NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 49, 26 August 1911, Page 13

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

"AUSTRALIA'S PffiST PATRIOT," "The Rioty of William C. Wentworth." By Lewis Deer nnd John Ban*. Sydney : Angus and Robertson, Ltd. For too mafly years too many boys and girls of Australia have been en> couraged irt the belief that patriotism began with, cay, Alfred the Dane-hun-ter, and ha-s continued to be fc national vimie common chiefly to Britishers and the- Bona of the elder settled nations. So far «a the ndniihistratora of education in Australia Are concerned, Aus-st-rali,Vs best patriots were personalities not worthy of extended mention, the assumption being apparently that AitstTftlia. tva-8 milch, too young to have either any real history or any notable patriots. There was a. tendency to catalogue them— for they have existed— as pioneers, admittedly British enough to blaze tracks through forests a-nd mountain gorges, ford rivers, epan deeertSj and, in g&wral, do all that selfrespecting pioneers should do to open up virgin country. But, even as Canada had her Alexander Hamilton, so Australia—and New South Wales in particular'—has had. her William Chatles Wentwotth, and in a concise and sympatlwtk biography, Lewis Deer and John Barr h&vo collaborated to demonstrate once moro beyond all manner of doubt that Wontworth is a patriot that all colonial young minds shonld etudy for their future good. The authors have dedicated the littl* volume to the " boys and girls of Australia," and we believe tha.^ the same boys and girls will appreciate it. The occasion found tne man when Australia, still cutting her wisdom teeth, found Wentworth, or h& Australia, for surely the authors have not extravagantly said when they describe him as " Australia's ftffit nativeboru patriot, statesman, explorer, orator, author, and .devoted friend of his nativ© land "—-all theee, no less. In simple yet eloquent language, the language to ibe easily understood of the scholars ia knickerbockers and short dresses, tlie authors have told of the splendid Australian who could declare honourably, "I cfth truly say the love of my country has been the master pas- | sioii of my life." It is a moving story of a memorable man, and the little book deserves a pla^e in every school in. the colonies, for it is eminently suited as an historical or an extra reader. The authors have opened up a rich, lode which, in, the hande of the right men, should yield large dividends to young Australian^, of _ a history that would frurelyj one believes, precede a, large* and warmer patriotism. A SOUTH AFRICAN STORY. "The Claw." By Cynthia Stocktey, author of •' Poppy " and " Virginia of the Rhodesia.ns." (Melville and Mullen Proprietary, Melbourne). It is not often that a write* eectifes such, matked success as did Miss Stockley with a first book, or follow it up so quickly wrfch. another. Writing' now with a> surer pen, she feels impelled to prefix a " foreword " of protest which shows that she has paid the penalty exacted from all authors whose work keeps closer to human life than to, time« honoured conventions— the accusation that their types are ungenerous portraits of individuals, fiappily for her and other authors in lika case their accusers do not agre# es to the actual personalities supposed to be so unkindly treated. In the author* eas«, she has had "ft perfect storm of letters" from people who insist on recognising them' eelves and are determined that she shall know that persons (supposed to have been) used as material l'eady to hand are riot ignorant of the parpofie to which they have been applied. Real compliment though this may be as to her powers, th« author is hurt. She says: "EveTy true lover of his art withers under the accusation and finds it unbearable. . . , Accuse him ■of laying bar© the failings of hi& friends a,nd mocking the griefs of his enemies and you outrage him indeed, not only by implying baseness, but by denying him the Dossession of imagination and skill in his trade i you wound him in hie tendeTest parl-~pride of craft." "The Claw v is significant of the hooke of steel with which Kipling's *' Woman wonderful, neither simple, kind nor true," South Africa, iio'wit, by her " pagan beauty " draws " Christian gentlemeft a few hotly to attend her." A powerful book, instinct with life and movement, ably< conceived arid firmly constructed, A Story of the war time, so vividly realised that to read It seems almost At times to be on the spot. There i# scenery, climate. And atmosphere; there is character, in which, as only in such environment, the primitive instincts have " room and verge enough " to work tragedy. The author's style is pungent, her vision penetrating, her characterisation, of both sexes> while recognising their sterling qualities, ate Unmerciful in depicting petty spites and treacheries. Powerful though squalid is the picture of the idle and fashionable ladies cramped in "laager" with no occupation week after week consumed with little jealousies; vivid in its realism and its power is the chapter of the young single woman's long and adventurous trek to Mashonaland in a wail-cart drawn by mules, with no company save ths unpleasant native driver." It would be absurd to endeavour to outline the plot or in any way seek to forestall the pleasure^ which the lover of good fiction is not likely to miss — the reading, and perhaps re-reading of this striking novel. The Art Journal (Virtue), "the oldest publication in the world," for July has an article by Mt\ IT. Lcnygon oil the "Chinese taste" in English decoration, which had a vogue in the eighteenth, century comparable to that of the pseu do- Japanese in the latter decades of the nineteenth, with characteristic illustrations, notably a splendid mantelpiece in carved wood, the property of the King, photographed in coloursi "Interiors of English Mansions," "Tapestry Weaving in England," "The liichard Bennett Collection of Chinese Porcelain," "Silver Candlesticks of the Seventeenth , Century," "The Morant Collection" (of brocades, velvets, damasks, fringes, and galloon braids, an- ' cient and modem), and "English Art Collectors." are among the other articles -—all, it is needless to say, fully illustrated, several of th© plates exhibiting the best class of cblour-process woTk. Cricketers in particular and sports* men generally will turn to Mr. P. R. Le Couteur's article in the August Windsor Magazine (Ward and Lock) on "The Psychology of pricket." It is as philosophical as it is interesting, and applies more or lees to any pursuits E>l'sorbrhg for the time' being, and requir* ing intense concentration. Suggested apparently by the invariable query to players who have made a great ecote '. "What did you feel like when you were walking to the pavilion and all thft ' people were clapping you?" Th© article says that there is nc answer. The preoccupation of faculties on the game, however (active sub*unconF<ciousn9&s might be, practically suspended all conscious thought or sensation of exultation or otherwise, and no memories remain to be repeated. Mr. Austin Chester furnishes his usual art article, with (.olonwd plate after a painting by ParjJDii.*; Mr, Bensusiin discoursed on "Thr Call of th? Highlands"' • there is liie I'tif-'tornai.v duster of Fhort stones of which the supply seems inexhaustible j "Lord Maixh-Kara" ia frankly, .au ej^

travangan&t, and Mt. Barr's "Lord Stanleigh," as philanthropist, s«eme to have lost some of his earlier vigour — the role of a Monte Cristo is not easy to eiißtain. A bouquet of varied verse, the usual admirable illustrations, nnd miscellanies make up the contents. Nash'a Magazine for July had aft article by E. V. Luca* on ''Dipappearing London," with charming pencil flketehes by P. Noel lioS«r of an old graveyard at Smithfield, with fifteenthcentury houses^ a Thames frontage «t Limehouso as it etood in Elizabeth's day, NeyiU'e Court, which escaped the Great Fire, and many other mice of Old London aa Shakespeare knew it. Between natural decay and the eweep of improvements these ate daily vanishing, and Mr. BoXer'a drawings are no less valuable as records than picturesquo. ' This magazine carrieß ite leading feature, CliambeTs'a "Tho Commoft Law," with Dana Gibson's pictures, a stage further, and, He illustrator of a short, story by_ Sydney Landye, "Mac the Mighty." introduces a Hew black-and-white artist, F. Gregory Brown, whose bold and original touch should soon secure him a prominent place in a profession where force and sincerity count for more than conventional prettine«*. Arthur B. Reeve has the third of his "Scientific Detective" stories, the best of the series so far. Most fictiohiets who dabble in scientific themes coon get beyond their depths, but "Professor Craij? Kennedy," an up-to-date Sherlock Holm«>, practical chemist aud electrician., is "convincing," inasmuch as Mr. Reeves science is such as will "sta.nd Peking-.' There are good pictures— notably m Donald M'Leieh's sensational Alpine work with a camera— and some good versd. ,^ W \ h 17 c »oetori *• July Onlooker (16 Bedford -street, Strand, W.C.)— * "Coronation souvenir number." On the present occasion this handy illustrated sixpenny weekly, ttf>w in ite twelfth, y««.r, has excelled itself, ther© was ft new feature in this Coronation solemnity, of special interest to the King's Dominions beyond the seas, and of thia fact th« Onlooker has taksn advantage. As tho editor pute it: "For tho first time in our history the standards of the Empiro have befefl boms in Westminster Abbey" fl« part and parcel of the great pageant, "They were borne only in His Majesty's procession from the annexe up the nave., and were, at the entrance to the choir, dKJhvered during the awviea to the Barons of the Cinque Porte." TheF* standards thereupon became the property of the Crown, henceforth to be hung in the hall of the Iving-Emperor. - In the decade since the last Coronation., th& Five Standards had become Eleven, the latest that of Kew Zealand of the Very existence of whkh we feel assured, only a handful of the million odd of our population ate aware. f In one of the quarter* iflga of the splendid flag is visible among the folds, bla2Med on, a white silken field a conventionalised antique singlebanked gully— a somewhat ill-omened device for' » free country, the occult symbolism of which, (seems to (require explanation. The adoption of a national standard hae apparently been, arranged as quietly as the promulgation of a new pattern of postage-stamp. When it i* too late for suggestions or amendment children m«.v be favoured in the "School Journal" With a description and inter* pret&tion). Very little notice seems' to have been takeft of this striking feature in v th« cwemony save by The Times, which pointed out thftt thTough their anci&nt forms the great Dominions of the Crown can, join us not only in. the symbolical pageant of the Coronation, but in the processional march of agee. But, recognising the unique significance of this display, 1 the enterprising onlooker, overcoming many technical difficulties and red-tape formalities, secured photo* graphs of all the eleven, standards, borne by the distinguished stattdard^bearers, specially taken during the sole brief period that these gentlemen irt robes of office, had these precious silks in their keeping. Eft<h is the_ subject of a fullpage plate, in art tints. Lord ICbrthcote bears Australia's standard, and Lord Plnnket that of Xew Zealand, the respective pages being the Hon. C. A. tl Rice and the Hon. Terence C. Hunket. This, while the outstanding feature of the number, is one only of its attractive qualities.