder until they reach the safety-if such it can be called of the plane. This scene was not rehearsed. It was too hazardous. Some ten odd. cameramen were in position to
shoot the action and what they got is one of the most thrilling stunts ever enacted on the silver sheet.'
Lincoln J. Carter, the melodramatist who has been thrilling the public with a varied assortment of imaginative action dramas, always dreamed of the day when he would smash the limitations of the stage and pre. sent his public with stunting realism. William Fox was the enchanter who brought his
dreams to fruition... When con- tributing to the stage Mr. Carter laboured with the conception of means than with the evolution of "onds. He would evolve a bril- liant melodramatic plot, and to his consternation find it imprac tical for the stage: So he put these visionary webs on his shelf, where they collected dust until William Fox pierced their screen possibilities.
ALL SWELL ON THE
OCEAN."
I
"Every man is a potential world champion in one field of sport or. another," the popular heavy- weight champion of the world,. Jack Dempsey, announced recent- ly to 'the sporting writers in the east, after witnessing the contest between Firpo and Wills at Boyles Thirty Acres. "He may not be a consistent performer, but considering the countless numbers of sports which the modern world indulges in," the champion ex- plained," and the factors of age; weight, years and the like, the average man might train up to win one or another title. Whe- ther he would hold it long, is en- tirely another matter."
The champion, who is an ardent follower of modern physical cul- ture methods, also believes in popularizing exercises so that everyone should indulge in such a pastime before breakfast, and also before retiring at night. If more people would do even t limited number of regulation set up exercises regularly each day," Jack continued, "the "doctors would get fewer customers, and the patent medicine makers would concoct less rubbish for the suffering public. Exercise is not the cure-all by any means, but it goes a long way towards giving people the right state of mind, which is a great factor in the everyday battles with life. This is essentially true in the cities where so many people do sedent- ery work, and need to consume a little energy so as to keep their systems in order."
the. Telt of so much labour? Even, so. "One becomes a good writer in the same way that one becomes a good carpenter,"
suid: Anatole France, "by planing one's
sentences,
Dempsey's popularity "is not difficult to explain, when one meets the big, good humoured champion, for he has the genial smile of a schoolboy, and the por sonality which undoubtedly would make him a success on the stage,
· As a result of these factors in his The Eleventh Hour" as a stage.
make-up he was signed by vehicle was overshadowed when Universal Pictures to play the William Fox completed the screen role of "Tiger" Jack O'Day.. version with a number of skilful Two directors were selected to atars. All the fanciful, thrilling produce these feature series, ideas and stunts that were found which is titled "Fight and Win," impractical for the stage were in the fifth of which "All Swell on corporated into the screen adapta, the Ocean," comes to the World tlon, and Mr. Carter upon viewing Theatre to-morrow, Such well- the picture expressed his happi-known favourites as the Univer- ness for the realization of a life. "sal comedian, "Chuck Reisner, and long ambition to see a brain child. Hayden, Stevenson and a number ■ developed exactly as he conceived of other famous players take part
in making these series.
COMING!
117
I
121
22
26
29
130
131
32
34
35
36
37)
38
39
40
142.
44:
24
45
146 147
48
149
50
51 52
53
54
37
58
©THE INTERNATIONAL SYNDICATE.,
SUGGESTIONS FOR SOLVING CROSS-WORD PUZZLES Start out by filling in the words of which you feel reasonably, sure. These will give you a clue to other words crossing them, and they in turn to still others, A letter belongs in oach white space, words starting at the numbered squares and running either horizontally or vertically or both.
HORIZONTAL
1-8lippery
Be-Preposition
7-An open place in 'a wood: 12-Scotch word for "home". 13-Cou
14-The Alpine goat..
VERTICAL
1-A pair of large scissors 2---Musical note:
Colleton
4-Stop
-Man's name
An eating. Instrument
15-inhabitant of Ireland (familiar) A formar French coin
1-Tan pose (abbr).
17—A raliroad: Yahlote.
18-Exlamation of regret.
20-A contrivance for harnessing: 22-A marsh bird
24-A certain kind of Nowardluster 28-A drink
25-A rosu, na of a church 31-Prefix meaning "back; again” 34-Of very high degree 35-Voraus (abbr)
38~Proud.
To: rub particles from
10m Fratix "OH, away"
11-Those driven from country of
home
19—A Southern Gulf State (abbr.) 20-Yea 2-Before
| 23—Suffix denoting condition
27 Prevalling
28-Easily affected by outalde
influences
.29—Part of verb "to be"
-42—-One of a tribe of N. American | 30—To Inquire
Indians
44—A sex north of Germany 40-Function..
32-A welting Instrument 98.EVIT
35—One of several European oning
48-An herb allled' to the lock and 37-A Portuguese and Brazilian:
onlon
50-East in '(abbr)
01-Frequently
68-Prefix, euphonie form of "ad" #4-Unfriendly falling
68—A Middle West Staté fabbr}" 50-Round trips or Jourdaya #7-Topographical engineer (abbr
• &B-A reținue; auite
coin
88A South Atlantic Stata (abbr) -39~Nlake! (sham"aym)
40-Conjuntion
|41---Part of a joint
45 Through (abbr)..........
44—Exlet.
48-Divleton of a Biete (abbr)
-Prefix meaning half; partly"
Verso (abbr). 62-Preposition
(The solucion of the above cross-word puzzle will *} appear in Monday's "China Mail" along with a new cross-word puzzle.)
COMING!
She Was Always A Winner
A
Cosmopolitan Production
THE
COSMOPOLITAN : CORPORATION PRESENTA
The
she
Everything was at her command! But tried the guns of love and found out that she wawa piker. A romaneu of life viewed from.
neer was pierced by cupid's arrow.
LOVE PIKER
·WITH
ANITA STEWART
Diätributed.
by
Goldwyn Cosmopolitan
WATCH FOR ITS OPENING date
WORLD THEATRE.