The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-19
"ADvENTuRE."
By Jack London. The Macmillan com pany, publishers, New York

pany, publishers, New York.
 Jack London and Jack Londons won Gerful stories stand at the head of liter aty achievements of the present day and he perhaps has a larger following than any other writer.
 X book from his clever pen means a tremendous onslaught from the public, which wants to get hold of his latest" and in nothing has he been more readable and more delightful than in his "Ad- venture,n a story which smacks of the real London flavor. style and character.
 Adventure" has been read with delight by scores and scores of people. and the consensus of opinion Is that it is one of Jack London's very best stories.
 The man London himself is interest
 ing as any of the characters that he has created. and in a little pamphlet which he has written himself about himself he gives a most enjoyable account of his
 doings
 Some excerpts from his life story are as follows:
 "I was born in San Francisco in 1876 At l5 was a man among men, and if ! had spare nickel I spent it on beer in- stead of candy, because l thought it was more manly to buy beer. Now, when my years are doubled. l sm out on a hunt f.r the boyhood which l never had, and am less curious than at any other time of my life. Guess I'll find that boyhood Almost the first things l realized were responsibilities. I have no recollection of being taught to read or write-I could do both at the age of 5--but I know that my first school was in Alameda before vent out on a ranch with my folks, and as ranch boy worked hard from my eighth year.
 "The second school where l tried to pick up little learning was an irregular n mi n af Glf Mot aAh class sat in a separate desk, but there We're days when we did not sit at all. for the master used to get drunk very often, and then one of the older boys would thrash him. To even things up, the mas ter would then thrash the younger lads, so you can think what sort of school it vas. There was no one belonging to me, or associated with me in any way, who had etlry tastes lseas; the nearest can make to it is that my grandfather was circuit rider, a Welshman, known I as Priest Jones in the packwoods, where
 h.s enthusiasm led him to scatter the | gospel
 l "One of my earliest and strongest i'm pressfons was of the ignorance of other people. l had read and absorbed Wash ington 1rving's "Alhambra" before l was nine, but could never understand how 1t was that the other ranchers knew nothing about it. Later I concluded that this ignorance was peculiar to the country. and felt that those who lived in cities would not be so dense. One day a man from the city came to the ranch; he wore shiny shoes and a cloth coat, and I felt that here was a good chance for me to exchange thoughts with an enlightened mind. From the bricks of an old fallen | chimney l had built an Albambra of my own; towers, terraces. and all were com plete, and chalk inscriptions marked the lad tlA ntt.
 man and questioned him about "The AL hambra, but he was as ignorant as the men on the ranch, and then I consoled myself with the though that there were only two clever people nj the world
 Washington Irving and myself.
 My other reading matter at that time | consisted mainly of dime novels, borrowed l from the hired men, and newspapers In which the servants gloated over the ad- ventures of poor but virtuous shop-girls Through reading such stuff my minc
 was necessarily ridiculousy conventional l but being very lonely, l read everything l that came my way, and was greatly i'm
 pressed by Ouida's story, sigma which l l devoured regularly for a couple of years 1 l never knew the finish until I grew up | for the closing chapters were missing | from my copy, so I kept on dreaming | with the hero, like him. unable to see | Nemesis at the end. My work on the | ranch at one time was to watch the bees | and as I sat under tree from sunris, | till late in the afternoon, waiting for tn, 1 swarming, I had plenty of time to reat l and dream Liyermore valley was very l flat, and even the hills around were ther | to me devoid of interest, and the only in | cident to break in on my visions was wher l I gace the alarm of swarming, and ths l ranch folk rushed out with pots, pans and buckets of water I think the opening ;pA ofs | sx,,Ixt |. lad yet he had dreams of becoming
 great musician, and having all Europe a his feet" Well. l was only a little lad
 too, but why could not l become wha
 Sigma" dreamed of being?
 Life on a California ranch was then {, me the dullest possible existence, an, every day I thought of going out beyond
 the skyline to see the world. Even thei | there were whispers. art promptings; m, | mind inclined to things beautiful, al | though my environment was unbeautiful l The hills and valleys around were eye l sores and aching pits, and never loved | them until left them. My first book wa! published in 1900
 | "I could have made good deal 0
 newspaper work; but I had sufficien ] sense to refuse to be a slave to that man killing machine, for such 1 hold a news | paper to be to young man in his fram ing period. Not until I was well on m. | feet as magazine writer did do muci | work for a newspaper. I am a believe | in regular work, and never wait for al inspiration. Temperamentally l am no cry careless and irregular but melan choly; still have fought both down The discipline l had as a sailor had ful effect on me. Perhaps my old sea day are also responsible for the regularit and limitations of my sleep. Five an Q half hours is the precise average eilow myself. and no circumstance ha yet arisen in my life that can keep m awake when the time comes to turn in
 q am very fond of sport, and deligh in boxing, fencing, swimming. riding yachting and even kite flying. Although primarily of the city, ike to be near rather than in it. The country, though
 Is the best, only natural life"
 .rHE HOUR OF CONFLICT. B
 Hamilton Gibbs George fl. Doran com
 pany publishers, New York.
 THE PHILIPPINES, PAST AM PRESENT. By Dean c. Worcester. | two volumes with 12s plates. The Mac milan company. publishers. New York
 THE AMERICAN JAPANESE PROB LEM" By Sidney l.. Gulick. M. H., D. | Illustrated Charles Scribner's Sons. put fishers. New York