The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-18
Literary Lights and Shadohs
BY s. MAYS BALL

agaln ana let Us have another, then dh- other 'farewell' volume. Why not!
 '"rhe City of Splendid Night" by John ".
 Harding. co. W. Dieingham Co)
 This book opens by depicting the scene between a man and a woman he had loved at one time or another very desper-
 ately. They were separated now and she visits him to hold converse, or rather to goad him with the fact that while he has cut a-loose from her, he will always, for ever and day (that sort of thing) love her and her alone. That was rubbing IL in pretty roughly, it does seem, to any fair-minded man or woman either.
 We jump then from these two lovers Of days gone hence, to viewing pictures, well drawn, too, of New York, The City of Splendid Night" There are many and varied people in the book. just as there are said to be in New York. The story will hold the interest of those who do not careyto be bothered with any mental work while reading.
 Many of the individual scenes are splen- didy handled and there is quite a good deal of effective description well as lot of natural dialogue. The sculptor good character, is well drawn, so is the model who serves him-the attractive Maggie The portion of the book dealinh with Paddys Market is very good The ex-schoomaster who goes to New York, after making failures a every other place, is we'll drawn character. There are any number of good dramatic situations in the bok, al of which to a majority of read CTS who care for the lighter kind of books will be found compensating.
 "Iatrine." by Elinor Mccartney Lane. (Harper & Brothers).
 Mrs. Lane. who died within the past few weeks, was known most pleasantly for her book Nancy Stair" The new book, appearing just as she died, rather suddenly, is the first from her gifted pen since Nancy Stair
 Katrine is the daughter of an overseer on southern plantation who is hopelessly addicted to drink. Katrine has the voice and the temperament to become one of the worlds great singers, but her higher genius is for love and self-sacrifice- The plantation upon which Katrine's father is employed belongs to Francis Ravenel, descendant of a long line of aristocrats famous for their intrigues with women Francis promptly falls in love with his overseer's daughter, but when he has won her utter devotion, he finds it not in him to marry her The instinct of his race is too strong in him. He leaves her, but subsequently,, in contrition, provides her with funds to study in Paris under the great Josef keeping his own name out of the transaction. Katrfne has another lover, Dermott McDermott, a daredevil free-lance of Wall street, who has the genuine Irish gift of thinking in rhyme never tells the plain truth except when decency requires it and conceals dan gerous effectiveness under a careless charm, a great as that of Francis Raw enel himself. Spurred by the shame of Katrine, Ravenel, always an idler, goes into business in earnest but finds his every move opposed by McDermott. The 1rishman indeed hates his rival with all the intensity of his race and when he dis covers that Raveneps father while in Paris had made an earlier marriage which invalidated the title to the Ravenel estates, he promptly hunts up the proofs and discloses certain facts to Ravenel which completely crush him so that he falls desperately iii. By a curious coin- cidence the earlier wife was McDermotts cousin, now the Countess of Nemours. and the Countess, who had been strongly attracted to Katrine, has made her heir to her fortune.
 But 1t is Katrine, now well on her way to fame and fortune on the operatic state, who steps in to save the situation. Can ceiling an engagement for season in St. Petersburg and ignoring an appointment to sing at the Metropolitan in place of Melba, she haStens to McDermotts omlce, confesses her love for Ravenel and in duces him to burn the proofs of his rivals disgrace. Then she goes to her lover and wins him back to life and hope.
 "Katrine" Is all right. It is not only entertaining but of its kind, one of the superior books of the past few months. "The Landlutbers," by Gertrude King. Doubleday, Page & Co).
 The author of 'The Landlubbers' has succeeded in making very convincing two characters out of the ordinary list for selection as hero and heroine of novel, namely, a young man with much money. who desires to aid prohibition by consum- ing all the whisky in the world; the other or heroine, a pretty school teacher poor and alone in mid-ocean. We are so ac- customed to being greeted by heroines on Broadway and any old street that mid- ocean is a most pleasing change, even leaving out that school teaching part
 Pauline Harding, who taught third grade in public school No. IS of Carson vile, H., and Richard Darragh, a gentle man of New York are the people we have to deal with, primarily, in The Land- lubbers."
 Pauline had slaved for six long, weary years and was now going for her first trip abroad. She fears that with a letter of credit good for only 5000 she cannot