The Argosy, Vol. 83 No. 1 — page 199: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE LOG-BOOK. 189 his quest leads him, are told by Mr. Cook with graphic power. Don’t miss “ Over a Cliff at Point Firmin.” And if you have any friends in Los Angeles, be sure to write them about this first novel to play up their fastest growing city. “THOSE EYES FROM KARNA”’ BY GEORGE FOXHALL Author of “‘ Why There Was a Murder on Pearl Street” is the new Serial starting next month. “It was a cheerful September noon that Mar- cus Brown came into my office and told me that his father had been murdered and the Green Eyes of Karna stolen.” The foregoing opening sentence from the story is surely enough for me to say of it in the way of piquing interest to know what follows. “Demon of the Whirling Disks,” by James Guyson, a new writer, strikes also a new note in fiction, a note that echoes with a tinge of the Edgar Allan Poe weird- ness. Joseph Ivers Lawrence will be represented.by a particularly strong tale called “The Unforgiving Minute,” and the final instalment of ‘‘ The Star of Adventure ” none of you should miss. It contains the most vivid incident of war, the present war; that I have ever read. If you are not following the story, by all means take it up now, with the aid of the synopsis, if you please, so you will be fully equipped to ap- preciate the stunning after-the-battle scene, with a Frenchman, a German and an American for the sole actors therein. ROASTING NEW YORK I was under the impression that: I went to the other extreme rather than to pat New York on the back in my remarks about the city in the June Log. At any rate, the idea I intended to convey was one of surprise that so many people should wish to undertake long trips to get here, rather than self-gratulation as a native son of Manhattan that such should be the case. Yet here comes Mr. Barry taking up the cudgels for Chicago in great shape, just as if I had started in to make invidious comparisons. Noth- ing was further from my intentions. As a mat- ter of fact, New Yorker though I am, I’m fond of Chicago, am quite sensible of its many good points, and shall welcome the next chance of making a visit there. Meanwhile, you readers will doubtless enjoy Mr. Barry’s letter. It’s a knock, but for once the story-writers get a rest, and New York City must stand the blows. Although written at a hotel in Chicago, our corfespondent evidently belongs now to the City of the Angels, of which you are to read in our novel next month. Los Angeles, California. In your Arcosy Log-Book of June, you invite opinions of New York City, especially regarding the desire of every one to some time visit the metropolis. Your city is, undoubtedly, a won- derful place, and many there are with a strong desire to visit it. New Yorkers themselves are notedly untraveled, and therefore more or less narrow-minded and monumentally egotistic as regards their city. Metropolitan Museum, churches, To him who has traveled the globe, New York does not appear the great Mecca which it seems to the man from the cross-roads on his initial trip. After one has seen Chicago, for example, a trip to our wonders of the West would be more advantageous from a standpoint of pleasure. I found more of interest in Tokyo, which you tabulate in your paragraph of com- parative populations. As a place of residence I find Los Angeles vastly superior for comfort and pleasure. For industry does not Chicago hold greater inducements? Chicago pioneered in skyscrapers, is first in point of “L” road mileage, under- ground, freight, and steam-road suburban serv- ice. Its parks and driveways are superior to New York’s. Your population seems largely composed of the extremely rich and the very — poor classes, with the preponderance favoring the latter. Chicago represents the great middle class. As a seaport, Liverpool, Hong Kong, and others are larger in point of naval traffic. Aside from a few institutions, such as your Grand Ter- minal, can be equaled elsewhere. New York by no means has the largest or best of every- - thing, even for the United States. In popula- tion and as a money center alone does it lead. Personally, a week of New York suffices me. Other places have their admirers. San Francis- cans say: “Every one loves Frisco.” . In Los Angeles I am constantly meeting people who find Southern California the only place to live. Other towns have everything needful which can be found in “little old New York.” I have no wish to decry New York’s great- ness, but the largest thing in it is the vanity and egotism of its natives. A man is by no COMMICLOO® (Cc S (C@