The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-01


 for meeting the greatest of contempor- ary virtuosos. The plan of conferring with them and setting down their defi- mite views upon specific problems re- lated to piano playing was new and in some cases distasteful ito tempera- mental artists unaecustomed to the needs of the student and music lover Many obstacles had to be overcome in securing this priceless information, In this MT. Cooke was helped by the fact that he had himself been a teacher in New York for some 20 years, had | investigated personally all of the lead ing European conservatory systems, had written very extensively along musi- cal lines for papers in America and | Europe, and also had mastered suf- | fcient foreign tongues to enable him I to put into English the exact meaning of virtuosos unacquainted with our | language.
 The very greatest care was taken to | have each chapter. devoted to the ideas of one virtuoso thoroughly representa- I tive and authoritative. Many were written several times under the super vision of the virtuoso and some are the result of numerous different sessions. A student, music lover or teacher seeking for expert advice upon the really vital problems in music study will find a vast amount of practical in : formation in this 2SSpage work MT. Henry Schradieck, the famous violin pedagogue. says of it. Every piano
 student ought to study this book. Tn fact, it ought to be in the library of 1 everyone who studies music earnestly, as many of the ideas apply just as well
 to other instruments as to the piano. |
 By Jo Anderson. His Print shop" pub 1 fishers. No. 416 J street. Sacramento. 1 Cal
 l To the dog lover, Jo Anderson's very
 attractive little book entitled Me and
 the Dog" will make an immense ap- peal.
 1 It is charmingly gotten up, original
 and unique in decorations and decidedly different. Verses to his dog and his wonderful merits. his loyalty and his good hard common sense. form the gist
 of Mir. Andersons dissertation and ea ch lverse is accompanied by a clever draw ing Of Me and the Dog"
 MT. Anderson says of his dog in the
 opening lines:
 'Here is a friend who proves his worth Without conceit or pride of birth:
 Let want or plenty play the host,
 He gets the least and gives the most. | He's just a dog
 Hes ever faithful kind and true He never questions what I do.
 And whether I may go or stay;
 He's always ready to obey. Cause he's a dog.
 Accompanying the very attractive
 book is the following from the author:
 Well, Here we are.
 l sttMe and inc Dog
 "This is the latest book from the Anderson print shop. Hope you will like it-that it will add one more smile
 to your day--and incidentally give you an inkling of the classy work we dc here.
 'If you want additional copies for your friends or your enemies, the price l will be four bits. We think it Is worth that much--dont you? Besides. we need the 50 cents to buy the poor dog a
 bone
 "Prudys wrinkles are not all In his l face, you know. There are lot in his bread basket, and he can live ur to his reputation lots easier If they
 are smoothed out by an occasional of fering. A full stomach Is first aid to constancy even in a dog'
 THE VALLEY CAMPAIGN" By Thomas A. Ashby. The Meals Pub
 fishing company, publishers, New York.
 This is a book of "reminiscences by a
 noncombatant too young Tor military serv- ice, while between the lines in the Shen- andoah valley during the war of the
 states. But while pr. sAshby was too young to shoulder a musket, he was a bright boy, just turned ii years at the
 time of John Browns raid, and he was about to join the Confederate army when l rl1ta a er1 tp Q hu | Dr. Ashby was an observant youth is not only shown by this book but by his
 varied and distinguished life since the
 war He founded, and later became the
 proprietor and editor of the Maryland Medical Journal; he founded. and later
 became professor of obstetrics, Woman s
 Medical college, Baltimore; he is now a member of the faculty of the University of Maryland, where he has been a pro- | lessor since 1S97 Besides being the author of various medical works, he is 1 also the author of life of his late kins- | man, Turner Ashby a book recently pub 1 lshed by the Neale house. "The Valley Campaigns Is volume particularly inl- portant as record of the civil life of the Confederacy or. rather. the life lived by civilians or noncombatants. CLAY AND RAINBOwS." | By Dion Clayton Calthrop. With front | erick H. Stokes & Co.,, publishers New York.
 more lovable or romantic young Londoner than Sir Timothy Swift, the heir of Don Clayton Callthrop's clever book, Clay and Rainbows," would be hard to find. As he gaily walks home from a fancy dress ball in Pierrot cos- tune, he comes upon fancy dress mai den whose taxi has broken down and escorts her home.
 The filtration of Timothy and Phil- iippina (Flip for short) turns out to be serious. But she is not so fine as he thinks, and she knows it. After while he knows 1t, too. Then comes the man out of the boy He tries to build In her the things he wants to see there Successive failures discourage him only temporarily and her charm always lures him on Through the events of an interesting narrative he keeps following the rain bows, only to find the clay under his feet.
 For Flip engages the affection of other men too. and is as unstable as water. She can neither love Timothy all the time, nor let him alone. But Timothy keeps his faith. When in the end we see him going off on an almost hopeless mission to prove that man Is worthy of trust. we wake up to the fact that 1t is the rainbows