The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

grace the pages of fiction for the first
time. They are not Confederate figures,
pompous old colonels and theirs stately
wives. Mr.. Allen has recalled the history
of the original settlement of the Ohio
lowlands and peoples the pages of his
story with the descendants of those gal
liant Frenchmen who came with Celloran
de Bienville to explore the valley and of
those who followed to seek their fortune
there
The author has staked a new claim in
the field of fiction, and he mingles
backwoodsy humor and quaintness with
the charm of exquisite fancy and feel
ing. he makes Skye seem merrier, fresh
er and more fowery with every chap
ter, and the tale of its rekindled romance
brighter and jollier with every page
"BOBBIE. GENERAL MANAGER"
BY Olive Higgins Prouty. frederick A.
Stokes Co., New York
Bobbie is a girl tender hearted. exhuber-
ant, normal, and she without
their knowing 1.-THE large, motherless
New England family of which she is the
oldest daughter.
Once among a thousand We find a wom-
an who unconsciously shoulders the bur
dens of those about her. She laughs at
the queer bits of everyday humor, her
deep sympathy understands, but above
all she alone sees keenly what to do
and unobtrusively does it. The problems
and struggles of her brothers and sisters
| their difficulties in college. In business
| in love and In marriage, she makes hei
I own. Such a girl is Bobbie. We love
| her not because she is the usual pretty
heroine, pursued by many admirers. but
| because she is such trump.
| This story tells the chronicles of the
| Vars family, of which Bobbie is the cen
| ter. Amusing-touching-i is saturated
with domesticity, and comes no. from &
| far away world of romance, but from oul
own lives. And Bobbie's own love affair
| Is momentous too. Did you ever notice
! how different real love affairs are from
| those in stories? This is the real kind
| The comments of early readers of thu
book are all enthusiastic. One critic ha.
said: "A book out Of thousand a bool
| that grows on you the more you read 1t
| a book that you cease to think of merely
| as a book, because the people in it are
real-perhaps more real than many o.
|your own intimate circle of friends.
| | have not read in years a book so satu
rated with the little things of daily lift
iithat seem so small and count so much
| A foreign publisher who accepted thu
| book took the time to write In bust
ness letter: 'Bobbie' should make 6
large circle of readers. -. An ides
| which most authors and the majority OF
people overlook as a rule. but which Mrs
| Prouty seems to develop in a splendid
way. is that there is very little difference
| after all in people at neart, whether the,
| dress in calico or Irish lace.
I'm AN ELEPHANT CORRAL"
BY Robert Hamil Nassau, M. d., S. Il
! D.; the Neale Publishing company, New
| York
I A book of remarkable values is DIR
Nassau's work, I'm an Elephant Corral.
| The author is a man of acute powers O.
observation and he is painstaking in hi
| use of facts and detail; he not onl,
handles words with nicely, but he is care
full that the total impression conveyed
by those words is one of truth. He as
lcumes nothing. He knows, or he is silent
With such a man there is no middle
ground TO his mind words are neithe
toys nor ornaments; facts are not plastic
gossip is noQInformation. and the end o
| literature is mot personal vanity. Thi
clarity of mind and of character, thi
elevation of feeling and of purpose. giv'
his writings subtle charm, and since
he is a trained writer. he becomes. b!
virtue of his simple directness. reall,
great literary artist. Which is probabl,
the very last thing that DR.. NASSAU
thinks himself.
For A. years DR.. Nassau has lived oi
the coast of west Africa, in intimat
touch with native life, as It missionary
i The missionary Knows life as the trader
the soldier and the official can neve
know 1t. The trader is there to exploi
! him; the Official. to make him 4 'keel