VAGABONDING DOWN THE ANDES.*
Tnouou the comparative serenity of Mr. Franek's vagabonding in South America would seem to belie the reputation of that country for loud excursions and alarums, we cannot agree with him. that "South America is atrociously safe." On his own. showing, it is only sala at intervals, and unhappily for hint- er happily according to the taste of the reader—he always arrived at some otherwise disturbed area in the interval. Danger was always just over or not yet begun :— "In Mexico I marched peacefully about between two falling empires. In Guatemala I strolled nonchalantly among Estrada Cabrada's band of hired' assassins. In Honduras I chatted with the leaders of the. latest revolution. In COlombia I met many cripples of the.eivib war but recently ended. In Ecuador Tfotmd • peaoe and lathy in the very streets through lc an ex- resident and is henchman had been dreg to death a. beloved "'Bath and West" • r41040.diAV Do,cn tla dueler. BY Harry A. rraat4. .1.Sutloa; T. Fisher joi•Jaelrentz,nfoni. rzsree bffs. By ThmeAs F. Plowman. Lostbst Pls. seta few months before. In Peru all was love and brotherhood—) until after I left. In the Bolivian Chaco wild Indians wiped out a company of soldiers not a hundred miles from where I was passing in placid. unconcern. In the Paraguayan capital I sat with the man who not a year before had captained a particularly bloody coup (Mat. In Brazil I passed through two sections virtually in anarchy, and in one of its State capitals watched a -riot that came perilously near being a revolution. In Venezuela. I strolled serenely through the very ranks of revolters mere days before the leader and many of his band were killed."
Mr. Frank's own adventures are concerned chiefly with the dis- covery of lodgings—of any description—and natives willing to carry his baggage, for his vagabonding bad nothing super- ficial about it, and nothing to do with expensively equipped exploration parties. For the most part he travelled on foot, and what locomotion he used was generally of the local type and the reverse. of luxurious. This method of travel, gave hint excellent and unusual opportestitice of observing the life of tho picturesque Andean people, and of exploring many a mountain town or village or some forgotten city of Ecuador or Peru, and the results of his observations, given in much ore full of interest. The book is illustrated with over one hundred and seventy excellent photographs.
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