The age-herald., 1900-03-14
ALABAMIANS
 IN LITERATURE
From the New York Times.


 The extraordinary leap into public favor of Miss Mary Johnston's ''To Have and to Hold Is certainly marvellous If not abso- lutely unprecedented. The book was pub lished two weeks and a. half ago. To date Ill 900 copies have been sold, and the one hundred and twenty-fffth thousand is in press. Even Uncle Toms Cabin," proba- bly the most popular American novel ever published, cannot show these figures. With in two months after publication 100 900 cop ies of Mrs. Stoves book had been sold, but 1t took a year to dispose of twice that number. To some persons figures of this nature are invidious. Still, their interest and significance cannot be denied. Quick sales certainly kindle the enthusiasm of the reading public. The subject of perma- nency does not enter into the question. Undoubtedly the nearest approach to the quick sales' of "To Have and to Hold'' are those of Paul Leicester Fords latest historical rohance, Janice Meredith" which three months after publication had reached the total of 200 900 copies
 So high an authority as MT. Henry Ca bot Lodge assigns to "The First Ameri- can permanent place in the Washington literature. Miss Herbert spared no pains to be accurate, and her descriptions of the various homes and households of Wash dngton would seem to be decisive of all moot points in regard to the residences, and to the many reincarnations of that ubiquitous body servant"
 Upon her hero himself she throws little new light: indeed, there is little left to throw. She gallantly defends him from the charge of smallness of mind as eyinced by his genius for detail, justly regarding the wonderful scope of his intellect its exaot- ness in things small we'll as great, as a proof of it's unique grandeur. It is, no doubt, humiliating confession of human weakness that this very symmetry of greatness seems to keep Washington aloof from our sympathies. We are not frivolous enough to wish him any 'redeeming vices," but we cannot help wishing him a few re- deemng flaws. Perhaps if Washington had had his Boswell, we might be as easy at Mount Vernon as in Bolt Court. Now, how ever, despite all that has been written to bring nearer the First American, we stand before the stately figure, hat in hand, making profound reverence, and then,
 
 grand, untidy old Sage of London, to ad- mire him, ito quarrel with him. to be roared at for Americans and "scoundrels," to be exasperated by his absurdities and un- reasonableness, and somehow, to love him better for both.
 Then there is Lincoln, too often Rabelafs- ian in his humor, but how warm and genial it wasl How comfortably great we feel him to have beeni Why nobody, not even MT. Ford, not even woman, quite thaw our Washington? Did he lack just that saving grace of humor to take the edge off his perfection, to give it at- mosphere, so to speak?
 Miss Herbert does not relieve any of the perfection, but she rises to its demands, and has a contagious enthusiasm for the heroic figure she portrays. Her patriotism, too, though perhaps too exclusive, is a shining quality of her book The closing chapter, Final Days at Mount Vernon" is noble in its spirit and should be read and pondered by the daughters of our land who are so ready to barter their btrthright for a mess of European potage.
 It is to be hoped that "The First Ameri- cam may find its way into many American homes, and that every reader may catch at least measure of its authors love for tho land of her birth and her grateful reverence for the men-pre-eminently the man-who made it what it is.
 R. H. Russell purposes to issue at once Augustus Thomas popular American drama, Alabama" with adequate lllustra- tfons, uniform with Arizona" the success full drama of western army post life. The latest addttion to the list of reading plays issued by this house, Clyde Fitch's Nathan Hale," makes the ninth of the series, the titles of the other being as follows: '.Trelawny of the Wells,'' "The Adventures of the Lady Ursula "Cyrano de Der gerac," "The Weavers," Lonely Lives,' "Romeo and Juliet" Arizona and Ala bama."
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