The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-11

a teacheT--has sent to AMrs. Aiuru snc first subscription. $io, asking that ave members-many of whom can Rri,b ten times the amount--win join na. her in trying to raise Sf,o0O. The ntss thousand is always the Lardest 10 se cure. 5Sr .E,e.-
 There are so, many munifcent gifts being made now that the Sunsblne.s hope the plan will touch the neslss of some able philanthroptsts ana .nst the Home may be endowea auu
 lfshed very soon
 Southern. politician recently toid of an incident in connection "lth
 slight earthauake that visited one VI the Gulf States, not so many years asu ,,. The shaking of theearth was distincus felt all over the state, p1t espsli.,ss ..,ra was in session at the time, and nearly every member thereof ran out oi sne state House when that structure pc
 gan to evince disposition 10 luin itself over Of course there was a
 end to Legislative proceedings TOT taa. day. When the body had reconVehso 1t was found that some memoer ol
 grir,Iy humorous turn had made an entry on the Journal of the Legislature in these words: "On motion or me The shaking of the earth was distinctS House, the Legislature adpourneo'
 
 one of the most interesting ana aoae reviews of Edith wharton s,,hs rovei .aThe House of Mtrth, was pup ushsd recently in the Literary Suppie- mant of The London Times. It IS neciallv remarkable TOT showing Nien what care the book was treatea us inc English critics. The reV'e"ei says: .,. ,,o,,or re- one of the difficulties that nensa leases the habitual critic IS the al,s's' it tv of preserving fixed stanaaro, ~ t sasy to noint out what appears :" he good in "a book, but very nara .o keen if in it's right relation 10 otnsi o,is aood hoolxs In other words, the uii- | ficuity is not ,that you get your coloI ., ? wrong, but that you get your yaius1 ,I | wrong. When you are oHereo a
 W ritten and entertaining DOCK. !. .,s. ,s,,, not unjust to call it very gooa ou.
 inc trouble is that these words apply ouite as we'll to Hamlet or 10 tne 1Iliad., They also are very good. tnu discover that you have adopted shifts
 ing standard. and that your values arc | falsified Thus it is when at rare hi hi tervaIs the critic is confronted wseh 1i' exceptional book. he has suoaeh m.a rn | sire tc reconsider has position ihc adeotiate words are there, only they have been already applied to othef | hooks rood of their kind, but on | lower plane, and no better Worus ar | left. Mrs, wharton's new mover lne
 House Of Mirth" Is such an exceplioIa- al book; and 1t is worth while insistihE
 that our standard IS. at any rase .s.a sDa | the moment, a high one, one oetore proceedfng to praise it. dozen otn- | or novels of the year are good, but tiiis hook Is really good. Mrs. wharton hsss | shown again and again in her snort stories that she possesses not oniy an | extraordinary mastery over techHlque' but also the real spirit Of comeay'
 watchful sympathetic, ana ,ronss VVv, ,n
 She takes a more prolonged thgnt ih | this book, and with 1t marks the hign-
 est point she has yet reached. Sne brings all her humor and sureness o, | touch.. and adds a sustained fire ana
 beauty beyond anything she mas wilI- VIII 1 ten hitherto. The book Is, Tn me HEs'
 place, solidly founded upon a trencn-
 ant knowledge of the human spirit
 and its curious workings. There Is
 not in the whole of 1t single piece Of | conventional or secondhand charac- 1 terization Mrs Wharton knows | through and through the extremely
 modern types which she chooses She
 registers to the last degree of deltcacy the tumble of crudity and oyer-etYill-
 zation which she finds in New York life today She describes coolly and
 patiently. without a touch Of journal i- ism or sentiment tality, the interminaele race after pleasure which that fierce little world like many another, en-
 eages in till it unconsciously becomes more absorbed in the race than in It's I object It Is hardly possible to praise too highly the way in which Mrs. wharton has followed out this history, the truth she mas put into IT, and the continuity she gives it, mak- ing this vacfllating mind. among the crowd who know their own minds so well. shift and change without ever
 losing its Identity.
 Will N. Harben. author Of Pole Ba' ker and The cieorgians, has never posed as q reformer. nor does the moral pur' nose in any of his entertaining stories obtrude itself unduly upon the reader In the British Weekly, however, they are advertising his latest book. Polt Baker as "a great temperance novel. and doing it in a more spectacular way than is usual in England. where Ham ing book advertisements are not SC
 common as here. It is also stated tha'
 "the story of his (Bakers) reform dls- | plays great ingenuity. very distlnc' sense of humor, and much genial phi' losophy,