Mayfairies

MAY FAIR--Michael Arlen--Doran. ($2.50). Now Dikran Kuyunijiao has written another book, which is the last that he will write about these charming people, they do say. He has a pretty way with words, this Michael, or this Dikran. If it is the same trick that the cavaliers of the 17th Century had with a lady's hand, and the dandies of the 18th with a silver perruque and a puffing neckcloth, that is because he stands, as they did, in defense of gallantry; and it is a proud thing to be paid for defending gallantry in a world that has forgotten it. As for putting stories together, he.can put one inside the other, so that the one within illumines that without like a candle shining through a curtain. Such is his tale about Capcl Maturin, the Ace of Cads, who shamed Sir Gray de Gramercy by taking a check for -L-1000 that was owed him and refusing a girl that was not; and the bit about Miss Wycks who lived, just for one minute, "Where the Pigeons Go To Die." But sometimes again Dikran just writes something to sell, thus and thus, and then he sells the reader. That is what it is. Poker

WEBSTER'S POKER BOOK--H. T. Webster, George Ade, G. F. Worts, Marc Connelly, R. F. Foster--Simon, Schuster ($2.50). Cartoonist Webster long ago laid hold on the ventricles of the U. S. public. Even his illustrated bridge pads are said to get laughs from Long Island to Los Angeles. Now, through the Barnum-and-Baileys of the publishing business, he presents a whole book about his cigar-chewing, telephoning, lying, bluffing, smirking, grinning fiction, the Great American Poker Player, trigged out with dialog and dialects by the satisfying Messrs. Ade and Connelly. Mr. Foster, aspirant to the shoes of Edmond Hoyle as chief U. S. oracle on games of chance, furnishes convincing statistics. If you play poker, you may recognize yourself. If you cannot bear the game, it is at least valuable to know that there are 2,598,960 poker hands to an honest 52-card deck; that a royal straight flush can occur but once in 649,746 hands; that the parent stem of Poker is that ancient Persian pastime, As Nas. With the book come rules, advice against Greeks*, a set of chips. ^

*Card players' slang for dishonest opponents, said to have originated when Greek slaves took card games into Italy.