Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-01-06
Someoftbe
MebBooks
The Most Powerfully Written Book
of tie Year"

line q t0NtffiilN Nrittcn BOON
of tie Year"
The distinction of deserving this SUI
periatiye praise Is awarded by the In
dependent to The Guarded Flame
by w. y. Maxwell. 1t is a work which
has moved the reviewers TO unusually
excited epithets.
Even the London Times calls 1t lex
allied" the London News noble" the
Washington Star wonderful" the AL
bany Argus astonishing. The author
is a young Englishman. the son OF
Mrs. John Maxwell, who won fame as
Miss Bradd0n. The son is destined to
outrun his mother. He has already
been favorably compared with Dick
ems, T~hackeray. Hardy. and Meredith.
CIcrgymen and THE Fighting Chance"
The bcst-selhng book OF any year is
bound TO provoke a difference OF opin-
Ion. IL would be hard to find a more
radical divergence than that OF the
two clergymen who wrote the follow
ing letters concerning Robert Cham
berss The Fighting Chance.
The Rev. Wallace MaeMullen Of the
Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal
church. New York. writes;
There may be a moral tonic in IL
for some victims of heredity. There
is stimulus often in It's intellectual
brightness. IL Is a vivid. frank. bru-
tai. and. for the sake OF deeency let
US hope, an exaggerated portraiture Of
the society IL describes, III Is at times
powerful and usually enticing but not
wholesome. IL is not utterly hopeless
In its conclusion, but the note of hope
Il not struck early enough nor sus-
tained long enough. Most of the peo-
pie in u are either sordid or vulgar or
absolutely nasty. It's two leading
characters are attractive but not no
bic. The moral flavor which at
last into the story is hardly enough to
vinse the mouth with. The taste left
Is distinctly bad. From the literary
point Of view IL is not equal to some
other work OF the author"
In sharp contrast is the expression
from the Rev. Henry T.. Cobb, OF the
Delegate church, New York:
"A glance Is sufficient TO show me
what an important and unused field
for fiction this story covers i do not
know any novel that mas treated seri-
nusiy this great problem Of the liquor
habit. Dickens, who touched on Il
frequently. treats Il as a joke. 1t Is no
Joke indeed to the man who Is gripped
by 1t. or TO the doctor or the minister
who has to deal with II as a patholo-
EAN3l OF "A Spiritual lANlt anu ! wei
come Mr.. Chambers 10 rhe ranks o.
those who are trying 10 discover the
path OF emancipation. Ny own obser-
walton makes me believe that he has
discovered the only secret OF victory"
The Rev. Jehn Roach Straton of the
Second Baptist church in Chicago. co..
Incides with the latter view. for he
writes;
Il have read It with profound inter-
est. ma regard u as n of the strong
est novels OF the day. The lesson that
q teaches. that the human will and a
aoble ideal, inspired and directed by
the Divine, are superior 10 the forces
Of hercdity and environment, is a
truth that our race greatly needs at
this time. / think. consequently, that
the hook viii accomplish great good.
and it win AFFORD me pleasure TO ad-
vance ITS circulation In all ways pos
S'hle"
The Rev Percy Stickney Grant also
believes in the value OF the book and
has preached on a. He writes;
since I first made MI. Chambers
acquaintance. through a short story. ]
have thought him one Of the W or
three c'cverest writer's of short stories
iB America The new book has all the
condensation and eplgramatic quick
ness and hriliiancy % scene of his
short stories He introduces one Of the
most onuieut and favored sides of
American life. without peSSimism, and
suddenly shows YOU at the heart OF
his Story the solution OF a moral pro-
biem put SO humanity and convinc-
inEiy thar il has a-Veritahle dramatic
emeCt ike strong. adventurous action.
7 an making The Fighting Chance
the subject If a sermon, next sunday
night the sixth On the Church % the