The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-05-23
LITERARY NOTES.

 yer of 'Lympus." says: "The appearance of such books as this is. Istrust and be- lieve, a sign of healthy reaction against a low and pernicious kind of literature, which reves In the low and degrading, delights in the display of moral intirmity. The descriptions of New England seen cry and rural life are charming and the characters are sweet and wholesome people The moral is well presented-tnat of the reward of patient suffering, and the redemption of the unfortunate and unhappy through the power of kindly ad- minstration and brotherly love-
 The south Is variously treated in the spring output of fiction. according to southern critic. who says '' The DeliV- erance immortalizes the tobacco feios or Virginia. The Rainbow Chasers' puts TO- nance into the lumber camps of Arkan- sas. and the booming of small western towns: now comes Mrs. Thurston in Where the Tide Comes In, to open a new field quite as delightful as these two, telling a story of the tide-water region of Virginia"
 
 Judge Simeon E. Baldwin's new work Law" to be published by Little, Brown & Co.,. Boston, in May is the outcome of a long experience in railroad cases, the author before his election to the bench of the supreme court of connecticut, hav- ing been general counsel of several rail- road companies, his practice in this line extending into the states of New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, as well as Connecticut. He has also taught the subject of railroad law in the Yale law school for twenty years. Judge Baldwin is the late president of the American Bar association, author of Modern Political Institutions" etc. and compiler of "bald- wins Connecticut Digest" and Bald wins. Illustrative Cases on Railroad Law"
 The question, Have we an essayist?' like it's sister question. Have we a. poet?" is as good a subject to talk about as any in these days of literary Philistin- ism. Some of those who ask the question so consistently have not perhaps read the miscellaneous essays, contributed from time to time in various periodicals by Frank Moore Colby His essays on the stage, our national traits, the better known writers of our age, etc. are in every way noteworthy and we are glad to hear that some of them are to be col lected and issued by Dodd, Mead & Go. in book form in the autumn. MT. Colby s 1 in bine at once a delicious and pointed hu- nor, with a balanced and delightful style. Lovers of good essays should be- come acquainted with MT. Colby.
 There have appeared of late in many magazines a goodly number of poems by Wallace Irwin; and it is not exaggerating to say that Irwin is beginning to rank as one of the most delightful and con sistently witty verse-writers of the day. His Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum' achieved a most remarkable success; no less than 60,0OO copies having been sold in book form new book of verse by him in the fall entitled "The Nautical Lays of a Landsman." The poems are perhaps little reminiscent of ''The Bab Ballads" but are In nowlse copy of Gill berts verses. Irwin has humor quite his own, and anything more laughaf,e In this vein has not appeared in recent years.
 The world seems never tired of reading Tennysons Maud" and we note with satisfaction that Dodd, Mead & O. an nounce a new edition of it for early pub lication, illustrated by Helen Armstrong and Margaret Armstrong It will be issued in holiday form as a gift book.
 Japan. by the Japanese,' is book announced for early publication by Dodd, Mead & Co. It is curious and some what remarkable book. being nothing less than a work of two hundred thousand words with many chapters by the most eminent Japanese authorities on various phases of Japanese life. Such writers as Marquis Ito have contributed to the work It will be the most authoritative 1 book of it's kind; and should prove of great value to all students of Japan or |