The San Francisco call., 1909-12-12
Miss Selma Lne"

By Maria Thompson Daviess. Published BY the
Bohbs- Merrill company, Indianapolis. Price,
$780,
The heart catcher is out again. You
might just as well hand over yours
for YOU can't resist Miss Selma Lue.'
Spinster store keeper OF River Bluff
and general neighborhood manager, she
is a very real, very energetic, very
magnetic and delightfully."- funny char
acter. Her tongue is both sweet and
spicy, her heart is as big as all out
doors and her laugh is as big as her
heart
Miss Selma Lue plays the part of
providence with a sense of humor In
all the comedies and tragedies of the
Bluff. Her speciality is row of soap
boxes, in which she keeps free day
nursery. The pages are running over
with children, always in comieal
trouble. Not less lively than the char
acter of Miss Selma Lue nor less
piquant than her philosophy are the
doings recounted. Each incident is at
once natural and surprising-a COM
bination hard to surpass
interviewer with the quaint sayings
and doings of Miss Selma is the charm
ing love story of Cynthia from the
white pillared house on the hill and
Alan Kent, the artist, whom Miss Lue
adopted as a near soap boxer, enter
tanning thereby a millionaire unaware.
The romance itself is tinctured with
humor.
Sunshiny as the book is, il does not
avoid the pathos OF human lives. When
times of anxiety descend on Miss Selma
Lue so strong is the sympathy sbind-
ing the reader to her that he feels the
clutch at his own heart, and he is
moved with her own great gratitude
when the sun shines out again.
II you are susceptible to the charm
of genuine. homely fun, Of free and
natural emotion, of characters rich In
simple reality, of wit and kindliness
and optimism and infectious laughter
Miss Selma Lue viii put you in love
with the world. A right tuned, sweet
ening, heartening book it is.
1t is next to impossible to read the
book and not mark some of the quot
able passages. Below are some of the
sayings of Miss Selma Lue which will
appeal to all:
Sympathy is just the pure Juice of
the heart squeezed out fer a friend"
Babies is like human beings; they
can't always be counted on to do the
best they knows"
1.-The mother job is one that amt cut
out to suit everybody. and them it fits
have got duty laid on 'em strong"
gobbler a-strutting in November
Its strange how one persons crank
can turn the wheels of the whole fam
ily.''
1T always did seem a shame to me
how folks hand a bride around on a
feather, so to speak, and jest let the
poor groom shift fer hisseif, like he
were some sort of a criminal"
I'VE Bluff folks has to trust the
babies to the good Lord heap of the
time, though I must say some of the
mothers seem to leave 'em on his hands
more'n as is fair"
Miss Maria Thompson Daviess. the
Greater of Miss Selma Lue" is new
author, born in Kentucky but claiming
Nashville as her home now. Her tall
ents were developed along the line Of
art first and she achieved the honor of
being hung on the line" at the Paris
salon.
After her return to America she
Joined a pen and brush round table
society and read a Dutch baby story
at one of the round table meetings.
Her literary career thus started and
her name has been seen in magazines
frequently. This first long tale is so
successful that more of her work will
be awaited with pleasure.