PEN MAGIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 89, 16 April 1927, Page 21

PEN MAGIC.

THE BOOKS BOYS LIKE.

AJC TOraLEPEOTAOT STEVEXtOJVIAN

(Br MAKSAYAS)

•'Wlio lias noi ix-iird fcww*- Tyrian 51..-ns Bartow Die lijur, 1li«1 <Iye of dyes. Wlm-t<«kil otif drcijt works uiiracle* Ami coloured Hl.e A*iurles eve* B.iiw silk ili«' ttwecfcaat sells" - Rrcwuluc Very many, upon the belief that lite child intelligence might be pjmK snui f4rc.fil.al.ly exploited by moans of t-v..i r writing, have essayed that literary sleep only I<. f;n,. ]JV.e ,1 „.,,}; ~,„■] ,1,11. who aim would have ascended in search of the blissful Hippoercno. thai few indeed have laid -upon iboir thirsty lip*. Immediately child-stories air menItemed some <mp will break in wilh mention of ibe name of Lewi* Carrol. 31» never vi« a story •writer fit to entertain a pood robust hay. Such a lad is triad* of sterner sluff. and boat* tigers instead of rabbits, and all those gentle and inoffensive things ihat po so grotesquely over Carrol* pases, made immortal btr the witchery of the artist's drawing. True, many mothers arc earnest and mindful studem* of "Alice in Wonderland." and diligent in inculcating the reading of it.. also the book is extensively ouoted by ibose who seek to show, I.V ibe remembering of it. they have a. natural Kens*, of humour, if* no other sense, and have retained tlie youthful mind. Whoever bear* a boy mention tie book * Be takes hi* literary reluvat ions elsewhere. Xot so long ago. and quits recently enough to remember, 1 was a l.oy who felt all a boy'« bate and scorn of the inaa who presumed 1o talk down to him. I've been all through the "I> o you go to school»"" and "Do* you like 'going to school f" <of all fool questions that ia rarely the most foolish) and "What standard ar<? you in J* Aluo in In* xxmrngnr «>tayfl tbv immaf.ui* human ia *-.a!l«d «n to Im* *pokmi i« ajnd pcttird lila* the house tcrtiw. .ill this bßnotae* v<«iy odious to the thoughtful <hild. Ma-uV «-otra of lat<*r •»<'np<iannr are t.a.kcn. Inrt unfortunaticly toovt ajr foi-"-oti«n in Ih«i mad raw for money or f.le.aMirc. .lust teiapino *t.a»da:rdiwd id 1 31 i« ♦■ought to inHunaoc t.h<« young mind 5a favour of firbooL That* i« tmfKHwft&o, heetßUim mhwei i* a« iar frena bring a. natural imtjlUlioa— a* far. 2 hav« madljr arriUffl —a> a lunatir a>ylum. In early, ymare iho good God and th<> imqwuta* devil w-or« m wry real and that rv<-n now I find ray«elf heginning on<« with a canitai l<'lt*t* and UkP oth<-T with a small "d." Mat-h may l»p done (o malic or mar the child when*he i* at tlm triage wh«v be Iwlieve* tiat botb the All Uood and the All Bad have an eye <m him- That's the time to awaken tho imagination and lead him into a wido rvalm of adventure, with wild woods, wild men and trild animals in the foreground, background and even underground. Mo*t writ/er* for children are ton patronising and too didactic. We sbould have a good robust liiitraturc for the joung, and one does not knejw where tm turn in older to find it. It is not being written now. Pictui-cs arc taking tho place of sucb literature, and (bey aJT a poor substitute, as tie raoe will s.or« find out. I think children have boon toc» murh preached at: too much called upon to i»e good by threats and promiw.s, neither of which are kept. Childhood in the most, bloodthirsty time of a man's career, and the writer should give bun stuff that will take the edge off his appetite He can never hope to satisfy it. There is no intelligent child bora of Christian parents who is not old enough to be a pirate ia heart when be is out of petticoats. His creed is to convert Ihn ploughshares and jiruning hooks into swords at the earliest possible moment, for he realised before Kipling did. though in a dim and inexpressible way, that **lt*» only on the bones of the English that the English flag is stayed." You may eiill tne a **flag-waggei"' if you w ill. for 3 own Pd like to sleep under a Union Jack every night of my life, and also sleep under tbo old flag when I am dead. 3 like to see it blown out to the breeze, because 3 knowit is the little swashbucklers with ihcir cooked hats and tin swords bolted round them, playing at soldiers, that will kee,. it flying free for all time. Who taught, them to carry a gun? Fennimore Cooper did. He. and not Baden• Powell, was ibefalher of the Boy Scouts. There were one or two others notably Ballautyne, rafhcT didactic occasionally, and then the Peer3css Stevenson. He is amongst the immortals almost by accident, for his "Sea Cook,'" until r<-christened "Treasure Island." corning unto its own. was not received by ji.« »wn. It wa.s first discovered by juvenile humanity. No matter how man has since claimed the discovery, do not believe him. It was a boy. and no other, nho first recognised in John Silver the, incomparable bad boy. grown up, with nothing changed but his opportunities. It was not that a new planet had swum into his ken: there was a new heaven ind a new earth, for the former thing-* in literature had passed away and all things had been made new. 3 f any man saw the worth of that book he was not. man enough to say so, for ho was in ieadly fear he might be accused, of baving a mind capable only of assimilating child literature. * The renroach of the immalurc mind, tliat is rbat he feared; and seventy, perhaps itnety, per cent of the readers of tolay ar<t afraid to express an opinion otf 1 book until they baic read and memorsed the review notices. It is not sc» «-ith a Ik.v. On his own judgment, of »hi<h he is never ashamed, a book is bad >r good. I wish the noblest writers of he world would touch the fabric of heir ihenies with that priceless dye that colours the other-wise raw silk o1 their nerchandise " like Astarte's eyes." Stevenson appeals to the man in ibe 'hild, and the child in the man. Wo. javc a composite and not a dual personility, or we might get nearer it by s;n - mg we are the natural and the spiritual in one. 31c does not say ** lie pood and rou will bo happy,*' although, to m< n. Iks was a most inveterate preacher, lbdraws a character as bad as he can '«■. yet as he said of anovbri. "» lxitinie Techier." The character doe* not c>>• e lo a bad end. because had and ail :i' lie appeared he wa* a berojc character. He was bad in lite, and if he could return from the dead we know and loci ibut he would again take op tlie <-\ il lei.ol of his wav. Ho i* noi made to m»*t|ncra<le as a terrible example. Tlie youth knows all this, arid would welcome the return of his gJTat villain lo oppose Ins gleat bero, for stories that are of any won !i deal with the elemental . . . the eonfli< t. betweca good and evil, which is lr» t. • ufians near azi end; nor will it l»e ended n-jlh the <v>d of tlie world seeing l-heiv tre univer■:■<•* out a,nd beyond on? light*, he lights of which we cannot see. Who ha' a boiler nj:kl to li«<- agaci im Heralure than John Mlxi. -11.. name i k like a I*ll "1 '>> ■oa.t: of aanrdei »n.l imi; n< ' ,41. he Star ui H..|.e lh»1 .h-.i- 1'••• aiW'i onely \igj3 1" Jn- pint St asl.* \