The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-12
TnEBOOK SHELF
By THE BIDLIoPHILE

a sort of talent which she will probably never carry to it's full development
 Drouet, fffe drummer Hurstwood, the manager, fallen from his position of at fluence. and Carrie are set before the reader in a masterly way and the suffer- inss Hurstwood endures as an outcast in New York are viyidly described.
 Sister Carrie" Is the sort of book that conduces to thought, and while the flavor is bitter, we may still rejoice in the knowl- edge that after all, there are other knids of people than those so ably portrayed
 in Mr Dreiser's novel and there is real happiness in the world, which useful and contented lives put within our reach.
 THE WIT AND WISDOM OF CO.,
 I.ONIAL DAYS"
 1607-1soo. By Carl Holiday. ]. B. Lip
 plncott Company, Philadelphia
 The author of .'The Wit and Wisdom of Colonial Days Carl Holiday. is agree ably and favorably known by his preced- ing contributions to literature "A His tory of Southern Literature" and "The Cavalier Poets," both of which rank high in the literary world
 The American nation has always been noted for it's humor and appreciation of wit even in the stormest and most haz- ardous times, and in his latest book MT. Holiday makes very plain to us, to quote him. that from 1607 until the days when the republic had taken permanent place among the nations, America was never without its store of witty intelects True there were blue laws and witch burnings and Indian massacres, but in spite of these and the sorrows superstitions and unbending theologies the people saw much of the sunshine and the gladness of the world"
 MT. Holiday, with his fund of learning l af
 university, states very frankly that he does not know who cracked the first joke
 in America. but he ayers that Nathaniel 1 Ward, sometime preacher in Aggawam l (now Ispewich) Massachusetts, was the l first satirist on this side of the Atlantic.
 1n fact, he wrote the very first Ameri- can book of humor, the title being The l Simple Cobbler of Aggawam." Coming on down the line he refers to how George Alsop of Baltimore county, Maryland, 1 In 165S, wrote "A Character of the Prov | free of Maryland" while Col. William 1 Byrd, born in Virginia in 1874, was "among 1 the few who dared to write down their ! smiles in the early days"
 1 Another Massachusetts jokesmith. whom MT. Holiday recalls, is Dr. Nathaniel Ames, who issued a humorous almanac eight years before that of Poor Rich ard" and one of the most interesting chapters of The Wit and Wisdom of Colonial Days Is that which deals with the life and writings of Benjamin Frank lin. the author of Poor Richard him. self. MT. Holiday declares of him that "the jokes and shrewd sayings attributed to this Prince of Good Fellows would All gathered about him host of tales; in truth he has become at length the central figure in a lengthy myth or Comic Epic" Separate chapters are devoted to Fran cis Hopkinson, Philip Freneau. John Trumbull Joel Barlow, Richard Alsop, and Lenuel Hopkins, while the "The BartfoM Wits" arc discussed a length.
 In the closing chapter an interesting ac- count Is given of The Humor of the Colonial Stage,' and we are told that notwithstanding the current opinion to tke contrary many of our ancestors of Few England and New York and Penn sylvania went to plays and enjoyed them | Performances were given in Williams l burg Va, and Charleston, S. C., as early as 1716 and In houses built for such q l purpose while dramatic performances
 were not rare in New York and Philadel- l phia as far back as 1760. In 1T92 plays were presented In Boston under the name 1 of dramatic readings" so as not to con 1ct with the laws of stage plays" The bill was repealed in 1793 and that same year the Federal Street theatre was built and on February 1, 1I9i, was opened for public acting"
 Every chapter in The Wit and Wisdom of Colonial Days is repete with clever ness and interest and MT. Holiday has nede a valuable contribution to modern literature in choosing so pregnant a theme and treating it in so lucid and original a manner.
 He has left the impression with us that 1 cur forefathers had quite as marked sense of humor as we of this generation l possess, and while they may not have l laughed as heartily or as often as we do 1 they did their full share of merry making with duips and jests, even Tn spite of 1 eligious doggerel, pioneer hardships l struggles with savage nature and still
 more savage men, and the founders of the nation developed perhaps for the most part, unconsciously, that most char "cteristic of our traits-the ability to en- -Jy the ridiculous"