Books: Spanish Satire

MR. WITT AMONG THE REBELS—Ramon J. Sender—Houghton Mifflin ($2.50).

At the southeast tip of Spain the city of Cartagena lies against the base of great treeless hills, facing its superb harbor, its two great forts and the Mediterranean. There in July 1873, in the fifth month of the first Spanish Republic, a group of revolutionaries hoisted the red flag. Because they could not find a pure red one they used the flag of Turkey, with its crescent stained out in blood. The frigates lying in port joined the revolt. From Madrid the central Republican Government, run by high-minded incompetents, badgered by conspiracies...