The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-24

] members lie uedu all up ana uoWh the Tales of Scottish chivalry," that this patriotic Daughter of' orders cards from Dublin: Mrs. Forbes or kirlxiniillock" Oh, rare Mrs. Forbes | who was a Palmer!
 Of the lesser characters, James, valet to the earl. Is done excellently. Ab- l.raham Petty at home, in hardware, and ] aboa I'd, no less interested in hardware has few equals in literature. When he and his wife, erstwhile Rose Ma | tildo Perkins cashier at the hardware emporium, invaded on their wedding tour the castle of the earl rich hu- nor takes the center of the stage. Alb rahams desire is to tickle his friends nearly to death" by visit unan- nounced and uninvited. He very near ly does it. No sooner had he entered the castle hall as unannounced as Lochinvar, than he removed his coat and wiped his heated brow, sat down in a splendor of blinding shirt sleeves to talk to MT. Forbes" This pleasant and cooling custom of the hardware emporium was not that of the Castle Glendaire Maloney, the butler entered the hall. The ancient servitor stopped and stared. Never had he been called upon to deal with a guest who tried to undress in the hall. Abraham, grow ing excited, waved pink and purple shirt sleeve and Mahoneys eye grew
  the chair upon which that careful trav- eler had laid it, and before MT. Petty had quite realized what he was doing, he had allowed himself and his shirt sleeves to be enshrouded. Three times that same afternoon Maloney had caught MT Petty without a coat and three times he had adroitly inveigled him back into that garment. By the time dinner was announced he had been put into his coat no less than six times and Maloney. considered that "a strong young footman should be dedicated to MT. Petty for the remainder of his stay at the castle to balk his tendency to disrobe in public" These are the characters that have their well sus- tained parts in a plot of interest with episodes of a dainty uniqueness to en- | liven and hint of tragedy to shadow | 1t softly.
 The whole book is clean and kindly and wholesome and humorous. It is | book to soften the heart, to entice the mind, to uplift the thoughts, to renew belief in and love of our human kind
 Down Our Street" by J. E. Buckrose
 P. Putnams Sons, New York, sl. B.
 Mrs Bean is an English. Mrs. Wiggs." She is a dweller on our street and she is, despite pair of young lowers and some others quite the most important character of the book. Out of life that to outsiders looks dull, commonplace and | unheautiful, Mrs. Beans with just the magic of love and content creates hap pness and joy. and, perhaps, best of all, continual excitement. For after all, it Is | the streams that do not flow and the | lives that round themselves into sluggish ness that make most of the malaria and misery in the world. Nobody can end up a scandal and prove it unfounded quicker tran can Mrs. Bean. Her kettle is all | md f,, | of tea Is never "anatom of trouble"- but how refreshing When a homemade | pageant is sso on hand for the old town | on the River Flod Mrs. Bean joyfully 1 consents to make costumes for four lead ing ladies and best friends dhough crit | ical when out of her hearing) When 1 her own costume is thereby unmade at the last moment she refuses to be drown- ed in despair, and emerging from it's | threatening floods she appears thus: In sa long white night dress draped with | pale green art muslin, a necklace of shells, & toy ship on her head and in her hand the best brass toastlng fork | adorned wit hdried sea weed" There" | she said, T think that's the River Flod all right!' Anyhow, Mrs. Bean was all right then and ever.
 | Full of wise sayings, she is-all of which wisdom she puts in figurative quotation understanding her wise words to her | all but speeches. husband.
 As MT. Bean says: "If you can't get what you like, you must like what you can get"
 AS MT Bean says: "If you try your very best to make the best of 1t, you | take the worst out of the very worst of it." "-ss s.. -~.
 There are no betters or worses; they are all just people to be jolly with" | As Mir. Bean says: Its only the back | ,1aI tl,o ,-e- fafI Aft has a sheep's head if you only face it.''
 There is just one time when every | thing is beautiful"
 You have to put sword In to get out the heart"
 Luck waits for all who hope enough"
 As MT. Bean says: "A clever person with no sense of humor is like a bucket without a handle; it holds things, but | you don't get much comfort out of it | "lf a girl runs into danger and gets her freshness clipped off nobody can mend that
 Harder than victory itself is the mom- ent after
 You've got to take anxiety with your children just like crust with bread and make the best of it.'
 The saddest thing about dying is peo- pie taking for granted that things don't matter to you any longerg
 | The world had kept it's wonder for Mrs. Bean because she was such sport | woman"
 MT Bean says:-"You had better steal a mans hat than make him feed ridicu- | lous."
 Thinking over your mistakes Is worse than thinking over your sins-more wear | ing"
 Expect everything and some of 1t hap pens.'
 Tt is true then after all that beauty lies | hidden everywhere ready to start up at a touch"
 | Yes, here is Mrs. Bean with reader | wit richer wisdom, a richer warmth of | human sympathy than even our immor- | tai Mrs. Wiggs'' Just as English turf is deeper rooted, richer and more velvety, somehow than any we can bring to growth in our land of the free.
 Of course there are marriages not the happiest down our street. as there are down all streets. The learned Howard her girlish slimness and her pale dear l of life that the heiress of the street,
 'Salisbury's Sweetest" can give. The heiress wins, though hardly by a length "Of course he had achieved his ambition "a wife whose fortune would leave him free to follow his own intellectual bent entirely without any sordid, monetary considerations, and a presentable woman withal-but there was not much fun about it so far.'
 Of course the curate. MT. Birbeck, had won a scholarship which had advanced him high above the working classes into which he had been born, had lead 70 q marriage with a lady who moved with the
 waving floating grave of a lady in one of those airStOcratic WindblOWn nortratts n