The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-24
A SUMMER HYMNAL."
A Beautiful Book by a Native Ala
 bamian.

,Messrs. Harry T. Coates and Co.,. of Philadelphia, have recently published "A Summer ,Hymnal,' written by John Trotwood Moore, of Columbia, Tenn. He is a native of Alabama and son of Judge John Moore of Marion, The fol- lowing review of the book Is by the famous writer Marion Harland:
 Sub-titles are often blunderS-adden- da insisted upon by publishers, the au- thors acquiescing weakly against their better judgment.
 This particular subtitle Is mis- leading blunder. The dainty volume in olive green and-white binding-a con- vertional "idication" of a landscape with swallows flying over 1t at the top, and bursting cottonboIls at the bottom of the cover-is not a romance.
 What little story there Is is slender in plot and trite ir treatment. From the moment of our introduction to Der nice, the superb and sweet Thesis, we divine how the tale will end, and do not demur at Ned Ballington's leisurely fashion ot giving us his autobiography. He may take his own time. We could not improve upon his methods.
 For we have in the "Hymnal' one of the most exquisite pastorals of Amer ican life ever written. It Is an Idyll-a Revere" than which nothing more charming has been offered to our read ing public since tx Marvel founded a school of his own fifty-one years ago.
 It ig a book for the veranda-not for the hammock. A book to be read aloud to picked audience of one, or, at mos, two .on still summer afternoons in the shadow of one's own honeysuckle and clematis, with the real country about one, and native trees wherein CT n a rr h,ri1 hn thedrals in the background, where the hermit thrushes have vespers at sum- setting. A book to be read deliberat te- ly. with pauses ad libitum for com ment and query, and much repetition of passages that appeal to the senti- mental (which is the besD side of us, or which come Smd;tly to the intellectual paiats.
 If people would only study birds they would leAln great deal more about how to get along in life" is the first sentence of Ned's moralizing and poet izng upon the porch of his Tennessee home, with Miss Cynthia near him in her rocking chair, "embroidering a bust of Andrew Jackson on a screen to go into the fire place in the company room in the summer"
 The dreamy utter ance is suggested by a pair of catbirds, who. annually make their nests in a beautiful white rose bush that climbs and blossoms over my front gallery. They arrived on schedule time about three weeks ago.
 The whimsical reverie runs upon cat birds for a whole chapter.
 The Tennessee stock farm supplies simile when the saucy songsters cous- inship to the mocking bird is consid- cred.
 He is only a quarter-horse compared to the mocking bird. He cannot carry his clip a full mile. And worse than that, he can only run his bars in short. ,+ ln'-. he cannot connect tnem with the full. rich notes that make his C, us II mast [ of all sounds. The cat bird can strike chords, but the mock ing bird can blend them into lines of harmony. and trill them into waves or melody. The sad thing about catbirds Is that they can sing so sweet ly. and yet make those dlscordant' spiteful notes. We have many singers among men like them, Miss Cynthia