BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Evening Star, Issue 11251, 26 May 1900, Page 8

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

‘Arden M»=siter.’ By W. Barry. T. Fisher Unwin, London. This is a w'oik that may ha fairly described as 'strong only in pa'ones, and most of these patches lire towards the end < f the hook. Had it not been for our sense of duty wo should have ceased reading ere we hadgot halfway through, although in thiacase we should not only have acted contrary to our principle o —which, strangely enough, call upon us to read a book through before oniicismg—hut wo should havy* lost the better portion of it as well. Tho writer is tori I nrned tor a novel writer, or perhaps we ought to say too fond of airing his knowledge Thu chart!! of the greatest wotks of fiction, nay, that which constitutes their groalnejs, is their simplicity. Simplicity of i bought, language, philosophy, truth. The ‘ Vicar of Wakefield’ hos not' we belie va, for it is !on« since we read it, a hard or an ui unv l word in it. But Mr Barry’s conversations and descriptions are as irritating as thi y are unnatural. Human beings do not talk like some of his talk, at least wo hope not. Even clever men and popular writers converse much tho same in real iife as the ordinary run of uo, and high society does not, we are told, quite come up to the Dolly Dialogue standard. Nor do we want a dictionary beside us when we are reading an English novel, even though the sc-:ne be laid in Italy. This introduction of Italian, French, German, Latin, witli a verte from Sophocles, printed in the Greek, by way of a conclusion, is out of place, and an affectation that will mar the chances of success of a better work than ‘ Arden Massiter.’ The people who buy and read novels don’t like this kind of thing, and, in the present case, there is really no absolute need for any such ornamentation. Had the story been boiled down to half its present length; had the comments been severely trimmed ; had the tale been more connected, and the characters more closely and vigorously developed, the book would, we think, be much better as a work of English fiction than it is in us present form. The story, stripped of its superfluities, is fairly well told, and some passages are marked by dramatic power. It deals with an English journalist travelling in Italy for "copy,” who has a weakness for prying into social, labor, anarchistic, and revolutionary questions. He becomes known to a princely family who are in the meshes of the master and King of the Catnorra, Tiberio S:orza, and having introduced the latter to the former the question is : How to off-set the ruin inevitable from such an introduction ? This is only partially done, and the story ends amid death, crime, tears, parting, and self-sacrifice—the last a lesson we cannot too often learn. In our workaday world men and women cannot have that which they desire ; therefore ‘ Arden Masoiter’ is, so far, true to the experience of ordinary humanity.

‘Capital and Labor.’ By H. C. Thomson. John Paterson, London. “ This little compilation purports to deal with the supreme problem in South Africa, accompanied with suggestions for the basis of an enduring peace. It is, in reality, a reprint from the ‘ Investors’ Review,’ and forms one of the many products from one of the many agencies established by certain philanthropic patriots for the enlightment of our mental and spiritual darkness with which the Empire is being Quoded. We regret that so much good paper and ink should be wasted in such a cause. Conciliation committees, “Stop-the-War” parties, ‘Morning Herald’ leaflets, and the like are just eight months too late, and none of them have, as yet, advanced a single fact against the justice of the war. Their armor and weapons are slander, misrepresentation, and the creation of bogies. Taey are all alike. There is a complete absence of variety in their charges, and each is as ‘‘cook sure” of his statements as ever was Macaulay’s wonderful schoolboy. The following are the basic principles of their anti-British, Pro-Boer creed (1) The war was created by capitalists for capitalists; (2) Mr Chamberlain and Sir A. Milner are scoundrele; (3) the Boers are a

race of peacable, humane lovers of freedom driven to desperation by the wickedness of the capitalists and the politicians. Needless to, say that we deny utterly the truth of such tirades, and that we challenge without fear the production of any evidence such as would be accepted in a court of law in support of item. We affirm that Rhodes and the De Beers Company saved Kimberley ; that the capitalists will be thd greatest losers in this South African campaign; that the Boers are neither humane nor liberty loving ; and that the war is just. This being so, the pamphlet now before us can have no hope of success. Its introducer (for someone has to stand sponsor, for ite) says: “Shall the country that prides itself on being the 1 home of the free,’ the mother land of free nations, accept the ungracious and liberty-destroying mission of placing the population of South Africa, white and black alike, at the mercy of men like the diamond and goldfields ‘ bosses ’ ?—half a continent in the grasp of a gang of company promoters, stock exchange gamblers, diamond mina monopolists, and sweaters of labor.” Iho question is superfluous. We do not intend to do anything of the kind. Then the author oas the temerity to assert: “The ‘marve us’ humanity with which they (i.e., the Boets) have behaved during this teirible conflict has,” etc. Is it worth while discussing the question wflh such a writer? We are to 'E'E. our e > b3 cars to the testimony of British soldiers and generals and journalists, and accept this unmitigated piece of marvellous assurance, because, in certain cases, our wounded and prisoners have been treated with common humanity ! The conclusion of this production is as follows:—“It cannot ba too often repeated that an enforced Coni?^ erat *° Q the war is over, such as Mr Rhodes desires, with the Republics annexed and included in a .South Atrioan Dominion under tho British 11 ig, will mean the retention there for many years of an enormous garrison, and the perpetuation of the race tend.” Will it? We deny that there will he anything of the kind, and the submission if t.‘ u Free timers and ih : dn-gust of tho Transvaaleiv, now that the I■> a to which I ley have no ling li-.toned aro being exploded, will, thus tally, In-ar us out. Too i nty (car is the ha tn that suchwnteis as MrH. 0. Thomson may, even as the L-lv.rai party didin the earlier stages of the war, accomplish. We notice i liut the authors and fathers of the pamphlet support the univeisal Prtss bribery b g-y. tjir.mge how passion will blind men to 1 1 e eiemi nr.s of decency! Wo ourselves nave b-. a t< -11 that the 1) ■ Beers’ agents have bought up the colonial Press, auu only a few days unco we received a letter in which, the writer kindly hoped an accident would happen to Mr Ch.unbei lain 1 Of such are the Kingdom ot Bums and their allies.

Apropos of llie Kuv. Dr Waddell’s recent lecture on Fiction aud its Boa r iig upon Character,’ iv review received by Thursday’s mail or Mr 11. B. Muriate Watson’s ' Tne Reooi ’ says ;—“ li is with dales and names nod Bills ami Constitutions that your historian—ns he is u-ml.y called—must deal. Tue real history is only to bo foiled in fiction, and Mr Marioti Watson has written st veral p:.ges of it winch will not easily be forgoiun. The ladies are us well done us the inn, and the fig iung {though vhe author betrays no lech.,.cal knowledge of the rapier) ij as good as either. Altogether, a fi. »- laic fi-.ety told.”

W-; have to thank Messrs 11. Wise and Co. for a copy of Kipling’s latest book, ‘ From Si a to Sea.’