The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-14

bers who before the Civil war believed in slavery. These criticisms now usually conae too, from students of the Bible or from men supposedly familiar with it's contents There isn't any question but that the Bible not only authorized slav- cry but that Jehovah, to quote only one command, said: "Of them, you shall buy bondmen and bondmaids.'
 "54-40 or Fight" by Emerson Hough.
 (Bobbs Merrill Co)
 The title to this very interesting story, the best work yet done by MT Hough, comes from the old slogan of 1s44 Fifty four forty or fight" when this country came so near to having another war with England.
 The theme of the story was the great western settlement and in the annexation Of Texas, the demand of this country being that we were to have Oregon to 54 degrees and 40 minutes and the Rio Grande as well The head of all this set clement business, the master mind that planned these great movements that were to change the history of the conti- nent was John C. Calhoun, one of the big men of these United States. Mr. Cal houn is the principal character in this novel; he is the moving spirit of it all, and the story is told by Nicholas Trist, MT. Calhouns secretary. James K. Polk ana other historic men or the day also enter into the cast.
 MT. Calhoun loved the south It is said that he died with the words, "The south, the poor south God knows what will be- come of her" upon his lips. It was his country before anything else with MT. Calhoun he was conscientious and sincere in his belief that slavery was the best thing for the union. But it was divided union of which MT. Calhoun dreamed, a union that swept westward even to the Pacific and one the flag of which would float from the Columbia river to the Rio Grande It was to the bringing about of these great ends that Mir. Calhoun bent all his mighty powers of genius.
 But while MT. Calhoun is the principal male character of the book, it is around Helena, Baroness von Ritz, regarded by official Washington as Englands paid spy, a fascinating woman, whose charms had already set half of Europe by the ears, that much of the interest in the I book will center. MT. Calhoun recognized the fact that history is not made by men alone, but that at the bottom of all great world movements there is a woman Mir Calhoun rated the baroness at her full worth, as woman who could hurt as well help. He did not hesitate to call to his aid the brilliant baroness as well as the lovely Sonora Yturrio, gaining through one Oregon and the other Texas
 To open operations, MT. Calhoun sent to the baroness his faithful secretary who tells the story, one Nicholas Trist to sum mon her to a midnight conference. Thus begins series of adventure, politics, love and sacrifice which hold the attention of the reader from the first to the last sen tence in the book Mir. Calhoun was a pretty old man at the time this book is supposed to tell what happened. It is as an empire builder that MT. Hough pie lures MT. Calhoun The author tells how oregon was saved to the union while Texas was annexedaand Mexico whipped in war. In doing this, MT. Hough utilizes the vagaries of the woman of intrigue the Baroness von Ritz, whose errant heart is finally won by the strong. hand some Nicholas Trist, despite the fact that she, early In the book Is told that at tractive Nicholas is pledged to another woman. Unwittingly was Nicholas heart won, for he remained true to Poll" mar rying the other 2x4 woman when he could have gotten the baroness Twas ever thusi
 This Is a first-rate story. MT. Hougb always writes interestingly and sometimes better than at others. This is one of his superior times, for ''54 40 or Fight fs all right. The book is handsomely illus trated in sepia tone by Arthur I. Keller ''The Stun of Dreams" by Edith ses
 tyU Il
 There are all kinds of dreams with stuff in them. When too much stuffing. there is the nightmare. Do you care for. nightmares?
 The man who wrote old Nick Carter's thrilling stories of some centuries ago used to say that to make a story go there l. must be something doing every 1000 words The publishers are now giving us books that seem to have been manufactured on the theory that if som ething is not hap pening every page so. the novel is a failure
 t.'The stuff of Dreams" has happenings all right The book keeps one on the go. and if you follow the flag in this case. the book, you will be running all round the room in the reading. You may care for that style of book. If so, here is one |. In It, there was young chap, who was rather unladylike; he was the son of rich but honest parent who rati- fled him in everything possible with mo good results. The answer" was that the young fellow became involved in all sorts of trouble; fruits of his escapades His father very properly said that the young chap should pay the piper This the son had to agree to, and how he ac- complished it, how he rushed forth cursing both man Ca few womem and God will best be learnt from the book if one cares for rowing machine-exer- ciser in ones reading. The good women in the book were all lovely the bad real wicked ones, wore red and acted accord ingly; there was no middle ground no belief in R. L. SIS theory of the mixture of good and bad in mankind.
 The book, '.The Stuff of Dreams, will kill a lot of time; act as good physical exercise aforesaid and prove entertaining to more or less extent to those who prefer hop, skip and jump, to ease in the library. "Oratory of the South. From the Civil
 War To the Present Time" by Edwin
 DuBois Shurter. (Neae Publishing
 company.)
 MT Thomas Nelson Page in his Rob ert E. Lee" book recently discussed in this department said that one of the troubles with the present standing in his tory held by the south was that we pro duced too many orators and entirely too few historians. That. if the fame of the south went down In history incorrectly. it would be the fault not of the north but of the south.
 MT Edwin Dubois Shurter who WAS fer some time instructor of oratory in Le- land Stanford Junior, and the Cornell universities and since 1899 in charge of the School or Public Speaking at the University of Texas has sent forth good