The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-10

man and woman meet in their quickest
sympathy of mind and heart and instinct.
The hero is poet by nature, man of
wonderful insight and understanding. Into
his life come three women who. represent
the truest and best in womanllind. In
| each he finds some note that answers his
deep need One of them is his mother;
one his wife, to whom he remains true in
every thought and deed; and the third is
the one woman. She alone penetrates the
inner sanctum of his spirit and learns to
understand him as he understands others.
She 1t is who becomes the Catfish In his
life-the preserving element that keeps
him lively his Inspiration, his incentive
to effort and achievement
We first see George the hero, in child
hood As a boy he finds occasion for a
fight in the fact that another lad has
broken flower that belonged to him, but
he is intensely ashamed that any one
should know that he fought for such a
cause.
he loses none of those wonderful quail
ties of sympathy and love-they seem to
grow and and become more vital with
every year; they become more intense as
he comes to realize more and more what
life and character mean.
Darragh an Irish school fellow, pene-
trates the secret of Georges inner senti-
.
Yet even to Darragh he cannot speak out
| but covers his real joys and desires by
| a bluff pretense of being a complete
| school boy Only to Mary Testing, who,
| with more courage than either the mother
| or Darragh, boldly invades the inner sane
tum of Georges soul and tells him, in
| sptee of all his denials. he is by nature
| a poet, can he ever know the satisfaction
| of showing his true self and being conf
dent of understanding. Yet 1t is not
| Mary whom he marries, but Lesbia, and
| nothing is finer in the book than the way
| In which he instantly recognizes that Les
| bia Is the woman for his marriage jour
ney through life, the one who should pre-
side over his home and be the mother of
| his children.
| One of the things that has been most
| praised about Joseph Vance is the way in
which De Morgan shows the two sides of
Josephs nature which enabled him to love
sincerely two women at the same time.
1t has not been any better done by De
Morgan than 1t is here by Charles Mar
riott. Though devoted to Lisbia, there is
always what Lesbia herself calls the
central George" to which Mary alone has
the key, and there are certain moods to
which she alone can minister. As one re-
views this story mentally ones admira-
tion for ii depends. The characters of
these women are extraordinarily fine.
But the study of the character of George
himself is the most remarkable of the au-
thor's achievements. We have here, in
unbrolxen presentation, the mind and
heart of the man from time when life
was neither night nor day, being con-
fused twilight in which his father and
elder brother walked, God-like, near the
ceiling while the room hummed and shook
to passing traffic. to the time of mid
manhood, when he was most successful
in business in an unusual way and has
had three emotional experiences, the last
of which has given him years of happy
married life and children. A record like
this that is as artistic and absorbing as
it is complete is not often found in fiction.
"a PRISONER IN FAIRYLAND'
BY Algernon Blackwood. The Macmillan
company. publishers. New York.
Algernon Blackwood is a writer with in
dividuality. One never confuses his works
with those of any one else. They all make
positive and lasting impression and it is
more or less certain to be a pleasant i'm
preston, too. no matter what the temper
ament of the reader. The times seem to
be we'll suited for the appearance of Mr..
Blackwoods "a Prisoner In Fairyland" :"
for the day of the problem novel is pass
ing and the hour is come when the tale,
such as this, of fancy, rich In imagery, in
gentle philosophy and breathing kindly
human outlook, is found most in favor.
"A Prisoner In Fairyland' is just a Ge-
lightful creation. There is nothing re-
voting In it. no pictures of sordidness no
underlying current of melancholy; on the
other hand there is a singular beauty of
expression, a symbolism as wholly fas-
cinating as 1t is remarkable. and plot
instinct with interest set forth in a sim
al a fra frn, hat ott.@trB lii OF
mysticism with which so many books of
this type are burdened.
1t is impossible to give in outline an ade-
quate idea of this wonderful book nor of
the extraordinary charm of style in which
Mr.. Blackwood has written It. nor the
profound and beautiful message that
comes to the reader through the leading
character who gains a sympathy with the
stars and seeks to scatter their light into
the lives of the world-weary.
FIVE YEARS ON THE FIRING LINE"
"A BOOK ON EARNEST EyANGEL-
ISM" BY Rev. J. o. Hanes of the
| North Alabama Conference. The Pub
fishing House of the M. e. Church.
South. Nashville. Tenn.
Rev. ]. O. Hanes, the author of Five
Years On the Firing Line" says in the
preface to his book:
Having been a member of the North
Alabama Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal church. south, for the past IS
years, always interested in evangelism,
and great part of that time actively
engaged in revival effort serving for five
years as conference evangelist / have be-
come possessed of some definite convic-
tions on evangelstic work. 1t is with the
distinct purpose of trying in small way