The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15


its message and its huch and Its work.
So that there will be q revival of re-
ligion among the doctors who read
DR.. Cabot. We should warn everyone
be forehand that there is on every page
the play of fine humor. This is no
capsule treatment but the inflow OF
wonderfully vital personality upon
ours. BY all means get the book, even
If you have TO borrow it from the city
library. Get 1T If possible and eat Its
marrow.
JUST AROUND THE CORNER"
! BY Fannie Hurst. Harper Bros. Publish
| ers New York.
| Under this general title Mrs. Hurst
| has gathered the best of her short stories
| recently published In the Saturday Even
Ing Post, Hearst's and other monthly pub
locations of the highest class. The sub
! title to the volume is Romance en- cas-
serole." The stories deal with 'peoeple in
| odd city corners, very human people,
working, playing, laughing-and occasion
ally not
every human peope!" That is the most
| striking characteristic of these little
tales that grip the heart with their real
| ism and pathos. Mrs. Hurst has incnl-
Gated that intangible element SO sought
after by city editors, and the cause of
| so much despair among cub reporters
| human interest. The characters are liv-
| ing, breathing people, the kind you meet
| every day on the streets, and so true to
| type that the writer unconsciously picked
| out the heroine of THE Squall'' behind
| a counter at Loveman's the other day.
| Technically the stories are all that could
| be desired and reveal close study of
! that master student of humanity-O.
| Henry To writer's he will always he a
model for study as much in his way as
| any other writer of short stories how to
foreshadow his endings and yet do 1t with
| so delicate touch that the denouement
sometimes only In the last sentence, was
entirely surprising.
| Mrs. Hurst is not a shallow imitator
| of the great master, but Yields her pen
from an individual viewpoint and with
| original treatment both as to matter and
method She knows to the mnutest de.
tail the life she depicts and one wonders
II she were not at one time a worker
behind the counters of some big depart.
| ment store. 1t scarcely seems possible
that she was not In the light of her ipti-
| mate pictures of the life
| With the foibles and failngs of human
ity Mrs. Hurst deals leniently. She views
the world with a gentle irony and toler-
ant amusement while in the emotional
| moments of her stories she displays q
| world of sympathy.
To go from the abstract to the concrete,
| the first and last stories in the volume
| are the best. The others are we'll above
| medocrity, but there is not the same
| gentle touch In Power and Horse
| power and THE Squat"
Several of the stories In the volume
| deal with Hebrew life, and in the por-
trayal of this Mrs Hurst is at her best
Although she has not specialized in Jew
| ish stories her work is far more enter
| tanning than that of Bruno Leasing and
Montague Glass. The former places his
| central character in many strained situa-
tons, both resulting in improbable plots
| In all her stories Mrs. Hurst couples
great powers of invention with ideals OF
truths and sincerity. and in none of her
writings are these chara cters more In evil
dence than In Just Around the Cor
ner."