THE FOOL'S PARADE. By John W. Vandercook. (Harper. 7s. 6d.)—So
very attractive is the get-up of this book, so tasteful and solid its binding, and so excellent the printing, paper and illustrations, that one is inevitably reminded of the poor array in which a great number of books, and novels especially, now come forth. Every other publisher should look upon The Fool's Parade and determine in future to emulate its virtues. Matter as well as appearance the book has, in six vivid, sympathetic and well-written stories. The setting in each case is in the tropics, and only the first, and in some ways the best, tale concerns white men alone. Here is a grim and gripping story of the escape of five convicts from the prisons of Cayenne through swamps and jungle, racked with hunger, beaten down to the last ounce of endurance. Another tale deals with a strange, 'ill-assorted and tragic marriage. One sketches with singular economy a study of a negro chieftain feverishly clutching the remnants of power that white civilization is automatically filching from him, and the last very short story of all gives a poignant glimpse of the submerged and humble negro. Alto- gether a book to acquire, to read and to handle with pleasure.
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