The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-03


 "Those prohibitionists who practice to- tai abstinence and have practiced it since youth never tasted chartreuse, and some of them may think book that would give space to such an alluring drink should be put on the index, so to speak, but according to my anti-prohibition mo- tions, chartreuse is all right"
 Thirty Million Miles Away
 Tn view of the fact that we have set tied most questions here below, Birming- hams best known amateur astronomer was called upon to report as to things unusual happening upstairs said an old denizen. His reply was. I supposed due to the prohibition laws, but I see that one has successfully evaded all regula- tions and is now showing in the heavens. Astronomer w. R. Brooks has discovered more than p comets from the observatory at Geneva, N. Y, and his report shows that his latest discovery, which he has seen stereoscopically since July 20, is rap idly approaching the sun. which 1t will pass on October 27.
 This comet Is now visible to the naked eye. It is some 30,00o,0O0 miles away from here. but is very favorably To- cated for evening observation. In ap- pearance it is a faint nebulous object, be- tween a fourth and fifth magnitude star in size, and consequently easily seen. It is moving right rapidly at the present time in the heavens and changes It's ap- ol,o 1at- that is to say, about the apparent size of the moon to the eye.
 You can easily find it. Directly over head Is one of the brightest stars in the heavens. Vega, in the constellation Lyra. A short distance from Vega is the bright star Deneb forming a part of the constel- lation of Cygnus Let these two stars form the hypothenuse of a right angle tri- angle and let the right angle be to the north of this line; just where the right angle is you will see this comet. It is getting brighter and brighter and changes it's position from day to day "s
 Hawthorne's PosthumOus Romance
 'I have been surprised to find among my book-loving friends how few of those who are familiar with Nathaniel flaw thorne had read his posthumous romance, Doctor Grimshawes Secret, " said an ob- servant man of literary turn.
 Tt is a romance of absorbing plot and subtle texture. and had the author lived to rewrite it several times before 1t was ready for the publisher it would have been the greatest of all his productions-greater even than Scarlet Letter. 'Grimshawe' is editer by Nathaniel Hawthorne's son, Julian, who wrote for 1t perface fun of analytical interest and which is sin gularly felicitious in style as we'll as Hawthornesque. In the preface we are told that Nathaniel Hawthorne had looked forward to Doctor Grimshawes Secret as the crowning achievement of his literary career. The great master of fiction Americas greatest novelist-alludes to 1t in his preface to Our Old Home as a work of various modes of truth than he could have grasped by a direct \effort. As is we'll known, Nathaniel Hawthorne was d tireless polisher. He wrote and rewrote. remember Mrs. Hawthorne saying that the reader might think from the smooth ness and simplicity of the sentences that that her distinguished husband dashed them off with wonderful facility, but on the contrary, she said, he would come to the house from his little study out in the yard in the late afternoon with a knot on his brow as if he had been in anguish. The probability was, according to the wife, that the author had spent an entire day over manuscript that would make just printed page.
 What particularly interests me in flaw thorne's posthumous book Is the intimate workshop side of the noveist's life in the form of notes contained in an appendix of about 20 pages. Confirming Mrs. flaw thorne's account of his habit of rewriting, here is an instance in 'Grimshawe.' Chap ter I opens thus: "A long time ago In the appendix we find this note, where the manuscript gives the following alter native openings Early in the present lcentury;' Soon after the revolution,' Many years ago. Some of the worlds great modern novelists have written lrapdly and done little revising. Thack- ary think, was one who did not worry much over sentences, but with Nathaniel Hawthorne, and George Eliot later, syntaX, to say nothing of euphony, was considered one of the essentials; hence 1t is that in so simple a sentence as that which opens | 'Grimshawe' Secret Hawthorne pondered over three alternative phrases"
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