BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3100, 2 June 1917, Page 11

BOOKS OF THE DAY

Somino Battle Stories. So,' many "war books" havo reci-iilly come to hand thai:, with tho reduced space at my command, only Uio briefest; notices am possible, lu "Soninio .Bait to ltru l - 1 ! 08 J Hod<ler fl nd Stougbton, per Whitconibo and Tombs), Captain A. J. Dawson gives a. series of stirring .pictures, mostly founded on tlio personal narratives of hie comrades, of tho fierco fighting which took placo in tho first battle of the now lisloric. Snmnie. All through tho book ono comes across ovidencas of tho heroic gallantry, tho Blendlast patience, tho irrepressible- cheerfulness with which tho British soldier is fighting. In hie chaptor 0:1 "Tho Cockney Fighter" Captain .Dan-son pays special tribute to the men of the London regiments. Beferring to ono jnan, Private A., whose "rycy" narrative the author says it is impossible to reproduce, with verbal exactitude, so- Tjaftlinfc wero certain expressions in tho Cockney vernacular, ho says:—"Not for an hour, for many-weeks past, has ho been out of reach of shell-firo or away from tho maniacal din, the murderous fury of it ■all. Ho is now pretty barlly cut about, and has lost a lot of blood. But: ho hardly over opens his mouth without omitting a jest of somo kind; ho talks cheerily of getting back into the inferno, and very probably will bo, buck befoTo many weeks are over. As for Dolvilh , , which several officers havo told me wan tho most awful and bloody shambles of tho whplo terrific sories, ho simply says, that 'bar its untidiness so to spenlr, yer couldn't \n asked fer a nicer placo for a scrap/"

Of tho New Zealiinders only casual mention is made, tho author perhaps having accepted the all too common and .misleading conviction at tho front that ow men are "Australians."" To the Australians ho devotes a special chaptor from which I take tho following curious and almost incredible record of an exploit performed by two men from New South Wales:—

"You see that chap down there in the cot next to the ladder, sir. tho ono sneaking; to tho Sister now, that's him. He's an Australian, he is; comes from a. placo in KW Soujh Wales. His ba/t-' lalionwas in the thick of tho Poziores show, and they say I.e's to bo given ;t commission. I don't:' know. But I waa talking last night to a. chap in the ulntoon -vrho was him in the last ifehtinff there, r.nd he told mo thero was -one traverse that chap Rot into whero the Bochcs was too thick on tho ground as you midit say for him to work his bayonet. Thev reckoned they'd got him, of coiu-so: thev wern goln' to eat'him, they.was. They'd got his rifio out of his hands; such a jam he couldn't draw back for a thrust, you sop. And they'd somehow got him down when his mate camo round tho cornor of the traverse. Ho says thero wero soven of them Bodies. • 'TVell, what hie mnto saw ims ins tho seven Boches, like in a football scrum, swayin* to and fro. Ho <x>uldu't see .this chap at jvll. Ho was underneath, you see.- So this other chap ho just gives one yell, and starts in with his bayonet. That made a bit of ,i breakaway, as yo miplit say, an' after that tho fnn bejran. Tho chap who told me was a lifctlo bit of a fellow; couldn't ha , been lnore'n five feet five, another Australian, a lighWeight ho was. An' ho says the way his niato—tho biff chap in tho cot there—laid '.hem Boches out was tho sight of a lifetime. TTe just downed 'em with . his . hands, an' tho chap told mo that a lea. he Kot a Boche down, that Boche was done; ho didn't want any more Anyway, they took two of 'om prisoners, an J they couldn't take tho other five, because they was dead— dead as mutton. An.l the fellow told me :hat biff chap did it all with his two hands. He's cut abouj; a lot, you know, and they laid his head open for him, but ono man against seven, you know, and all of 'cm armed! It takes eonio doin'. The Sister tol' mo ho'd bo all right in a week. They're hot stuff, these Australians, once they get {roin*. Our lx>ys the same. They're real happy when they get to close, miarters, an' that's jtwfc what Mister Boche can't stand at no price." The hook is illustrated by the now fnmons Bairnefather. It is too Into in the day to praise the vigorous draughtsmanship, the dramatic force, and insistent humour which is to be fonnd in these admirable sketches.

A Famous Soldier-Artist. In "Bairnsfather, the Soldier who made tho Empire Laugh" (Hoiider and Stoughtoi!; per Whitcombe and Tonibs), Vivian Carter tells us all about that now famous soldier-artist, Captain Bruce Bairnsfather. The creator of the immortal "Fragments from France" is, it appears, tho son of Major Thomas Bairnsfather, of tho Cheslilres, who is now acting as District Eecruiting Office,?: at Stratford-on-Avon, where tho family has lived for soino years. Major Bairnsfather served for a time in India, whero his clever son, like Eudyard Kipling, was born. Also, like tho creator of Mulvanoy, Orthoris, and Learoyd, the unforgettable "Three Musketeers" of so many amusing yarns, young Bairnsfather was educated at the famous school at Westward Ho, whence Kipling took the background and characters of "Stalky and Co." tyr a whilo Bairnsfather, jnn., trained with tho Cheshircs, his father's old regiment, lirst at Tjichfield and then at Aldorshot. But he found tho Army in peaco time too dull, and entering the employ of (an engineering firm, roamed the country, doing a lot of sketching, producing amateur pantomimes, etc., in his leisure, and acquiring a, wonderful faculty for tho pictorial delineation of droll and eccontric characters. His engineering experiences even extended across tlio Atlantic. Finally came tho war, and tlio man who was "to make an Empire laugh" rejoined his old TGgiment, and was soon at the front, forthwith thero commenced a connection which still continues, and which all who havo enjoyed Captain Baimefatlter's delightfully comical sketches will pray may last inil.il the end of the war. Who does not know those inimitably funny pictures of his? His two characteristic Tommies, "01,1 Bill" ami "Out J3«rt," arc destined to become world-famous. "Old Bill" is Hio, old stager who lms been "through it" since tho beginning--"out since lions" as ho himself puts it— and "Our Bert" is the typicnl young Cockney of tho New Ani\v. At tho front Biiinisfather is just: sis popular as in tlio pages of the "Bystander." lie .knows Tommy's ways,' and Tommy recognises in his fiketches "the. real thing." Mr. Carter gives us a long and detailed appreciation of. tlio artistic and humorous sides ot' tho sketches, mill tho book contains a generous assortment of facsimile drawings by Mm famous soldier-artist.