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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS.
SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1907.
KEEP YOUR
ON ROCHELLE, GA.
ARTHUR PENDENNIS, JR:, PRESENTS FOUR ENTERTAINING BOOKS
‘THE TURN OF THE BALANCE.'
By Hon. Brand Whitlock. Mayor of
Toledo, Ohio. (Bobba-Merrlll Com.
pany.)
It la not very often that a book la
publlahed the.* days which not only
Jiold* the Intdteat In the readlnr, but
days and weeka after a perueal of the
book the mind of the reader la etlll Im-
preised’ with and recura to the Incl
denta, altuatlona and cbaractera por
trayed. "The Turn of the Balance" le
aucb a book, and while, aa one reviewer
wrote. It "la full of aorrowa and
. wrong*,” It la well to remember that
moat great booka of thla and of other
daya have their baate on Juat auch
comcr-atonea. ‘‘The Turn of the Bal
ance” la a story, strong. Impressive and
' Thought-compelling, baaed upon crlml
no1 life. In and out of prison. Whether
tha author has been unjust In selecting
tho “exception and not the rule," In
describing the cbaractera In the differ
ent phases of life, aa Judge Andrew J.
Cobb, of the supreme court of Georgia
puts It, la a question that will have to
be left to the reader to determine by
this reviewer at least. Judge Cobb also
says that the book “presents a vivid
picture of the worse side of Ufe, social,
business, professional and official. That
there are such characters In the differ
ent phases of life therein described can
not admit of question, but they aro
'the exception and not the rule. The
vice of the book consists In the fact
that the author deals with the excep
tional In such a way as to crests the
Impression that the general nils has
twen followed. There Is a character
drawn from nearly every relation of life
—private and public—and they are so
dealt with In the plot of the story as to
create the Impression that any person,
no matter where he may be found, la
animated by no other motive than one
which Is unworthy.”
Judge William T. Newman, of the
United States court, Atlanta, Is not
quite so harsh In his criticism of the
book nor of the author’s motives, for ho
says ‘The Turn of the Balance’ Is an
unusually strong book and well writ
ten. While Mr. Whitlock's Instances
of Judicial^ administration are not such
as I have' observed, perhaps they, ns
well ns the Instances of prison admin
istration, aid him to point the moral of
the book, which evidently Is, that there
should be more of the Golden Rule In
the administration of tlib criminal law.”
Georgians alt over the state, and espe
cially Atlantans, would expect Just
such an admirable criticism and appli
cation of the truth as he sees It, from
Judge Newman.
Warden William H. Moyer, of the
United Stales prison, Atlanta, takes A
decided fling at Mr. Whitlock In his
letter of criticism. He says: "Perhaps
the feature of the novel which made the
greatest Impression upon mo was the
spirit of condemnation shown by tho
writer for every Judicial and peace of
ficer. • • • The spirit evidenced by
the writer, together with his knowledge
of the habits and methods of crooks
and criminals, can not help but Impress
the reader with the feeling that he Is
possessed of more than general Infor
mation. The reader wonders where he
obtained his Information and expe
ilence."
There Is no doubt that In writing of
prison Ilfs Mr. Whitlock, as it appears
to the uninitiated, seems to speak with
authority, but It doesn’t appear exactly
fair to Imply’as Mr. Moyer may, that
the author might hava been In prison
htmself.
Captain J. M. Nye, superintendent of
the bureau of Identlllcatlon at the Fed.
eral prison, Atlanta, In speaking of the
book to the writer of this review, ridi
cule that part of Mr. Whitlock's book
which dealt with the Bertlllon system
WE LEAD
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of measurements. Captain Nye said
that the author’s statement that It was
necessary to re-meaaure a criminal
within a year’s time, on account of the
criminal having become thin, “was all
bosh." and, to use his own words aa
recalled, "that he would be willing to
post $500 that he could make Mr. Whit-
flick and hie argumenta look like 30
cents. wlth-a-hole-ln-lt, In Juat ten
mlnutei.”
The above opinions should be of In
terest to readers of this review, be
cause of the high positions, personal
and official, held by those quoted. It Is
no doubt true, as Judgo Cobb sold, that
Mr. Whitlock selected the exception
and not the rule In delineating the
cbaractera, but It Is Well to remember
that all great stories are baaed gener
ally on the exception. The great Read
novels, ‘‘Hard Cash” and ‘‘Never Too
Late to Mend," which .revolutionised
respectively the Inhuman practices ot
Insane asylums and the prisons of Eng
land. about 1851, were no doubt based
on special pleading, but In those esses
Mr. Charles Head, when called upon,
did show by actual exhibits living per
sons who had been the martyrs of the
very systems portrayed. Possibly If
called upnn, Mr. Whitlock could pro
duce his human exhibits.
Tho plot of “The Turn of tho Bal
ance" concerns two families and their
friends: one In the highest social llfo of
Toledo, the other of the poorer, Strug,
gllng masses. The book practically
opena at the time of an accident to the
father ot one of the principal charac
ters, who loses hit leg In crossing tho
tracks of the railroad by which he la
employed. The young son of the old
German railway employee has returned
from the Philippine Islands, having fin
ished his enlistment In the army. The
young lawyer who takes up the suit for
damages Is tho unavowed lover of tho
daughter ef the high society family, In
which Is employed aa a maid a daugh
ter of the old crippled German. The
son of the old German drifts Into bad
company and from one crime or sus
picion of crime to another. Tho young
lawyer Is always hie only help In time
ot trouble. Gordon Marriott, the young
lawyer, tloee not Impreee the reader ae
being an attorney to whom he should or
would apply In time of need, for the
book le full ot the failures of poor Gor
don, but he evidently does hie best,
with very little hope of reward beyond
the commendation of Elisabeth Ward,
the rich man’s daughter. Elisabeth has
a brother, who ought to have been
taken out In a quiet, lonely spot and
knocked In the head with an ax. In the
hands of a strong manipulator.
Very often, too, the reader thinks the
aforesaid ax might have been used on
Marriott at least to trim him up a
bit. Arthur Koerner, the eon of the
old German. Is sent for one year to the
Mato prison, far theft of a revolver.
Mr. Whitlock exposes, or at least he
states plainly the alleged cruelty to
convicts, practiced In prlaon. The "wa.
ter cure,” the thumb screws and pad
dle, make the reader's blood boll many
tlmei. After a year In prison Arthur
Is released, comes back to Toledo, Is
locked up by the detectives on suspi
cion the very day ha arrives, simply,
aa the author states, for being on the
street*. The Judge discharges Arthur,
but gives him a few hours In which to
leave town. Meeting one of hit old
friends, Arthur doesn’t leave town for
n few days, during which period a
horrible murder le committed on the
outskirts of Toledo. The eagle-eyed
detectives put the crime on Arthur At
once, when he le entirely Innocent, aa
shown by Mr. Whitlock. He is pursued,
gett partly away, Is surrounded and
kills a detective before being disarmed.
He la tried and convicted, of course,
and while tried for the murder of the
detective, the district attorney. In de
vious ways, continually brings In the
murder on the outskirts of the city,
thereby prejudicing the Jury—result a
first degree murder verdict. The latter
part of the book le taken up In Gor
don Marriott's unsuccessful attempts
through the supreme court and appeal
to the governor to save Arthur's life;
the appeal of the railroads of the old
German's suit, which the latter won In
a lower court and lost In the supreme
court: of the young daughter of the
old German, whose life had been ruined
by the degenerate Dick Ward; Gordon
Marriott's long delayed avowal of love
for Elisabeth; the electrocution of Ar
thur Koerner and old Koerner’s slaugh
ter of his remaining family and suicide
of himself.
of course, the story Is sad—no great
work of this character could be other
wise. The book certainly makes the
reader think and wonder con such pages Is a possible desire to work In a
things be, and from the opinions given, certain number of thousand words.
by the learned gentlemen mentioned
In the beginning of thla review, auch
things do happen. What Is the reme
dy? This is a question which seems
beyond the publicists and legal lights
of today. If even only Just such cases
as Mr. Whitlock undoubtedly knows
have happened are true. A criminal
sent to prison Is surely not entitled to
an electric bell, with Incidental bell
boy and ice water, etlll one must ad
mit that a criminal Is a human being
and entitled to humane treatmenL If
Mr. Whitlock has made only one point
Impressive tn hie strong book, namely,
that the struggles for work and help
by a convict released from prlaon (the
fact of his once having been In prison
being the bane of bis tree life), the
book Is worthy of perusal. It Is affirmed
that a released, convict has a fair
chance. If he wishes one. But does he?
Is there any employer of labor, lay, ot
bookkeepers and accountants. In Atlan
ta who would retain In hie employ a
man of whom he had Just learned that
he had been tn the state prison? How
many of your business friends would
give .a helping hind, that la to say,
employment—not alma—to a released
convict here In Atlanta? Can you not
count such men on one finger?
This reviewer hat not had for many
a day a book sent to this department
which has caused more thought, painful
aa It Is at times, than "The Turn of the
Balance.”
“CAN 8UCH THING3 BE?” by Am
broie Bierce. (Neale Publishing Com
pany.) One ot the most thoroughly
entertaining and thought-compelling
collection of short stories la that vol
umo Issued by the Neale Publishing
Company, Washington, D. C, and de
lightfully written by Mr. Ambrose
Bierce. It may be rather a strong thing
to say, and worse to put it tn print,
but this reviewer believe* that Mr.
Bierce la one of the beet. It not the
very be»L short atory writer* using the
English language today. It I* to be
hoped that the statement that Mr.
Bierce's stories remind one strongly ot
that master spirit, author of "The
House of Usher,” In his weird dellnea
tions, will not be considered a literary
heresy. There le really nothing like
Mr. Blerce'e handling of words, phrase*
and thought^ published today.
Mr. Bierce tells a clean-cut, direct,
strongly balanced atory, pointedly log
leal and more than candid, and the
beauty of his work Is, when Mr. Bierce
Is done, he quite. The terminal facili
ties of the average and above-the-aver-
age short and long story writer Is un
deniably poor. Many books of this
day should be cut off right In the mid
dle of the volume, and the only excuse
the reader tees for a continuance ot Its
Some of the stories In Mr. Bierce’s
collection "Can Such Things Be?” are
delightful—all are good. Mr. Bierce
has a series devoted to ''Mysterious
Disappearances”—wonderful possibili
ties there!—and tha author handles the
latter with tho pen ot a genius. In one
of the stories of mysterious disappear
ances Mr. Bierce tells of an old farm'
er. happy In Ills homo and work, who
walks across a field In front of his
house one bright day, and In sight of
his family he disappears forever. Just
such a basis for a story to a casual
reader of this review no doubt seems
•light plot for a short story, but one
must see how Mr. Bierce handles a
scheme such aa suggested to appre
ciate hie rare literary qualities. Most
people are Interested In the newspaper
accounts of myaterlpus disappearances,
and It is the opinion of this reviewer
One httodred and ninety Vehicle*, con-
•tsttng of Bcggles, Snrreys and Rnaabouts.
Can fnrnlah any of the above In eteel ot
rubber tire*. Also a large line of Deliv
ery end firm Wagons end name**.
Special prices for tho next ten days oaly.
Remember, our motto I* quick ealca snd
■mail profits.
Wo eta save you money on Vehicle*.
that the present talo of a certain pop
ular novel Is baaed largely upon the
very catchy name of "The Port of
Missing Men.” whereas “missing men”
has nothing whatever to do with the
plot ot the novel In question. It the
novel was not Interesting In other
ways, the reader might have Just causo
against the author for obtaining the
price of the book under false pro<
tenses.
Mr. Bierce has been a soldier—a real
soldier—and many of the stories In
“Can Buch Things Be?” are laid around
those thrilling time* of the Civil war.
All together, the book le a gem, and
a better collection of entertaining sto
ries has not been written In many
years,
"HOW DOTH THE SIMPLE
8PELLING BEE.” By Owen Wlster.
(Macmillan & Co.).
Mr. Owen Wlster hoe written a little
skit, making hllarloue fun of the pro
posed reformed spelling of President
Roosevelt's three-hundred-words, and
evidently of the Laird of Sklbo. This
little aklt was originally published In
the Saturday Evening Poet, but Is now
lesued lu an attractive book form by
Macmillan & Co.
Mr. Wlster evidently believes that
the cardinal virtue (?), most sought
after by present-day philanthropists. Is
publicity.
Masticator B. Fellows, head of a big
trust, has established an university at
‘‘Arkaneopoils.'' with capacity for two
million students. Students are not com
ing In as they should to the university,
neither le the product of Fellows' trust
selling as It Is desired. So Fellows
decides to hold a convention at hla ex
pense, td reform the English language
by college professors.
The little tale -la laid around the
gathering of these learned men of many
minds and opinions as to the desired
result.
Mr. Wlster evidently has made
composite picture of the benefactor of
tho University of Chicago, and the
Laird of Bklbo. The Illustrations of
the book lean strongly to the former
person, with the bald head, skull cap
and sanctimonious meanner of speech.
The book la light reading; good for
a short pleasant halt-hour, but the
reader will sincerely regret that the
author ot that delightful novel "Lady
Baltimore,” and even "The Virginian.”
let himself down, or shall It be said
ralaed himself not one bit, by sending
forth “How Doth the Simple Spelling
Bee.” When an author can write a
gem like “Lady Baltimore," his read
ing public necessarily holds him up
to a very high standard, and It Is not
pleasing to find him leaving hla pedes
tal at any time.
years ago knew Charlie and, while his
stories are not quoted In this little
book, a good many of them certainly
have Charlie’s he.!! mark on them.
Charlie Abbott Is the son of Colonel
B. F. Abbott, of Atlanta, and hi* old
friends here remember with more than
pleasure many times when Charlie
would “get wound-up” and keep a
crowd In continual laughter, from sup
per time until Clarence, the door
keeper at the club, served notice that
the club was about to be closed.
The stories are very funny and told
for Just “what they are—the diary of
a drummer. There are many, many old
friends of Charlie Abbott here In At
lanta who will want this book to learn
of his present success In Boston, and
that Charlie-is thought to be In that
city as he undoubtedly wa* here—“the
original human ace.”
Farmers’ Supply Co.,
40*42 W. Alabama St.
Atlanta* Ga.
CINDERS, The Diary of a Drummer.
By Wright Bauer. (G. W. Dillingham
Co.)
The author of “Cinders,” the Diary
of a Drummer, state* that he made a
wager with Charlie Abbott (good old
Charlie, who ueed to live In Atlanta)
that he could and would remember all
the Joke*, "gage” and etortes thrown
at him, on hla next trip out on the
road. To win this bet, and a* an evi
dence of good faith, we have “Cinders.”
The book, with all together too few
pages, le filled with clean Jokes and
stories, which Hr- Bauer says were
worked off on him on a trip between
Boston. Baltimore. Chicago and Buf
falo. The fact that a few of the stories
have appeared In different exchanges
does not detract from th» retelling, for
most ot thorn are new.
The chief Interest for Atlantans
of the little volume wilt naturally be
the appearance therein ot Charlie Ab •
botL Everybody In Atlanta of a few
GIRLS! SOMETHING NEW GIRLS!
A Decided Novelty.
A Pleasing and Acceptable
Present, Hi "
by the Litl
Present, Highly Appreciated
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