More original than “Richard Carvel,” more cohesive than “To Have and to Hold,” more vital than “Janice Meredith,” such is Maurice Thompson’s superb American romance, “Alice of Old Vincennes.”  It is in addition, more artistic and spontaneous than any of its rivals.—­Chicago Times-Herald.

12 mo. with five illustrations and a frontispiece in color, drawn by F.C.  Yohn,

Price $1.50

The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis

SWEEPERS of the SEA

The Story of a Strange Navy

By Claude H. Wetmore

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[From the St. Louis Mirror.]

The recital of the deeds of the “Sweepers of the Sea” is a breathless one.

The romance is heightened by the realism of the technique of naval warfare, by the sureness and voluminosity of nautical knowledge.

Imaginary sea fights are told with all the particularity of real events, and at the same time the descriptions have a breezy swing that hurries the reader along to most startling catastrophes.

Much of the material is evidently worked over from actual fact into the texture of romance.

The romance is evidently modern in action, but the motives are the grand and noble motives of a mysterious and splendid antiquity.  The decendants of the Incas, moved by the Inca traditions, are not at all out of harmony with modern war-ships, or with a very modern war-correspondent, who is touched up a little to heroic proportions.

The book is pleasurable all the way through, and some of the descriptive passages are specimens of first-class writing.  The work bears every evidence of having been carefully done, and yet the story reels off as naturally and easily as if it were a running record of fact.

That the general public will take to the book is a safe conclusion.  It is just different enough from the ordinary, romantic novel to be essentially new.

Illustrated Price, $1.50

The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis

THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN CRUCIFIXION.

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THE PENITENTES

By Louis how.

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To describe the customs of this band of intensely religious people without laying on the color too thickly and without melodramatic exaggeration, to retain all the color and picturesqueness of the original scene without excess, was the difficult task which Mr. How had to accomplish, and it is one which he has done well.—­Chicago Record.

“The Penitentes” abounds in dramatic possibilities.  It is full of action, warm color, and variety.  The denouement at the little church of San Rafael, when the soldiers surprise the Penitentes at mass in the early dawn of their fete day, appeals strongly to the dramatizer.—­Chicago Tribune.