The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-21
anEROOKt,SHELF
Nv THE prBLIoPHILE

LIOPHILE
 broken and the success of the Confeder- acy assured, as the success of the Ameri- can cause had been by. the battle at York town.
 But the government at Richmond in- terfered The genius of the commanders was overruled. Lee was forced to sit down at Petersburg. within 10 miles of Grants base of supplies and 800 miles away from his own. Ills warned the gov ernment in vain. The government sacri- feed the hero of Kenesaw and his suc- cessor, Hood, butchered the victorious army.
 One chapter is given entire to a biogra- phy of Joseph Eggleston Johnston. gen- eral, c. S. A., prefixed by an admirable portrait of the subject. Evidence is abund- ant to show the greatness of this soldier.
 MT. Du Bose presents the remarkable historical incident that if A 8. Johnston, R. F. Lee or J. B. Johnston had remained with the United States the one thus re- maining would have been commander of the United States.
 Wheeler was young man of perfect boise, of irreproachable character, fear, less to a fault. the very incarnation of energy. For four years he fought day and night, never having been absent an hour. never sick. Fourteen horses were shot in battle under him and several staff officers killed or wounded by his side. No commander was ever more trusted and beloved by his men than this one.
 ''STOvER AT YALE" By Owen Johnson. With illustrations in
 Black and White, by Frederick R.
 Gruger. Frederick A. Stokes & Com
 pany, New York.
 By long odds the best college story that has been written in years is "Stover At Yale" from the facile and clever pen of MT. Owen Johnson.
 The story is absolutely fresh in its con- ception, brilliant in point of dialogue, sensible and valuable as treatise on college life and very American in it's pur- pose.
 The latter comes of It's intent. to expose the average "big university" which Mir Johnson says is nothing like as fine as to curriculum and training and scholarliness and learning as the university of the '70's.
 Social Snobbishness.. IS the shibboletll of the American university today, accord ing to MT. Johnson, and the ''society sys- tenn plays such a part in the college boys life that his story is mainly found ed upon that fact presenting as he does his hero, Dink Stover. and giving us a
  Yale.
 While supposed to be entirely confined tc Yale Mir Johnson has broadened his book and made it incidental to any of the big colleges by bringing them into it or many occasions.
 Tn fact, never did an author get such 2 flood of letters from unknown core spondents as MT. Owen Johnson has beer receiving from college folk apropos of hii sfcF4 IF-II- ~txJ. l. I.~. writing him asking him if he is not going to take up the social usurpation of wom ens colleges as well as mems. College mer in colleges not treated by Johnson-foi instance the great middle-western state universities-have volunteered informa. tion regarding the rule of the fraternities in their schools. To MT Johnson's sur prise. officers of fraternities have begged for suggestions as to what to do. Yale Harvard and Princeton men. graduates and undergraduates, have written in large numbers, confirming or denying his state ments Men of public importance have urged him to continue the work. Alp parently the next revolution is going tc be waged about those spots always con- sidered the most peaceful refuges in the country-college campuses.
 We meet MT Dink Slower as he enters Yale in his freshman year, where he is advised by an upper classman to make a society," and choose his friends ''among the big men,
 The story of Dink's choosing is the story of "Sover at Yale"
 The author finds some good in the ''so- ciety system" but he Insists that it does more harm than good, both to the boys who "get in'' and those who "miss out" |" and 1t Is thing that is dsparaging to any college in this broad land.
 One of the cleveresr aphorisms in the story Is when one of the characters makes the remark:
 "Our colleges are spfendidly organized for the prevention of learning. All that education does today Is to develop the memory at the expense of the imagina- ton. Your memory is trained to hold a little knowledge. little time-thats all"
 Another incident fun of humor is the chapter where at the close of the junior year one student asks a representative group of fellow classrnen certain simple questions about music. art, religion, so- ciology and international politics, and con cludes his examination with the simple statement:
 ''You know absolutely nothing"
 Again the same student said: You have no general knowledge, no intellectual in- terests. You haven't even opinions, and at the end of four years of education you will march up and be handed de- gree-Bachelor of Artsl And we Ameri- cans have a sense of humor!''
 Perhaps the most delightful chapter in cluded in "Stover at Yale is the dashfn g and brilliant account of the foot ball game, which doesn't relate a victory, as might be expected, but a defeat-yet it is all so cleverly told and so graphically represented that 1t makes one of the best incidents of the sort in modern fiction.
 There isn't boy in the country who is living his college life at present or who has already lived or ever expects to live it. who will not enjoy to the utmost every word of MT. Johnson's splendid story.
 In fact none can afford to miss the rare treat that is in store for them, for both as a fictional bit of literature and an in- valuable commentary upon college life the author has done one of the best pieces of work that any writer can boast of.
 THE LIGHTED WAY" By E. Phillips Oppenheim- With illustra-
 tions by A. B. Wenzell. Little Brown
 & Co.,, Boston.
 Past Grand Master" In the art of story writing is F. Phillips Oppenheim. whose latest venture, The Lighted Way" is one of the cleverest and mast thrilling recitals of intrique and mystery that has /ver come from the pen of this gifted author.
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