Water Valley progress., 1903-07-04

paid for $1.35, and ten copies will be
sent by express and charges paid for
$11.
Ny old friend, Joel Chandler Har-
ris-"Uncle Remus"-has kindly VOL
untcered the following commenda-
tion. 1t is splendid, and l am proud
OF it, for, like George Washington,
Uncle Remus cannot tell lie. 1
didn't know that l had gotten up
such good book, until l read that in
the Sunny South. and now / hope it
will be broadcasted, for wish the
mothers and children to have it.
Joel Chandler Harris wrote:
Il have lately been reading with
a great deal of delight the new book
by Bill Arp. and it is very happy
change from the average current lit
erature of the day. There has been
no adequate notice of this produc-
tion in the Constitution or Sunny
South, and / doubt if two dozen of
their readers are aware of the fact
that their favorite writer has put in
book form the cream of his work.
Bill Arp is man to be envied. There
is probably no other writer In the
land who is in such close touch, per-
sonally, with his readers. or whose
dividuAlity is so well known to
them. This is not because he has
thrust himself forward, but rather
the contrary. In what he writes as
in what he has written, we have the
interesting spectacle from week to
week of a good man giving the best
OF himself to the large public he has
made for himself in the course of
thirty-odd years.
with very simple style-he is
very simple and sincere mana
natural flow of humor and a COM
plete absence of self-consciousness
he writes as we should expect to
hear him talk. There are pages and
pages in his book that are so simple
and direct, that they seem to be
easy writing, that is to say, the read
er will inevitably imagine that he
can do this sort of thing himself.
and not half try, but if the afore-
saiG reader will take the trouble to
try the experiment, he will not have
written half dozen lines before he
will find himself face to face with
the most difficult problem in letters.
He will find, in spite of education
and knowledge, that easy reading is
the hardest kind of writing, and then
he will be willing to admit that the
feat has been or can be accom-
plished by the fewest number of
those who write for the public.
The first two chapters of the book
might have been turned into a novel.
The possibilities are all there "a
lonely child hunting for her kindred,
the long waiting and the final happy
ending. What more is necessary?
But Maj. Smith has preferred to tell
the story in the briefest' possible
way, and he has told it with con-
summate skill, and in the most ef-
fective way. I defy anyone who has
a heart to read this beautiful story
without tears as he goes along, or
without feeling happy glow steal
over him as he comes to the close of
the second chapter. Truth is always
beautiful, and this story is true.
"There is delicious homeliness in
the book that reaches from the first
chapter to the<last. You fall easily
under the spell of one who sees life
sanely, and sees it WHOLE and it is
a spell that has no other influence
but for good. In short, Bill Arp's
book is sound and wholesome. His
philosophy is lightened up with gen.
tie humor, and a playful fancy. 1t
is volume to be heartily commend
ed to all classes of readers. It's
scope is so broad that there is some
thing in it for all."-Bill Arp, in At
lanta Constitution.