ABOUT BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Evening Star, Issue 10341, 15 June 1897, Page 1

ABOUT BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

[By Our London Correspondent.] London, April 23. There was a time when one anticipated with absolute certainty the coming of George Gisaing to the literary forefront. Just as the irrational reading public neglected George Meredith for the best part of twenty years and then woke up suddenly to find him a genius, so I fancied a Gladstonian post card or some such freak of fortune would one day open people’s eyes to Giesing’s merits. Not that our reviewers have overlooked him. As long ago as 1886, when • Demos ’ was published anonymously, Mr Lang, Mr James Payn, and others proclaimed the advent of a writer of unusual powers. But neither ‘ Demos ’ nor ‘ Thyrza’ nor ‘The Nether World’ caught on with the public. The last-named contains some masterly pictures of working folks’ lives, notably an unequalled description of Bank Holiday at the Crystal Palace, to which I have often referred. But somehow Mudie’s patrons wouldn’t have Mr Gissing. His sketches of the seamy side of literary existence in ‘ New Grub Street ’ attracted a good deal of attention ; and still the book wouldn’t sell. I am now beginning to fear this novelist’s day will never dawn. His last books, ‘ln the Year of Jubilee’ and ‘jEve’s Ransom,’ showed- symptoms of deterioration; and ‘ The Whirlpool’—supposed to be a study of Stock Exchange, and just published—is long, dull, and over-full of characters and detail. The Kathleen Watson whose dismal and morbid but potent little volume ‘ Litanies of Life’ has excited the admiration of “Tay Pay” O’Connor and H. G. Wells is not the wife of Mr Marriott-Watson, the New Zealand novelist. Her name is Rosamund. This Kathleen Watson I have never heard of before, though we shall all, most probably, know more of her presently. ‘ Litanies of Life ’ certainly cannot be called exhilarating. “Fancy,” says “Tay Pay," in his introduction to five columns of extracts in the ‘Sun,’ “a woman with a powerful and perhaps somewhat morbid imagination, with a tendency to brood over all that is sad in the human lot, and, finally, with the power to concentrate a whole panorama of suffering into a phrase—fancy a woman so gifted sitting down with the resolve to crush into a few words the infinite tale of all the whole race of her sex, can suffer and you have on idea of what this remarkable book is like.” In other words, each short story is a picture of a women in a typical position of sorrow or suffering. We have an exhaustive analysis of the miseries of unloved spinsterhood told by an old maid dying in an attic. The description of this poor creature’s maternal cravings are very natural and touchingly told, but she lingers too long and soliloquises too lengthily for my taste. The sufferings of the lady of robust ethics who declines love minus matrimony also carry conviction. I do not, however, recommend the little book to women. It would provoke a fit of the blues in a laughing hyena. Professor Herkomer’s affectations have not, as his pupils would tell you, decreased with advancing age, but he is an exceedingly able man, whether regarded as artist, actor, teacher, or lecturer, and from such a one we can tolerate a good deal of posing. The lecture on the ‘ Art Life,’ which is the “sago of Bushey’s” latest achievement, will be found principally interesting because of its personal reminiscences. Mr Herkomer tells us, for example, the story of his famous picture of the Chelsea pensioners in church, called, if I remember aright, ‘ The Last Muster.’ The work, he says, was undertaken against the advice of every friend he had. He, however, set his teeth together, end worked as only a desperate man could work, with domestic sorrow and trouble to he borne whilst the work was proceeding. Never, he declares, was a painting sent to the Academy with such trepidation as this one was. But after five days’ anxious waiting there came letters, not of rejection, but of warm commendation from Lord Leighton (then Mr Leighton) and Mr George Richmond. He (the professor) was then watching by a sick bed, and he was not ashamed to own that when he received these letters he broke down aud wept. The acceptance of that picture was the first striking success of his career. Later on Professor Herkomer makes some amusing remarks as to how the old masters would be treated if they were living to day. Michael Angelo would have been regarded as morose and peculiar. He would not have been elected to the Academy as a young man, and would have declined the honor in his old age. Leonardo da Vinci would have been the inventor of the electric light, and would have written to ‘The Times’ about himself and his critics. Reubens would have been a member of Parliament and intimate with members of the aristocracy, and Holbein would have been kept out of the Royal Academy on account of his habits. Mrs Haweis, wife, of the Rev. H. R. Haweis, is an energetic, businesslike little ! body, with strong views on all sorts of subjects and a distinct capacity for pushing them. She writes a good deal for the magazines and country papers, and hap just completed a novel called ‘ A Flame of Fite,’ which tfill be published by Hurst aud Blackett next week. The librarians of New York State were recently requested to send in a return of the fifty best pooka issued in 1896. They

voted, of course, not according to their individual inclinations, but frith regard to the tastes of their patrons as evidenced by the demand for this book or that. The result is in some respects curious. Mr Barrie heads|tbe list with ‘Sentimental Tommy,’ Mrs Ward is second with ‘Sir George Tressady,’and Mr Parker has a third place with ‘ The Seats of the Mighty.’ Mr Watson stands sixteenth with ‘ Kate Carnegie.’ Not far below these we have Mr Saintsbury, with his ‘ History of Nineteenth Century Literature.’ Mark Twain, Mr Stockton, Mr Godkiu, and Mr Eggleston are among the American writers well placed. But there is no mention of Mr Sloane for his ‘ Life of Napoleon 1.,’ of Mr Howells, of Mr Henry James, nor of Mr Harold Frederic, whose ‘ Illumination ’ was certainly one of the novels of the year. The list closes with Mr Bigelow’s ‘ History ol the German Struggle for Liberty ’ and with Mr Henty’s ‘At Agincourt.’ Mr Kipling and Mr Field are the only two poets in evidence, and the names of Stevenson, Barrie, and Watson have the honor of a double mention. Some years ago the famous gourmet and wit who lucubrates in the ‘ Sporting Times ’ (or “Pink’Un”) as “Nathaniel Gubbins” wrote a notable series of papers on ‘ Meat and Drink ’ for the ‘ Man of the World.’ I tried several of his recipes, and found them so excellent that I cut out the articles as they appeared and stuck them in my commonplace book. Now everybody able to afford five shillings can also avail themselves of these tips, as Mr Gubbins—whoso real name is Edward Spencer—has republished them in volume form under the title of ‘Cakes and Ale.’ The little book will be found easy enough reading for those who do not mind the “ Pink ’Un’s ” graceless style and peculiar vein of humor. The recipes for salads, cups, and cordials, pick-me-ups, etc., are really first-rate, and work out quite as well as they sound. What Gubbins doesn’t know about drinkables isn’t worth knowing. I can specially commend his “Ideal claret cup,” compounded as follows Two bottles Pnntet Canet, two wineglassfuls of old brandy, one wiueg assful curaeoa, one pint bottle sparkling Moselle, two Iwttles aerated water, a sprig or two of borage, and a little lemon peel. Sugar ad lib. One cup will not require much. Add the Moselle and popwater just before using, then put in a large block of ice. As a sleeping draught the prescription yclept “Mandragora” will also be found effective ; Simmer half a pint of old ale, and just as it is about to boil pour it into a tumbler, grate a little nutmeg over it, and add a teaspooiiful of moist sugar and two tablespoonfuls of brandy. Good night, Hamlet I Not long ago a New Zealander wrote me to send out the proper recipe for Lancashire hotpot. Here is Mr Spencer’s. He ought to add the pot should be at least a foot deep : Place a layerof mutton cutlets, with most of the fat and tails trimmed olf, at the bottom of a deep earthenware stewpan. Then a layer of chopped sheep’s kidneys, an onion cut into thin slices, half a dozen oysters, and some sliced potatoes. Sprinkle over these a little salt and pepper, and a teaspooiiful of curry powder. Then start again with cutlets, and keep on adding layers of the different ingredients until the dish be full. Whole potatoes atop of all, and pour in the oyster liquor and some good gravy. More gravy just before the dish is ready to serve. No one seems to know much about Mr G. 0. Craig, whose scheme for ‘The Federal Defence of Australia’ is formulated in a volume issued this week t by William Clowes and San. But he is evidently an ardent Imperialist aud hardened hobbyist, his special fad being “the ties which bind,” etc., etc. Mr Craig believes firmly in the pressing necessity for Federal defence, and, having lightly discussed and dismissed the proposals of various naval and military experts, he urges Australian statesmen to give up preaching retrenchment and afford his plan a show. According to this your permanent military strength should amount to about 50,000 officers and men. He proposes, in addition, the enrolment of a first conscript army of another 50,000 men to be drawn for, like jurymen, out of all able - bodied men between the ages of twenty aud forty-five, and again a second conscript army of the same strength, formed in a similar manner, o! men from eighteen to fifty years of age. These two conscript armies to be called out “as a supreme and last patriotic effort to defeat the invader, or die in the attempt.” The colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, New Zealand, Queensland, South and West Australia, Tasmania, and Fiji are all to contribute to form the Federal Array of Australia. The scheme will be found worked out iu detail in chapter xvii. The author believes that a perfect naval and military defence can be secured at a cost of about £1,000,000, which the wealthy class iu the seven large colonies who have most to lose by war should subscribe. Mr Craig states that Russia in 1885 had a plan ready for the capture of New Zealand, whilst other Powers had designs upon Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tasmania, and the Gulf of Carpentaria.