The age-herald., 1899-01-15
"THE CITY
 WITHOUT A NAME"

The publication of book by an Alabam-
 ian Is an event of some importance It is
 not to be lightly treated. Indeed, from the
 point of view of the future, the production
 of a really good book here at home Is cause
 for as much congra ratulation at least as the
 founding of new industry, the clearing of
 a new farm the opening of a new mine. To
 me, the sweetest and best feature of the era of industrial and commercial activity that opened up in Alabama some dozen years ago, is the accompanying mental uprising
 There is doubtless a relation of cause and
 effect between them, but which is cause
 and which effect need not be discussed here
 We only know that the periods of literary excellence and effort in all countries is CO.,
 incident with the bursting of the sunshine out Of some sort of cloud. During our long night here in Alabama almost, if not quite the only distinct literary note given forth
 in Alabama came from Mobile, where Mrs Augusta Evans Wilson was winning for herself a deathless fame. Now, books by
 Alabamians follow each other in fair pro-
 cession, chanting the bright day already
 come when men and women can work and
 struggle with abounding hopefuness A
 library wi,n only Alabama books on its
 shelves is a possession now almost worth
 hiding from the tax assessor on his rounds.
 Mrs. Wilson comes first and foremost,
 and Mr. DeLeon, during his residence in
 Mobile, nearly filled a shelf. DuBose's
 Life of Yancey," Peck, Mrs Harrison
 Mrs. Margaret O'Brien-Davis, Rufus San-
 ders, Miss Mary Johnston, Miss zltella ID
 J. Hamilton, Thomas c. McCorvey, S. S. Scott are some of rapidly lengthening list Surely the work already done by home | folks for home book shelves is such as to
 warrant a present pride, but a warm antc- | ipation.
 | The latest addition to novels of Alabama | authorship is worth more than the cursory l notice commonly accorded to a new book. If it had no other claim than the Alabama | stamp, to me it would still be of surpassing | interest. Even a poor book by home au- | thor is worth study and discussion because | 1t betokens the presence of effort, at least 1 of tine ambition to try How much more
 noteworthy is really good book. l Dr. H. A. Moody is president of the Ala l bama State Medical association and mem- | Der of the faculty of the Medical college at
 
 | the State university. He was for some time | chancellor of the university at Bailey | Springs and spent his summers at the syl- | van scenes of the Tennessee valley back country. Perhaps those woods far spread | ing, the hills and streams and brooks that | are still so very much as nature made them, | gave wings to the doctors fancy and car | ried him to that far uneXplored region | which he has peopled and developed in this
 work of fiction now modestly presented to l the public.
 ''The City Without a Name" is the rather | captivating title; the publisher, F. Tenny- 1 son Nicely, London and New York. Here | is the plot briefly told:
 young engineer is engaged in the con | struction of a railroad in Peru. His work | done, he cast about for adventure, and hav- | ing caught shadowy rumors Of strange country and a strange people far to the
 northeast he determines to chase the | shadow to it's substance. Through some | kindness done to one of the Indians he | caught the clue. The remote empire was | made of the escaped Inca race, who were 1 driven out of Peru by the Spaniards, taking | along the blood royal line with them. They l were looking for the coming of leader | out of the west, who would restore them
 and avenge their wrongs. They periodically ! communicated with the outer world In a 1 most secret way, the token being silver
 arrow. Efforts had been made to fathom 1 the mystery, of which some faint rumor | could not be suppressed, but no man had | come back to tell the tale.
 The hero of our story, armed with some l knowledge of the land and the people, led 1 by a messenger with the silver arrow and | himself assuming the guise of the long ex- ! pected Inca from the west, succeeded In | reaching the "City Without Name." For i this Peruvian empire so jealously guarded 1 the secret of it's very existence that no 1 name was ever given it. The hero was wei | with somewhat of mysterious core- ! mony and soon after his arrival was sub- | jected to the judgment of the sun." This | was to stand in a dark room at high noon
 and have a blaze of light turned on him | from an opening directly over head. The | ruler of the empire passed judgment. If | favorable the criminal came forth ac- l quilted. If adversee, an overpowering heat | and light was turned on him from the sun above which shriveled him almost instantly | into ashes.
 | Of course our hero comes forth un- l scathed from the judgment of the sum-, | which the intelligent reader at once guesses | is mechanical manipulation by the Inca | himself of an arrangement of sun-gasses or | mirrors.
 | The development of the plot turns on what | is really the strong and original and ab- | sorbingly interesting feature of the book. | The Inca who passed the judgment was | woman, believed by her subjects to be her brother. The brother had been killed some 1 years before and this princess, his sister, l had buried him secretly and assumed his 1 garb and rule.
 So much alike were they that the im- posture succeeded. By day she was the Inca, at night she still appeared the woman priestess of the sun. Naturally the thing that saved the adventurous American was the fact that the Inca was a woman and fell in love with him.
 By some plot there was supposed death of the Inca. our American inherting the empire and marrying the princess. They
 dit. i' t. however. live happily ever after.