BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3065, 28 April 1917, Page 13

BOOKS OF THE DAY

Bpoken .frenbhy ■ :'. ■'■■;■.'; '- .? ' I have to thank Mrs." Hclene Cross, of Christehurcb. for an advance copy of the second-'edition of her excellent little' guide -to-; French conversation, ' 'Spc&en"French.". The .first; a very, large edition, was' rapidly., exhausted, ; and the demand for copies being persistent and ever increasing, a second edition has now been published. Mrs. Cross; has .taken the opportunity of adding very.considorably.to the already • large vocabularies' given, in the. book; 'andf has paid special attention to military terms and to. colloquialisms not usually found in such works.. A care-fully-compiled index 1 should add to the' facility with which i the. lessons can be consulted. Tho author,, as I remarked •when writing-of the first edition of her book, has been singularly successful in , the way she has provided phonetic pronunciation of tho French words. Her [introductory-, hints -' oh '.-' pronunciation lafe specially- admirable. A copy of "Spoken French" should \ he in every soldier's '. kit; indeed,. I should very /much like to see the Defence Departjrnent making the book a part of tho regular equipment of tho men, as pro- ■ vided by the State. The money would be very well spent. 'Messrs.. Whitcombe and Tombs publish, the book. •"Ali tho Rumours.!' '■■ _ "All the Rumours" (Duckworth; and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs) .is a collection of humorous .rhymes and sketches, : dealing with the- various canards which have found circulation in England during the war. Mr. Reginald Arkell, who is responsible for the rhymes, has a happy knack of humorous versification; and the illustrations of Mr. Alfred' Leete are often quite riotously mirth-provoking. ' Under the heading "America Joins tho Allies" rim- the following- lines:'— In nineteen hundred and twenty-five, When there wasn't a German left alive, The President ordered his serving man To fetch him his ; —- fountain pen, And scribbled a.Noto: "We join the fray, For better or worse, as from to.-day. No longer will mommer raisß her boy,: To be a Little Lord Fauntleroy— ' !A dear little cha-p, too proud to scoot. In a big white collar and velvet suit. She will send her Phiueas forth to fight With a fountain pen which will really write. * . . As we all know, Mr. Wilson has not 'waited until 1920 to use his . famous fountain pen to some purpose, to such practical purpose, indeed, that we,all must hope that the end of the war will «be considerably expedited. The famous lines: Actual evidence I have none, , / But my aunts charwoman's sister's son Heard a policeman ,on his beat Say to a housemaid in Downing Street That he,had a brother who had a friend Who knew; when the war was going to end. ■'_/■ must be credited, I see, to Mr. Arkell, for they appear, presumably as original, in this book. (Price, Is. 6d.) "The Life Story of- Will Crooks." Mr. Haw r s<:"Life Story of iWiIH Crooks, M"pr.:*From Workhouse '■fe'Westminster";:.'(Cassell.and Co v per S. and '~WV Maokay), forms an interesting addition to,ah admirable little series of short biographies' of Englishmen 'who-are in the public eye: Mr. Haw gives us a very readable sketch, of a very Temarka-ble career.-Mr. Crooks ■is"widely recognised as an honest, exceptionally earnest, and well-meaning advocate, of the claims of labour, and this book is a. well-deserved tribute to oue whose early environment was such as would have prevented many a weaker man from rising to that position of public honour now occupied by the member for Woolwich. A brief preface is contributed by Mr. G. K. Chesterton, who writes in warm appreciation of Mr. Crooks's. many personal good qualiltes. His very faults, as some of bis critics seem to discern them, Mr. Chesterton hails as virtues, being specially insistent upon the value of that downrightness and that neverfailing command of a natilral humour . for which the member for .Woolwich has become famous: Mr. Chesterton says: "Will Crooks is to the ordinary London , omnibus conductor, or cabman exactly what Robert' Burns was to tho ordinary Puritanical'but passionate peasant, of the Scots Lowlands. -He is tho journeyman of genius." _ The New Ze&land price of the book is-Is. 6d.