The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-11

"An Original Gentleman and the others in the collection too. Mrs. French hardly ever makes a miss in her short stories. although we had grown wee bit tired of Susan Clegg; she had ''ramificated" too much, so to speak.
 'The Bishops Scapegoat," by T. B.
 Clegg (John Lane Co)
 A minister of the Church of England had for reasons. good reasons, become real angry with the husband of his sis ter and in quarrel and a resultant fight the minister had killed his brother-in-law although he thought he had only stunned him. When the minister, in company with his sister, had left his unconscious brother-in-law, there appeared promptly on the scene Frenchman who had reas- on to hate the unconscious man and at first thought, being a physician, he de- cided to revive the wounded man, but afterwards decides to let matters remain as they are; the Frenchnan had been blackmailed by the wounded man. The f'renchman was arrested on the scene of the crime and on the evidence of witness es who saw only half of the tragedy receives a life sentence in Frances penal colony. When the prisoners and natives on the French penal island revolt. Ber- tram, the convicted but innocent prison- CT, leads the revolt and with his daugh-
 
 sail boat hoping to reach Australia. A months stay on the water occurs, q storm separates the party within sight of the Australian shores and the girl takes to her life with kindly Australians who, while knowing that she may have escaped from the penal colony receive her as member of their family A son of the English minister who had been the real murderer and not the French physician, convicted Bertram, lived near the home of the Australians who had re- ceved Bertrams daughter and this young fellow fell in love with this lovely girl This love affair is the complication in the book together with the Bishops con- sciousness of his past wrong-doing. This book is realistic in the extreme and we'll worth the reading.
 Daniel Boone, woodsman," by C..
 H. Forbes Lindsay. (J. P. Lippincott
 Co.)
 Daniel Boone, Backwoodsman'' is in- tended primarily for young readers, those far enough along in their teens and read ing to possess q grounding in American history from which they can begin to branch out in biographical reading. But the book is written with such maturity of thought that it will be found interest ing to older readers as well. The book first describes the conditions of frontier life previous to the Revolution and out lines the main facts of Boone's career the early part of it. The narrative prop CT deals with the time when Boone led the first party of settlers from South Carolina into Kentucky After the author gets Boone and his party into Kentucky he begins to branch out, sticking as close as possible to history, but at the same time adding this and that by which to better illustrate the life of the people The author adheres strictly to history, so far as facts are concerned and only branches out from time to time-as indi- ,, cated; the only danger about such treat ment is the possession of necessary abil- ity for the reader to decide what is his tory in this entertaining book and what is not In any event there can be not ,, much harm done. To be able to get the young people to read any history is something. This book is a vivid picture of the olden times and is well worth read ng-particularly for the young. The author brings ina and discusses much, Boone's adopted son, Hardy Goodfellow, ,, and his companion and aid, Simon Ken ton, the scout
 ''The Small Holding. by F. E. Green. John Lane Co)
 This is small volume by writer who has done things himself in England with small plot of ground. So many text books the author says, have been written on agriculture by gentlemen who never handle anything beyond the reins of a