The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-19
"vIsTAs OF NEW YORK.

|
 erary world
 "VIsTAS OF NEW YORK. | By Brander Matthews. Harper Broth CTS, New York.
 No more delightfully."- written stories of New York have ever been written than those from the pen of that eminent writer, MT. Brander Matthews, in his collection of short stories entitled
 ''Vistas of New York"
 Like Hawthorne who gave up the at mosphere and environment to New Eng land so MT. Matthews has given us the local coloring of New York in a most charming and original manner, and each of the 12 stories he relates de- picts a different phase of Manhattan not always the most optimisticTbut always an interesting one.
 From the ambitious young man from the country, who goes to the great Me- tropols to make his fortune the very next week; the fabulously wealthy and lbeggarly poor; the social aspirant, the middle class up to the great political machine which strives to hold within
 its leash the promising manhood of the country to maintain the strength of Its Organization, Mir Matthews has drawn | with a skillful pen each situation, and
 made it an interesting story. One of the cleverest of the 2 is the one relating to the young man who went to New York, leaving his sweet
 heart in the little country town behind him. telling her that within very short time he would return and claim her for his bride when his fortune would be amassed and they would be happy
 Week after week passed and month after month, and at the end of the first year the young fellow finds that he has had but one raise" and fear l. ing that his sweetheart may become disheartened and marry some one elsei he writes her:
 I'm getting along splendidly in the store and even now 1 have enough for 1 two, if you are willing to start with a little flat somewhere up in Harlem We'd have to try light housekeeping at first, maybe, but I don't care what l eat or where I eat. If I can have you sitting at the table with me. There s no use putting 1t off and putting 1t off, Iuntil we've both got gray hair-is l there?"
 Another story that is charming is the one concerning the young widow who went to Manhattan in search of hus- band.
 She entered the whirl of society with gusto that was quite refreshing, as she gave out the impression that she d dressing the part, and living up to it. luntil her money began to give out and still the rich husband she was seek | ing was nowhere in sight. Finally, just as she is about to re- I tire from the scene and accept pos sition as Matron in a Girls School. a young naval officer comes along ano
 s,.ccumbs to her charms.
 l The young widow does not love him
 but accepts his proposal of marriage | He wants to marry me for my money" she argues with herself. "an6 lit will serve him right if l marry hin for his.'
 1 After she has accepted him and they are about to begin preparations fsl their. marriage. the young man tells hei that he knows of her financial embar- rassments and she promptly breaks hel arrangement, makes clean confession tt him, and accepts the post of Matron il 1.-the Girls School which had been of fered her, happy in the realization tha she had at least acted honorably In tn,
 matter. If nothing else.
 "cOURTSHlP UNDER CONTRAcT."
 THE SCIENCE OF SELECTION
 TALE OF WOMAN'S IsMANCIPA
 TON" By James Henry Lowell Eager
 The Health Culture Co.,, Publishers New York.
 "Courtship Under Contract" present the Science of Eugenics in such al
 interesting and forceful manner that it readers cannot help but be intereste' in d subject that has never befor met their eye. while they are beini carried along In the current of an in teresting love story
 The heroine is albright and altogeth CT interesting character who has pur pose in life that ought to appeal to tn interested reader. She is not an i'm possible character. as are so many pre- sented in novels, but is an altogethe natural woman who hopes to find hap p;ness in marriage. and to that en evolves Courtship Under Contract wit a young man of promise, towards whor her heart is reaching out with feel Ing of love. But Mona Davidge is no convinced that 1t is love that is tug l ging at her heart strings, neither i she certain that the young wooer's lov, which he urges so earnestly. is of a sin cere and lasting kind. hence she insist upon it's test by period of Courtshi and mutual residence apart from he parents in order to study the lov | symptoms which animate both of then | This is a clean story of Courtshi l by co-habitation, we'll sustained, an Hit exemplifes the possibility of such | life b yany woman who possesses a chal
 acter for uprightness.
 | It is a story of young woma whose birth was the outcome of mos
 unfortunate marriage. Her mother. hay ! linz been deserted before her birth. dis