The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-16

ences form most expressing story. and in its course. 1t Is surprising how the authors theory grows on the reader. clever love plot Is woven into the narratives, and the heroine. the Lady Vera. is as vivacious. capricious and ut terly refreshing a creation as recent fiction has had.
 Perhaps the greatest single achieve ment in The Crime Doctor is It's first chapter. 1t is most fortunate, vertically a stroke of genius, as in it the reader is treated to surprise that gairly electi- : ffes him, and from this startling revela- ton there is no pausing until the final chapter.
 Incidents follow in rapid succession. Characters are introduced with the greatest facility and fit perfectly into the plot The Crime Doctor Is animation from title page to fnis. It is a keep you awake all might" sort of a story.
 There Is always room in the field of fiction for sucb>excellent characters as Doctor Dollar and even the most ex- hausted fiction follower will muster the energy to pick up the trial sof such a fascinating tale and feel refreshed at the en dof the course
 story which will cause readers to go back. and re-read previously pub lished works of the author to satisfy their craving for more of his compost tions until something new apears must have merit extraordinary. The Crime Doctor makes you want as much of Hornung as you can get,
 RELIGION AND LIFE"
 By Elwood Worcester Harper Bros.
 Publishers, New York.
 pr. Elwood Worcester, the organizer of the Emmanuel movement in Boston. from the rich experience of years spent in ob- serving the dynamic power of religion upon modern lige, has written this booS or inspiration and comfort, frankly, ayowedly and positively Christian" but it is the spirit of Christianity, and not it's dogmas, that the writer dwels upon. He oeals with the social aspects of religion with the spirit of aspiration and unrest of the world, and with the problems pre- sented by the life of today. h t
 THE MILKY WAY"
 By F. Tennyson Jesse. George H Doran
 company, publishers. New York.
 It Is rather a novel idea for an author to turn the tables on the 'sReyievers,, and review her own book, but this is pre cisely what Miss r. Tennyson Jesso. tbe English author, has done at the reouest or one of the big Metropolitan newspa- rers and her own review of her story,
 ne MILKY Way will no ~doubt interest
 'i' 'iiee NciS ueISntlul DOOk.
 Miss Jesse says
 Ihe chief thing to say about .sThe Milky Way is that there is very Iittle to be said, and that little consists mostly Of negatives. There are such A lot of things 1t is not 1t is not a serious con trlbution to literature, it is not written With purpose, and above all it is not. to aise an odious word. improper. This IS a subject it's parent would naturally never nave given a thought to if 1t were not that several reviewers have appar- ehtiy been shocked to the core of their being by the book, especially bv fhe scene where the hero and heroine bathe together in nothing but a pool, a wood and the gray light of dawn. It is difficult to take ones own book seriously. espe- cially when it isn't serious boolzr but do really thnk-'cross my heart and sa " die as the children have it-that any one who objects to The Milky Way on the score of nastiness has nasty mind After all, there is nothing in this world that cannot be right or wrong according to circumstances, to say nothing of the large middle track where it is neither. It is never the thing you do. but always the way you do it. And it is not the thing you write,. but the way you write it. and it isn't only fhe thing you read,