The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-09
Dew Book neW$

'~uV oA~VV~ exouisite clothes carelessiy- worn. the broad fertile plantations that make oi break their owners yearly.
 A true and strong story or the oou'n' The Rayecels. By Harris Dicksoh'
 Twelve Stories and . Dream
 Mir. wels has put into this volume more human interest than IS iounu in his novels and stories usually, In fne War of Worlds" the First Men or the Moon" and others of his marvellous TO- mances. These stories are comic' tragic, prophetic. They are told with skill and originality.
 The Valley of Spiders" suggests the web of fate that entangles pride. IL IS the tale of the conQueror conquered.
 The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost" with its sober facts and plain platitudes yet makes the hair rise on the head.
 Miss Winchelsea's Heart" is in vein wholly new for Mir. Wells. He shows himself in this as capable of diagnoses on an over sentimental paiden's heart as on the make up of his moon-men.
 MT. Ledbetter's Vacation" clearly tells us how hard Is the transgressors way for the naturally circumspect scholar.
 The Magic shop will make boy wish that all the year were Christmas and all the toy-shop men magicians.
 Jimmy Goggles the God" lets us in- to the life and sorrows of m1seaple and hungry graven Image.
 The other fantasies are: Filmer. The Truth About Ryecraft, MT Skelmersdale in Fairy Land, Ihe New Accelerator," The Stolen Body" r'c "A Dream of Armageddon."
 Mir. Wells's powers of invention suffer no loss from being drawn upon, but rather grow greater with much exercise.
 These are remarkably inventive sto- ries by a most remarkably inventive author.
 Diplomatic Mysteries.-Plots and pages of novels, loves and lines or flc- tional people pale before these stories of real life by Vance Thompson. A bit of neighborhood gossip over cup or tea has its allurements. But what Of the irresistible enthrallment of the stories of Presidents, Princes. Sultans, ar-Makers and World Movers?
 Mir. Thompson tells amazing stories of royalties. His stories purport to be the truth, the whole truth. the 'in- side lnfOTmaIlOn OI dll thO 6Ao'S tragedies that have shocked the world for the past two decades
 The unbelievable history of Ludwig II of Vavaria reads like piece of me- diaeval impossibility set in the bare fact of today, or just yesterday. Wag- ner's friendship and betrayal or the young king throws a dark shadow over the musicians memory: Wagners baleful influence fell darkly across his mnnQpr-the great est histirionic musician of any age was an interruptions man. Unfortu- nately, there seems to be no direct kinship between genius and upright ness. Wagner, as the world knows now, was a man of egregrious vanity of childish affectations, of disorderiy private life and of interruptions ann bition. T needed this young king. he confessed; without him 1t was all up with me-"
 The great Bismarck towers over | several of these tragedies of European courts, hard and relentless as rate, scheming and interruptions, untoucheo by sympathy with humanity's or roy- alty's suffering:a veritable villain m l. the fierce and world-viewed dramas of Bavaria, Austriar-of all Europe. Prus- sia put an end to the lives of Ludwig and the Princess Sofia, love like q | fragment from some old romance.
 The king was drowned in Sternoerg | Lake, with faithful friends rallying Tor his help on the farther shore. Princess Sofia was burned in the fire which de- stroyed the Charity Bazaar in Paris. Rose of Linderhof who came at Lud- wigs call to save him. just fifteen minutes too late. she was rowing her boat over the lake calling to him who lay beneath the waters.
 Bismarck again Is cruel destiny to the house of Hapsburg. There Is new light thrown on the killing of Crown Prince in a hunting lodge in forest, tragedy that shocked the world some years agone.
 The book Is not without its notes of | glad courage that leave some hope for l humanity In the heart. Such is the | story of Admiral Pottier with eight marines and two officers, who stopped a war prevented a massacre, ordered I a kaiser from the shores he held. If MT. Thompson Is right in his sur mises, if his unravelling of mystery i leads to the right clue. the map of Eu- l rope has been changed by secret plot l and counterplot, railways are laid and ports opened by secret "swappings' among crowned heads, and all wars are l ragged on change ere soldiers bleed on battlefields. A very pretty romance Is that of the Brown Prince of Germany. Miss Gladys Deacon of New York, and the thin old betrothal ring of Grand mother Queen Victoria. Is 1t Lord Curzon that has loosed the great war in the Far East? :: 1 Mir Vance Thompson declares 1t to be made in England" | But even Bismarck was to find a stronger or more skillful hand lifted against his plotting. There was cer- | tain letter, forged letter. now admits the diplomatic world that outwitted | Bismarck and welded the Franco Rus
 sian alliance, that placed Italy in Rus sia's intended place in the Triple Ali | ance.
 | On the matter of alliances, MT. Thompson gives some insight into the worth of the press in wooing for na- l tional alliances. To such wooing he credits the Franco--English treaty. "in-
 spired diplomacy of Downing Street" urging for it.
 Nothing counts but trade,' Is MT Thompson's dictum. There Is no na-