The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-24
NEW BOOK NEWS
CONDUCTED BY MARTHA YOUNG

hold and deals out luxuries with the lavish hand of the gcnii of old, be neglected. There is no hair-splitting. nor philosophizing in this story; the 1 rood people are all very, very good, l and the villains are all very, very bad. and the pages are very. very exciting. l And those who think the motive of l l novel should be only to interest will | approve of.
 | The By-ways of Braithe. By | Frances Powell.
 old Times Tn Dixie Land-By Mrs. l Caroline E. Merrick. Every library In | the South ought to have the books of l Memories, "Reminiscences and Personal Recollections of the Prominent South l erners that are issued from the various publishing houses from time to time. | These books have not always tho lite- | rary style and finish which will hold l to them the attention of the world, but | they have very great value as true pie lures of the life and customs and events of our country's- past. It Is from the worthful pages of such books that the future historian will find his true local color. his correct characterization of our people.
 Few women possess the numberless | friends eager to posses themselves or these pages that relate to herself and l life. that Mrs. Merrick binds fast with l hooks of stel" Her house in New Orleans has long been gathering place | for the good and the great. She has been an able pioneer of the New South | in woman's Advancement, in Reform , Work and in the Club Movement. Her descriptions of the life of her childhood in the old home Cottage Hall" are true and tender. As true and tender are. the pictures of her youth when she was wooed and won by the young man who brought her up," Judge Edwin Merrick. Her pen pictures of events ofthe war are stirring, for instance of Jackson, Miss, being burned and pillaged py Sherman's soldiers "whose horses were festooned with womens clothes" Quite the larger, part of Mrs. Merrick's book Is given up to random sketches or the later and great works of her life, her w. c. T. U. and suffrage and club work. She writes of the late MISS Willard of the late Mrs Sallie Chapin, whose eloquence once heard could
 never be forgotten, of Miss Keomey, one of the South's most brilliant wo- men, and of others.
 Of AIabamas own Miss Griffin, Miss Merrick writes:
  staff workers who came to my rescue was another full-blooded Southerner, Miss Frances F. Griffin of Alabama. She is gifted with inimitable humor. An audience room is quickly filled when 1t is known that she Is to be the speaker of an occasion. Though a woman of presence and dignity and manner that | befits the best, her appearance as soon | as she speaks a word is promise If hno n laugh before the time. Wit of tongue | is rare with women, but Miss Griffin | equals in quality or rank the best of | our American humorists. At the same | time that she enlivens the seriousness | of the public work which women have | in hand, she is an intelligent reformer | and also true woman of the home" | Mrs. Merrick surely possesses the heart | of youth. and she urges women with | fervor to keep the very body of youth.
 Tt is maturity that possesses perfect
 charm-womcn should help themselves | in the forefront of thought and en- deavor-repudate old age as more a
 matter of want of will than of neces- | sity. There is a remedy (for old age) | in living en rapport with the subtle l forces of growth. Learn the laws of | life and dwell in them; persevere In helping ones self instead of being help | ed, and it will astonish the world how | long one may live with natural force
 unabated,' yes. and with beauty and | power"
 Old Times in Dixie Land by c. E.
 Merrick.
 | PERSONAL AND PERTINENT. | The thirteenth annual convention of | the National Association of Elocution- ists held in New York, the first week | in July. was the most important in the l history of the association. MT. Henry | Gaines Hawn, the president of the as- | sociation, was by his lifelong -devo-
 ton to his work, his great ability, his
 remarkable magnetism, the very man
 to bring about SO successful and so | important a meeting.
 Below are given some excerpts of Mir.
 Hawn's message:
 l MT. Hawn's theme was the sins
 against dignity and good taste which | elocutionists commit in the name of
 their art In particular he arraigned
 his fellow artists for the absurd and fragrant advertisements in which they indulge. MT. Hawn quoted from many
 of these boastful and diverting circu- lars and advertisements:
 The most successful reader before the public who says soH'
 l "Why go elsewhere when you can go
 to the fountain head?" What school is
 the fountain head?
 Best impersonator in two conti-
 nents."
 None better"
 Always busy"
 Best ever" is the way in which an- other solicits business"
 There is no other art which adver- tises in such terms as these. In music, in the drama, a simple announcement
 is all. Don't my friends indulge in
 these absurd, pompous, fragrant and
 vulgar advertisements" Nor did Mir Hawn approve of those advertisers who,
 with desire to lift themselves cheap
 en their art inscribing on circulars:
 Not a mere elOcutionist."
 And I must ask my fellow elocu- l tionists. especially the ladies, to be a little more sparing about placing their photographs on their circulars. There
 is cheapness in 1t that is not to be
 avoided"
 ''The dramatic profession pulls its
 skirts away from us," MT. Hawn con- | tinued Personally, I never could see
 that an actor was anything but aA elo-
 cutionist plus costume"
 T should like to see ourselves taken
 as interpreters of literature. But
 please avoid high sounding names
 'Dialectician' and 'Dialector' are both l