The Crystal Sceptre (1901) is one of my favorite obscure adventure novels. It’s a one-off so there isn’t a whole Burroughsian pile of them but I’d love to write a sequel for it. Or a comic book adaptation. The plot concerns a man who is dumped in the jungle and finds himself part of a tribe of red gorilla-like creatures he dubs “Links”. Their rival tribe of black links offer plenty of violence and trouble. The sceptre in the title refers to a crystal-topped stick that is the ruling king’s mace, a prize the narrator wins in the end, then surpasses, as he tries to find a way to escape the jungle with a fortune in gold. Not surprising, he also finds love in a woman who, like himself, has been stranded for many months. What makes Mighels’ book so great is he never pushes credibility too far. His style is wonderfully readable, like a lost H. R. Rider or E. R. Burroughs novel. His influences are quite obvious: he has the hero escape from a balloon ala Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island and the fights with the black links and ou-ranga-tangs are bloody and brutal like a good Haggard tale (see “Allan’s Wife”(1889) with the babboon girl Henrika or Heu Heu, or The Monster (1923) . I’ve often wondered if the book influenced Burroughs’ Cave Girl but the evidence seems to be lacking. It’s hard to believe ERB never read it or at least heard of it. Mighels’ biography is scanty. He worked as a newspaper man in NYC as well as in silent pictures. He died young. There are many stylistic faults with the book perhaps but they are not important as the tale is an an exciting adventure that I re-read every so often. Fun, fun, fun!
The Crystal Sceptre excites the reader in so many ways despite its obvious shortcomings. Written in 1901 by American author, Philip Verril Mighels, it contains many obvious borrowings from its inspiration: Jules Verne and H. Rider Haggard. The balloon vehicle at the opening of the book is right out of Verne’s Mysterious Island, as is the Crusoe-like life of our narrator, Nevers. The fights (and thankfully there are lots of them) are pure Haggard as are the cauldron of gold and the old Link woman (both similar to King Solomon’s Mines and Gagool.)
The book seems quite modern in many ways, then will suddenly remind you it was written in an age of petticoats and horse-drawn carriages. The attitudes toward women and race are definitely not politically correct. (Mighels is certainly no less sexist than Haggard or even authors who came after him such as Edgar Rice Burroughs. Women tend to be put on pedestals as the nick-name “the goddess” implies. Sadly the book ends too abruptly. I would like to know if “the goddess” could forgive him his sudden lust for gold at the end or if this destroyed their possibilities of marriage. As for race, one can see the colors of the Links as a necessary device to differentiate the two tribes, but the choice of “Blacks” as villains seems unkind. Mighels, writing when he does, certainly would not have felt a need to be considerate toward black readers. He seems typically racist for his time and certainly less so than Robert E. Howard who would write in the 1920-30s.) But the reader who can maneuver past the obvious “isms” is rewarded with a fast-paced novel. Mighels wastes no time but plunges in with event after event. Only a quarter way through the book the reader has experienced more adventure than in most regular novels. Mighels doesn’t reveal the man’s name until the last part of the book, adding to the immediacy of the narration, allowing the reader to feel right in the thick of the action. For the fan of adventure fiction, this is not a criticism.
The over-all book seems to lack in only one way, a theme beyond mere survival. The scene at the end when John Nevers and his goddess leave the Links is heart-touching and comes close to serving this purpose. But ultimately it fails, as does the scene when Tike dies or when they find the sea at the end, or the killing of the bear, which an author could have used as more than a simple ploy. The end result is a wildly adventurous tale, worthy of acclaim but one that lacks the idealism of Verne or the fatalism of Haggard.
Perhaps the most exciting feature of this book is the link (no pun intended) between Verne and Haggard, and Edgar Rice Burroughs who would follow Mighels a little over ten years later. My researches have uncovered no evidence that Burroughs read The Crystal Sceptre. He did not have a copy of it in his library. Despite this I see so many scenes and narrative devices that Burroughs used again and again in Mighels book, I believe it an influence on his work. The Links could have inspired the sagoths in the Pellucidar books, as the bear skin scene might have inspired the ploy when David Innes uses mahar skins in a similar way. The tale of the goddess’s father and her arrival in the jungle are reminiscent of Jane and Dr. Potter’s arrival in Tarzan of the Apes. The villainous character of Grin is a typical Burroughs-type device, though it can be found in Haggard as well. Burroughs novel The Cave Girl seems the closest to Mighels’ book, about a weakling who ends up on an island filled with cavemen and comes away with the girl and a fortune. Only a more detailed study could prove that ERB was a fan of The Crystal Sceptre but I have few doubts he at least read the book.
NB: I’d like to thank Bill Hillman of ERBzine and George McWhorter of the Burroughs Library for the ir assistance in researching Burroughs’ connection with Mighels.