The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-26

1 ton than is contained in the story, Where the City Went?' With wings of gentle flush OCT delicate white,
 And taper fingers catching at all things To blind them all about with tiny rings"
 So plainly does the writer paint s.the city which had been silver. now turned to mist" So too, does he paint the ten derness of the moonbeam as it lights all things.
 A fitting finale to this little volume, in- stinct with beauty is 'The House of Dreams.
 'In that country it is not palaces alone that are houses of dreams. I know this thing is true: Wherefore, all ye who havs come hither let your hope and your joy be strong, and by no means despair for better than despair are hope and joy
 The man who felt and wrote thus has enjoyed the putting forth of many books decidedly successful, but it remains for ''The Singing Mouse Stories,'' with deli cate imagery, to be the richest product of his pen; although, doubtless, there will be found many to fling it aside impa- tiently, but that will not mar it's poetic fancy for those of keener perception. Franklin Winslow Kane" by Anne
 Douglas Sedwick. Century Co.,, New
 Yorl), s1.50.
 An exquisite story of spinsters and near spinsters It is surely time that these lone ladies (vide some work of statistics to learn how many million bless the eartM had some attention, bar rdicule, bestowed upon them.
 In these pages are sketched "the philan- thrnnip nrh-Oninp li1nan-pixrin2 spinsterhood of Boston,
 "Spinsterhood in Europe, sem-social, semi-intellectual, monotonous in its very variety-a vast army of, rootless Euro peanized Americans who may almost be said to belong to a celebate order, so little does the question of matrimony and fam fly life affect their existence. "Spinsterhood in England" as repre- ed in Miss Buckston who raised poultry in the country, and went up to London for Bach choir practices and womans suffrage meetings
 For the near the spnsters we have the American, Althea Jakes. and the English or rather Scotch Helen Buchanan, both much engaged in those afterglow court ships that come to women well into the thirties. Out of these same Indian sum nler love affairs grow the intricacies of this novel, fascinating from first to last page.
 Never was drawn so clearly and so pleasantly the marked and not alto gether pleasant difference between one born to llnow-to know the right things, the correct things, the best things. and | that without cavil or question, and the one educated to try to know-and never | knowing, never just quite sure. One: Helen Buchanan born safe,' yet indifferent to safety one who would Impose her own standards, and be op- pressed or enlightened by none, of tastes sharpe and fine," at once ''beauti- l fully definite,' clearly honest, of tact | that failed her in no discomforture, of in definite, yet immutable charm, in effect well born and upconsciously well bred. | and well described as more worth keep | ing than most of those who earn their | keep.' ! The other, the contrast: Althea lakes.
 queer admixture of information and in nocence.' Althea, whose surest trust was placed in old adages and Emersonian philosophies, ''who wants something, but doesn't know whether it's what other people want or whether it's what she
 wants, so that she cant want anything quite definitely
 Franklin Winslow Kane himself is a lit- tie masterpiece of character drawing "a l funny little man. with q thousand quaint l phrases and coloqualsms, possessed of a great soul, and some "clean" millions, of l a native nobility, which after all, is but selflessness.
 l It is to England that the two Ameri-
 cans. Althea and Franklin, despite an
 understanding of 15 years, go to gather the true roses of romance. But fate or fitness turns both back after all to the
 wearing of the commonplace golden rod | of their native field edges. | A bright glimpse of young America is given in the two daughters of the admira ble Aunt Julia--gav young creatures | these, who will have none of England 8