20 NOVEMBER 1897, Page 12

Don Balasco of Key West. By Archibald Clavering Gunter. (Routledge

and Sons.)—Don Balasco is a Spaniard who pre- tends to be a Cuban sympathiser, and betrays the cause to which ho is supposed to be devoted. He adds to his enormities by carrying off a party of American citizens, having drugged the crew of a yacht, and seeks to secure the hand of a girl whom he loves at the price of their lives. It seems, according to the author, that an American citizen pleads in vain the Civis Romanus sum to a Spanish officer. The tale, in fact, is written to stir up popular indignation against Spanish barbarities and contemptuous disregard of American rights. Is not Miss Gertrude a little too much of a Juliet for a New York young lady ?