The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-03
Literary Lights And Shad0hs
BY 8. MAYS BALL.

Q4ittle. Brown & Co,)
 William Fox, the hero of "The Reap
 ing" was one of those political geniuses
 who had only to let his wishes be known
 to receive from a grateful public any ot-
 flee In it's gift, Fox was sent to Con
 gress where he charmed thousands ana
 bored his fellow congressman at every
 opportunity which presented itself to hlm'
 and some times, as his political enemies
 insisted, Fox didn't walt for an oppor-
 tunty to advertise himself-he made one
 At any rate, Fox was q genius, ahd pet
 ter than that. he knew he was a genlus'
 In Washington there was Secretary Of the
 Navy White, who had married Margaret,
 the old sweetheart of Fox. Some years
 back Fox had loved Margaret desperate
 ly, and they were engaged to be married,
 when White came along with a great deal
 of money Margaret preferring to be
 bird in gilded cage to enjoying love in
 cottage, threw Fox overheard, and mar
 ried the rich man White, who was now
 Secretary !, the Navy at Washington,
 and Fox's itical enemy. Fox kept
 hanging onk Margaret's heels, and when
 he came to Ns, ,hington he was constant
 visitor at White's house. All of Fox's
 friends, and most of his enemies, agreed
 that all Fox had to do to "beeome Presi-
 dent of the United Statl-e was to keep
 his head and everything about him Tree
 
 was keeping clear of everything until
 Margaret, believing that Fox still loved
 her--but he did not-she became tired,
 weary of the riches without happiness,
 which White provided. Like many other
 people, Margaret wished the whole stock
 and barrel of life's gifts So after rev
 stormy scenes between husband ana wile'
 Margaret, as before mentioned, believing
 that Fox still loved her as much as her
 rekindled love was now for him, applied
 for and secured a divorce, expecting to
 "gain her happiness through another
 ''try-outs as the race track people say
 Now Fox had become slightly cool Tn his affection for Margaret; in fact. ne
 now loved Rose Temple, beautiful young girl daughter of Judge Temple of Wash- ,ngton, At any rate, Margaret secured her divorce out in the west, she returned to Washington expecting to be welcomed by Fox literally with open arms, when she discovered in a very dramatic way that Fox did not love her at all now but did love Rose Temple. Margaret aiso found out that while Fox loved Rose
 Temple, he was such wonderful creature that he was going to bury his love TOT
 Pose and marry Margaret because the latter seemed to expect him to- You see
 Fox was a genius-not many men marry women simply to be pleasant or to taee part in an Alphonse and Gaston pusl- ness When Margaret found out that III her hunt for happiness the second tlme
 she has failed again, her heart, whicn was
 weak. gave way, and she very kinoiy'
 very appropriately died, leaving the stage clear for the genius Fox and Rose Tenn ple to marry and live happy ever afteH- ward-more or less. The reaping In the story is the old Biblical one Of gather ing in simply what we SOW. We all ue-
 lieve in the reaping theory and no doupt it is true, but doesn't it seem to tahe u | mighty long time for some peopie-neVer I mind who-to reap what they deserve it
 certainly does Take Margaret In this 1 hook. for instance, She loved Fox ana l was engaged to marry him, but married ! White simply because he had the money
 If took Margaret 12 years to get In her
 cron. which seems mighty long time TOT | such a woman to wait, who had crueily l treated a genius like Fox, whom she | loved and who loved her. Then the mn | ,ite she became tired of the bird Ill the | ejlded cage business, all of the time how ever. keeping poor old genius Fox on the l string she thinks she is ''entitled to nap
 niness. and proceeds to get it. by simply | doing what she wished to do. It was | really the best thing that Margaret did- | when she died. It became evident 10 | Fox that if he did marry Margaret tiie ' | divorce scandal in Washington would ,,,in his nolitical career The story of | Margaret is simply that of a woman I who wants both the money and love Ill | cottage; if she can't get them compineu' | she usually wants them as Margaret at 1 tenhpted to have them, with the always | usual deserved result 'The Reaplng IS ! good story; it is quite interesuhs' the ue- 1 scriptions of Washington life are very
 yood-it is altogether a very good novel. 1 ..Sx Chapters of a Mans Life,' by VIC
 toria Cross. CMitchell Kennerley)
 | The author of "Six Chapters of Man 5 | I.ife'- who also wrote 'Life's Shop Win l dow, recently reviewed in this paper, IS l an English woman whose real nahe haS | the initials " c. When she began 10
 write novels, or even pelore .na', nS, | friends always spoke of her as Flctoria 1 Cross.s so that when her hrst DOCKS
 were pubIished under the initials or V- C.' | which were her own initials the EnSiish l reviewers accepted that complhation lo | mean the coveted 'TVictoria Cross ana | the belief that this writer was paiaolns | the name of the English medal ana hoiiol | in order to advertise her DOCKS pIousll 1 forth a lot of condemnation whoever | ..victoria Cross may be-she has been | talked and written about great deal | which in itself is not a bad advertisement
 for her novels
 ssx Chapters of Mans Life.' so l charming young woman explained tne l other day to this book department, car- | ries A moral-whatever that may mean ln | A. present day book These books we read about carrying morals'-do some 1 times at the end of about 200 or 900 pages, drag in two or three closing pages or ..noraP'-but the trouble is that the per
 sons in the book which adorn the tale and through whom the moral is under | stood to be shown, have such delight- l ful time before judgment day comes II | there is any harm done by reading suc1 | hooks with the aforesaid moral-Which any thoughtful person will doubt-it IS | sin1plv in the thought running through all l such books that the persons who in the | end are punished well and good, as they | should be. they do have such delight fu time of it on the path of dalliance be- | fore the ax falls. Then the moral, one | ,nipht iudge to be namely, that if one
 coud arrange to have $50 pages of good ! tinas,, he could afford the four or i've | nages of punishment. At any rate, as | Victoria Cross says she is not writing l hoo1fs for the feeble minded nor for chil- l dren-it is difficult to see where any harm l for good either) can be done from her | books. They are generally interesting | which covers a multitude or sins-and | no mistake.
 The story of "Six Chapters of a Mans | life" deals with a man and only one | woman. The author says in her preface | that the facts contained in this book came | into her hands after the man described | had died and V. c. goes on to say that from the terrible story of reckless trans l oression and its punishment 1t