The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-22

to go right through the book, adds to
 their thrills which Is the evident end
 in all MT. Oppenfreim's best sellers"
 Just for instance: Mannister causes one
 be exiled in disgrace; he drives another to be exiled in disgrace; he drives onather to
 cleaning boots for living In a Toronto
 railway station, another to suicide, and so on. It appears that Mannister, having
 been wound up on his revenge proposition, nothing could or would stop him.
 The book will interest the lover of
 thrills"
 'The Girl Question" A Novel from the Play of the Same Name. Novel by J. w Harding. co. W. Dillingham; Co)
 The play from which this novel was
 manufactured is now on the southern cir l cult.
 MT Harding has simply novelIzed the l play, in which the first part is laid in
 Chicago restaurant. when Con" Ryan, a
 slangy. iliterate, but 'ton-the-level"
 product of the under world. Is the man.
 ager Con Ryan thinks that he is in 1 love with a pretty little girl who acts
 as his cashier, but who is too young and
 frivolous to appreciate his devotion. The 1 head waitress, s.the best and truest pal a l fellow ever had" is in love with Ryan, 1 and he doesn't know 1t. The restaurant
 is frequented by a conglomerate crowd
 which ranges in the social position of it's l members from Skinny" Jones, the pres l ident of the Iron Workers union, to T. 1 P. G. Sears, a millionaire who owns pret-
 ty near all of Chicago and much of the
 rest of the United States. Ryan is given 1 an interest in the restaurant business, l and to celebrate, he determines to propose
 marriage to the pretty cashier, and asks ] the head waitress to assist him in doing
 both properly.
 l Baron Von Tesmer a young German
 who has come to America in search of l the rightful owner of a block of railroad stock which has been left in his trust for
 girl named Forster discovers that the i owner is the head waitress, just as the l deputy sheriff rushes in to declare that 1 Mr Sears has foreclosed a mortgage he 1 holds on Ryan's restaurant, and that l Connie and the whole shebang are to be 1 thrown into the street
 l The waitress secures position with MT.
 Sears as the latter's private secretary
 and she soon discovers that the block l of railroad stock she received from the 1 German baron forms the balance of power 1 which her employer, Sears, must acquire | to carry ou a vast deal.
 Of course after that the rest is easy. l The head waitress sells her stock to 1 Sears with the understanding that he re-
 store Ryan's old restaurant in good shape
 and present it to the latter rent free for
 three years, permitting Ryan to do as he
 pleases in running the business, and all ] that sort of thing.
 l Then of course, Ryan finds that he
 didn't love the cashier anyway. Did the l head waitress inheritance have anything l to do with Ryan's awakening? l The book is fair novelization of the plays now being turned out by the firm of Dillingham;.
 "The Man Without a Head.'' By Tyler l de Saix. (Moffat, Yard & Co.) 1 The title to this story seems very start 1 ling at first glance; but later. when you 1 begin to think about it. there is nothing l really peculiar about it at all. For as l you think you will agree with this review 1 CT that there are a reat number of men I and women of our acquaintance who are walking the streets without any heads at l all-but they don't know it. Therein-the | inability to grasp the absence of 8 nec- 1 essary adjunct to ones body-es the only difference between many people we l all know and the murdered people in this 1 thrilling detective story. While the people I in this book who had lost their heads
 were not able to admit it, of course not l their loss was a little more, not much, l self-evident than the acquaintances afore l said who can get around and at times 1 pore us nedrly 10 uedtn.
 | But the book! In 1t there was young
 chap, rather wooden headed Che was an
 EnglismanD who loved a beautiful girl 1 that's the way most books open. Sure l But in this case the lover had to unravel
 a mystery surrounding the disappearance I of the girls father, and the book tells us 1 all about 1t.
 | In Paris the story opens There had | been trerible murder, in which the vic l tim was found "without head" In that affair was mixed up the pretty girls fath- I CT. Long afterwards similar murder l happens across the channel in London,
 and Scotland Yard takes up the matter, in which the lover of the pretty girl assists, l or muddles the matter, as it happens at 1 different times. There are too many l ramifications connected with this story ] to give in a review anything like an ink I ling of the plot.
 l It is a first-rate detective story, Of which the name is legion, but, as stated | before in this department, what one l wishes in a detective story is simply that | sit-up-and- -take-notice interest l The reader will get that in ''The Man ] Without Head" The book doesn't seem 1 to have been written backwards, either, 1 like many detective stories. It is well worth trial if one cares for thrills. "A spirit In Pr1Son. By Robert HlchenS. CHarper & Bros.)
 l Hermione Delarey the heroine of MT. l Hichens earlier success, "The Call of the Blood" is the heroine of this vigorous, absorbing drama of Italy. It is really q sequel of the first story, and 1t differs | from many sequels In that it is probably l stronger than "The Call of the Blood' | The plan of making the heroine of "The | Spirit in Prison a widow with daughter l IS years old Is a rather daring one, but | Mr. Kitchens may be trusted to make a l success of that-as he is likely to do with | anything he takes hold of
 "A Spirit in Prison" has it's scenes on | little island in the Bay of Naples Her. mione, it will be recalled by those who read ''The Call of the Blood.'' who is the l daughter of the older Hermione, was un- | born at her fathers death. The faithful
 ness of the mother of Hermione's father | will also be recalled. Mir Kitchens em- ] phaszes, and to an extent plays with, in ] his new book, womans holiest ideal l in this case her faith in her dead hus- l band, whom she still loves and cease | essly regrets.
 | The unhappy widow is the spirit in pris- l on and her sad estate Is hinted at in the quotation, "The spirit that resteth upon | lie is spirit in prison'
 l You will recall that the wife of the | faithless husband believed in the latter l thoroughly, when the facts were that the
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