Birmingham state herald., 1896-01-12
deliverance-'thank Heaven, one volume was lost on the way"

deliverance-'thank Heaven, one volume was lost on the way"
 There is an essay on English Railway Fiction" that is just as bright and crisp as it can be, and evincing in a remark able way the authors we'll stored and discerning mind One of the ablest pieces in this little work though Is "Scander- beg and of him she says: "It is at least amusing to think of the relative positions occupied by the true mountaineer scanderbeg; and the mythical noun taineer, William Tell The one sleeps un- remembered with scanty hard won fame. The other carries such a weight of laurels that poets, wearied with sing ing his praises, have been driven in de- spair to sing the praises of those who praise him."
 Speaking of this hero, Scanderbeg, an- other volume which treats of him, of whom Longfellow sung:
 Your swarthy hero Scauderberg
 Gauntlet on hand and boot on leg,
 And skilled in every. war like art, H Rldlng through his Albanian lands,
 And following the suspicious star
 That shone for him OCT Ak-Hissar" is entitled "The Captain of the Janisa- res." and is by James M. Ludlow, D. D. The heroic struggle for national life is at all times the most eng crossing picture the worlds history has to show us, and in this volume we read of the long and bitter contest between cross and crcs- cent between the steady, relentless en- oroachment of the Turkoman power and the vain and dauntless courage which opposed it.
 The author says in his preface: Tt seems stange that the world should have SO generally forgotten George Castriot or Scanderbeg, as the Turks named him. whose career was as romantic as it was significant in the history of the eastern Mediterranean. Gibbon assigns to him but a few brief pages, just enough to make us wonder that he did not write more of the man who, he confessed, with unequal arms resisted twenty three years the powers of the Ottoman enipire.' Greasy, in his history of the Turks devotes less than a page to the exploits of one who possessed strength and activity such as rarely fall to the lot of man. 'humbled the pride of Amurath and baffied the skill and power of his successor, Mahomet.'
 The story is in the form of a romance, but is founded upon fact" the details being drawn from historical records, the later Byzantine annals, the customs of the Albanian people and scenes ob- served while travelling in the east"
 "A Jungle Parody" is a clever satire and is written by MT. w. l.. Courtney in imitation of MT. Kipling's story, "The Spring Running" which closes the not able series of Mowgli stories
 Writing brothers range through the "Paternoster Jungle." Mowgli is repre- scented by "Gran-Tallin, the Spoilt Darl- ing of the Jungle" and he feels the strong impulse of mission" within him. All his brothers surround him and ask him why he is restless:
 Must thou go away, little brother?" they said at last.
 'I must go to the hill top. I must go to the hill top," muttered Gran-Tallin un- easily. "I feel within me strange stir rings. must win the fame of a prophet"
 T should spell it profit if I were you," said Haal-Kani, ,ssfhe opulent, who had had his own battles with the publishers, and knew to the fraction of farthing the price of a shilling novel,
 "Why do you not write books that no one reviews, but all the world buys?" said Mah-Koreel. spreading her plumage in the sun.
 eff you cannot find your hero in Heav- en you can always find him in hell. Try to raise your mind to the height of big idea and fill in all details with abuse of the Kre-Teeks.'
 Besides Grant Allen. Hall Caine, Marie Corelli and the critics, one meets ''Mer- Edith," "Toh-Mardi' and "Sven-Gaal" and many such puzzles. PAUL PRY.