The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-02-28
Literary Lights and Shadohs
BY S. MAYS BALL

Frederick Grin Bartlett (SInall' May
nard & Coz
Just for the sake OF arg ineht ana us
cnssIon. so as to arrive properly to the
annreoiatton of the thrill in The Web of
the Golden Spider" let's do a bit of
supposing, to-wit;
Now, Just suppose you. were young
man out of a job, that you had even
been asked to remove your goods and
chattels'' from a school where ministers
of the gospel were being made, not be-
cause you were undeserving on the con-
trary, but because you had no money;
you were down and out. That you nao
been going to school In Boston, place
that some old personal---very. war
writer said the inhabitants thought God
had made Boston for Himself and all
the rest of the country for Boston That
you had spent all your money, mad notn-
ing to eat for the day with no prospects
for the night. That it was raining to
beat the bass drum in a brass band, and
you were pretty much to the gloom.
In your wanderings all day you had seen
q lovely girl, also wandering about, as II
she like yourself, had lost her bearings
and few other things. You naturally
took an interest in that lovely face and
form, both haunted you whenever you had
time to have haunts; that is, when hunger
gave you time to think of anything else.
Now, It grew dark. 1t is funny about
that. 1t always grows dark And, While
you stood wondering after your useless
wanderings, where mothers wandering
how tonight would feed and sleep-hist!
Ship ahoyl Across the street stood that
lovely face and form, both being taken
In hand by mere policeman, for doing
what? Nothing except the poor girl
looked irresponsible, as she no doubt was
not having tasted food or clothing Ior
several hours.
Now, supposing 1--WE have to keep sup
posing; you say there Is lot or sup
posing in this review? So 1t is, but the
idea of all this superstition is - give or
force upon the reader the atmosphere, so
to speak, by putting him In the hero's
place) yes surprising you ran across the
street, accosted the policeman, cried unto
him. How dare you; I say unto you.
unhand the fair maidenP' And the unro-
mantle creature with the night stick made
q pass at you with deadly intent. Well,
with love in your heart and some in your
eyes, there was nothing else to do but
knock down the guardian OF the peace.
You did 1t, grabbed the fair maiden and
both ran for your lives. Down an alley,
up a hill, round this corner. here we go,
clippity clip, with the policeman rein
forced without any cemenD right behind
you. Into a oul de you break through
door, and just have time to pull the
lovely girl along with you, fasten the
door when the william still pursued
arrived on the spot. Soon the policemen
gives up the chase. You have time then
TO investigate your accomplish. It is dark,
cold and, awful, Mabel You have both
run into the back yard of house closed
for the summer. In you two go, build
fires, find lot of clothes; the beautiful
girl dresses herself in some ones ball
gown, while the best you can do is a
Turkish looking gown. Considering the
situation, the Turkish gown is not In
apropos. But that Is neither here nor
there.
xfx.T hx-
the fire, Alice, eating bread and butter,
gazing into each others eyes-you see the
answer while each tells the storm of me
past life.
tisti What was that sound2 Somebody
r. coming in the front door In the
anger comes, who happens to be the
1sner of the house
Now, there is no use trying to hist
top, look, listen in this supposing bus
mess any longer to draw you into the
atmosphere of this book for the reason
that there Is too much of it. There Is
a golden idol which is said to speak as
to hidden riches in South America. The
hero and the heroine become mixed up In
the search for the hidden treasure and
the story starts at 100 kilometres per
minute and continues the excitement and
thrill to the 354th page-the last one.
1t was the idea of this review to give
in this discussion something of the break
away, they're on"-but 1t cannot be
done.
1t Is only necessary to explain that
1.-THE Web of the Golden Spider is one
of those books in which there is some-
thing happening, something actively do
ing every page. To the lover of
excitement this book will prove a de-
light. There is no let UP in the thrill
To a sober minded creature such as this
reader, the book Is wearing in its ex-
element. After 30 or 40 pages he had
60 Law he hpAl aasI ~
after so much running-stin reviewers
don't know everythins-most people say
they don't know anything. But II you
wish unadulterated excitement-with a
getMp-and-git-you couldn't do better
than The Web Of the Golden Spider"
"Out of the Dump by Mary q. Marcy.
(Charles H. Kerr &c Coz
One morning, ten years ago, when I
was n little slip Of girl, dad kissed
US all goodbye. from mother down to the
baby and went off to work as usual.
He never came back. 1t was this way.
The third floor chute from the can to
the canning rooms down at the yards
had begun to give away and father was
the first man sent over with a load,
after one of the braces had been knocked
out He told the foreman how shaky the
beams were, but that's as far as it
went Two of the men working near
him told mother about 1t afterward But
mother says one reason dad held his job
with the company so long was because
he never backed away from risky Jobs:
nor kicked for safety appliances: nor
harped on unsanitary conuluons. 1 sup
pose that's why he didn't balk when 1t
came to wheeling a great load over that
broken chute"
The above is the opening lines of
little book, "Out Of the Dump" dealing
with associated charities work. economic
and sociological questions which this de-
partment has been fortunate enough to
have reviewed for the readers of this
paper by Mr.. William Greene Racul, Jr.,
Of Atlanta, who is student of such
questions Mr.. Raoul's review follows:
This is very forceful little book writ
ten with a purpose and end In view.
1t Will furnish much food for thought
to almost anyone who will give the few
hours needed in which to read 1t. The
reading will enable the rich to secure
closer view of the poor and come
pretty near to forcing them to draw some
rather unpleasant conclusions as to the
conditions which create the two classes
the rich and the poor
AS shown above the book opens with
an accident in one of the large pack
ing houses. say in Chicago; the man
killed Is described-his character, the
manner In which he was cared for by
his employers, the line ce defense of tho
corporation against the possible damage
suit and finally the condition In which the
dead mans family was left-thus at the