The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-10
"MOTHER." :"

"MOTHER.
 (By Kathleen Norris The Macmillan
 Co.,, New York.)
 If you are looking for a Christmas book that will be an everlasting joy to anybody, man, woman, or child, to whom you may give it. Mother is the book
 Kathleen Norris. the clever author who by the way is a sister-in- Jaw ot l Frank Norris, who wrote those interest ing novels, "The Pit, and "The Oc- topus," has in Mother" sent forth a story which gets at the very root or things.
 Taking for her theme one of the vital problems of American society, she has woven around it great love story. It is impossible to read the book dry eyed' not that the story attempts to wiring the heart strings with pathetic situations and appeals, but it's very truthfulness is so compelling, the ve- racity of it's situations so undisputed and the visualizing of the home, from which all of us recognize pictures of our own childhood, makes it so vital, so insistent that you cannot remain passive in the perusal of it's pages.
 From Weston, a small supurb a few hours ride from New York, the scene of the rapidly moving tale shifts to New York city and then to the countries of Europe. But though tn, action may take place far away, the personality or Mrs. Paget in whom are embodied | the instincts of eternal motherhood. is never lost sight of by the reader. Hers | is a chara acter fresh, inspiring. and true 10 nature-one which will live long in fiction.
 | The PaSets are a typical American | family of growing boys and girls living | in a typical country town. There are ,.l,t d Ma rat fIa p1l l.acf girl, who teaches in the local school, grows discontented, and questions her 1 parents right to assume the responsi- | bility of having so many children with out sufficient income to give them proper advantages. On this great question the 1 whole book hinges. Margaret goes to ! New York to live as the companion of an influential and very wealthy woman. There she meets the members of m ultra society get and finds the confirma- | nation Of her own ideas in it's views of maternity and children. Love, however, enters ner life and she sees the cid world and the new in a different light because of it. She returns home to awaken to a proper appreciation of her mothers worth, of the trials and cares, of the sacrifices and renunciations, of the l incompaTablc reward that all belong to i her. The denouement here is powerfully | handled. convincingly told. gripping the imagination, compelling tears.
 Nothing finer has appeared In American literature in many years. This one scene would be sufficient to lift the book far above the rank and file of the ordinary novel. But it has much more to com mend it than simply this. It has been well l described as "a beautiful classic" TRAVELS AT HOME AND ABROAD
 dn three volumes. By E. Quincy smith
 The Meade Publishing company, New | York.
 | If you are haunted by the "Wander- lust, and enjoy clever mans descrip- tion of jaunts through the most interest l ing parts of the globe, then MT. E. Quincy ! Smiths Travels at Home and Abroad, | Gin three voumes) will be of great i'm l port to you.
 1 MT. Smith is president of the National | City bank of Washington. And man l of affairs, and in addition knows The value of recreation and pleasure, which :, in his particular case, resolves itself into | jumping on steamer and going abroad | or running down to Jamaica or crossing | the country to Mexico in private car | all of which he tells you about, after wards in decidedly refreshing style
 and out of Nthe beaten path of tourists
 Like Mark Twain. MT. smith IS not IT l the least overawed by the tradltiona
 sights" held sacred by writers of travel and his description of the English Bus l Driver gives an insight into his humol
 and shows him to be entirely different 1 from other writers.
 Of the Bus Driver he says.
 He only sees the Quick or the Dead
 the Quick being those who get out o
 the way, and the Dead those who don't.
 A lover of nature. a close observer. gifc
 cd with rare poetic insight, and with 2 humor and wit that is delightful, MT smith has chronicled in his three vol l umes the history of mine districts, tw'
 visits to Jamaica, one to Mexico. one tt | California. before the Earthquake ant Fire in San Francisco. and another t' that courageous city after the horripl' event. and four trips to Europe.
 i Taken as a whole the three volumes O