The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-24

who care to know of Italian life.
 Miss Esperance and MT Wyeherly,s by
 l.. Allen Harker. (Charles Seribners
 Sons.)
 This is a story of what one might be permitted to designate in order to keep the records straight, a romance of old lives. It is a very pretty story, not par ticularly red-hot love story but love story on the platonic order, that of an elderly bachelor and an old maiden lady the only kind of people ia so far as age is concerned where the authors sending books out these days have any right to work in so-ealled platonic love. For of course there is not any real platonic love as we all understand 1t, in the proverbial way of a maid with a man, which after all is not a deprivation.
 Mir. Wycherly is an old bachelor, an eminent scholar, bookworm and collector with but one weakness Qxnown of course there were as there always are, others) an occasional lapse into intemperance. Honorably fearful that his lapses would disgrace the college with which he was connected, he resigned his Oxford fellow ship with its income and hied himself to Scotland where Miss Esperance took him as boarder and finally succeeded in wholly retaining him from Demon Rum. There enters into the lives of these two halfway withered up people two little children, the orphaned sons of Miss Es perance's nephew. It is the unfolding of these childrens young lives under the guidance of Mir. Wycherly as tutor and Miss Esperanee as foster mother that forms the chief charm eff we can skip the platonic love) of the book, together with the development and expansion of the old folks, to wit, the platonic lovers, under this unaccustomed juvenile influ- ence. There is much of quaint Scotch humor and character in this book; alto- gether it is very pleasant for if you don't believe in platonic love, you can at least read about it. Remembering in this case, at least, that there was not much else coming to this pair of human beings who, while the author doesn't so state, were no doubt capable in the language of the street of perspiring ice.
 ''The Four-Flusher, by John Edward
 Hazard. e. w. Dillingham; Co)
 This book is series of supposed let ters from a young fellow who has moved to New York to make his fortune; the letters written home to his cousin Flor ence who had the misfortune to have to remain in Rochester.
 The young chap struggling on $15 per week. saw others having great times, with not much if as much visible means of support as he had to keep them hanging around the 'Walled Off'' hotel, where all the country yaps still think it necessary to stay while in New York, to see ife.' principally from which to write letters home. So the young fellow decides to become on his $15 per, a four-flusher. Everybody knows what four-fush isl The four-fusher in this instance caught the other card, met loved and won the princess with 80 or 90 millions or so. He promptly joined the class wherein which the young men of this day marry rich girls and have to worry about nothing except getting away from their own homes and the wife, the cut of their clothes. the make of a new motor car and such other disturbing trials
 "The -Flusher'' is we'll filled to A more or less extent with up-to-date slang of the street, which would have appeared better if MT Hazzard hadn't thought it necessary in many instances to furnish the key. MT. Hazzard does tell a good story though.
 Two colones, a northerner and n southerner who, having absorbed a quan- tity of vey supeariah article began to rehght the Civil war As the argument grew heated the noftherner yelled: Wal. tnare's one thing you've got to admit, we licked yeh an we licked yeh good'
 The southern colonel quietly replied. Yes, sah admit that you whipped us an perhaps, as yo' say, you whipped us good-but l want to say one thing right yeah, sah, if the pension office reports ah true, an ah have ev'y reason to be- lieve that they ah we must have wound- ed ev'y damn Yankee that got away alive.'"