The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-17
D E P "A R T M E N T


nal will find much to delight them in
 book entitled "The Ideas of a Plain Coun-
 try Woman" recently published by
 Doubleday, Page & Co.
 The volume does not disclose the iden-
 tity of the author and no doubt the read
 CTS of the Ladies Home Journal have
 often wondered who it was that hid be-
 hind the plain, simple, homely name that
 the author had chosen as a substitute
 for her own. But this review will give that information before it gets through
 "The Country Contributor first wrote
 under this signature five years ago but before this she had been a frequent con tributor to her husbands newspaper. Mir. Ed Box, editor of the Ladies Home Jour nal tells in a preface to this little book
 just how he discovered and used in his publication this writer. Mir. Box says that
 his attention having been called to essays in the Indianapolis News, by ''rhe Coun- try Contributor" he made investigations
 and secured that writer for his magazine. Now some of the essays previously print ed in the Ladies Home Journal with l many others. new, added, are sent forth in book form. "rhe Country Contributors ] is Mrs. Juliet V Strauss, whose home IS | in Rockville, Indiana
 l !. Tn his preface MT. Box says: "It is difficult to analize the peculiar charm that l the writings of the Country Contributor" l have for a wide public unless it is that
 she has lived deeply and touches upon the vital well springs of living with q hand l that we feel is that of experience, is also true that people by the million have read and are today each week and each month | reading the writings of "Plain Country l Woman.' sHa
 Mrs. Strauss has studied human kind and she has found what the majority of l uS overlook. that 1t Is much the same the whole world around Human nature , changes little with latitude and longitude | and from ones own sneignbors can often- times be gained the knowledge of the thoughts, the feelings, the desires, the joys of a whole nation. Mrs. Strauss is particularly happy in her observations concerning the simple life She is an op- ] timist and her philosophy is one of op- timism. Her book is filled with words i that are good for men and women to hear, not lecturing words not discouragins words, but words full of sympathy, help, | hope and strength. The messages con l veyed are appropriate for the rich as for the poor, for the happy as well as the | unhappy. All of the essays are interest ] ing. for the author has pleasing intimate | style very delightful to read and exceed 1 ingly entertaining. Here and there bit l of humor lightens the essays and tends to
 make the lessons conveyed all the easier l to take home to ones heart and mind. | The book contains IT essays-all good | Nor All Your Tears, by Maud H. Yard 1 ley. R. F. E'enno & Co.,
 Maud H. Yardey wrote and published
 book last year called "Snless" which
 one reviewer had to handle. He turned
 in review of it, only starting there, in | simply what the book was about, with l out any comments. A simple statement of the plot of "Sinless" was. too much for
 the managing editor and the review thus I made of that book was declined with thanks Now comes the same author and i sends forth a new book called "Nor All
 Your Tears which is not so outspoken | as ''Sinless which is just as we'll In this book, which tells a sordid story
 of poor young girl who suffered from mans inhumanity to woman, there are
 many things which will not please the dis l eliminating but by comparison with Sin i less" it is prudity itself. The story of 1 Nor All Our'Tears,' has the title taken 1 from verse of Omar's:
 1 "The moving finger writes; and having writ,
 Moves on; nor all your piety nor wit | Shall lure it back to cancel half a line; 1 Nor all your tears wash out a word of t.' | The daughter of an artist had been mis-