Birmingham age-herald., 1895-06-16
GOSSIP FROM B00KLAND.

A buried treasure equal to $20O,000, 900 is surely an amount that is worth the very lengthy book MT. Frank R. Stock ten has written about it's discovery and unusual labors connected with it's secret removal "The Adventures of Captain Horn" is in part Q new departure for Mir. Stockton, although it recalls the in genuities and quaint humor of "The Late Mre Null" The author plunges right into his story by shipwrecking the whole party on the coast of Peru. There they find a curious great human face cut upon the rock recalling the wonderful Incas. In this elaborate cliff they found as a paragraphist suggests, like Chi nese boxes-a series of caves, and in the 1nmost cave lake, and under the lake mound, and within the mound the fabulous treasure of the Incas.
 The story is full of that kind of ad- venture which keeps the reader in a de- light of suspense, while the details in elude shipwreck and piracy. battle, mur der and sudden death After the party survived the shipwreck, to be most de- hghtfully ensconced within the pictur- esque cave, they fall victims to the dread ful and rapacious rocl1birds--' strange fowl that had possessed the land till the brave tcaptain icame-a species not known to ornithology and not akin to any feathered tribe, except, perhaps jail birds.
 But the contrast between the incidents, which are extremely dramatic, and the principal characters. which are solid, sensible and very much according to MT. Stocktons fashion, is In his happiest l-air. While the book is rather a lengthy o'ae, there is however not dull page In it.
 "Captain Horn, his face red with exer- ton and excitement, stood gazing down into the square aperture at his feet On the other edge of the opening knelt falph, holding a lantern so that it would throw it's light into the hole In moment, before the boy had time to form question: he was pushed gently no one side, and his sister Edna, who had elambered up the side of the mound, knelt beside him. Then there came a voice from below. What is it?' cried Mrs Cliff; what are you all looking at? Do tell me! I thought it was'-it is gold! It is the gold of the Incas!. And theE she sank senseless at the feet of the older woman"
 Mir. w. D. Howels has written an in tlrduction for Count Tolstois new nov el Master and Man." which the Ap- pletons publish.
 "Oliver Herferd" is the subject of a lit tie sketch by Robt. Bridges. He says: 70. Herferd in 1894 illustrated four books for other people and made up a book of his oWn-coVer pictures and text. He also Illustrated a number of stories in the magazines, drew for Life and wrote verses with pictures for St Nicholas ard other periodicals. What writers find in Herfords pictures is the literary sense, , and few men who illustrate have it. He can catch a writer's fancy from his manuscript and go him one better in the pictures. When Stevenson was in the Adirondacks he and Herford met, and there was much talk. MT. Howells also will tell you nice stories about him. A few of his epigrams are, "A gentle lie turneth away inquiry Its a good mind that blows nobody ill, "A little wid )w is a dangerous thing. One day he appeared with lump on his face and per.o lie u under his arm. Whats the matter?' asked a friend oh, have an illustrated tooth and an Liberated American said Herford."
 Miss Lillian Bell, whose first published story last year, "Tbe Love Affairs of An Old Maid" has written new book. called "A Little Sister of the Wilder ness" The young author is now com plimented with English editions of both her works.
 The scenes of her later story are laid in the bottom lands of western Tennessee during the raging of the yellow fever
 fin that vicinity. The descriptions of scenery and customs are slIillfully done.
 Readers of Mir Charles Lewis Alex ander III of Russia will turn with pleas ure to his Prince Bismarck" just issued from the press. Ten years ago MT. Lowe published a large two-volume work called "Prince Bismarck; an His nh graph, though more slight in structure, because of it's brevity, is also an his- torical biography, tracing the develop ment of the insignificant kingdom of Prussia into the mighty German empire, and showing the career of Bismarck.
 In MT. Stephen Cranes little volume of verse, "The Black Riders and Other Lines," we find many pieces to provoke mirth. For instance:
 Many red devils ran from my heart And out upon the page.
 They were so tiny the pen could mash
 them,
 And many struggled in the ink
 dt was strange to write in this red muck Of things from my heart"
 Not only strange, we should think, but quite unnecessary, thus to expose his ventricles to the dams" facetiously remarks a paragraphist
 Mrs. Sarah Knowles Bollon has writ ten a small volume of verse, "The In- evitable and Other Poems" It is the voice of the domestic and piously brought up muse. The edition is beauti- fully printed with broad margins and rough edges.
 "The Cause of Hard Times is an orig final little collection of very terse essays by Uriel H. Crocker, in which he dissents from the established formula of the economists and hints. as in an earlier pamphlet that excessive saving is a cause of commercial distress.