LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 240, 7 October 1916, Page 14

LITERARY.

"Tish," Mary Roberts Rinehart's best known character, promises to make almost as many more friends when she appears in book form as she has done through her career-in the magazines. .

"The Great Push," by Patrick Mac Gill, is the story of the famous charge at Looa, when the-boys of the Royal Irish dribbled a football across the shell-torn field to the German trenches, and Patrick MiacGill, the young Irish author, charged with them. Mrs. Langtry's last day in London before she sailed for New York was spent it obtaining twelve copies of the famous "Lusitania" recruiting poster, which she intended to give to friends in America. Lady de Bathe, who is starting on a big American tour in California, is writing twenty articles for the "Cosmopolitan" magazine, for which, she is to Teceive £200 each. This is nearly Mr. Winston Churchill's price. Sir Charles Tapper's "Life and Letters" appears among the autumn announeemente, and it should add to their interest that they are "largely autobiographical." He was a man of method, and he kept a journal from which it has been possible to extract a whole wealth of material. Generally the narrative will make a picture of the rise of Canada, a thing which happened within the span of Sir Charles Tapper's long life. "What are Scott's six best noveleT" asks a writer-in-the "Scotsman," and he proceeds to give the answer thus:— "Well, it is a little invidious to make a selection, and one does so with diffidence, but if we were asked to set down our own favourites in their order we should be inclined to vote thus: (1) 'Old Mortality,' (2) 'Ivanhoe/. (3) The Heart of Midlothian,' (4) The Antiquary,' (5) "Rob Roy,' (6) f ßedganntlet.' Such a selection, however, is largely a matter of taste." A histoTy of the National Anttiem •has been drawn up by the London County Council. Dr. Boas,- the divisional inspector, shows that, in the strict sense, there is no "original" version of the words. The National Anthem has grown like a folk-ballad, and phrases from Orders to the Fleet, from prayers in the theatre, and from Anglican and Koman Catholic services have been incorporated in it. If any version of the first line has a prescriptive right, it is not "God save our gracious King," but "God save great George, our King." Mr. H. de Vere Stacpoole's story of adventure, "The Gold Trail," introduces us to a picturesque vagabond loafing about the beaches at Sydney trying to find some one with money who will believe his story of a wrecked and burned ship on the coast of Borneo, and with the treasure that she carried now safely buried in the woods. At last a capitalist is found, and so the expedition starts with a nondescript crew that includes two young gentlemen that are down on their luck and therefore ripe . for anything that offers them a gambler's chance of fortune. The story is thoroughly well told. »— w»« <g , , In a letter, Dr. Thomas Gufhrie, the Scotch philanthropist, gives an interesting description of the sage of Chelae* as he appeared in 1556. "I did not wish to disturb Mr. Carlyle," he writes,' he came, and an uncommon-looking- man 'he is; an eagle-like look in his great glaring eyes, ihair half grey, and a strong Dumfries-shire tongue. He was in a robe de chanrbre most kind and courteous. I got him upon the neglect of the uneducated and the lapsed eJasses; he and I were quite at one. He uttered a number of great thoughts in magnificent language; lightened and thundered away in eublime style—at the heads of Governors, ladies, and gentle men, and this selfish world; and he looked at mc very much—as he swung hie arm, clenched his fist, and glared round him with his black beard.and shining eyes and grizriy hair —like an incarnation of Thor, or Woden, or some other Scandinavian divinity." .Edith Sellers has some very trenchant criticisms to paea upon "The Education of Working-Claes Girls" in the "Nineteenth Century." She saye: "The average latter-day working-class Englishwoman is undoubtedly lee painstaking, thrifty, and fending than the average working-class Frenchwoman, Danish, Norwegian, or Swiss. She does not pinch and save as they do, does not work so hard, plan and contrive so clever!/. She attaches lese importance than Frenchwomen, Danish, or Austrian, ta making her home comfortable, and keep ing herself neat; much less .importance than they do to providing for her husband and children, a well-cook«d, nutritive dinner every day. And that it should be thus is a foregone conclusion. For these other women were, while at school, fitted for their <work in life." From the racial point of view, eay B Miss Sellers, "it is a real misfortune for England that co many of her women do not know their business, have never been %. ught how to do it."

The stream of vivid war sketches continues to flow out from the London press, and Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton liave been particularly successful in capturing writers who have not only " been there," but know how to tell their experiences in stirring phrase. A uniform price of a shilling will bring these books within the reach of soldiers in trench and hospital. Four volumes of this serie3, which have just reached us, comprise "The Padre," by a "Temporary Chaplain," who posseaees the saving grace of humour, a quality often lacking among members of his cloth. He describes the motives which inspired his application for employment in the military service, and what he saw and did in the recruiting camps, where, by the way, he found the V.M.C.A. huts everywhere, and most serviceable. His etory of life at the front is told with a good deal of sympathetic feeling for the men who have to take their places in the firing line for the .first time. "The Vigil, and Other Stndiee in Khaki," by Dell Leigh, is the title of a series of sketches written within the sound of the guns. They are good racy yarns which shew that there iea comic as well as a tragic side to the life of a soldier. "Somewhere," by Sapper Robert Hall, is the story of a London telegraph operator who volunteered for the Signals Section, Royal Engineers, when the war broke out. The author vouches for the truth, of his narratives, except where the authority' of a second person is acknowledged. They depict certain aspects of camp life whwsh. are decidedly entertaining. Dealing with another branch of the service, the publishers present a numh of Naval yarns by "Ward-room," under the appropriate title of "H.M.S.". These shew Jack aboard and ashore as a decidedly happy-go-lucky creature, who is "all there" wtum wanted fer. t«i£oua buamftv