The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-24

My old Maids Corner, Does any one
 want for the intimate table or person
 al desk book with as much of the | garnering of the sweetness of past
 summers as a rose-jar holds? If so. get
 q certain little book bound in a tint of
 dim sea-green and called. My Old | Maids Corner"
 l You know how on every lifting of l the upper lid of a rose-jar there flashes
 up from the golden lattice work below | the pungent sweetness of seemness that have gone. and roses that have died into po-pourri. How there rises from the jar hint of sal-volatile. and l odors of species. Just such old world sweetness rise at every opening of the pages of this most delightful book. l Nor is 1t the uninterrupted sweet ness of the fresh rose. It has the pun gency of experience. the flash of wit. | the dne odor of sane sanctity, the l richness of common sense.
 It Is a worthy companion-volume to l K Marvers Reveries of Bachelor. Such books teach why by common con l sent the world puts a higher degree 1 of beatitude in the phrase single bles- sedness" than in married happiness Why" asks this clever and charm | ing writer. has literature never en- ' a corner by herself. as poets and phil. anthropists and great world-saviors | are set?" Why Is it that history and | tradition have done so little for the spinster except to make her absurd?" Doubtless kindly fate Nept the nook empty till the best little book could fill it.
 The best is surely: My Old Maids | Corner. by Lillie Hamilton French.
 Dr. S. Weir Mitchell is said to be a l writer who takes much pains with his work before 1t goes to the public. He often has his books completely set up in type, and the type distributed after two or three sets of proofs have been | taken, on which he will work for months. His Youth of Washington" was put into type eighteen months ago, I anc when 1t was ready for publication pr. Mitchell wanted it to appear in book form, but he was persuaded to al- low 1t to appear serially in the Gen. tury.
 The By-Ways of Braithes We had fancied that the old art of making books kept interest eager for the mys- tery of the next page was a lost one. Those s4rt of books were written in l ancient days and kept the mind alert with wonder-as to whether the can dle would hold out through the wee sma' hours till the last page was turned.
 Florence Warden with her House In | the Marsh" revived the old art. Now Frances Powell has shown us the evil dences of her skill at the same sort of revival.
 The author of "The House on The Hudson" has made a most readable book of "The By-Ways of Braithe." | The scene of the new story Is ! Braithe Manor, which the first Ameri- can Braithe built in exact reproduction of the ancestral English hall of the Braithes, even to the secret room and the hidden labyrinth of passages call | ed "the by-ways." From these by ways" the novel takes its title. l At Braithe Manor all the action of the story takes place. The reader will
 not willingly lose a situation of the l striking plot unfolding through a se- rfes of strong and picturesque scenes | Superstition and tradition bear part in the story. There is wonderful gyp- | sey's opal which brings good luck to its owner and i'll luck to any other The heartless Lillian has only to steal
 1t from her trusting half-sister, bestow l it on her husband of whom she has
 
 rightful owner after it has brought | misfortune and death to her husband. There is a ghostly carriage that comes with rattle and dash to the door
 of Braithe Manor. when a Braithe, a | true, handsome scoundrel Braithe, Is to | die.
 | There are modern touches, however, a multi millionaire, who buys out Braithe and all its secrets. who weds 1 the beautiful (past belief) daughter of l Braithe, who woes his wife after mar
 riage with wondrous gifts of rubies and dfamonds-and by paying without concern or comment, wonderful large bills-for Lilian-and wondrous kind | ness to Janey. For Theo Is good as
 beautiful and can be won that way. | There is cousin. Braithe, handsome
 as a god, who has secretly married
 Lillian and who openly makes love to | Theo He gets his picture in the pa pers by heroic deeds at the great fire | which Tapped up lives in New York | some few years ago. But while he | saves the ladies, he steals the jewels His propensity for other peoples gems | at last rids Lillian of him, and leaves her sweet voice and fair and deceitful | to love the picturesque young South- | erner who figures frequently in fiction
 of the day.
 l Janey. the little hunchback sister
 with all her abnormal precociousness
 is most attractive child, sweetenine
 all the story.
 Nor should mention of the butler who
 holds the purse-strings for the house.