Books: Yankee King of Spain

DAN SICKLES — Edgcumb Pinchon —Doubleday, Doran ($3.50).

In the winter of 1859, Washington was rocked by the greatest scandal in its history. Negroes living on slovenly West 15th Street reported that a white gentleman, handsomely dressed in riding clothes, had rented one of their houses, and that when he flew a white string from one of the top windows a heavily veiled lady soon came tripping down the street and slipped into the house by the back door.

Before long, everybody knew that the signaling gentleman was U.S. District Attorney Philip Barton Key, son...