Birmingham state herald., 1895-12-01
GOSSIP FROM B0OKLAND.

city and charm. We have all read and loved Colonel Carter of Gainesville" ]" "A Day at Laguerries" and others of MT. Smiths famous stories. Now he gives us another work, "A Gentleman Vaga- bond" and some other short stories. most of which are up to the authors best work.
 In a quaint introductory note the au- thor tells us he has scattered gentlemen Vagabonds and Vagabond gentlemen through the book, also a gentleman or two, pure and simple. and the reader, he says can group them to suit his own experience. This will not prove an ar duous task, for surely no one would pick out Major Slocombe for the gentleman, pure and simple or MT. Bosk for the Vag- abond gentleman.
 The initial story, from which the book derives it's name, is to mind the best, pro- vided the reader enjoys jocularfty and humor in his short stories rather than the pathetic prosaic. ITO lie on a divan, reach out one arm, and with the ex- pendture of less energy than would open a matchbox. to press button summon ing an attendant with all the unlimited comforts of life-juleps. cigars, coffee, cocktails, morning papers, fans matches out of arms reach, everything that soul could covet and heart long for; to see all these several commodities and luxur- ies develop, take shape and materialize while he lay flat on his back-this to the major was civilization.
 At any rate, who will deny that the major was a man of discrimination and sound judgment?
 This first story Is really worth the price of the book. After q most vivid and lu- cid portrayal of this quaint character "the major" who has unwitting1y let the reader into his private affairs by the dis covery of ''po'terhouse steak tucked away snugly in his bag with paper leath- CT sides. one enjoys all the more the grandi1oquent style in which the major, having returned to his ancestral hall. and while toying with his knife. says with an air of great deliberation: Gen tlemen, when I was in New York I dis covered that the fashionable dish of the day was po'terhouse steak; so when I knew you were coming wired my agent in Baltimo to go to the Lexington mar ket and to send me down on ice the best steak he could buy fo' money. It IS now befo you. Jack. shall cut you a piece of the tenderloln?"
 Tn a quaint new binding of deep blue and gold comes that ever famous poem of the Pilgrims by a loved author Longfellow's "Courtship of Miles Stand ish," making an attractive holiday gift The poet said while writing this poem. now many years ago. My poem is in hexameters; an ideal of the old colony
 
 know; but it gives me pleasure to frite it, and that count for something" The charm of the poem is much enhanced by the illustrations from noteworthy de- signs by artists-Boughton. Hitchcock. Reinhart and others-long familiar with old colonial life, which the appendix of notes and illustrations clears and ex- plains many an historical reference.
 Like picture it seemed of the primitive
 pastoral ages.
 Fresh with tho If ha aY,d
 calling Rebecca and Isaac,
 Old and yet, ever new, and simple and beau Love immortal and young in the endless
 succession of lovers.
 So through the Plymouth woods passed on-
 ward the bridal procession"
 No doubt it will be of interest to many in the city to know that a story of the yellow fever epidemic which ragged in Memphis in 1878, has been written, and is entitled Dear Little Marchioness." It is the tale of a childs faith and love, and the author, whose name does not appear, was one of the devoted nurses during those terrible times The book Is taste fully bound and aptly Illustrated.
 Mrs. M. E. M. Davis is New Orleans writer, the wife of one of the editors of the Picayune, and, it is said, in her series of sketches, called "In War Time at La Rose Banche." she has given the most
  tion life during the war. Mrs. Davis is a native of Alabama, but she has for many years resided in New Orleans. Her home once occupied by Gen. Andrew Jackson, is favorite social and literary center.
 A new work just out by Mrs. Davis is Under the Man Fig" in an unusually attractive cover of green. with black trimmings. Of the old town in which the scenes of the story are laid the author says in the prologue: "The gray. wealth n1I .fn fxo, ho ,-;.. drowse in the mellow sunshine like con- tented old folks, who could. if they would, wake up and babble of past glories with the best--for short, the old town, the lovablest. old-timest, easy goinest old town that ever was-sits there by the river. hugging it's traditions and hoardng its stories. of which it has enough to make a new Thousand and One Nights Under the Man Fig is one of these."
 If the story under the title of Man Fig has weak point it is in the con struction of the plot. The central point is the representation of the fearful ca- lamities that grew from the murmurings and gossips under the Man-Fig. blast ing the fair name and honor of a brave soldier and respectable citizen, entailing the misery and death of those nearest and dearest to him, and yet. while the reader may be ready to grant that an aIlouiit Ol Idril dHu fniSCnIeL IS often done by such wanton gossip. yet one feels that the effect was strained and little over done, and the conse- quences of a much more serious nature than is warranted but. aside from this. what a pure, sweet love story it is. de- voted to the delineat tions of those scenes. whose pictures are familiarity dear. the fast fading life of the old south. This fi- delty to truth, united to a high imagi- native quality in her work. makes the stories of Mrs. Davis unusually attrac- tive, and her portrayal of the happy, faithful old negro characters are wonder fully life like.
 Lib she whispered. has you been put on de block? Liberty nodded.
 Den who-who is yo' new marster?' "'Mars Van Herrin,' shouted Lib, jumping to his feet and lifting her in his powerful arms. Me and de dog has cum home. Betty! Home, gal! Fer de res of our lives. Me an Miss Elinore's old dog! De patter-roller ain gwine ter hab CT chance to ketch me no mol I gwine ter cut wood an fetch water fer de laklies black oman in Texas"
 'Glt along, you fool nigger,' cried