The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-28

June Z5 Dy the ueInOCrauc party III Coh- vention assembled, it will soon be time to hear from all sides what a really
 great book "Astyanax'' is. The very peo- pie who you could not have fnveigled
 into reading MT. Browns really strong, although heavy book, before the author s nomination for governor of Georgia, VIII
 soon be taking the streets in praise or ''Astyanax' just SC if they don't. Ihe l Atlanta Journal, advocating the renom- l ination of Governor Hoke Smith, spoke | editorially of "Astyanax": in fact, that | usually astute newspaper said that no | book written in recent years could rival 1 1t in interest or charm, or words to that 1 effect-with the possible exception of that l thrilling adventure story entitled "The
 Mystery of the Kitchen or Who Sat in l the Pie." The mystery was unraveled l on June by the voters of Georgia; MT. l Brown "sat in the pie" all right, all | right. Some people say that the Atlanta
 Journal and Governor Smith were the l pies" Be that as 1t may, when "Astya- nax," an epic romance of Ilion, Atlantis l and Amaraca, came to this department
 for review, the title the general appear | ance of the book in adition to the re- l ply made to this reviewer by a cousin of | MT. Brown, who had come down to Geor- 1 gia all the way from Kalamazoo, Mich, l to assist in his cousins canvass for the l democratic nomination for Georgfas gov l
 your cousins book?' being Good sra- l cious, mol Life is too short" rather un- 1 justly prejudiced the writer of this re- I view against that epic romance, having and certainly finding 1t necessary to have
 calander and glossary attached thereto all told S69 pages. It is pretty hot
 weather now for s6s pages of epics to say nothing of glossary and calendar. 1 But duty is duty. Then, too, one must | get on the band wagon. This reviewer 1 saw his duty and bought a ticket on l the wagon-with the result that he has l read and thoroughly enjoyed "Astyanax" l and has "a crow to pick" with MT. l Browns cousin from Kalamazoo, Mich.. 1 for keeping from him great deal or real | pleasure and profit.
 MT. Joseph M. Brown says in his preface l to "Astyanax" that from his 17th year l he had been impressed with the fact that 1 while Greece has It's Iliad and Odessey;
 Rome its Aeneid; Scandinavia its Sagas; l Germany Its Neibelungen Lied; Spain its 1 Chronicles of the Cid; Portugal its Lusiad 1 and England its Romances of King Ar 1 thur, America possesses no story of an l epic nature with more than local signifi- canoe. Struck as MT. Brown was by the descriptions of the massive ruins of an-
 cient edifices throughout the three Amer
 icas and thrilled by the annals of the wars
 with the aborigines, it occurred to him 1 A
 which, utilizing the relics of antiquity | along with the heroic characteristics of 1 the natives as discovered and warred with l by the early settlers from Europe, would
 satisfy the taste and gratify the pride of l the peoples of the American hemisphere; 1 would teach the American youth that on
 our side of the Atlantic lived exemplars ! as noble as the Grachi and conquerors l who founded empires greater in area than did Alexander the Great With this end | in view MT. Brown (do not forget that
 he will be Georga's next sgovernor) has constructed in the warm hues of fancy, the ancient cities, temples and forts. and | with no means of knowing the nomenclat- ure of those earliest epochs the day-dawn of our continent. has supplied the names and to some degree traits of the aborig- inal nations or tribles peculiar to their
 localities. with their leading heroes or, as one may term them, that characters of the races as shown in history or tradi- l ton, dating back a few centuries Gust
 a flew centuries"-how's thatO before Columbus discovery, as well as prevail
 ing since his advent.
 Chronology places the scenes of "Ast- | yanax" at period upwards of 1155 years | B. c. MT. Brown has simply transplant | ed such characters as the real Tecumseh of 1872 A. D., the real Gautemozin of 15N A. D., and Osceola of 1885 A. D., with
 all of their noble qualities to the remoter period of his story.
 That there was an ancient civilization in America no one can doubt; that for unknown reasons it waned and disap- peared Is equally certain. The mounds in Arizona, particularly Casa Grande, near Tucson, lots of the same but smaller kind
 near Phoenix, are the causes for wonder
 whence came these peoples when did they live and how long was the period re- quired for constructing the cities and es- tablishing the empires and what was the
 cause of their decline and fall? It Is MT.
 Browns opinion, after long study ot this question, that most of the wild tribes
 north of the Republic of Mexico made
 their advent possibly from Asia. The au-
 thor is further convinced that the so-
 called Aztec civilization in Mexico was
 antedated many centuries by another civ-
 ilization, that of the Maya-Xibalans.
 whose occupation of lower Mexico and
 Central America seems to stretch back
 into the shadowy epochs of tradition MT.
 Brown further contends that America did
 not take its name from Amerigo Vespucci,
 'the Florentine adventurer," his fixed conviction being that the name America,
 or more correctly "Amaraca," was creat- ed and In use ages before the first voyage
 of Amerigo Vespucci.
 The book, handsomely produced with
 illustrations and drawings, dedicated to
 Georgia's war governor, the author $
 father, Gov. Joseph Emerson Brown and
 the authors mother, is really very in
 terestlng and instructive story, the Att
 lanta Journal to the contrary notwth-
 standing. "Astyanax,'' with it's name
 against 1t, is not likely to enter the lis.
 of the "sx best sellers" for which the
 author is to be congratulated. But it will
 be read now particularly and discussed
 by those who care for the really few good
 things In literature coming today from
 the publishers press. At any rate, with
 inc authors present prominence, you will hear and see written a great deal about | "Astyanax"-see if you don't. Thus does
 success in other lines of interest boost the sale of really notable book.
 "Columbia," the heroine of the story, is
 represented in the illustrations by like
 nesses of Miss Maxine Elliott who, "ill- ing the authors ideal of Princess Colum-
 b1a has with her gracious consent been
 embodied in the various drawings of Prin-
 cess Columbia in this work The author
 thus considers 1t fitting that one of the most charming of Miss Elliotts photo- graphs should preface the work which
 said photograph does, but you just ought
 to have heard the Atlanta Journal re- garding that picture, with its loud but now very quiet comments thereon, dur ing the gubernatoral campaign in Geor- gia just ended, thank goodness!
 William de Morgan, author Of Joseph Vance; Alice For-Short" and Some how Good" (Henry Holt & Co)
 This Is rather late date to be writing about MT. de Morgan's books, Joseph l Vance, appearinR in 1907 (early in the