The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-31

million dollars; Bucks, who in rising from & dispatcher's board, knew how to gather round him and hold with him for support the men who knew railroading and noth- ing else, Callahan, Blood, Glover and the rest, are typical Americans.
 As long as there are mountains to scaie or tunnels, or rivers to bridge, or. deserts to reclaim there will be such Americans and MT. Spearman has made pen pictures of his group of them with no unceFtain n' hand. The great incidents Of railroad life are told with skill and vigor. the rush through the June water that stretcn. ed treacherous lake where valleys hao been, the blasting of the Cats Paw to dump a thousand yards of rock in tnlrty seconds into. :. a hole Rat River nad gnaved. all reads romance except that we know there are the things Americans have done and are doing daily.
 The love story like all true love does nor run smoothly even in magnate's car.
 But what is love worth that cannot override all obstacles! Our Southern lover .overrode the stern indifference or hls inomorata by a life and death run ot a hundred and seventy miles through the hardest blizzard in the memory Of the oldest section boss on the lines. But II to win magnates daughter is hard work, for a sun- burned railroad engineer to win over the magnate's consent IS harder still. It shouldn't be tried by any man, even a Southerner. whose ancestors were Lords in the Carolinas or Seigneurs in the Delta Country, unIess he has the layout of a parallel line or a coveted pass through elswise impossible moun- tains, or a commanding right of way, up his sleeve to- shake out before the mag mates astonished eyes at the crucial mo- ment. And all these things had Glover gHrnered up against that day. For | minor pint, just dust mote in the belt of bright. there never was so much abount candy in good novel. Candy tele- graphed for to New York when all the world was busy with Western blizzard. candy sent out daily by express Rush" | from Pittsburg to meet every stop of the | special car, candy made In the open in the canon by Glover Cthe way his black mammy taught him) while the coyotes | howled!
 Those readers who have been fortunate | enough to read MT. Spearman's earlier stories will meet old friends again in Blood, Bucks and McGraw. Good en-, gineer, McGraw who this time makes the Long Run, his hand dropping from the | throttle the other side the Golden Gate. MT. Spearman's people are always real and alive. They move before us strong, attractive and virile. If they are bright | and clever (and they are) they let us find it out for ourselves in their talk. That | is much better than standing like stocks and stones while the author eXhausts ad- 5ectives in letting us know how bright they are, isn't it?
 vigorous book this, refreshing as a sudden shower, pure as the sky-eyes the | rare blooms of the desert; exhilerating as the air of the peaks of the Rockies. | The Daughter Of A. Magnate by Frank
 H. Spearman-Chas. Scribner's Sons, price $1.50.
 l Colonel Carters Christmas" by F. Hopklnson Smith, was never put into clearer colors, the home making atmos- phere that ever surrounds Southern peo- I pie than MT. Smith has painted it in this | picture of Colonel Carter's Christmas | dinner. He has it all true to every de- l tail, even the tree cut from the planta-
 ton about the old Virginia home, Carter Hall. The author doesn't say what the
 Christmas tree was, but of course it was
 a holly, holly sparkling with its own
 red berries. We always have a holly for
 a Christmas tree South of Mason's and
 Dixon's line. The big turkey, with all
 whose bad habits we were intimately ac-
 quainted before he came to grace our
 board. The ducks and the turtle brought
 up from Virginia by Aunt Nancy, and
 the yams! Luscious yams ripened to the | sweetness of candy in the warmth and | richness of Southern soil.
 Glowing with true colors are the pen pictures of the plain little rooms aglnw
 with roses and adorned with Christmas greens, the heirlooms Of decanters, the
 arms on the silver with the hallmark of the British maker, of course. For we
 haven't any new made, new cut coats
 of arms at the South-just the old stuff
 our people brought over from England you know. MT. Smith has shown all
 true, in Colonel Carter's house, and on l his mahogany.
 MT. Smith has created character to
 live in Colonel Carter. We are glad to
 renew his acquaintance whenever Mir.
 smith desires to give us new glimpses
 of him, and may the Colonel ever have
 Chad for his faithful body-servant.
 Chad. who knows how to manage every
 thing from shining a gentlemen's boots
 to seeing him fitted out for a duel. The
 illustrator has given with skill and beau
 ty the spirit of the winning story.
 Colonel Carter's Christmas, by F. Hop-
 kinson Smith. Chas. Scribners' Sons.
 Price $15O.