The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-24
Conducted By martba Young

>~~~S~>>>~~>~~>>>S 1 MitcheIrs "A Diplomatic Adventure. 1" eighteen books of fiction stand to the Philadelphia authors credit. beside five volumes of verse and uncounted papers and treatises on neurology, serpent poisons. comparative physiology. and kindred subjects. These are the rec reation of a busy physicians leisure hours.
 silas Weir Mitchell, one of the nine children of Dr. John K. MitcheIl-him- self a well-known physician and a writer--was born in Philadelphia, Feb ruary IS, 1880 Weir Mitchell himself says of hIs education: T can't say that I had any" but he went for sev- eral years to the old grammar school of the University of Pennsylvania, though Illness interfered with gradua- ton. Ills later studies were followed at Jefferson Medical College, and he holds degrees conferred by Harvard. Edinburgh, Princeton and Bologna. At home and abroad he has ranked for | many years with the greatest of living nerve specialists holding office or | membership in the National Academy | of Sciences, the French Academy of Medicine. the British Medical Associa- | tion, and the Philadelphia College of Physicians.
 | Today pr. Mitchell Is ranged among | the greatest of American story-writ- CTS, with every promise that his name and work will endure among the clas- | sics of American literature. For, 1t is generally conceded. Dr. MitcheIps writ inKs are stamped with that quality ot literary distinction. that smooth flow | Ing current of thought, that marks the | difference between the best and the unimportant in literature. The impress sions that have made his own career l distinguished he has put into his books, forming a literature of impressionisln of his own, unique in it's standards of human philosophy and in its daring truth, wrought out always with bril- liant activity of mind and with sound
 imaginative vision.
 ''Hearts and Creeds, by Anna ChapIn
 Ray-Thls story. by Anna chapin Ray. Is strong and well sustained romance of Quebec, that quaint old city, around | whose history clusters so much that is interesting and romantic. Only incl dentally does the city figure in the story As the name implies the author has chosen to depict a soul-struggle. and since that is common to the race, 1t can never fail to touch humanity.
 Aeline Lord. who Is English and Protestant. defles opinion and marries | Amedee Lelen, who Is Preach and a Catholic. The dificulties which come
 of this match. the years of breeding.
 doubt, fear, faith, each treading the wine-press alone, are powerfully put
 forth. and the interest Is sustained to the end.
 Aeline, who is only Protestant be-
 caIse her family Is, has no well dc.
 fined ideas on the subject and cannot
 realize all that his church means to
 Lelen. She IS furious because she can
 not be married in her own church, still
 more so when she finds that she must
 be married in the sacristy. instead of the Basllica. She did not realize that
 to man like Lelen 1t was no light
 thing to feel himself under the ban of his church. to know that his marriage
 Is a direct violation of It's law. She
 thought only of the fuss and feathers
 that must be given up.
 Though born and educated in this
 city where so many of the inhabitants were Catholic and mixed marriages
 not infrequent, Aeline had never in-
 formed herself regarding the conditions
 of such a marriage When the mar riage settlements come to be signed
 there Is a strong scene, for the girl
 cannot bring herself to realize as yet
 all the words convey, which were be-
 ing so listlessly droned out by the law
 yer. She heard in scowling silence all
 that was said in regard to her dover
 the solemn pledge that In no way
 should she oppose Lelen in the full ex-
 ercise of all the forms of his religion
 But the fire leaped up at the second clause, The children. Amedee? All
 the children?" she demanded, and her
 flaming cheeks were not alone from
 the modesty of maidenhood. Tt Is the
 law" he told her. All of this is mere preliminary 'skirmishing to the real
 battle, which comes after the birth of
 their little daughter. Lelen is. oi ] course, firm in his resolve to bring rr
 his small daughter a Catholic, and the
 mother endeavors to make a Protest ant out of her. Lelcn carries her of
 to a convent to be educated, preferrine
 to have her a good church woman al
 any cost The rift between husband . and wife widens day by day. helped on
 by a woud-be lover, though the real
 cause of their final separation is thls religious difference. Strange. Is il
 not? What this professed religion car
 do for us. We are followers, we say and yet how little do we really resem. , ble the meek and lowly Nazarene. Aeline and Lelen live apart for some years, until an epidemic of smallpox breaks out, and Lelen is stricken witt most virulent type of the disease. A! . leaves everything and goes to him There the book ends. One wonders , though, what is to be their lot here after For it would seem impossible for them to find a common ground 1T religion. For Lelen's is meat and drinl
 and the breath of life to him. He i
 French Catholic to the core of his soul and Aeline is English and her religion Is Protestant. Can their love bridg
 this over in the future. But the write has not chosen to tell us this, and E need not be anxious. The thing Is tha love makes Aeline swallow he pride. and goes to her husband, Real izing fully that she risks dishguremen for life ny going for Monsieur St Just. who professes to be desirous O taking her husbands place. has toll her all this, but she goes, No dcub she will stick to her position. let tn firing be ever so heavy. There are number of minor characters introduce who make an interesting part of tn ! -r,.