BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 17928, 25 March 1922, Page 13

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

VERSES,

OAD LOB-I2E-BY-THE-FIRE. Henceforth old Lob shall sweat for no man’s hire On -winter nights knee-deep in snow or miro, Split no hard logs, nor shoulder no huge burden, Since ho has seen his nightly favors hat'd on To obligation, his cream-brimming vftt ’Chin to more whey, scarce quarter filled: at that, From god to blackleg laborer being sunk, Instead of reverent dues, old Lob has drunk Sour grudging minimum wage, working so hard, And farmer’s wife keeps her warm kitchen barred; Then weary Lob, Ids job complete, may stand In the muckyard. 0 Oh, good-byo to this change® land! To Canada or New Zealand or the Cape He works his passage easily in the shape Of a Dago stoker, or perhaps he hides His matted shapelessness in a bale of hides. Once over, he hopes cream and by some fire To doze, yet shall he sweat for no man’s hire, Nor for ingratitude chore how never more. *—Robert Graves, in the ‘Spectator.’ APPLE TREES. Along the roads of Germany Are flocks of apple trees; Comely and soldierly they stand In gay green companies. And in the early freshness Their tranks are grey with dew, And little apples faintly sway Against the morning blue. David Cecil. " THE TIGER.” The anonymous author of ‘ Makers of Iho New World’ draws an arresting portrait of M* Clcmenceau, the disillusioned old cynic who took charge of Franco in the darkest days of the war and navigated her into safety. When the Germans were drawing near and nearer to Paris, and its capture seemed quite possible, someone suggested to him that it might be advisable for the Government to leave the city. “Yes,” replied C'vemenceau, “I think that you are right. We are not near enough to the front.” “ The Tiger,” as he is called, whose bitter tongue has wrecked many a Ministry, is also a fino swordsman, and has fought many duels. On one occasion he met his life-long adversary, M. Deschanol. The affair took p’aco in a suburban garden, and Deschanol receded further and further before his adversary’s furious attacks. At last Clcmenceau, tucking his sword under his arm, made a low bow to his opponent, and remarked inquiringly: “ Monsieur is preparing to leave us? ” As might bo guessed, there was little love lost between the bookish and idealistic President Wilson and this cynical old man of affairs. “ Fourteen points,” ho exclaimed. “ Why, IcilT|on Dieu himself was content with ten! ” While Wilson orated Clcmenceau slept, waking up, however, with suspicious celerity when the interests of Francs were in question. A born fighter, ho has used tongue, pen, and rapier, from youth to old age, and ho still fights. He himself has summed up his career in the savage sentence: “My wife was unfaithful to me ; mv children have left me ; my friends have dc-crted me; but I still have my teeth.” Perhaps the only illusion left him is the love of an ungrateful country.

DEATH OP DR JOHN BROWN. Dr John "Brown, the biographer of Banyan, and pastor emeritus of Banyan’s Church at Bedford, died in London recently, at the advanced age of ninety-one. By his death Congregationalism has lost one of its most conspicuous figures. One of his daughters is iho wife of Mr J. N. Koynes, Registrar}' of (he Union of Cambridgo, and the mother of Mr J. M. Koynes, author of ‘ Economic Consequences of the Peace’ and its sequel ‘Tho Revision of tho Treaty.’ The great work of Dr Brown’s life began when, in 1864, he became tho pastor of the historic church railed Banyan Meeting, at Bedford. He was the ninth pastor. Banyan was the third, and not tho founder and first pastor, as many suppose. Shortly before Dr Brown went to Bedford there had been much internal dissension in the Church. A young man of Banyan Meeting, whoso father was one 'of the Church’s chief pillars, was expelled from Cheshunt College because the principal and professors considered him' heterodox. This young man, Mr Halo White, afterwards became famous, under his pen-name of “Mark Rutherford," as author of ‘The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane.’ But it is by his ‘ John Bunyan: His Life, Times, and Work,’ that Dr Brown will be best remembered. This book represents an extraordinary industry, patience, and research, and remains tho standard _ biography. In recognition of it Yale University conferred on the author the degree of D.D. Dr Brown’s Bunyan researches were continued almost to his last days, and the results wore incorporated in the later editions. In the first edition Dr Brown advanced, the theory that, Bunyan was arrested for preaching on three occasions; Tho warrant for Runyan's third arrest subsequently came to light, ■ Tho_ much-disputed question of Banyan's attitude in the Civil War seems to be settled by a discovery Dr Brown made at the Record Officer: Tile muster rolls of the Parliamentary garrison of Newport Pagrijoll were found, and in these the name of John Bunyan appears twice. A rare book of Bunyan’s, bearing the imprint of Cowley, bookseller, Newport Pagnell, _ recently came up for , auction, and this, with the soldiering experiences Bunyan gives in his autobiographical ‘ (Trace Abounding for the Chief of dinners,’ seems conclusive. Dr Brown also collected Banyan relics, brought about the erection of a statue at Bedford, which was unveiled by Dean Stanley, and the presentation by the Duke of Bedford of the Bunyan gates, and made the plain meeting-house the Mecca to which tho feet of pilgrims turned from every part of the world. ECCLESIASTICAL PEN PICTURES. Impressionistic sketches of living celebrities are having a tremendous vogue just now (writes our London correspondent), and another volume is to bo published from the intriguing pen of “ A Gentleman with a Duster.’’ This time prominent religious leaders are the victims of this sprightly scribe, who is generally believed to be Mr Harold Begbie, and ho runs riot among the lights of the Established Church and Nonconformist circles with entire impartiality. The worst of this kind of writing is that it is,purely subjective, and those who have oomo in contact with some of the eminent divines here portrayed will find themselves in violent disagreement with tho author. For myself, I find 1 the sketch of Dean Inge the most satisfying thing in the book; but I wish the author had a keener sense of delicacy in ascribing what ho believes to bo the motives behind his characters’ religious views, Methods such as these are all very well when dealing with politicians, who are made to be shot at, and are tacitly denied the virtue of holding shfeere convictions by witty wrifora of all kinds; but it seems that no public man, whatever his sphere, con expect to bo treated with restraint in print nowadays.

A LITERARY CORNER.

NOTES,

SIGNOR NITTI’B BOOK.

There has been quite a revival in diplomatic war books this month (writes our London correspondent on February 3), and to-morrow will seo the production of yet another, this time from tire pen of Signor Nitti, the ex-Prirno Minister of Italy. Unlike M. Poincare, he deals entirely with the period after tho armistice, and his thesis is really an onslaught on tho Treaty of Versailles, something after the stylo of Mr Maynard Keynes, but lacking the cold precision and aloofness of tho Englishman’s book til at made it the talk of Europe. Signor Nitti cams into office after tho signature of tho treaty j but he shares the responsibility for it, inasmuch as ho signed its ratification. There is all the difference in the world between _an economist’s and a politician’s criticism of the treaty, one of them being that Mr Keynes resigned his post when the negotiations took a turn contrary to his opinions ; whereas in the same circumstances Signor Nitti actually assumed office pledged to carry out the treaty.

.Nevertheless, when one has swallowed the curious morality which satisfies politicians of this typo, Signor Nitti’s book makes good reading for tho sidelights it throws on the making of the treaty. Best of all, perhaps, are his acute comments on Iris colleagues, and his estimate of British statesmen is especially goodl Mr Lloyd George ho holds in great reverence, although scarcely appreciating the sincerity of our Prime Minister, and he occasionally shows comical disappointment at discovering that Mr Lloyd George meant what he said. published m full a secret memorandum which Mr Lloyd George addressed to the Peace Conference, which is an admirable illustration of the Prime Minister’s grasp of economic fundamentals, together with the French reply, which is tinged with irony. Mr Bonar Law, according to Signor Nitti, is “an honest man, an idealist with tho appearance of a practical man,” which is not at all a bad description of the late leader -of the House.

Memorial tablets have been placed on the houses in Norwich where Harriet Martineau and George Borrow once lived.

A new society, called the Society of Bookmen, has just been formed in London. Its membership includes authors, critics, publishers, booksellers, literary agents, and librarians.

Cambridge University Press is shortly to publish a work on ‘ The Naturalisation of Animals and Plants in New Zealand ’ by the Hon. G. M. Thomson, of Dunedin. The author has collected all the scattered records of the changes which have taken place in the introduced animals and plants of Now Zealand in the last century and a-half, and summarised them in of chapters covering every branch of the subject. A copy of the original edition of ‘Les Dieux Ont Soif ’ has been sold by public auction for 18,450 francs. What doubtless added to tho value of the volume was tho fact that a draft of the plan of the book in M. Anatolo France’s own handwriting wa.s bound in the work. The professor of English literature in the Edinburgh University has recommended that the Tait Black memorial prizes for the year 1920 should bo awarded as follows ;—For the best biography or literary work of that kind to Mr 0. M. Trevelyan, for ‘ Lord Grey of tho Reform Bill ’; and for tho best novel to Mr D. H. Lawrence, for ‘ The Lost Girl.’

Mr H. A. Lyttou, who is the successor to George Grossmith in tho latest revivals of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and who was connected with tho Savoy Theatre for many years, has written a book called ‘Tho Secrets of a Savoyard.’ It will bo published by Jarrold’s,

Louis Untcrmoyer, the American poet and anthologist of modem Transatlantic poetry, was born in 1885. His wife, Jean Starr Untetmeyer, is also a poet. In. a recent ‘ Bookman ’ Mr Untcrmoyor was made tho subject of a pen portrait. “He is sft 7in in height, stocky, inclined to take on weight, because of an uncontrollable lust for.sweets, and is as fussy about his neckties as a Wall street stockbroker. Ho has a long, slanting forehead, wears eye-glasses, and affects racy colloquialisms that are not suited to his temperament. . . . Ho has a sprawling hodge-podge library of 3,500 books, containing most of tho dramas and practically all iho representative poetry since 1890. It also contains two shelves, which he rails his Chamber of Horrors. Some day he intends to use this material in an anthology to be entitled ‘The World’s Worst Poetry.’ . ._ . A creature mythical, fantastic, Incredible—but nevertheless very much alive.’’

The Macmillan spring list contains now fiction by H. G, Wells, Sir Harry Johnston, May Sinclair, E. M. Dolafielcl, and Eden Phillpotts. Tho American authors include Mary Watts and Edgar Lee Masters. ‘Conn of the Coral Seas/ by Beatrice Grimshaw, is included.

In a recent volume of essays, ‘The Man in the Street’ (Scribner’s), Meredith Nicholson says: "I doubt .seriously whether I could pass an examination in English grammar. At times in rny life I have been able to read Greek, Latin, Italian, and French without ever knowing anything about tho grammar of any of those languages beyond what I worked out for myself as I went along. . . . This is precisely what I should do with English if I were responsible for the instruction of children at an age when it is the fashion to begin hammering grammar into their inhospitable minds. . . . Tho first weeks of my course would be purely conversational. I should test tho students for their vulgarities and infelicities, and such instances registered on the blackboard would visualise the errors as long as necessary. The heading of indubitably good texts in class would, of course, be part of the programme, and the Bible I should use freely, particularly drawing upon the Old Testament narratives.” Tho Vailjma edition of the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, which is being published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in conjunction with five British publishers of Stevenson’s writings, will include more than 100 recently-discovered poems, as well as about 100 personal letters never before published. Then there is a story called ‘ The Waif Woman,’ and another called ‘The Owl’ (incomplete), as well as ‘The History of Henry Shovel/ in fifteen chapters, ‘When tho Devil Was Well,’ and several fragments. There are the first pages of a projected diary of Wellington, a preface to 1 The Master of Ballantrac/ and a charming mimic “ war correspondence ” between Stevenson and his stepson, Lloyd' Osborne. Relating to Steven-, son’s childhood, there is a hitherto unpublished diary kept by his mother from the time of his birth until he was seven years old, and a ‘History of Moses’ and .‘ History of Joseph/ which Stevenson wrote at the age of six.

In tho 1 XUnstraled London Nows ’ G. K. Chesterton writes: “There is a story from America about a little boy who gave up his toy cannon to assist the disarmament of the world. I do not know if it is true, but on tho whole I prefer to think so, for it is perhaps'more tolerable to imagine one small monster -who could do such a thing than many more mature monsters. who could invent or admire it. It is one of the peculiarities of the Americans that they Combine a power of producing what they satirise as ‘sob stuff’ with a parallel power of satirising it. And of tho two American tall stories it is sometimes hard to say which is tho story and which the satire. - But it seems clear that soma people did really repeat this story in a reverential spirt. J *