The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26

Tt Never Can Happen Again by Wh-
 liam De Morgan. (fIenry Holt N Co.l
 "The rector seemed happy over this. His wife did not feelqu ite certain she un- derstood it. But she was sure it was time to light her candle and that. broadly speaking, the curtain might fall.
 4 It has been a strange story said she, in a sort of generally forgiving conclusive way.
 "It has, repeated Athelstan Taylor.
 And not a pleasant one. Anyhow, it's one consolation, that it never can happen again. '
 Thus on the last, the 6S7th page of his new novel. the fourth in five years. that very young-old man, now 70 years of age, MT. William De Morgan, explains to us the howcome of the title to his latest pro duction It never could happen again be- cause all the incindents love doings, trio- ulations. tears and joy in tkfs new novel of the extended sort, occurred before the English parliament passed what was laughed at so much all over the world and known as the deceased wife's sister bill.
 Those who have read and delighted in Joseph Vance," "Alice For Short.' and Somehow Good" written and published by MT. De Morgan in the order named, will need no words from this department, other than the announcement of Tt Never Can Happen Again" to send them quickly to the bookdealers for this new novel.
 Whether "It Never Can Happen Again is as good or better than "Joseph Vance" this scribe has not been able as yet to make up his mind. "Joseph Vance struck us. as all remember, as something so new, refreshing in the fields of tire some effusions then being sent forth; while with this new De Morgan novel, we know about what to expect and there fore do not get. possibly the same thrill, the same surprise. at any rate, that "Jo- seph Vance" and "Alice For Short" fur nished.
 Six hundred and eighty pages of novel is something to face and as general proposition the good advice on such sub- ject would be-to skip 1t! Some people. friends of this scribe, who have read Ut Never Can Happen Again." insist that the book is too long, that at times it drags. that there is too much psychologi- cal discussion. that the action halts and one Is likely to skip-if he or she does. both lose.
 Just how good a book a superior novel is depends entirely upon the receptive condition of the reader personally. On that basis then, If one cares for the very good things, the only things possible for MT. De Morgan to send forth reading of Tt Never Can Happen Again" will give great delight One-candlepower lights will not care for the new De Morgan book; a compliment in itself. of course. This scribe has friend who didn't care for Alice For Short" insisting that the novel should have been entitled Alice For Long," Maybe so-any old title would have done for such a charming, delightful novel
 Margaret E. Ssngster has been worried that many readers complain of the leis- urely progress of the new De Morgan novel; that is. in the opening chapters, and that they seem to think that the first half of the book would have been im- proved by cutting. ITO my mind" says Mrs. Sapgster. MT. De Morgan has given an extraordinary proof of his genius in this unique story of real life It's title might easily have been Bound in One Bundle instead of the somewhat ex- asperating phrase which he finally con- cluded to use at It's christening. All the incidents and most of the characters are essential to one another and important to the development of the story. The blind and crippled sailor, the drunken cobbler and his terragant partner, the popular author spoiled by an enthusias- tic public. tho jealous wife and the lady who might have sat for the portrait of Tho woman with the serpents tongue are one and all interdependent, and the novel would so to pieces were one of them left out. If anyone finds the beginning of this story tedious, let him not on that account throw 1t aside. Passages can not be omitted without risk to the reader, and no one will arrive at the end of the story without sigh that it's pleasure is over."
 Three distinct stories thread their way through It Never Can Xappen Again." and at the end all arc unraveled with unerrfng skill. One of the main themes Is the love of Blind Jim for his little daughter. Eliza Ann, known to all as 'Lizarann," who was named for Blind Jim's ship, the one upon which, down around the Capes of Africa, Jim fool ishly dropped a lighted match into a tank of explosives, and never saw the light again. Jim was sent home. to find Lzar- ann ready to be presented to him by her dying mother. Jim never in all his life saw his daughter, and his wife, shocked at Jim's helplessness, died soon after Lfzaranns birth Jim became a beggar on the streets of London, Ian asker" he told his daughter, who with her father lived with Jim's sister and brother-in-law. the drunken cobbler. Bob Steptoe; the latter dying later from delirium tremens
 Another of the main themes, the one bearing specifically upon the fact that 1t never can happen again because the law has been changed in England, is of the doings of successful novelist MT. Alfred Challis. and his nice but terribly commonplace wife, Marianne Challis, the half-sister of Challis' first wife, who never, to tell the truth, had taken the trouble to even have her husband die or be divorced before mar rying Challis-complication on the marrying and giving in marriage busi- ness! The book Is full of it. In tliis theme is Judith Arkroyd, daughter of a rich baronet-a very fascinating young person, cold as ice, calculating and with stage ambitions, in the realiza- tion of which she intended using Cnal- lis. Challis falls in love with Judit. forgetting poor Marianne, and when he does recall her--wasn't she after all his deceosed wife's sister and really under the English law not his wife at all? It is difficult for Americans to accept seriously all the fuss and hur- rah that the English people made over that deceased wife's sisters bill tn parliament; still 1t did happen and. as MT. De Morgan now tells us, never again!
 Just before the final passage of the bill in question, to take advantage of a technicality, Challis and Judith make an attempt to run away to be mar ried, after Marianne had left Chalns, realizing her condition under the Eng fish law. But providence stepped in and put a block fin the way of Challis and Judith, for after all. whether It never can happen again. it came pretty near to doing 1t and insofar as that nearness is responsible. no doubt for