The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-23

paper man. The book would show thst Mr. McGee was newspaper man. before he was q novelist, even if it was not Known in advance. News paper writing and contact with the men in public life and the professions to whom a newspaper man must so for material engenders satire and a hatred of shams. of which the news paper man penetrates more than his share. 4 newspaper man who writes what he really thought about the pso- pie he had to do business with would last less than one day in . modern newspaper once. He would be sepa- rated from the pay roll within fifteen minutes after his paper was on the press. But when he writes 6 book he can turn himself loose and by merely changing peoples name write what he thinks and knows in his soul to be true.
 Mir. Mceee. has written one of the most interesting little volumes that has come from the press in q long time. Evidences of the craft studied planning and unexpected surprises of the professional novel maker. are wanting. But the humor and the satire is keen and refesnine. These alone would make the little volume worth while.
 Then he presents the characters that are known in every southern community. The man raised in a small town of the south finds the book a well spring of delight. Such a man has never known many of the baronial planters who drink mint juleps in novels and say "Ah'' for T" but he has known the politicians and the shams that Mir. McGee shows up in "A Dark Corner" The southerner takes his politics seriously and in large doses. We hardly realize our selves the too important part that politics play. in the life of the aver age man of the South. The South erner is political toper: he has let the habit of politics grow on him un- til 1t is almost his whole existence.' ''
 Mir. McGee plays gently and anus ingly upon the southsrner's overfond- ness for politics and his amiable weakness of allowing flimsy hypo- critics to lead him. 8x
 Mir. McGee seems to have gone out cunning for shams. What struck his hunters instinct evens~more than the platidudinous dsmagogue was the ed- ucational sham, which only few years ago the South allowed to get A foothold. Not that Mfr. Mccee aimed anything at the remarkable renais- sance of education in the south. To that he was . true friend, and be- sides it's excellence hA contracted the spurious article represented fin the tank town "colleges" of a generation ago, which in pretense far outshone and in merit fell far below Dotheboys Hall of Nicholas Nickleby fame That such colleges" with all their shams have silently disappeared before the advance of efaclency the State en- dowed and State regulated htgh schools may be a source of gratifica- ton to the Southerners, who think on the welfare of their people.
 The greatest merit of Mir. Mccee's book. is however, his character draw Ing. His work there is excellent. "A Dark Corner" is much better in char aeter drawing than it Is In story tell. ing. And 1t is not necessary for one to have known the characters Mir. Mc- Gee draws, every Southern man does. to appreciate the bubbIing hurnor of | thA hoot As stf
 A fine love story runs through it. but as good as 1t Is the love story does not measure up in interest with the satire. the humor and the char. acter portrayal of the work.
 It is we'll worth reading.