Books: Emporiemperor

WATLING'S — Horace Annesley Vachell—Stokes ($2.00). Mr. Vachell says he owes the idea of this book to a friend, one "Dum-Dum." In making his suggestion, "DumDum" may well have said: "Believe it or not, you, with your swift Sat.-Eve.-Post style, your clean humor, your knack with characters, could write a good tale about the department-store business. Draw a composite hero—a Marshall Wannamacy. Have him crash his way up from running errands for a scrimping haberdasher to running the business of his own sterling Emporium. Make Wannamacy—or William Watling— quaint as well...