The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-24

1 Of warm blue skies and forests caim' Of plains where buried ciues s,egp, , l Of lemon-grass, and ancient palm.
 And see the picture in these two verses | from "The Wind in the Wires:
 l"Gaunt giants they. their names unknown, | Their constant strength unsung;
 l With rigid arms outstretched. whereon The copper threads are strung.
 Across the level that moveless row l Leads out to the sunset fires.
 No sound abides on the plain, save the
 Sad hum of the wind in the wires"
 But for strenth of purpose, and beauty | of ina gerry, the following which appeared a short time since in Harper's Magazine. is unsurpassed in the world of poetic it. erature. The Kinvad Bridge" ] "At the end of the path that all men At the end of the road called time;
 Where the land slopes off to the cliff of And the dolorous vapors climb over the | clouded gulf of Hell
 And chasms of dim despond,
 The Kinvad Bridge swings .rail and far
 to the Heavenly heights beyond.
 Mine jevelins wide is the Kinvad bridge, When passes a righteous soul,
 
 distant, shining goal
 But when others come to the cliff of death,
 An. yes, the bridge is there.
 But, oh, what narrow thread that spans, the gray gorge of Despair.
 The author of South Sea Idyls," Charles Warren Stoddard, is a much travelled man. His own country is familiar ground to him, and the sands lf f-s. to him nothing new His travels have availed him much in his literary work, for he is happy Tn reminiscence and faith full in description. The MaHy Criterion in it's book department gives us this reminis- cence of Bret Harte. "One day 1 found him pacing the floor of his office in the United States branch mint; he was knit ting his brows and staring at vacancy wondered why. He was watching and waiting for a word-the right word the one word of all others to fit into line of recently written prose. I suggested one; it would not answer: it must be word of two sylables. or the natural rythm of the sentence would suffer. Thus he re- hected his prose. Once when he had taken me to task for bit of careless work. then under his critical eye, and complained of a false number. I thought to turn away his wrath by a soft answer l. had wept over a certain passage in one of his sketches. "Welr' said Harte. He had a right to, I wept when I wrote 1t. ="
 Jean Webster is a name not familiar to all of us as a numerous writer. but is an acquisition in that field. as is evidence in that amusing little book. When Patty went to College" It is a record O. the life of American college girls; and in the character of Patty, we recognize a charm | C hi6v- ous. but intellectual and aspiring. She is a beautiful specimen of budding wo- manhood. There has been a hunt for something humorous in Emersons writ ing, and MT. Frederick Lawrence Knowles has put his little fable of the mountain and the squirrel into his volume, "A Treasury of Humorous Verse;" It is wit. if not humor.
 Carnegie's Next Duty.
 Mir. Carnegie's next great move in the interest of education might well be in the establishment of libraries for children. How important proper reading for the child that loves to read Often this child can find no books and no espionage. Certainly not in the homes of our poor. With the public schools educating the children of all classes to love of litera- ture 1t Is pitiful to think of the poverty that debars a literary hungry child. And to think of the wealth of child literature that has been. and is being written for the youth of the world In Boston 7,500 books are in a library for children. The Children's Library League in Cleveland furnishes bookmarks which remind the young people of the value of books. and that they must oe carefully handled. The record in Buffalo is that nearly five hun dred books are drawn out daily. Provi- dence makes a speciality of it's library for l-u1- are allowed to look a picture books. How interesting these places must be. with their miniature chairs and tables, and their shelves of juvenile literature. The field from which this may be gathered is very varied; chief of which are the many books on nature. How absorbingly interesting are the stories of Olive Thorne Miller on Bird Life. She has been an earnest student of birds. both in their native haunts and in her own home where we are told that she has kept many species under her watchful eye, and a writer of entertaining accounts of what she sees. She is particularly successful in interesting children Tn the study of birds and her latest volume. True bird stories from my notebook. is in her best vein as writer for young peop.e. There are thirty-four stories-all true tas she tells us, they are all my own obser- vations. and almost all made in my own home) about the inmates of her bird room and others of her feathered friends who she has met out of doors. It is very entertaining to old as we'll as young to hear such an enthusiast tell of her work Here is her, to many of us famil- far way of telling about her acquaintance with the feathed creation T had room in my house fitted up with shelves and cages Here l brought some native birds, and after they were comfortably established in their new quarters. l was ready to learn all that I could about them. Every morning after they were properly cared for. their cage doors were left open 7 and they enjoyed the freedom of the room. Then with my note beck l sat 2 down in an out-of-the-way corner 10 watch them I made no effort to tame them I wanted to learn their natural ways. They often apparently ignored my presence altogether. while l sat quietly taking notes of all that they did. l usu- ally go to the country about nesting time and take up my quarters at some con ? venient farm house. I try to locate the ; nests of several birds. then, armed with a camp stool. field glasses and note book, I make my way cautiously to a good D point of observation. I always wear a plain dark gown. and try to become. you { would say. part of the landscape as much possible. l don't want the birds to notice me in the least. There are some days when I scarcely move for hours al