The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-26
Alise of Astra, by Marion Watso
 Gittle. Brown 6 Co. Boston. 15Q

Al1Se or Astra, Dy Marion watson;
 (Little, Brown &s Co.,, Boston, s1.50). miliar type. The hero has experiences which resemble those of the Prisoner of Zenda.
 The excitement begins with the ad- veture of young Englishman; he is travelling on the continent, Is in a rail- road wreck, rescues an unknown wo- man and is carried with her to the castle of the grandduchy of Eisen- burg.
 It Is while in the castle that the young Englishman, Temple by name, stumbled upon @ momentous crisis. The advent of the unknown woman whom he has rescued from the wreck adds to the complication of affairs.
 It is not necessary to define the ex- act position on the map of the world of the grandduchy of Eisenburg. Like Shakespeare's Illyria 1t is a world by itself and it is as illusive as is the is- land in The Tempest. The writer makes the existence of the grandduchy plausible enough.
 It is in Eisenburg that Temple, by the means of the tragedy of the train puts his finger on the pulse of his tory"
 It is there that chance, caprice and intrigue began to weave a web about his life. It is there he has occasion to display much dash and audacity.
 The situation is entangled enough: Fate had compressed many odd and ugly vicissitudes into the short com pass of Temples stay in the grand duchy."
 Temple returns to England, but finds himself irresistibly drawn back to Eisenburg. Once more at the scene of his exciting adventures he finds himself placed under an unpleasant espionage and his correspondence tempered with. But there are alleviat- ing circumstances; he is invited to drink tea with the Princess Regent. .Alise of Astra" The Princess has learned that pleasant habit during visit to England in her early girl hood"
 Given a fair young woman, even though she be a princess regent and handsome young English lord thrown together in time of great peril to both, and-what is likely to happen? What matters person or place? Love hath never known law beyond its own sweet will" "It is only heaven that is to be had for the asking, and it Is love alone that comes to all who summon 1t by giving it, For love waits like a flood Of light for the narrowest crevice through which it may enter"
 But the love of Alise and Temple is merely an episode in the book. The mys- tery and the entanglement of politics is what lends chief interest to the book. and to reveal that is not the province of the reviewer.
 The politicians of Eisenburg have all the revolutionary and reactionary ten- dencies necessary to make things quite as interesting as the politicians of any sure-enough commonwealth. Interesting and dangerous these politicians mako things for Alise and Temple. A book that will serve for an excellent hours amusement. Interest will surely
 be held by situations so ingeniously presented.
 "The Pioneers: A Poetic Drama in Two Scenes" by James Oppenheim. (B. w. Huebsch.)
 MT. Oppenhem is best known by his stories of the Jewish quarters of New York, and very fine, life-like stories they are. This play was written for produc- tion by the young people of a summer camp in the Maine woods.
 The Pioneers present a part of that