The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-12-20

SOME VIEW BOOKS
BY PAUL PRY.

perament and taste on the part of the
 reader.
 Some book may so exactly suit some special mood or viewpoint that the reader
 promptly characterizes it as clever; while
 others may be too strenuous and toisome
 to afford the amusement and diversion
 we hoped to gleam while another may
 lack profundity, and thus offend dis
 eliminating reader
 Hence we will assume that My Cap-
 tive" by J. A. Altsheler, is a story that
 may catch some vagrant fancy and hold
 It enthralled. It is a stirring tale of revo- | lutionary times. The descriptions of the | troublous days in South Carolina are ac-
 curate enough, and the incidents of the | story form unusually good material for a
 romance. Yet the imprint of the true story-teller, that is born and not made, Is entirely wanting, is evidenced by
 the lack of historical atmosphere" or "perspective' in the parlance of the re- viewer.
 MT. Altsheler has written number of stories with the scenes laid in different war periods and usually he is very clever and successful. In My Captive" how ever, redundancy of expression and of the extraordinary performances of "Old . ut -tnt iltIO HDTSP, utlIdCI largely from the work. Had this superfiuous en- ergy been devoted to the improvement of the character works and especially of Miss Julia" t would have resulted more favorably.
 'It is wiser and less expensive to save children than to punish criminals"
 Upon these premises "The Juvenile Court Record' is published in the interest e I.x 1T the "Visitation and Aid Society" of Chi cago. It says: "The object of the Ju- venile Court Record is to disseminate the principles of the juvenile court throughout the United States and, in fact, the entire world. When the juvenile court was first stablished little more than four years ago. the sociologists of the entire country stood by, watching anxiously, the out come of the new departure in child-saving methods. It was realized that a medium was needed whereby the results accom- plished by the juvenile court might be set forth in an intelligent manner. The Record stepped into the breach and has devoted it's pages exclusively to news of the various juvenile courts" This is a grand work that has been begun in the interest of unfortunate children and Bir- mingham people will not be surprised to see in the Record the name of Mrs. liar iltl h JOHilSlOH ds referee TOT Alabama.
 In the current issue is printed an article written by Dr. Messing describing "The child whose necessities are greater than my child's" for the Montgomery Adver- tiser. After number of very pertinent | suggestion and illustrations, he concludes | with the following: My friends remem- | Der this. there are no bad herbs or bad | men. There are only bad cultivators. The | child whose necessities are greater than | my child's Is the boy or girl in the mill or the prison or the street He is like | the nettle. useful if cultivated injurious If neglected The state that refuses to cultivate him is anti-social. and anti Christian. because 1t is deaf to Him who said: Let the children first be filled. Tor it is not meet to take the childrens bread and cast 1t to the dogs
 Nothing proves so conclusively the fa- miliar adage of an ounce of preventive | being worth a pound of cure as the at- tentlon and care devoted to unfortunate children. The child mind has been the 1 chief object of study in the new psychol- ogy'' and the juvenile court is but the outcome of the inestimable work of the | free kindergartens throughout our coun- try.
 The cover design of the Record" is elo- ouent with appeal very youthful cul- nr,t stands before the judge who has | ,yritten in his book "paroled to mother" 1 ,vh,,e a shadowv Santa Claus' with welI-filled sack is evidently seeking to | exert a benefcent influence.
 eThe Shenandoah Valley and Virginia"