The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-14

WIltlnB or the DIleI papers then pup lished, to incorporating some of the sug-
 gestions and answering some of the ques- tions of those correspondents
 The book is not intended for doctors,
 and 1t was pr. sMitchell's endeavor to avoid touching upon matters purely medi- cal; also he attempted and succeeded in
 making distinct the limits beyond which the best self-help would indicate that | a physicians aid should be sought.
 The address, likewise appeal, of this book will be chiefly to women because
 they form the larger number of sufferers from functional nervous disease, but in most instances if the pronouns were changed, the lessons would apply as well
 to men, pr. Mitchell says that the hy-
 giene of nervousness is not very diff ferent in the two sexes though the causes
 of nervousness may vary widely. Not only the sufferers themselves whose
 name is legion, but the families of the
 nervous, and the friends, will find in this worthy book much information which will help them materially in their relations 1 with the sufferers from nervous disorders
 and teach them the best way to help, con
 trol and comfort and 1t may be, enable them to cure.
 "The House With No Address" by F. Nesbt Doubleday, Page Co) | You will not read very far in HThe House With No Address" before you will come to the concluslon-long before the author intended that you should-that MT Edmund Templar was somethng-quite l good deal of cad. The book starts with telling how he met in the woods l lovely girl who was dancing for the pleasure of 1t, while crippled boy piped on his flute.
 Edmund whose real name 10 to 1. was Sally. thought this lovely girl pretty fine. She was that all right. Edmund goes
 travelling and the scene of the book shifts. You will hope, if you have caught on
 to Eddie, that he is going to get lost In
 the shuttle, but alas! there is nothing doing.
 Now this lovely girl had great talent in the dancing line. Left poverty y-stricken 1 at the death of her .hard-hearted grand l father, she goes to London with the | crippled youth, who also had a lot or talent, and her old nurse, where, with 1 the assistance of a rich old Jew she soon l becomes the regning sensation of the
 burg. TO avoid the stage Johnnies the
 dancer occupies strange home! It was | built in the form of a diamond, in the | center of a square, to reach which you | had to take an underground passage and, well. never mind. Even the author had to use a diagram in the book to explain the House With No Address" so this reviewer will skip that description. l Now Edmund comes back to England; finds and meets the lovely dancer; they | both fall in love- Everything looks very sweet and lovely, when-you know exactly what that when means; a when like | that in a book or review means in connec-
 tion with lovely girl, just as described, l that she had husband who wouldn't die; | wouldn't be cut loose; just declined to re-
 move himself.
 l Books thousands of them, are filled with 1 that silly complication, based on the fact
 that some lovely girl had married fool l ishly. before she reached her majority l some awful creature. Now, of course, we l all know that In life never in 1000 years | do such things happen; that is, beauti- ! full girl marries some old man, before she
 realizes 1t. On the other hand, writers 1 of books tell us that of course not many
 girls make those kinds of marriages, but 1 some do Only the kind of girls who do l tie themselves up in that way get in | books. May be so.
 l At any rate, here were these two ioV- l ersl Tied at the post, what could be done? Not very much by the cad-like lover Ed 1 mund.
 l But the other real man that you, reader, l have been looking for An! When ne l comes from l.. R. E.. upper stage, you l glow with pleasure; you feel that the 1 time to unite the knot has come, that it 1 will be accomplished, and that Eddie will be told in effect: Now that you know the | way, come to see us sometime. | The book is really very pleasing, not
 withstanding all that just above. The book is well written. 1t holds the interest, the love story or stories are nrst class 1 and to those who know ''The Would-be- | goods, and "The Incomplete Amorst = books previously written by E. Nesbit- or those who are not familiar with her
 work. will find much pleasure, reality, in "The House With No Address, ."rhe Power of a Lie," by Johan Bojer.
 Translated from the Norwegian by Jes-
 sic Muir. with an introduction by Hall Caine Mitchell Kennerley)
 This book tells the story of man who signs his name as bond for friend and then, when the friend becomes bankrupt, denies that he has done so and accuses the friend of forgery. The innocent man is in the end sent to prison
 for the crime he didn't commit. while
 the guilty one is praised and banqueted
 by his fellow townsmen.
 The author argues or seems to prove
 at any rate that a life of deception,
 contrary to all our teaching, does not
 wither up and harden the human heart
 but very often expands and softens it.
 That man may pass from one lie to
 another, on and on. until he is thor
 oughlv convinced that 1t Is he who is
 white as an angel and not the offended
 one. That the man having so con
 vinced himself into this belief of his
 goodness and innocence, may in time be-
 come generous unselfish and noble.
 It requires a master to argue on that
 line? It does. In this case, master
 had charge of the argument. The Acad-
 emy of France has lately crowned 'The
 Power of a Lie" for both its morality and
 it's excelling power.
 This is a real story. A gem. de-
 lieht-to those who wish to think; who
 care for the best-will have nothing tut
 the best in literature.
 The translation by Miss Muir is spien-
 did. Altogether "The Power of lie''
 is literary treat; literary light of
 ray supreme. There are not many of those, casting their rays around about these days. Verbum sap.
 Mrs John Vernon" by Julia De Wolf
 Addison (Richard G. Badger.)
 Mrs John Vernon had been living with John Vernon abroad without being mar
 ried to him for long time before the lAtters death. As death approached on horseback down the winding stairway, 50 to say, John felt in his heart or what
 hs used in its place, that he had done a great wrong to Mrs. John or the would be Mrs. John by never mrarying her
 As he was going to die anyway, why not make amends? He was worth all
 kinds of money; he hated his next of kin in America; he could slay two winged creatures with one pebble by marrying the woman who had been so good and frt.o fn m