The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-06
THE SILENT WITNESS, "
 MRS. M.KZNlNEI s BOOK

fiulfo'fll1 1lhg lMD nm 0HnHu ulHI0lE arose. spraying the gray cloud heap that lcwe-sa. ond 1etsit ts d.wn tns plgnt."
 It is a God given privilege to enjoy such a sunset and only God -given genius may undertake to describe it. Allusion has been made to the fall ure of Mrs. Mckinney to keep the main the punishment for the crime--to the fore Because of this lack of tech- nique interest Is not sustained. The story loses interest for example; when one must go through an entire chap ter with a more or less silly boy and girl love-making in boat whose ac- ton and whose dialogue have little or no bearing on the story. We find the | same fault with another chapter which stops the development of the story to record the manufacture of lye hominy 1 by an aged negress who tells about 1t In dubious dialect.i That Mrs Mckinney is . thinker and q reasoner is shown by numerous pointeds grams. and sparkling conver- sation. captious critic might say
 with all sincerity that some of her characters are entirely too clever for ordinary people and it Is not pretended | gentlemen and gentlewomen of Ken- lucky. Every genius pays the penalty of being classified by the general run of people as eccentric, a word that has an abused meaning to the general run. | Mrs. Mckinney does not display eccen- ] triclty in the pages of The Silent | Witness" There is a note Of cynicism here and a vein of philosophy there but these fine epigrams and delicate poetic thoughts do not slip quietly and tremendously into the story as they should.
 l Mrs. Mortimer, the cynical and yet phifosophic modern widow of the story, often discourses in epigrams and In verse. Her apostrophe@ of love is one of the daintiest morsels in the book. | Love" she concludes, "is everything until one learns 1t is nothing" Later on she tells the young minister. Charles Rhodes, that the love of a man IS weathercock that the slightest breeze
 from any passing skirt will move and agitate."
 | Comparisons are scissorsS again
 says Mrs. Mortimer. They clip the beauty from compliments and make I them doubtful" Showing her disre- I gard for the opinions of others she | tells her young niece: Why should we care for what is said Of us?. 1T | there is an atom of life in Sahara 1t will germinate and grow regardless l of comment Truth, well spoken, De- comes a boulder over which the crowd | climbs and at which the critic yawns and turns back"
 l Revealing her passionate nature
 Mrs. Mortimer declares to her ingence niece, whose candid confession that Jack Seymour had kissed her is in
 consistently shocking. "A kiss is the
 spirit-key that unlocks the mysteries of a womans love; taken from her l lips it becomes a thing that dissolves | in man all thoughts but self. To kiss
 babe Is an exchange of one rose for another. Kisses for the dead are ex- plained in eternity.
 l Her tendency to independent thought may jar the nerves of some of Mrs.
 McKinney's friends but there is com
 pensation in the knowledge that only
 common place persons agree with the crowd.
 | The statement That Mrs McKin- ney puts into the mouth of one of her characters that John Calvin condemn ed children to Hell. is the perpetua- tion of an error which has long since been abandoned in scholary circles A
 recent book, by & distinguished Alaba- milan undertakes in the light or the
 most modern investigation of the writ
  | to establish the contention that SC far from teaching the damnation oi an,, children. Calvin was the first theo- 1 aogian of modern times to give Q Scriptural basis for the salvation oi
 all children dying in infancy. In characterization the story Is | faulty. None of the persons in the book is drawn clear enough to under
 stand and take to our hearts with the exception of Mrs. Mortimer. Many oi
 them are so vague as to be inefficient l We start out, for example. determined
 to love old Ep Hagan. but are ois- appointed when he vanishes in the mist | of light conversation that engulfs him Others directly concerned with the story are packed off to Europe ana w are left with Mrs. Mortimer and heI epigrams. One highborn young man of good character Is about to win ouE
 respect when he taunts fellow beine on his deformity. A young woman hac
 endeared herself to us as the soul oi honor when she shakes our faith by | stealing the letters of another which
 she calmly proceeds to read to hei ! sweetheart.
 One of the concluding chapters ol the hook deals with the escape of Dun l stan Clark from jail and his visit tc the vault where the body of his victim Dan Thurston. lies. In a frenzy he searches for a locket in the caskel
 with the body A seething. swoller
 stream sweeps by the edge of the vault and 1t is suddenly undermined carryins Dunstan Clark and the body of Dan
 Thurston along with it. This Is highly-colored but natural situation It is dramatic enough and Mrs. Mckin' ney arouses the reader to It's possioili'
 ties.
 "The Silent Witness is bound IT
 leaden gray. The lettering Is in ret and the cover is embellished with black crossed guns.
 The book is on sale at all book stores of Montgomery. b. h'