Books of sporting, travel, and adventure in countries little known to the average reader naturally fall into two classes. Neither class, with a very few exceptions, is of great value. One class is perhaps the result of the other.
Of the first type is the book that is written to make the most of far travels, to extract from adventure the last thrill, to impress the awe-stricken reader with a full sense of the danger and hardship the writer has undergone. Thus, if the writer takes out quite an ordinary routine permit to go into certain areas, he makes the most of traveling in "closed territory." This implies that he has obtained a special privilege and has gone where few have gone before him. As a matter of fact, the permit is issued merely so that the authorities can keep track of who is where. Anybody can get one. This class of writer tells of shooting beasts at ranges of four and five hundred yards. I remember one in particular who as a matter of fact killed all his antelope at such ranges. Most hunters have shot occasional beasts at a quarter mile or so, but not as a matter of fact. They do so more with thanksgiving and a certain amount of surprise. The gentleman of whom I speak mentioned getting an animal at seven hundred and fifty yards. By chance I happened to mention this to a native @African.
"Yes," said he, "I remember that; I was there."
This interested me, and I said so.
"He made a long shot," said I.
"A GOOD long shot," replied the man.
"Did you measure the distance?"
He laughed. "No," said he, "the old man was quite delighted. 'Eight hundred yards if it was an inch!' he cried."
"How far was it?"
"About three hundred and fifty. But it was a long shot, all right."
And it was! Three hundred and fifty yards is a very long shot. It is over four city blocks, New @York size. But if you talk often enough and smoothly enough of "four and five hundred yards," it does not sound like much, does it?
The same class of writer always gets all the thrills. He speaks of "white knuckles," of the "thrilling suspense," and so on down the range of the shocking story. His stuff makes good reading, there is no doubt of that. The spellbound public likes it, and to that extent it has fulfilled its mission.
