26 



THE STATE REVIEW 



Books That* Are Prinked 



"THE SPOILERS," by Rex E. Beach, is a 

 story of Nome, when Nome was a city of 

 beginnings, with no past nor assured future, 

 but a feverish present. Greed, lawlessness 

 and untamed nature wax rampant, and tardy 

 justice is only wrested from the spoilers by 

 pluck, reckless courage and uncommon fistic 

 ability! This is aptly called "a man's book 

 for men," a title which is justified by the 

 dozen hair-lifting scenes of violence. Many 

 of the facts which are actual, will be familiar 

 to readers who have seen the recently cur- 

 rent articles in the 'Booklovers' on The 

 Looting of Alaska, but this takes nothing 

 from the interest. 



When one reads, "There's never a law of 

 God or man north of 53," and the hero's, 

 "What I want, I take," he is m possession of 

 the spirit of this exciting narrative. Glen- 

 Ister is the typical frontier hero; daring, 

 athletic and successful; his partner, Dextry, 

 is of no type but his own, for which we 

 should be thankful. He has an individuality 

 as unusual as it is refreshing. Altogether, 

 he, the Bronco Kid and Cherry Malotte are 

 interesting, if unconventional, acquaintances. 



There is no lack of action; on the con- 

 trary, there is lack of that respite from 

 violent emotion which alone keeps one from 

 surfeit. Mr. Beach's style is at all times 

 photographic in definiteness and his atmos- 

 phere is as blinding in effect as the glare of 

 Africa. Even if he leaves nothing to the 

 imagination, we forgive it and pardon the 

 brutality of some pages, because he writes 

 vigorously of what he knows well. 



NERO, by Stephen Phillips, justifies the 

 eagerness with which it was anticipated. 

 The historical Nero, shadowy and cruel, is 

 re-created and becomes a living personality. 

 Whether he or the traditional Emperor is 

 true to fact is comparatively unimportant; 

 whether he is humanly possible or artisti- 

 cally consistent is vital to appreciation of the 

 drama. In our opinion, Mr. Phillips has 

 created a personality which is actual and 

 interesting c.uite apart from its poetic set- 

 ting. From the moment, when, as "Em- 

 peror of peace," he declares "divinest 

 clemency" we follow him to that mad hour 

 of frenzy when burning Rome seems, to his 

 maddened brain, "but awful vengeance of 

 the dead." Seneca, who throughout the 

 drama serves as Greek "chorus" has fore- 

 boding intuition of what may be, when he 

 says: 



"Suppose this aesthete made omnipotent, 

 Feeling there is no bar he cannot break, 

 Knowing there is no bound he cannot pass; 

 Might he not then despise the written page, 

 A petty music, and a puny scene? 

 Conceive a spectacle not witnessed yet, 

 When he, an artist in omnipotence. 

 Uses for colour this red blood of ours, 

 Composes music out of dreadful cries, 

 His orchestra our human agonies, 

 His rhythms lamentations of the ruined, 

 His poet's fire not circumscribed by words, 

 But now translated into burning cities, 

 His scenes the lives of men, their deaths a 

 drama, 



His dream tne desolation of mankind, 

 And all this pulsing world his theatre." 



After five years when this dreamy, beauty 

 loving boy has become the careless, sensuous 

 egoist, fatuous in conceit and intolerant of 

 anything but his own desires, Seneca pictures 

 the change in 



"The boy who dreamed so hign 

 Of mightiest empire and unmeasured peace, 

 All I had taught him lost; by flattery sapped, 

 Jeweled and clothed as from the Orient, 

 He sings and struts with dancers and 



buffoons." 



Nero, himself urged by this counsellors to 

 assume control of affairs, too long directed 

 by Agrippina says, 

 "I cannot, sirs, so suddenly return 

 Unto life's dreary business, or descend 

 Out of the real to the unreal; from that 

 Which is to be that which is not. Leave me 



still. 

 Fiom art to empire is too swift a drop." 



This self-analyist, exhausted in possibility 

 of all emotions except fear had still "great 

 capacities for terror;" this and the quick 

 appeal to his fancy by the chance sugges- 

 tions of "fire," from the poet's verse, suggest 

 the closing tragedy. 



Agrippina, mother of Nero, from that de- 

 liberate murder of her imperial husband, 

 which left his throne vacant for her son, is 

 dsliberate Fate, force of circumstance in 

 fact, for Nero. Power was tne world's best 

 gift for her and her ambition, 



"to make 



Her son a toy, a puppet, while she pulls 

 Unseen the secret strings of policy." 



Imperial in t-iis passion she is thwarted 

 in influence by Poppea who, with ner arro- 

 gance of beauty, stirs to flame the same 

 smouldering fire in Nero's heart. These 

 women stand out brilliantly in the drama 

 and yet leave no stronger impression than 

 Acte, with her shadowy suggestion of self- 

 surrendering faith. 



Throughout the dreadful progress of 

 events, the growing and deliberate self-will, 

 cruelty and murder, there is but one natural 

 and human moment, a moment of genuine 

 and deep remorse. He has, with the arro- 

 gant cruelty of a heart, dead to all but self- 

 gratification, compassed the death of his 

 mother and in one awful moment, finds him- 

 self less Emperor than son and "seized by 

 primal pangs." 



"O, all the artist in my soul is shattered, 

 And I am hurled into humanity, 

 Back to the sweat and heart-break of man- 

 kind." 



Remorse preys on a mind already disordered 

 until Rome in flames is seized by him as his 

 mother's revenge and its loss, his atonement; 

 "This fire is not the act of mortal mind, 

 But is the huge conception of a spirit, 

 Dreaming beyond the tomb a mighty 

 thought." 



As the flames flash more fiercely, in an im- 

 passioned outburst he cries: 

 "For now I am free of thy blood, 

 I have appeased and atoned, 

 Have atoned with cries, with crashings and 

 with flaming. 



Thy blood is no more on my head; 



I am purged, I am cleansed; 



I have given thee flaming Rome for the bed 



of thy death! 

 Agrippina!" ROWLAND. 



THE SPOILERS, by Rex E. Beach. Har- 

 per's. 



NERO, by Stephen Phillips. The MacMil- 

 lan Co. W. M. Palmer Co. 



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