The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-27

rooms. into modern society Is very clumsiiy done The hypnotic influence of Henderson over Ida was not so wonderful as to need for explanation a disembodied Egyptian. The giving of the narcotic by the physician, Comp ton, to prevent the hypnotic influence of Henderson and the possession of the spirit. of Let-nekht Is absurd. The whole treating of the occult Is in every way feeble and worthless.
 Mr. Benson is bright and most readable when he lets subtle things alone. The House in the Mist, by Anna Kath- arine Green. Mrs. Green handles mystery with the delight that belongs l to usage and skill. In The House h the Mist" she points a moral, unusual In her work
 A family of cruel persons grown call lous through avarice. went to hear read the will of a miraculously successful brother.
 The lawyer appointed to read the will is strangely unfamiliar with his clients affairs, for the unwinding of the grue- some plot is as alarming to him as to the reader. as surprising as to the heirs. The story with fitting In of plot and counter-plot, Is left for the readers un- winding. It Is done in quite Mrs. Anna Katharine Greens most able manner. The Ruby and the CaIdron, by the 1 same author Is in much more genial | vein. The finding of Mrs. Burton's priceless ruby Is the means of bringing about a pretty love story. and all goes merrily. The story of how the ruby was lost and of its unique hiding place, of the joy of the recovery the reader will peruse with unabated, interest. A1Ir Leenen. a lengthy poem of one hum | dred and fourteen pages. The poet | measures lone as a word of two sylla- bles and rhymes 1t with Lion. verse taken at random will give the reader an ! idea of the style of the poet: l "On yon warren I was halted By a robber and assaulted; To, slew him then recovering 1 Wounds thou hadst described before! All my face was pale and bloody,
 And my clothing torn and muddy, Even as thou saw in study | On Hispania's far-off shore:
 And, Oh God! knew thee guiltiess When I saw the form I bore In a pool I handed o'er" This semifer, has many practical statements set to rhyme, and an The most creditable lines are perhaps these:
 Truth.
 The naked truth was in the cold The poet took 1t in,
 And clothed 1t in bright mail of gold, As 'twere his dearest kin.
 And fed it's lips on honey-dew Distilled of freshest song;
 | Then led 1t forth where error drew
 Her python length along.
 The youngest scholar knows the rest.
 How truth smote error cold! | But honor unto him who drest
 The truth in mail of gold The Book of Clever Beasts, Studies in Unnatural HistOry.-By Myrtle Reed Illustrated. After reading the works of the distinguished writers who have depicted so clearly for us life in the | animal kingdom have caught myself wondering how do they know Then with jerk I would pull myself up to say, You stupid, or course they know they are so much wiser than you are.' They can tell just what a bear thinks on a given occasion, or what a field mouse will feel driven to do, or how g goat will act under certain circum.
 stances" But nevertheless continued
 to deplore rpy stupidity, and, behold g
 clever woman comes to my rescue. | Myrtle Reed must o1ten nave won
 dered the same thing or she, could
 never have written the clever parodies
 she had the audacity to give us in hel
 Book of Clever Beasts" most ab.
 surd book, but witty in the extreme
 and full of keen thrusts at the distin.
 guished writers who have preceded heI
 in the study of natural history"
 Mir. Johnson-Sitdown Is the latest in.
 vestigator who, accompanied by Tom.
 Tom. his beloved cat, goes to the woods
 with Q view of preying upon the ere
 dulity of an uninstructed public. The
 results of his experiences are ridiculous
 in the extreme, but utterly irresistible
 Little Upsidaisa." the field mouse, zoe.
 MT. Seton Thompson one better ant
 learns telegraphy thereby adding tC
 his method of communicating with tn,
 outside world by making pictures witt
 the sharpened tip of his tail" Being
 chased by a cat. Upsidaisa leads th'
 chase to a railroad ten miles away ant
 so times his arrival as to dash across
 just in front of the express, leaving
 Tom Tom to be struck by the train ant
 dashed so high in the air that thu
 corpse was never recovered. Jagg, the
 Skootaway Goat, eats the writer