IN FACT AND FICTION

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 120, 16 November 1929, Page 21

IN FACT AND FICTION

(By "Vedette.")

"Mainly Horse; • Stories far Animal Lovers." Edited by Ernest Rhys and C. A. Dawson-Seott. London and ISTew York: D. Appleton and Co., Ltd. ./The onward march of civilisation, or yather the advance of science, is rapidly relegating one of mankind-'s staunchest friends, the horse, to obscurity. The time is not far distant when ,a city child will pause agape at the sight of a horse. "Mainly Horses," a collection jf short stories, is the seventh of a series and while it's name is something of a. misnomer, for animals and insects, from the flea to the elephant, creep in, one1 of mankind's finest friends, the horse, plays the most prominent part. The ■ entertaining collection deals with birds and beasts, gorillas, crocodiles, and even wasps and fleas, but mainly with horses. "Booth Tarkington's story of the sick uncle whoso nephew insisted on consoling him with presents of unwanted domestic animals of doubtful . pedigree and obscure parentage abounds With quiet humour. The lover of a good horse will appreciate most "The Children of the Wind," by Charles G: D. Roberts.' It traces man's first conception of training .the horse JEor domestic purposes. The setting is remote,, but obviously at an age when any animal provided food for the" stalking human. An incident in a hunting' expedition when a leopard jumped on the back of a young horse and rode to safety germinated the idea in the mind of the star hunter of the tribe. A drive was arranged, and of the horses'trapped in a valley a mare in foal was .taken to a yard near the- village. Tho'mare proved intractable, but her filly foal, in time after 'patient, -handling, was accustomed to mankind's whims and submitted to being transformed into the mount of the human hunter. The. authenticity of the story* is not guaranteed, but it makes great reading for the horselover. The scene then changes rapidly to British India, tho elephant being the hero. A white bull who, to escape the thraldom of domestic service, goes back to the jungle with the human friend of his infant days, who shows him the way out of the trap. From Edison Marshall's story one learns the value of the white elephant in Eastern eyes as against the muddy coloured variety most Europeans become acquainted'with in the circus and fti© Zoo. William Beebe's "The Home Town of Army Ants",.may bo quoted as an epic of work and the complete and efficient organisation of an insect society, where obviously there are no labour leaders'or go-slow tactics. Refusal to work means short shrift for the objector. Mr.. Becbe tells a .very bright an interesting story gained at tho'expense of quite a few savage bites. Dannie Wolf, a German police dog, desipte the fact that her ancestors- had been civilised allegedly for a long time, reverts easily to tho wild, but not who had ill-treated .her, and aided the bofore she avenged herself on a human only real human friend she possessed. •Tho eternal triangle..enters into both "A Tartar Drama" (A. P. Corcoran) and "Los Sequidores" (R. B. Cunning-hame-Graham), but in both the horse is the thing, as in tho majority of the other stories of this entertaining book. W. Harrison Ainsworth in "The Ride to York" introduces Dick Turpin and his boriny mare, Black Bess, and tho betrayal of Gentleman Tom King by the faithless Susan. The story of. thefamous ride to York in which Turpin rode his mare and the Bow Street runners twenty in hopeless revives the parentally suppressed ideas of youth.' Turpin's care for his equine companion and his successful ride tempers tlio inevitable fate of that wonderful mare. Whether Black Bess was equal to carrying the highwayman from London to York and safety, and whether the feat was practicable, will not be asked by those who can appreciate a good story, well told. The stories flit from tiger hunts in India to realistic broncho-busting yarns of the great American Republic, stories of the. eagle- and the crow in the old countries, and of the stalking of alligators in outback Australia. The yolunie strikes a new note, for man is deposed, as chief personage .in favour of what used to be called his inferior fellow creatures. No attempt is made to emulate Aesop and make the lion or the mouse into a fable or turn the animals into types. ,