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Show r:.-.L a crcr.T. ,he rr.crt welcome o;t of the lite f -i, because' of the most r.ativ ly .' rlcan and the most strenuous t ni v i.o'.escir.e. is r. L. Nairn's "The r:.:3 C.cse" (McCIure, Phi':!rs & Co.). This Is a Co!ora3o mining story of -the real modern sort, not an adventurous Torrance To-rrance cf Bret Hartlaa heroes, but a hard, matter of fact novel about an industry in-dustry -which has almost forgotten the I !eturesque amateurishness of the lone prospector -and become, .like other industries, in-dustries, a. business of machinery and capital, cf chicanery and strikes. The miners have still the old flawless flavor cf the West, -with their handsome dialect dia-lect and ostentatious hip guns, but It Is the capitalist company, the educated superintendent and the labor union agi-. agi-. tator who run the show and supply the trouble which formerly centered In the gin saloon and the hold-up.- , " s The Rainbow mines were equipped ' with a hundred stamp mill and all the modern paraphernalia and theJ Blue. Goose was the .star salQbn of a consid-mining consid-mining village. "Under the floor of f Ce Goose was an illicit smelter, where . ierre.the saloonkeeper, converted Into itigots the crushed ore and rich, quarts cL'ally stolen from mill and mine by a considerable proportion of the miners. This leakage and the careless wast of material and time due to slovenly superintendence su-perintendence and want of system, was found to deduce, the value or the output by $13 on the ton, a leakage which the richest mine could not stand for long, and a new superintendent Is sent out, . who quickly puts a stop to the business . conducted In the-cellar of , the Goose. Then Pierre, with the foreman and' the inevitable .demagogue, conspire to make - things uncomfortable :Jor Flrmatone, ,' Their final attempt is to hold up a consignment con-signment of $50,000 worth of Ingots on Its way . to the express office and to make it appear that the superintendent himself has stolen it. . t -'The clever rascality of the conspirators conspira-tors Is matched by the resolution of the youns superintendent, warned by the saloonkeeper's 'daughter 'and doughtily seconded : by ' the prospector,- . Zephyr, who is the most interesting character of the book- The whole story la full of action ac-tion and intrigue of the realest sort, and one baa no hesitation in pronouncing pronounc-ing it a worthy companion to some other books, such as Stewart E. White's "The Biased Trail," which the firm of McCIure & Philips has discovered, with ', rare discrimination, as standing for the most- representative- inspiration ": of American fiction: As a rule of criticism, it should be 'added that the author Is sometimes just - a little sententious In his comments and . "precious" in his epigrams. Like this, : for instance: "However, universal panaceas are not to be. hoped for- 'r.Tn'. marled-fist puts Irritating chips upon swaggering - shoulders and the unresentful. turning Xc mitten cheefcs is conducive to a i ,'tty growth of gelatinous nlncom-jxops." nlncom-jxops." But taken as a whole, Mrj Na-' Na-' son's style is as vigorous and clean as his Imagination. |