The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-31

| knows of his condition will take care of l himself he is as sure of getting well as 1 one can be sure of anything, whether he | goes west or stays at t,home.
 ''The Struggle for Royal Child" Anna 1 Monica Pia, Duchess of Saxony) By 1 Ida Kremer. CMitchell Kennerley) l Newspaper readers are familiar with the escapades of all kinds of the former | Crown Princess of Saxony. This fasci- I hating creature as all readers will recall,
 ran away from her husband at Dresden, l when the latter was Crown Prince of | Saxony. Since then he has been made | king. After eloping with her lover, one | Giron, the Crown Princess, gave birth l to a daughter, which young person has
 caused a great deal of a struggle in Eu- l rope. through the desire of her father,
 the King, to bring her back to her right l ful place in the psAace at Dresden. The 1 King adopted all kinds of measures to | induce the runaway wife 10 return Anna l Monica Pia to her father and proper | surroundings at Dresden, but each time,
 even after the mother had agreed to re- 1 turn the child, she would break her word. 1 No one seems to know whether tho
 mother kept the child for love of 1t, or
 only to worry her discarded husband l the present King of Saxony. At any | rate, after much negotiations the mothsr 1 of Anna at last agreed that the King should have Anna. The King was told to send governess to live in the house of his former wife in Florence, Italy, the ] governess to endeavor to win the affec- ton of the child in order that the latter would be happy away from her mother. | ida Kramer, who wrote this book, The Struggle for a Royal Child" was sent by the Kings cabinet at Dresden to Gst the baby duchess. The book is an ac- [ faf tha former crown princess of the latter's pe- culiarites, of her many sided views of fife and her endeavors to carry them out. Of course Frau Kramer didn't get the child The mother backed out again. So that the book really deals with the mother of the child--one of the most mo- 1 torious women of Europe
 1 Publishers of books in their endeaynr , to reach down or up to the tastes of l the reading public surely have difficult i undertaking They see books published 1 which are indecent-go like the proyerbial
 hot cages, while good books are pub lished at a loss The publishers are in the 1 business for the money in 1t. They would very much rather print good book than
 an inferior or offensive one, but these i business men cannot be expected to work at a loss. What can they do when they
 see a certain notorious best seller go
 up into the edition of 75,000-must they publish something on the same order? Now the character of Countess Montig-
 noso, the Crown Princess present tue,
 is in line with such books and no doubt
 the publisher of "The Struggle for
 Royal Child" had that fact and the desire /, of the public for certain kinds of books, i in his mind. At any rate here Is the book It can be said that there is noth- 1 ing to offend in this book and those
 wishing anything on the order of an in- | folra orrlifo let this book alone, for 1t is at least clean. However the book is dull and inane. The
 only approach to anything that would
 please the seekers after the question l able in literature Is one remark in fhe | book made by the author that the count ess had most flexible toes (no doubt she has yet) and that if properly trained, she could almost play on the piano with them.
 But even so, one hesitates to read 21S rages of dullness to discover that fact
 Adams Clay By Cosmo Hamilton. (Brentanos.) =
 ..John Everard Campbell Ashley" ltld been cruelty mistreated by his wife anu his best friend-they had run off to- gether leaving him at home with his baby son. Ashley goes into retire ment and in the country on farm he
 brings up his son in the way he should 1 go (but doesn't before the book mn | ishes), away from women and their 1 Wiles. Now the father of the e@hero, the
 baby son grown to manhood when the
 book Adams Clay" opens-still loved | his unfaithful wife, and when he hears | of her death in Australia, he kills him ] self ito go to her." Not before he had told his son all regarding his suf-
 fering, how he had taken his child l away from the haunts of men-and all
 women-that the son might be spared
 suffering from the wiles of women. 1 That was all very well, but before the
 reader gets 10 or 15 pages In the DOCK he knows that some fascinating charm
 CT is coming along to demolish all the
 well laid plans of the experienced fath- l er It always happens that way in
 life-and in books. Betty Blundelf l was the charmer, and pastmistress l she surely was. Young Ashley goes
 along all well and reasonably happy
 until Betty comes too near Ashley farm to spend vacation, when every
 thing happens-as 1t does when there is
 a lovely woman ready and willing to do the fascinating stunt upon some
 poor unh appy man. The story is told
 by letters from Betty to a friend and
 by ordinary novel writing. The novel
 as picture of a certain type of Wom-
 an, of which there surely are some in
 this world, is a>splendid piece of work No one Will care TOT felty, Sliiiply pc- | cause in her letters she gives her plans
 away, but In the position of John Ash
 lev. nine men out of 10 (the 10th
 would have had to be deaf, dumb and
 blind) would have succumbed to Betty
 and been proud of 1t. The denouement
 of the story when Betty's husband ap-
 pears on the scenes Is very thrilling.
 The story Is very candid. There Is no
 beating the devil behind the stump In
 the book. It is undoubtedly very in
 teresting and more than that, exceed
 ingly well written.
 It Is slightly on the order of Victoria l Cross books (readers of this review T department know what that means), it
 means a great deal--of a certain kind. But Adams Clay" is a better writ ten book than are a majority of Vic toria Cross books
 There are innumerable Betty Blum dells" and young John Ashleys in the
 world SO why should we not read about tn en- as well as talk of them as | we do every day. We see enough of them in real life, and no mistake. And for each Betty there are at least 10
 John Ash1eys
 The book is very interesting and 1t will not injure anybody's morals-not the morals of anybody worth injuring.
 The Grandissimes and Old Creole Days.
 By George w. Cable. Charles Scrib-
 ners' Sons).
 These two great books (great Is used advsedly here) have been issued by the