The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-04-10
|LiteraryLights And Shadows
BY s. MAYS BALL

@-The Voice in the Rice,' by Gouverneur Morris, Dodd, Mead & Co.) 4 South of Mason and Dixon's line we claim that it requires an artist of the N first duality to catch and utilize properly al the zephyrs necessary for the literary at ] mosphere of any discussion of the south { or its people Owen Wister did 1t, of X course, delightfully."- in, Lady Baltimore, and MT. Gouverneur Morris, in a dainty, :. unique, charming little volume. 'The Voice in the Rice" has caught that elusive, indescribable whatnot, that pre- ' sent in tale, sounds or reads like, a southern story. or, being absent, does not sssa rs s 8S
 E Mr. Morris Is one of the younger au- i. thors of this hustling day and genera % ton in literature of New York and, in the T humble opinion of this scribe, he stands far apart from the many writers of short and long stories who shove books and things at us from time to time. MT Nor ris is one of the best of his class.
 "The Voice in the Rice handsomely produced, with illustrations by J. c. Ley endecker and decorations by Bertha Stuart tells the story of a young man of very pleasing appearance who falls over board from steamer off the South Car olina coast and finds himself ultimately in a community which lives today as such southern communities lived when Wash ington George, not D. CD was young This community lived upon and cultivated with the aid of their slaves, who didn't know they were free, hundreds of thou sands of acres of swamp lands, not very far distant from Georgetown, 8. c. lsi.. ands in swamps, swamps in islands; wa terways in forests forests where ought to be waterways; and rice, rice. rice, every wffere rice and the main mouth Of the Santee river and all the hundred other mouths. You might leave Moore Land ing in a fast motor boat with only your self to steer and not get yourself out of this region in a month Have you ever been in the labyrinth at Hampton Court? l, We'll the labyrinth in whose midst you | now find yourself is a million times as big and million times more complicated. | For instance, sir, if we desired, for some reason or other to keep man prisoner among us we would only have to wish | him goodday and let him go.' L In this region, thus explained to our nero. by his rescuer, there were slaves; there were quaint old manor houses and Americans with titles; there was little country, as it were. surrounded by swamps, independent of the United States, into which outsiders rarely penetrated and from which those who found thelr way there never escaped.
 There is love story-a delightful love storv. too, 1t is; no mushy Mellins food, Grape Nuts or any predigested gush, but as dainty, charming, a delightful TO- mance, the heroine remains, until the happy ending, which Is not forced, put natural-only voice In the Rice, put .uch a voice as we self-satisfed south- erners insist could be found nowhere else hut in our midst Here is the way MT. Morris has caught that southern "zeph- yr''; listen
 I,adv Moore. the hostess of our hero. was escorting the latter on shopping tour in the swamps. Twice we passed other canoes in the rice very close, put wat could only hear them. On the second oooasion Iadv Moore recognized voice giving an order in sea coast. And she turned to me with heightened color and bright eyes, Then she called out, Gooo kvening!' (In the Santee they call the xhole of the afternoon evening) And a voice a little way off beyond the com pact eight-foot screen of the rice reeos' answered at once: Good evening, Syi- 5ia'
 # .sThe voice was the coolest, freshest, Youngest voice. with little drawl to It,
 little of golden bells, little or iaush- CT.
 " where are you going?
 " Home. Where are you going!
 :" TO the chemist
 |. Just been there.
 
 s"The voice laughed before answering'
 "'That young Shirley! We heard a nanlier chuckle-'
 Very few writers can excel MT. Gou' verneur Morris in the delightful character of most of his work. '"rhe Voice in the Rice'' is a gem of it's kind.
 esNary Jane's Pa," a novel by Norman H Way. GIL K Fly Company.)
 $"Mary Jane's Pa Is the novelizatior .0f the play of the same name by Editf Ellis. Henry E. Dixey of old "Adonis' f2me 90 years ago. more or less, made &uite hit recently in Mary Janes Pa
 n the stage. MT. Norman Way has made ia acceptable, light easy reading move
 nt of the stage plot which deals witt W man of visions, with a touch of genius kat Hiram Perkins was Mary's Pa and sstead of working hard for Mary and Xe other chicks of the Perkins family s1Perkins the Printer was either asleep ak.the-switch, reading book or dreaming uvlth eyes open, of things not on land ol on Hiram was an editor and publisher
 the small town newspaper, but thu
 snderlust got hold of Hiram and car Lzk}d him far from home. leaving his wif' Io look after, not only the newspaper lbut the family, and particularly to sup <,wt the two children. Fortunately 1ol
 Aelf and the chicks the wife was ar
 little body and she buys Q news
 in another town. makes suecesI
 accumulstes tidy fortune and al
 z.