THE PURPLE LAND.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 25, 29 July 1911, Page 13

THE PURPLE LAND.

Would you run away from all the talk and bustle of the Coronation and the conflict of tho problems of the hour— hie you away to a quiet place and read W\ H. Hudson's "The Purple Land" (Duck* worth, 2s 6d), and in a trice you will be transported across oceans to tho purple land of South America, and to the atmos« phere of the great cattle ranches and the lone lifo led by man, and especially by woman. Perhaps to read tho book in London provides an even greater contrast, for the life of the purple land is so extraordinarily different from that of this Great Wen (writes London Publio Opinion). Here are some glimpses of the people :— "I noticed numberless fireflies flitting about. Prcsontly one- of the children, a bright little fellow of seven or eight, came tunning to tvs with one of the sparkling insects in his hand and cried! 'Look, tatita, I have caught a linterna. j See how bright it is. 1 ! "Another little fellow, skilled in eong atid with the guitar, had 'soft dark eye« and olivp face, and that tender, halfmelancholy expression often t seen in chil» dren of Spanish origin, which is always so Btrikihgly captivating! " And here is a lily of the pampas, whose story is one of the romances of this book:— "That young girl Was a picture for e»ne to gaao long upon nnd carry about in his memory for a lifetime. , . , She was, 1 fancy, about fourteen years old, slender and graceful in figure, and with a marvollou^y eWr white skin, on which this bright Oriental sun had not painted ono frockln. Her ffahuvs ware, I Jhink, fho most perfect I have over seen in nuy human being^." Mr. Hudson ntlmits iho "infinite pain silently endured by many hearts in tho Purple Land." But ho is inclined to believo wo "civilised" people aro seeking happmess i the wrong way.' "O ' civilisation, with its' million conventions," ho 'cries, "aro you o. mistake dtogether?