The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-23
Five Wholly PrdiseWorthy Books

''The Miller of Old Church." by Ellen
 Glasgow. Doubleday, Page & Co.,, New York. Price S.35
 -e rrot- all discriminating. readers ready to 6 aordeto Miss Glasgow, when writing of the F.rgfnia that she knows well the rank C the south's greatest novelist?
 TO take ssart of history and make 1t readable as siss Johnson has done in The d5orgs Roll, lis good work. To dress cut events and people in the fast disap- bearing and beautiful old customs and costumes of old time, aaiMr. Page does in his best books Is graceful work. But to make a story that is a section ef~iife anA to create&people of the many classes and
 types to be found at the south and to make those people speak with diverse tongues, each In bis own characteristic manner as Miss Glasgow has done in .1he Miller Of Old Church." that is good work, graceful work, great work.
 There is to be found in this book a. deep knowledge of humanity,qa wide interest in lifes gerst problems, keen insight into character, a strong and sweet sympathy With the foibles, fads failures successes of the individuals of all those varying classes to be met with daily in our life here at the south. Also theshumor of the book is irresistible
 No one but George Elliott ever drew types as varied, as human, as living as these that sip their cfder and savor their gossip under the nasterful and admon- ishing eye of Betsey Bottom. owner and proprietor of Bottom,s ordinary. There is Betsey herself who had late in life at tached in the holy bonds of matrimony William Ming, successfully extinguish- ing his individuality without materially impairing her own" She Is chock full of advice for one and all. To the youthful coquette she has timely word: Wait till you're 40 and youth find that the man you throwed over at 20 will come handy if for nothin' more than to fill gap in the chimneyApo' things as we allow men to be thar don't seem to be but one way to git along without wantfn' 'ern and that is to have 'cm."
 And here is frequently to be met old Adam, who had had on the whole a most fortunate life, though he would have indignantly repudlated the idea" Not any ancient and wiseacre in all fiction can ex- eel, few can compete with. old Adam Old Adam. who is fixed enough in his belief as to weather and crops, but who holds with the oncartain'' as to religion He had "only his powerful belief in the devil and all his eworks to keep him from bein heathen.' It is here that we first become acquainted by hearsay with the young divine. MT. Muller, "too zealous to turn over the notions of the prophets and set up his. own at an age when a man Knows everything, on earth and gen. orally knows it wrongs
 Here we learn of Mrs. Mallory, the blacksniths mother, who, preach the gentle Episcopal divine never so wise 1y, will never give up either immer- sion or eternal damnation. though old Adam declares that neither doctrine will bring "oncommon comfort in time of trouble"
 Here is our first sight of Abel Revercomb, the miller. one of the Dig natured folk that plough up noun tain and at last trip over pea vine." Here we first catch a glimpse of and hear much of Molly Merryweat t1er. soft enough with women and chil- dren and animals, but acting as if men were born without the common feelin' of natur' and didn't come inside the commandments "A kind-h hearted wom- an, but onmerciful to an entire sex" is Molly with all the lovers of old church community for. .sher own.
 Here is to be met Solomon Hatch, "a pious and God-fearin soul from birth, but who. sad to relate, ain't found the solid comfort in a life of virtue that he'd hoped for"
 It is at this meeting place of wits and exchange of wisdom that all the girls of the neighborhood pass for review mirrored in the talk of the frequenters of the ordinary, and here we learn that all men sence Adam have been praisn' the sober kind Of girl while they war srunnin' alter the silly--and a mans pursuit speaks loud CT than his praise"
 It is here we have told first the story of Reuben Mefryweather, grand father to the coquettish Molly-an old man of strange gentleness that Is ,,Z.f ar1s ~F, 1~.. .. that Is not born of tgnorance-"he ex- presses the mental attitude of class which had existed merely as a foil or support to the one above it." There is no student of southern life and its manifold problems that has expressed clearer understanding of our class distinctions, of the advancement of the one class, the retrogation of the other, than has Miss Glasgow in her several novels of southern life. Of this old tand now no more) overseer class she writes old Merryweather her example of his class-"without spirit to resent he and his fellows had endured the greatest evils of slavery--like an in- cubus the system had lain over him, stifling all energy, checking all pro- gress, retarding all prosperity save the prosperity of the great landowners" It is of the individuals of this class that our old Adam states: Iris only sence times have changed and the bot tom begun to press up to the top that anybody has heard of 'em.'
 Religious problems, as he sees them, are ever the chief topic of the rustic. the newest news to him is the news that Jonah brought to Nineveh. Miss
 Glasgow gives the style of religious remark and controversy most truth fully: Iris an age of small larnin' and weak kneed and mealy -mouthed into the bargain-they'r afeared to handle hell fire in the pulpit any longer, and the texts they spout are that tame and tasteless that 'tds like dosin' you with flaxseed tea when you are needin' tar water Twas different when I was young and in my vigor-sech was the power and logic of Parson Claymores sermons, that he could convict you of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost even when you hadn't com mitted it."
 | Not only these class characteristics does the author draw with utmost trutb'T
 but with marvellous insight she d sects individual character, she cuts V.o | the very hidden depths of hypocracy. deeper to self-deceit. If she Is great as socialist she is greater as psychologist. 4s
 With what consumate skill is drawn | the character of Sarah Revercomb, a woman of the rising people. full of the virtues of her class with an added com pliment of sterner virtues of her own: "Intrenched behind an impregnable self-esteem, she had never conceded point, never admitted failure. never accepted a compromise" See how every line is drawn with the very likeness of life itself-"her excess of virtue wrought all the evil of positive vice she sacrificed her inclinations in