The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-27

written by that genius. Frank Norris ! that unique product of our western soil, 1 killed. for some hidden purpose of the gods, before the time of full blossom" These stories have been heretofore pub l lished in different magazines of this country from 1891 to 1902. inclusive but have now been collected. 'the longest and most important of his prentice products 1 and sent forth in book form.
 Most of us who claim to read anything, i have read "The Pitt and "The Octopus" two novels hy MT Norris which were to l constitute with a third he never lived to write a great triology on wheat grow ing selling and speculation.
 Net the least interesting portion of The 1 Third Circle the title of the book be- ing taken from the first story in t-is the l charming introduction by that other Cali fornian who went east-is still there l MT Will Irwin. Mr. Irwin tells us some l thing of Mr Norris beginning in litera- ture; how on "The Wave" a weekly pa- per of San Francisco. the latter was for a long time subeditor, until a serial, | Moran of the Lady Letty.' which Mir. i Norris practically wrote from day to day as was needed for "rhe Wave being brought to the attention of McClure's magazine, finally drew Frank Norris 1 east.
 l Arriving in the east-New York-Mr. 1 Norris published Moran of the Lady i I,etty." NTcTeague;" Blk" "A Mans Woman" ''The Octopus" and 'The Pit I in the order named
 l As MT. Irwin puts it. "The east was l just beginning to learn that he (Norrisl l was great; we had known 1t long before i The Is short stories in this volume l have been designated by Gelett Burgess l (another successful California writer) as i .'Tha studio sketches of a great novelist
 "When The Wave finally died of too l much merit" as Mr. Irwin states, he and l Burgess ''stole into the building by night l and took away one set of files. harm l less theft of sentiment, we told ourselves l for by moral right they belonged TO 1 us the sole survivors in San Francisco of those who had helped make the Wave. l And indeed by this theft we saved them l from the great fire in 1906 When we had i them safe at home we spent a night l running over them marveling again at l those rough creations of blood and nerve l which Norris had made out of that city l which was the first love of his wakened 1 intelligence and in which. so woefully l soon afterward he died Admirable 1 in themselves these rough-hewn tales, 1 they are most interesting when compared with the later work which the world l knows and when taken a melancholy indication of the power of growth which was in him and which must have led, If l masters of fate had only spared him, to 1 the highest achievement in letters" 1 There are many people who do not par l ticulary care for short stories. It Is l generally conceded that the more we read i the less we do care for the short story ! at least 30 1t Ia with most people.
 ''The Third Cirele"-the book-came to this department on the day before the writing of these reviews. So long has this reviewer delighted in anything writ 1 ten by Mir. Norris that a book then be- ing read for review was laid aside to take up "The Third Circle" 'The Third Cir cle was not laid aside until every one of the IS stories therein contained had been read-every one enjoyed.
 You can take 1t as a general proposi- tion-or a particular one-that when reviewer grows enthusiastic over col lection of short stories-if the reviewer means what he says, and he generally does-the book discussed is a winner "The Third Circle is more than that: 1t will delight you. Try it. Don't let good thing like this get away from you, If you can possibly prevent 1t.
 'Cherub Devine." By Sewell Ford
 CMitchell Kennerley)
 MT Ford who has delighted us-some of us, any way-in his creation of "Shor- ty'' McCabe,'' has written novel which is sent forth under the title of ''Cherub Devine.'
 Cherub Devine was a financial mag nate. a young fellow who from poverty in Chicago had. by hard work and great amount of luck, or whatever you may be pleased to call 1t, risen to the position of financial eminence in Wall l street, the possession of vast fortune and strong grip on facts" l Cherub possessed a great buoyancy of soul This bouyanoy of soul, together, perhaps, with the pink ehubbiness of his cleanly shaven face, had earned him the name aforesaid.
 Cherub began his career as an office boy for a Chicago stock broker, from | which position he finally evolved into the 1 many-millioned speculator whose auda- | cious methods were at the moment stir ring things up in Wall street.-the partic- ular moment or moments when the book l opens.
 l Cherub had all kinds of money mazu- 1 ma, dinero. Fifty thousand dollars was a mere pittance, bagatelle, "chicken feed" to Cherub: so that when a real estate 1 shark came along one hot summer aft ernoon to find Cherub staring out of his | open window from the office, Bulkins the aforesaid. real estate shark, suggest | ed to Cherub that the latter buy | country place, namely, Hewington Acres. | Cherub was a bachelor, rather uncouth, with that before mentioned buoyancy of soul and peculiar but straight ideas of honor Cherub however, had as much need for country place on the Sound as we are told a resident of the state l of Maine has for corkscrew-they open l 1t for you up there.
 He bought the place Annie Howe, as they say in New York. Recalling his | purchase s0ne time after 1t had been concluded, Cherub decides to hunt up | Hewington Acres and does so.
 The story in the book. which is light, breezy and quite pleasing, deals with what happened to Cherub-what bricks were thrown at him, what axes wielded on the least protected portions of his 1 where anatomy (Remember the chicken l and where Mamie is supposed to wear | the beads?) when the purchaser went to take possession of his country place. He found portions of the forty-room | house already inhabited. or at least not yet empty. In that portion still resided the former owner of the place, together l with a sick sister (whose illness prevent ed a removaD and charming widow, Countess Vecchi.
 You can guess the answer. If you can, ing to secure it. The book is very funny safe proposition to recommend "Cherub Devine" as a good book for light summer reading.
 "wild Flowers Every Child Should
 Know" By Frederick William Stack.
 Doubleday, Page & Co.)
 If you concede without any argument, any back talk so to speak, that every child should know something or a great
 deal about wild flowers, this book is about
 the best that could be secured for the surgical operation.