The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-16

the Emperor Joseph H. Votaire, and other celebrated personages of her time; of the last illness and death of Louis XN., and of her subsequent banishment from court; of her liasions with Henry Sey- mour, nephew of the eighth Duke of Som erset and the Due de Brissac; of her various visits to England, in 1791 and 1792. to recover her stolen jewels; of the extraordinary persecution to which she was subjected by the demagogue Greive and of her trial and execution during the revolut on.
 An interesting feature of the book will be the inclusion of a number of passion ete love letters written by Madame du Barry to her English admrer Henry Sey- mour.
 Should parents acknowledge a child
 born before marriage? That is the prob lem propouaded in "The Mother of Paul | inc" by l.. Parry Truscott, recently pub lished by he Appletons, That the ques- | ton was rot satisfactorily answered is l proved by the wide diversity of opinion l among the reviewers both or this side of | the water and in England when the book appeared simultaneously under the title of Motherhood" After many years, of married life the erring couple adopt" | their own daughter, and Pauline. the mother, finally acknowledges her child
 "The reader is not likely to be con- vineed,' says the Athenaeumi of London, England, that Pauline was justified in sacrificing the future of her daughter to
 her horror of continuing a deception from | which she herself was the only sufferer" !" "The book pleads for truth at what 1 ever cost" says the Times-Dispatch of Richmond, Va, 'as opposed to hypocrisy 1 and lies.'
 "The very care with which the au- thor seeks to establish his premises leads almost inevitably to the conclusion that the punishment Is rather for the neglect to cover up the sin than for the sin It. self" says the New York Tribune, At last the mother-love trlumphed over her horror of scandal" says the Cleveland Plain Dealer "-and at a gathering of woman neighbors she sud- denly announced that little Pauline was in truth her child. Then father and moth- CT were released from the bonds in which the living lie had held them"
 No book of recent years has ected such contradictory dictums. The only way to come to any conclusion is to read 1t oneself and form ones own.
 1t has been a question ever since the appearance of the first historical novel, how great liberties 1t is right to take with character who has existed in real life. One reviewer of Elinor Mccartney Lanes new book, Nancy Stair" which the Appletons have just published pro- tests at the authors treatment of Burns.
 Tt is difficult for a Scot to forgive the harsh and passionately selfish denea- tion of the Scottish poet" says the critic. ''the unnecessary and mercless faying of the poets besetting sim"
 Others, too, have joined in the protest, while few uphold the author in her attitude.
 We know what the man was," cry the latter
 De mortuis," reply the fist
 Those who have read the book content themselves with saying that Burns was genius, analyze him as you will, and that Nancy Stair whether she ever lived or not, was ds?) Q most delightful crea- ture.
 In the next new maps of the Sierra Mountains will appear the name of a new pass. Those who run their fingers up the black line called Roaring river. through Deadman's Canyon, to and down the canyon of the Rawcah and reach the words Elizabeth Pass should know that it got its name from the plucky little woman who first made the dan gerous crossing. Stewart Edward White, the author of "The Mountains. "Blazed Trail Stories" etc. has spent the sum- mer with his bride. who was Miss Eliza beth Grant, climbing the Sierra Neva- das. There are few men who can equal MT. White for his enthusiasm for camp ing and mountaineering. Mrs White has proven herself a fit companion for him and thereby hangs the tale of Elizabeth