The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-27


 | CTS in such q delightful way an aehieNe- | ment which in itself is way above tae l ordinary. Such books as William Jor- | dan, Jr.," unfortunately for the diseflm- 1 mating reader fof which there are great many, notwithstanding the best seller vogue). do not come forth very often and when they do arrive it is always q question whether they will be apprecl- ated.
 Into the rush and turmoil of this world of materialism Mir. Snaith sends highly sensitive and finely cultured young man to make for himself what he can Of life and himself The story of William Jor- dap's brief stay on earth is. really the tale of a brave spirit from the ideal beat ing his wings against a stone wall or ob- stacles in his endeavor to reach his aspi- rations. It is the story of souls vic- tory in spite of the frailty of It's bodily tenement. It is the story of divinely touched heart never broken but ever fail- ing and never achieving against hard cir cumstances. Educated by 8 scholarly father who knows little or nothing of life in the world William Jordan, Jr., is ded- icated to tho high purpose of the noble achievement of the scholar and author of the Ideal. For this purpose his educa- tion is continued by an old schoolmaster who is filled with the same spirit. The old schoolmaster dies when the young man has just entered his teens and his father resumes the labor of love and life. The time comes when the necessity of keeping the roof over their heads com pels the young man to attempt a living for himself in the world outside the little back room in which they had studied and prayed and breathed high hopes. Finally Jordan, Jr, succeeds in obtaining q sit | uation in a publishing house, where he meets James Dodson. Dodson is the only really human being in the whole of this story. He is of the earth, earthy-a per feet opposite to William Jordan, Jr. He is racy ol the street, the saloon, the very dirt of London life Armed from head to foot in the armor of slang and wis dom of the pavement--"there are no flies on Dodson,' as he himself correctly puts 1t. To Dodson, Jordan is a curiosity "luney'' he calls him. lie amuses him. self by fooling with him, borrowing mo- ney from him, laughing at him, jeering at him, and then ends by loving him. Jordan falls into temptation and takes from his employers desk some money which is urgently needed by his father to pay rent. Dodson tries to shield him, tells lies and even convinces the head of the house that he was mistaken in believ- ing that he had placed the money on the desk. But the temptation which over came the young scholar and searcher for the ideal was but the outcome of a mo-
 
 father and for the preservation of the hallowed home. Jordan goes back, re- turns the money, makes confession of his wrongdoing and brings in a policeman to take him to prison. He is sentenced to six months imprisonment and comes out to greet Dodson waiting for him, an entirely different person from what he had been when he entered the prison. The rest of the life struggle of this brave Snirit Cl arrfn hal tender in it's fine feeling. There are few books that have been written recently or even long time ago which will appeal to the lovers of the idealistic in life as will William Jordan, Jr'' The book is really great one, beautifully done It is a great pleasure, even a duty, to recom- mend so delightful a book as William Jordan, Jr.
 Ancestors by Gertrude Atherton
 Harper Ss Bros.
 Novels should not preach, they should not even crate, nor in them should an author say to his rea.ers: 'I am not arguing with you. life is too short to ar que with you or your kind, but I am tell in. you things as they are or ought to be-"
 Now, if an author insists upon lectur- ing us, of course we can simply decline to buy his or her oooks-if we knew the contents beforehand. But It does seem as if a much better way in which to han dle such a proposition would be to have the department of commerce and labor say, or that of agriculture at Washington rass upon such books and issue a label upon proper showing, explaining the con- tents or condiments, just as is now done in Chicago and elsewhere on timed meats and other foodstuffs. An author has no right, even if he does pretend to have it, to take advantage of the al petite of the reading public for novels to sell us a lec- ture or tract upon some hobby thinly yelled around some slim plot. Not even an earthquake or a wooden-headed hero or heroine who has no brains are sufh- cient reasons upon which to sell for s1.75 a political tract disguised as a novel Is the point clear? If not, then the point is that when we go to a bookstore to pur- chase novel we want a novel and we do not want a tract and how are We to know that we are getting tke novel, pure and simple, without the suggested com pulsory use of the label? Take for in- stance Ancestors for which we may have paid s1.75. The answer of course is that if we do not care for the book we can lay it aside. Of course. But if one has paid s1.75 for a novel one feels as if ones duty lies, at least to ones self. in reading it through as a punishment, let us say, for having been V'whagdoodled. But if the label had been used on An cestors," showing a guarantee as to it's contents, can one not see how all of this trouble and expense might have been avoided? Of course it would
 Mrs. Atherton simply breaches to us all of the time-ane some of us don't like it, that's all. Mrs. Atherton not only breaches to us at every opportunity pre- sented or not presented. as the case may be- but she reaches out and grabs one by the arm and while he or she is being firmly held so that there is no possible escape (assumng that one has spent $1.75) she says to you in effect:
 'I do not wish to do all of this. I really hate to do it. but my duty is plain to tell you poor miserable sinners Just what is what-so you must listen to me-
 MT. Charles Dickens and MT Charles Reade did great amount of effective preaching a long time ago on private schools, prisons and insane asylums in England and came pretty near to getting themselves into jail about 1t, too. Mrs. Atherton, not being a Dickens or Reade (she will never be either unless present signs fail, at least in this incarnation one would think that she. too. might fear peoples just wrath, at least those who arc out $1.75 for Ancestors
 "Flower O the Orange" by Agnes and
 Egerton Castle. The Macmillan Go.
 There are few people who love books who do not look forward with great pleas ure for the announcement of a new novel or collection of stories by the Castles.