The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-28
ThEBOOK SHELF
By THE BIB BLIOPHILE

Thy noble height, shines soft today; The gentle winds of Attic air
 About thy lofty sunmits play. s-s This hill so bare, once teemed with life
 Thy councils cen the gods did grace: And from the world of toll and strife
 Men came to gaze upon thy face. And gazing felt their souls renewed
 As they stern mandates evil chid And meath thy brow crushed and sub
 dued
 The awful shades of conscience hio. Here once with murderous brow o'ercast, And hands with mothers blood imbrued, Came one who here found peace at last And the wild powers of sin subdued Here first from gods to man was given The greatest gift gods can bestow, The gace that lifts the soul to heaven
 While tears of penitence o'erflow. And later on came one who here
 More clearly yet that grace had showed; Since blind with lgiht and dumb with fear
 He met his Master, in the road. An greater than the poets tale
 His halting speech our memories fill From mystic shrine to rend the veil.
 Stood the Great Saint upon Mars Hill Oh blessed hill his feet hath trod
 The sacred message to proclaim, He who declared the Unknown God'
 Adds lustre to thy deathless fame.
 
 If a reckless adventuresome young sel- low like Jack Poindexter hadn't been caught in the rain one day, and seeking ;,, ing in possession of the antique box, there would have been no expedition to South America-nor chance for heroism, villany, sudden death, and love making, all of which forms most delightful book-a book which none can afford to say they have not read for "The Big Fish, is sure to be one of the most discussed stories of the year.
 "MUzETTA.e
 "A STORY OF THE eos" By Frederick
 Benjamin Yates. The Shakespeare Press,
 New York
 This thrilling story by a western author bears the charm of accurate description of life in mining region The story is full of thrilling situations and the au- thors evident wide knowledge of human human feelings and sentiments has en- abled him to give it realism which holds the attention of the reader.
 Some suggestion of the mystery in the story may be gleaned from the following graph:
 His eye next caught the glitter of some metallic device still clasped in one of the bony hands; vane stopped and dis enga ged it; the hand fell to pieces at his touch. and he found it's contents to be a common brass belt clasp, similar in some respects to those used by soldiers in the late war; it was somewhat longer and had evidently been made to order for some specific purpose. The back of the clasp was made of some soft composition metal and bore an inscription evidently cut in with a penknife, crude in form and sentiment
 The author. Mir. Tates. is the surveyor general at Saltwater, Minnesota. and his thoroughly familit with life in the woods and wds lends pleasing interest to the entire narrative, which will be partic- ularly attractive to those who are tired of tn eportrayal of characters who live in the atmosphere of Broadway and Pail Mall.
 FIVE THOUSAND A YEAR. By George Randolph Chester Illustrated by Henry Raleigh. The Bobbs-M Merrill company. Indianapolis
 As fascinating as was that prince of rascals. Rich-Quick Wallingford, the author. George Randolph Chester, has gone him one better in his latest fictional character, Johnny Gamble, hero of Five Thousand An Hour. Between Wallinr- ford and Johnny there is bothsa similarity and a difference. Both have the idea of getting rich quick. Both have minds which are sharpened to an extremely fine point. Both do things which are unusu- ally interesting: but where Wallingfor1 was a crook, Johnny is an honest shrewd young American-the most likable type to be found in fiction.
 Wallingford loved money and delighted