The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-09-05
Literary Lights and Shadohs
BY S. MAYS BALL


 | to mar the scenery
 The robber castles on the Rhine can l not compare with the Rockefeller place at Tarrytown The serpen- i tine drive in Florence is called the Viale | Machiavelli possibly because 1t is so ! crooked. Taking bath is ceasing to be an important function in Italy Eggs 1 can be had for breakfast in Italy by
 making arrangements for their produc-
 tion the night before. Yet in 500 miles of | Italy this pilgrim never saw hen. There are at least six places in New York where macaroni is better cooked than
 at the best hotels in venice Naples, l Rome or Milan,' and so on.
 Anyone who has been or intends going | abroad will enjoy this ridiculous book.
 It is Illustrated nicely on each page by Maurice Ketten.
 'The Princes Franks" by Charles Lowe. | CThe John Lane Company. l It was in the year of the Golden Jubilee l of Queen Victoria that all contained in
 The Princes Franks" is supposed to | have happened
 In 1887 the present Emperor of Germany l was the only Prince William of Prussia, | but he knew thing or two, as the say | ing is.
 Prince William, hot sport, was com ! ing over to be present at his grand mothers jubilee and travelling on one of l bunch of torpedo boats across the ] Channel he was able to assist materially l one of the Queens messengers, who was l in a dilemma-two or three of them, if | so many are permitted anyone at time. l In this way the Queens messenger and | the hot sport, know-it-all, Prince Will | liam of Prussia, later were thrown. or at | least, got together in London and what i this pair did to 'em for a couple of weeks | is the basis for the book. | The Queens messenger escorted Prince l William around where he could see, hear | and talk to real, sure-enough anarchists. 1 And the Prince had, oh, such a sporting 1 time of it-in his concet and, well-every- 1 thing.
 A reading of 'Tbe ssPrnces Pranksv l containing, as it Is said, much real data l about the present Emperor of Germany | when he was 22 years younger than he is now-wil confirm anybody in his opinion, | if he holds 1t, that what the newspapers | of the world say now about Emperor Bill 1 is more than justified
 l The loss of fan, the mix-up of some | "papers" on the part CT the Queens l messenger the finding of supposed dy- l namite bomb by Prince Bill, which he 1 and his friend, the Queens messenger. 1 just knew was to blow up the poor old, | at that time, nearly blind Queen of Eng | land in the jubilee parade. Gee all that
 was very trying to this pair But hold. l villain, will save the girl, says Prince | William.
 | Bills intentions were to the good; the | only trouble or defect in the whole | worked-out scheme of saving grandmam- ma was the fact that the bomb, or what was supposed to be one-had no dynamite 1 in 1t or anything that would even injure | a child, much less Queen Vic, who had l in nearly century run up against many
 games and was still Victoria -on-the-spot. The present Edward VII thought mamma
 never would get off that spot-but that Is | neither here or wonder. Prince Bill was | trying to do the best he could-and fell | down.. Finally he leaves London-with | London much relieved when he left with
 out taking 1t with him on one of his tor pedo' boats.
 The Princes Franks is really an in-
 delightful in every way, written by an l convinced that if Emperor William IT | of Germany Is not batty now, he certainly l was 22 years ago. That in 1887 Prince Bill
 needed as much oil in his wheels to re- l move the dust as any one could, possibly. | The Queens messenger had a few grains l or two of sand "up there" as we'll But 1 even so, nevertheless, 'The Princes
 Franks Is pretty fair story
 "The Uttermost Farthing" by Mrs. Bel
 loc Lowndes Mitchell Kennerley) l "Thou shalt by no means come out 1 thence till thou hast paid the uttermost | farthing," Is the keynote to the book, | which Is very fascinating.
 Laurence Vanderlyn, attache at the l American embassy in Paris had loved | and loved now, Margaret Pargeter, who
 "was not free as Vanderlyn was free f;
 she was wife-not happy wife. but one on whose reputation no shadow had | ever rested"
 vanderlyn and Margaret Pargeter, the 1ixrfp tn, Dor rfe xxyJfI ha~ i! rich, oaddish husband; Margaret whom vanderlyn '1oved with an absorbing, un- | satisfied passion and ever-increasing g 1 concentration and selfess devotion for | seven years were about to do that which each had sworn, together and separately, should never come to pass-that is, they | were about to snatch from Fate few
 days of such free happiness and com
 munion as during their long years of in | tfrnacy they had never enjoyed In order to secure these feeting moments of joy, l she, the woman in the case, was about
 to run the greatest risk which can in
 these days be incurred by civilized woman"
 1 While vanderlyn waited at the rail-
 way station for Margaret he attempted to
 take the step in view. He gave the prob- lem up.
 "Then suddenly Margaret Pargeter l herself stood before him, smiling a little
 
 l shoulder-her head was very little higher | than his heart-and guided her to the
 railway carriage which had been kept 1 for them."
 Peggy" he whispered, tell me. my | beloved, why are you being so good to me now?"-that is, taking this trip with l him. Margaret had been recently on a | visit to her home in England, where. falling i'll, she was thoroughly examined by the family's regular physician. A | specialist was then called in. Peggy had heart disease She might die at any mo- ment, although, of course, she might live for a long time.
 So before she died Peggy had decided l to take a bit of happiness out of life, had the gods not ruled otherwise. In the
 railway car she laid down to rest, and
 when vanderlyn attempted to awaken her some time later, Peggy had died in her sleep.
 There is the opening of the plot of this fascinating book. Margaret was sup posedly going to visit girl friend. What | must or could Vanderlyn do to save not his. but Margarets reputation?
 That is the story; how the chances of life are taken freely every day, but 1t Is
 not always realized how peculiarly in
 convenient the mischance of death may be.
 In s'The Uttermost Farthing" this trag-
 ical maladroitness plays leading part,
 and the consequences stretch on, straining
 to breaking point the endurance of the man vanderlyn, who is living an in- credibly clever lie to save the honor of
 uoman-of a woman who died almost.