The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-07-07
nTIIE REcoRp1NG ANeEL

THE RECORDING ANGEL"
BY Cora Harris, Doubleday
Company, New York.
Reviewed for "The Book Shelf" by Mr.
Paul Cook, author of "Adrift With the
Times"
THE Recording Angel" by Cora
Harris. is a loose woven chronicle of a
small Georgia town.. illuminated py
flashes of humor that are quite a. anus
ing as they are unexpected. The writ-
er knows whereof she speaks and she
describes community that is typical
of the less progressive parts of the
south, where Brother John d. Rookie
Teller might supplement his hookworm
fund with another for the express pur-
pose of galvanizlng people who have
been dead a long time without know
ing 1t. - ~
Back to. the little Georgia town of
Ruckersyille. where the scenes of The
Recording Angel are laid, comes the
redoubtable Jim Bone, who went away
some years before under q cloud and
now returns a man of wealth. He has
drifted about in the more rugged parts
of the west, acquiring there in frequent
clashes, both with man and with nature.
certain stability of purpose and grim
determination which are strangely out
of place in the sleepy little village of
Ruckersville. No brass bands come
forth to greet Jim on his homefaring-
In fact, his welcome is not even mildly
cordial, and he is just Illuminating
whether to stay around for awhile or
seek wider field of activities. when
the Inevitable woman in the case crosses
the field of his n6miripp vision
Jim Bone is a rough person. not to
say n tough person. and Sylvia Story is a
radiant creature, but woman is doing
the writing, you must repember, SO the
booted Jim Bone, who takes his liquor
Feat and permits no familiarities on
the part of masculine rufflers, falls far,
far in love with the delectable Sylvia.
Without saying a word to him. Sylvia
made Jim take his sprawling feet out
of her way and far as Jim was con-
cerned, that feminine challenge upheld.
made his fate certain. He decided to
stay and wake up Ruckersville. In adj
dition TO that, he made up his mind to
win Sylvia just as soon as business mat
tiers would permit.
How Ruckersville is stirred to un-
wonted excitement by the mysterious
operations of Mr.. Bone, how he almost
turns the stagnant little town upside
down. eventually Transforming COM
munity of sloth and Indifference into
one of thrift and enterprise, is about
the sum and substance of the book. The
love affair of Mr.. Bone also reaches a
highly satisfactory conclusion. Sylvia,
finding herself almost neglected for the
time being, situation largely of her
own bringing about, gets interested.
She is suitably dressed for the occasion.
all in crimson, when Jim Bone literally
her dnun n a fold n 70
sight in Dixie, and wooes the maiden in
sist. 1t is case OF strong man, a
coquette trapped and then, SO to speak,
slow curtain.
Mrs Harris introduces us to num-
Der of well drawn and amusing charac-
ters, who are duplicated more or less In
q majority of the smaller southern
Gowns. She has studied carefully the
people she writes about and She has a
fund of incjsive humor which serves
her in good stead. Her comments are
at times caustic, but always illumina-
ting and they must be salutary. even
as that memorable performance In Jim
Bones new theatre. when the fogies of
Ruckersville saw their foibles portrayed
on the stage by company OF players
from New York.
And who was the recording angel?
She was blind woman who saw the
faults of those about her more clearly
than they who still had eyes. She put
down her conclusions in a diary and
this her scapegrace husband sold to
magazine. without her knowledge
The Recording Angel" Is only lay
figure but she looms large, at that, and
in telling how the blind woman got her
sight back and yet was unable to see
the decadence of her drink -sodden hus-