The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-11


 \ Belle of the FiftieS. Memoirs of Hrs. Clay of Alabama, covering so- cial and political life in Washington | and the south, 1S5S-66. Gathered and edited by Ada Sterling.
 would pronounce this one of the most important books ever published 2 over the name of one of our Alabama writers. It ranks in importance with that volume of priceless worth. Ser vice Afloat, by Raphael Semmes, giv- ing as it does most accurate and stir ing accounts of doings at the National and the Confederate capitols and in the interior of our Southland in those same eventful years of the events on sea of which Amiral Semmes wrote so thrillingly. As a record of social life at the South it far exceeds in inter- est and value those two well known volumes of an oldertime Memoirs Madame Le Vert. Mrs. Le. Verts Me was spent, that is the brilliant portion of it upon which the world looks, in piping times of peace. Mrs. Clay was at the forefront of the scene when our nation became "the house divided among itself" and throughout those gay first days at Richmono when the rulers of the young Conred- eracy as Mrs. Clay delightfully."- puts it "reveled in canvas-backs and green. backs, undiSturbed py ioreWdfHi oi coming draw backs"
 Mrs. Clay-Clopton's personal charm and magnetism makes this book of utmost importance. Rarely has the world known so delightful a personal ity. never has any personality of charming womanhood been so delight fully depicted.
 Madame Recannier lives merely in a few letters and notes gathered by her neice Madame Levrmbnt. Lady Wort ley Montague has left but small record of her brilliancy and brilliant life.
 The charming Josephine has but the criss-cross criticisms and adulatiOns of foe and friend. That picturesque writer Duchess d Alrontes found larger audience for her written words than ever for her spoken ones. Ju- not's wife according to her own ac- count was but small taper in the so- cial illumination of her day, yet one who has poured many an hour over her pages must confess that the little taper shed its light a long way when set in literature's window.
 Madame Le Vert's memoirs are, alas prolix and not fetching, read now merely as a matter of curiosity.
 But this volume of today. of our people. of our land. is a volume of fact that fascinates like fiction.
  style, all true brilliancy of the Amer ican. It is a work that shall live.
 It will be literally devoured by the people of today. We of Alabama will find in it's pages bits of the history of our State since its creation as part of our nation, we discover at each turn notes biographical of our people, our kindred. our friends, our neighbors.
 We read and reminisce between the ctr He nfrp and a counterpart. I envy the. con. temporaries of Mrs. Clay-Clopton who open this book for the first time. What memories it will awaken. what old scenes it will redepict. what old tunes set singing in their hearts!
 MT. E. S. Hammond, son of Senator Hammond, after reading the manu- script, wrote: The book will take. It is graphic. We ancients. survivors of that day, will pore over it. recall ing familiar and by-gone scenes. To those later than us it will be curious and of deepening interest, as their for bears figure in its scenes.
 Never was put into print a better story of that caravan journey which the little 'Tar-heel' girl of years. Virginia Tunstall, took on the move from North Carolina to Alabama.
 Her uncle and aunt MT. and Mrs. Fort, and children accompanied by the negro slaves, en route for new planta- tions in Mississippi. were to drop the little Virginia in Tuscaloosa to make her home for several years. her mother having died three years before. with Mrs. Collier, wife of Henry W. Col Her. As all Alabamians know Henry w. Collier was later to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Gov ernor.
 The account of the setting up of the tents for the nightly camp, of the swinging of the old pudding shaped' carriage. of villagers and Indians run ming out of cabin and settlement to look on the cavalcade-have we not heard it all from our own grandpar- ents?
 Wondering as we listened was our world ever so young.
 The story of the aunt who relieved the tedium of the Journey with gay soliloquies, laughing aloud at her OVID wit and repartee, when she gave con versational thrust and counterthrust Is inimitable.
 An! We were not cut all of a piece then by good May Manton" pat tern! Who of us cannot recall dear old ladies of our love who were ever law unto themselves, doing just ex- actly what pleased them, answerable to no man nor woman neither owing allegiance to no social code. but lord- ing with high hand over all.
 The story is told of one dear, quaint old lady of most aristocratic lineage, whose fancy on one of these caravan journeys took her outside her own car riage. She was wearied with the long swing of her coach and seeing on the roadside a cabin with door wide open she looked in from her own carriage window. There sat the bed. glory of the one-room house, snowy in home woven coverlids, the two old hill-folks sat nid-n -nidnodding on either side of a blazing wood fire. The lady. not old then, but of a blazing and commanding beauty, ordered her coachman to stop. Leaped from her coach ran into the cabin, jumped, fully accoutered in vast bonnet and crinoline as she was, into the white bed, pulled up the coverlid to her chin and lay gazing out at the old people with eyes that had shone on many a brilliant social gathering.
 The two old people never opened their lips.