BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 18919, 18 April 1925, Page 18

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

VERSES. FANCY. Summer's joys are spoilt by nso, I And the enjoying of the spring Fades as does its blossoming: Autumn’s rcd-lipp’d fruitage, too, Blushing through the mist and dew, Cloys with tasting; What do then? Sit thee by the ingle, when The sear faggot blazes bright, Spirit of a winter’s night; , When the soundless earth is muffled And the caked snow is shuffled From the ploughboy’s heavy shoon; When the Night doth meet the Noon In a dark conspiracy To banish Even from her sky. Sit thao there, and send abroad, With a mind self-overawed, Fancy, high-commission'd—send her! John Keats. THE CHESTNUT BLOSSOM The chestnut blossom fell In the dark waters of the well As, crouching on the coping stone, ho hearkened’ To catch the first note of the passing boll. The blossom white and red Floats lightly where it falls—ho said— But there are drowning deeps la those dark waters For'him who plunges boldly without dread. One passing bell —said he— One Dell shall servo for her and me To speed our souls upon their way together Through the dark portals of eternity. But even as be dreamed JThicklier the falling blossom streamed Down the well-shaft, and, settling on the water, Like the white body of his love it seemed: And, shot with sudden dread, As the first note boomed overhead, Ho shrank from plunging through that drift of blossom, And home, with fingers in his ears, ho fled. Wilfrid Gibson*. HONORS LIST OF FICTION. NOTABLE NOVELS OF OUR TIME. Not long ago Mr Hugh Walpole drew np a list of twenty novels which, according to his judgment, represented the best of twentieth-century fiction. That list was quoted and discussed here, there, ami iverywhere, and the fact seems to prove that thousands of readers are grateful for authoritative guidance towards what fiction is best worth reading. Mr Walpolo did Hot call his list ‘ The Twenty Best Novels ’ or anythfig of the kind —that would be absurd —but he did fiction readers (who form the majority of readers) a very good service by providing them with useful notes for their library lists. A simiilar sendee on a much wider scale has been performed lately by Mr Gerald Gould in his book, ‘Tho English Novel of To-day ’ (states ‘ John o’ London's Weekly’), Mr Gould’s main purpose, of course, Ist to discuss critically tho modern novel and the tendencies of the modern novelist, (but ho has incidentally mentioned a large ntnmher of the best novels of the last twenty years, and it may bo that in presenting: this list in a tabulated form we do a usertil service to the readies of ‘ John o’ London’s Weekly.’ WRITERS OF TO-DAY. Mr Gould’s notes are not largely concerned wiith writers so definitely established aa Messrs Wells, Bennett, and Galsworthy. These he takes for granted—as wo can afford to do here; tho reading public needs no further introduction to the works of these writers. In being concerned with reputations that flame a little less brightly, Mr Gould’s assistance is of all tho more value to us. His first section treats of the novel "psychological," a sphere in which Messrs James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence are the leaders. 'They have able followers, not all of them “ popular,” and from Mr Goidd’a critical remarks we isolate the following list: J. D. Beresford : ‘ God’s Counterpoint,’ •‘The Imperfect Mother.’ Rebecca West: ‘The Return of tho Soldier,’ ‘Tho Judge.’ Ethel Colburn. Mayne: ‘ One of Our Grandmothers.’ May Sinclair: ‘The Three Sisters, ‘Mary Olivier,’ ‘Ann Severn and tho Biddings,’ STRAIGHTFORWARD STORIES.

These, of course, are novels that verge upon the- morbid. It is cot the best beginning for ovir list! Under the heading ‘ Biographical,' however, wo get something more straightforward; Compton-Mackenzi©: ’Sinister Street,’ ‘Guy arsd Paulino. 1 ' m Henry Handel Richardson: ‘«lio Getting of Wisdom.’ _ F, Brett Young! ’The Young Physician.’ _ Geoffrey Dennis: ' Mary Lee. J. D. Berestord: The ‘Jacob Stahl’ Trilogy. John Conmos i ' Babel.’ So we proceed to novels ‘'sociological,* and isolate these titles: Stephen M'Kenna: ‘Sonia.’ Hugh Walpole : ‘ 'Hie Dark Forest.’ Mary Agues Hamilton: ‘Dead Yesterday.* , St. John Ervino: ‘Changing Winas. May Sinclair: 'The Treo of Heaven. Hose Macaulay: 'Told by An Idiot’ Douglas Goldring: ‘Nobody Knows.' W. X. George: ‘Bed of Roses.’ Then we come to tho pleasant heading •Straightforward,’ and find an interesting selection: — . , Hugh Walpole: ' The Captives.’ Elinor Mordaunt: ‘ln the Family. Edward Booth i 1 The Tree of the GarFrank Bwinnerton: 'The Chaste Wife.’ W. B. Maxwell: ‘Vivien.’ John Oweni 'Richard Gregory’ Leonora Eyles i ‘ Hidden Lives. UP TO DATE. At last we reach the “ groups ” that can hardly be classified. From these chapters w« derive some interesting titles: Viola Meynell: ‘Columbine.’ Ethel Sidgwick: ‘ Promise.' Sylvia Lynd: ‘The Chorus.’ E. B. C. Jones: ‘lnigo Sandys.” E. M. Dekfield: ‘ Zella Sees Herself.’ Clemence Dane: ‘Regiment of Woman.’ gome of these novels, by the way, are "advanced” and difficult. The reader will observe that they are all by women writers. Here are some more straightforward s Sheila Kaye-Smiths ‘Little England,’ •Joanna Goctden.’ E. Tennyson Jesse: ‘ Beggars on Horseback.’ ~ Henry Handel Richardson i Maurice Guest.’ . , Rome? Wilson: ‘ Martin Schuler. Naomi Mitchison: ‘The Conquered. Norman Douglas: ‘South Wind.’ David Garnett: ‘Lady Into Fox. Maurice Baring: ‘C-’ E. M. Forster: ‘A Passage to India. FOB THE LIBRARY LIST. Such is a rough tabulation of the many titles considered by Mr Gould in his excellent book—a book, by the way, which the atudent of fiction should read for its tolerant and helpful criticism. He will be a full man indeed who ploughs through every novel mentioned in these incomplete lists. It may be, however, that they will f help those readers who are often in doubt as fa ” .what to got from the library,”

A LITERARY CORNER

THE PERFECT DETECTIVE NOVEL. Mr A. E. W. Mason, one of our finest writers of detective stories, gives his views in the ‘Nation’ on the perfect detective novel. So many famous people have confessed their liking of good detective fiction, and as an acknowledged export Mr Mason s ideal is worthy of consideration. “Tho raw material for detective stories is lying about in the streets, for ever can make use of it. ’J he making uso of it is, of course, the difficulty,” Dir Mason says. “For tho ordinary conditions of fiction remain, phis something rise. The locality and setting must be worked into the woof oi tho story with even greater care than usual. For one touch of fairyland mins it altogether. It must appear to be a record of located facts. Defoe would have written tho perfect detective novel. “‘There is, perhaps, in everything of any consequence, a secret history winch it would be amusing to know, could we have it authentically communicated,’ Mr Boswell wrote of Dr Johnson’s trouble with Lord Chesterfield; and that sentence contains tho whole theory of detective fiction. First tho facts as known to the public, ami then tho secret history authentically communicated. Again, it tho characters are wooden, and react obviously to the author’s plan rather than to their own natural lines of conduct, the detective story fails, as will any oilier kind of fiction. The conditions are tho same, except that in the detective story the form is a little more rigid, and there is something else—the puzzle. “No doubt, for its entertainment, the book will rely considerably upon its nuzzle. It is fun for the author, who tries by whatever ingenious means he may bo master of to keep his secret to the last possible moment. 11 is fun, too, fur the reader, who seeks to disentangle the threads and beat tho author. I “For this reason, if the hook is to succeed, tho author must play fair. He must not seek to bailie his reader by introducing sonio new character or some new factor at the very end of the book without which a solution of his mystery is impossible. But he must so conduct his story that the reader shall bo tempted to go back and read tho book again ; and that on such a repent-nl he shall lie compelled to say; ‘Yes, tho truth was there set out for me to see if 1 had been able to see it.’ “I have left the greatest of all the 1 conditions necessary in this kind of book to the last. All tho great detective novels are known by and Jive on account of their detectives. Lupin, Slim-lock Holmes, Mom jsieur Lecocq—above ail. I think. Monsieur j Lecocq in tho volume of the novel which j boars his name. Ibis not Failier Grown ‘joined that select company? 11 he detcc- ! tivo must be an outstanding person, actual, | picturesque, amusing, a creature of power i and singularity. 'Without such a being 1 tho detective novel, however ingenious, I will pass back to 'the lending library. With him it may find a permanent placo upon tho bookshelf.”

RECOLLECTIONS 07 TENNYSON. Some interesting personal teeoilccUons of his lifelong friendship with Tennyson | were given by Mr W. J*’. RawnCey, pre.-n- | dent, of tho Poetry Society, in a paper i read at the chape! of the Savoy, in lam- j don, says ‘The Times.’ Describing his linst meeting with !ho | poet at his father’s home at the vicarage, j Shipley, Mr Rawnsley recalled how Tennyson walked down the gulden with him . and answered his questions in a manner 1 most gratifying to tho childish mind. Tennyson picked some sage leaves ami rubbed his teeth with them, .saying that they were tho best tiling in the world to rid tho teeth of Iho stains of tobacco juico. When Tennyson was married in 1850 at Shiplako Mr Rawnsley was a, page at the wedding. Ho wore in his buttonhole ft aprig of syringn, and he remarked : “That sweet-smelling buttonhole is the one thing 1 remember of all that notable function.” Speaking of Tennyson's charaeler, Mr Rawnsley said that his simpleness, as age and honors increased upon him, was very noticeable. It was due to that that he I could tell without olfenco a story which from others would have been thought perhaps too broad. Tennyson liked to hear an outspoken opinion, and once related with amusement that when .riding on r. coach approaching Winchester he asked tho driver what sort of a place it was. The answer he got was : “ Debauched, sir, like all cathedra] towns." (Laughter.) Recalling an unforgettable day at Farringford, Sir Rawnsley said they were all looking at a phonograph which Edison had sent to Tennyson. At his son's suggestion the poet spoke some of his own lines into the machine, and afterwards listened with amusement to his own voice speaking to him. Very sensitive to criticism, Tennyson always took his wife's opinion as final. Roth before ami after his marriage she was his best critic, and he never thought of disputing her criticism.

NOTES, The Earl of Oxford and Asquith is now engaged on a book of an historical character, but precisely what, form it is to take is still a mystery. Very likely it will prove to bo a retrospect of parliamentary lifo during the past fifty years. Thomas Hardy onro I old me, (hat be used Relativity Theory to meditate on when ha was threatened with a. sleepless night. I have adopted tho suggestion and found meditation on Einstein an admirable soporific.—“ The Journeyman,” in the 1 Adelphi.’ It is obvious that Shakespeare would have (been no less a genius if lie had been Lord Chancellor of England. Homer and Milton would not have written worse poetry oven if they bad had Argus’s hundred eyes. Shelley, although he hud turned Quaker, would still have “ dabbled his fingers in the day-fall, and littered tho floor of heaven with his broken fancies.” Were Mr Chesterton thin as an tel and Mr Bernard Shaw gargantuan, their charm would be no less potent. The man in the street cannot bo made to think so. —William Douglas, in 1 Chambers’s nal.Mr Stanley Unwin, the well-known publisher, in a sixpenny booklet issued by bis firm, Messrs George Allen and Unwin, on ‘ The Price of Books,’ after dealing exhaustively with the problem, writes : " The real problem is not over-produc-tion, but under-consumption, or, to be more precise, insufficient sales. Most people have not yet learned to _ regard books as a necessity. They will beg them, they will borrow them, they will do everything, in fact, Ibut buy them. People who would bo ashamed to cadge for anything else they wanted, who will unhesitatingly pay 8s 6d apiece for a dozen gramophone records, or 12s 6cl each for stalls at a theatre, will think twice, if not three times, before spending even 6s upon a book which will last a lifetime, ’ *‘ The fact,” continues Mr Unwin, “ that wa in England do not spend on books, ner head of population, anything approaching tho amount spent by the population of New Zealand, and that, relatively speaking, wo have not nearly so many booksellers’ shops demonstrates that, despite the increase m demand since the war, there is still ample room for expansion. Book-lovers would do well to ignore what is often idle chatter about over-production and concentrate attention upon epeguraging .(he new reading public

which is growing up around us. For tho fact that move and better books are not road wo arc all in a measure responsible. It is not the unwanted books that, bar the way. It, is the lack of early training and tho hick of guidance. It. is ollcn a lack of knowledge or an absence of realisation of the joys of reading and the inexhaustible treasures of English literature. It is the recognition of this aspect of Hie matter which has led American publishers to lake collective action, and lias prom))'cd ‘’the Society ot Bookmen to urge upon all those associations connected with the hoolc trade in Great .Britain to form a joint association to explore the possibilities-of increasing tho love ni reading and the dissemination ot bonks by means of co-operative publicity.

The letters of .lames Boswell have been collected and edited by Professor 0. B. Tinker, and issued by tho Clarendon I’res?, 1 Oxford. “If Boswell had not been a great fool In: would never have been a gteat writer.” Bo wrote Macaulay in his famous review. Long before, Cray also bad fallen into the major hcros.v of it, and once more the occasion was Boswell. Boswell’s ‘Corsica’ convinced him “ that any fool may write a most valuable book" by chance if he will only tell us what lie heard and saw with veracity.” ()f the greatness of Boswell s folly and of the greatness of his ‘ book ’ there is io doubt,” says the ‘ Manchester Guardian,’ “lout Gray’s irritation ami Macaulay s complacency must no longer foist on us their false doctrine. These letters of Boswell, now first collected and at- least a hundred of them here first printed, by the care of Professor Tinker, finally demolish the myth of his being a 100 l fortuitously and unwittingly afflicted with plenary inspiration, Boswell knew what he was a bunt. From 17(i4 his Johnson collections were deliberate. ’

.Two pictures reproduced in the ‘Sphere’ illustrate a handsome gift recently made 1 by Mr Johannes Cennadius, a very distingui-Jied Creek diplomat, to the American school at Athens. Ihe gift consists of a magnificent library, “ probably surpassing in its' richness any library devoted exclusively to the land and people of Hellas in order to house the 50,000 volumes the American school is planning to build a Cennadeion on the slopes of .Mount Lycahettus, coutinguous to its present property at Hie head of Howe street, named 'after Dr Samuel Howe, the American physician, whose ardent support of Creek independence is still gratefully remembered. Tim 50,000 volumes range, in size ti'om Atlas tolin to small 32m0. The hooks aim all hound (with hut few exceptions) by the, best. FiiLdish and French binders. Resides tins modern work, however, the library contains some 500 historic and artistic bindings of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, veritable works of art, in perfect condition.

“That over two ami .vital f million copies of Mr Kipling’s prose works have been sold by Messrs Macmillan is evidence of his assured popularity, a popularity which shows no sign of decreasing, for liooksolie!s aie always compelled to keep a reserve supply Ins books on their i shelves.” says the, ' .Mo.ning Dost.’ “From j the Maemi ja ii sales it is to j judge the order of popularity of Mr Kipping s .-.lories. 'The Jungle Rook’ comes Uneasy first, though the second volume is I some way behind. ‘Kim’ follows the j first Jungle hook, with ‘Just So Stories’ la, very close third. ‘ I'he- Days M ork | is fourth, 'T ho Light, that hailed’ tilth, • and the second Jungle hook fellows Hose upon, its heels, though rivalled by ‘i’lain Talcs horn the Hills.’ The next in order are * btalkv and I’n.,’ ‘.Pack of Rook's ’ Hill,’ ‘Life's Handicap,’ ‘Many Inventions,’ ‘ Rewards and Fairies,’ ’Soldiers Three and Hi her Stories,' and ‘Captains Courageous.’ ” “Shakespeare had many superstitions,” says Mr John Maselinld, " hut his belief was in himself : nut of that, self he made his sy.-gem, which moves us all profoundly, whatever creeds wn profess. In ITiat, system man is warned, like t'lesar, hut follows his own fate; lie is tempted, like Macbeth, bat is misled by Ids own heart ; he is ordered, like Hamlet, hut aci.; by his own wisdom. He is mined by Ids own generosity, like Lear or'limou; ho loves much and is little forgiven, like Antony; ho is of a passionate credulity, like Othello; hut in all these shapes man lives and dies by what is strongest in himself. Only in the last of the plays is there a. spirit of beauty, and that spirit is not served by the artist, but senes the artist, and is kept to service only by tho artist's will. . . . Tho images of his belief walk the world still like the only realities. ’’

NEW BOOKS.

‘TEE MENACE OF COLOR A NOTABLE BOOK. Difficult problems face tho world today. One of tin! most ballling is that which has been set by the association- of the white and colored raees. It has hern approached from many different angles, but there appears to be no immediate prospect of a solution. Tho fecundity of the West, speaking in a broad sense, lias never been equal to (bat of the East, and while tho families of tho colored races arc as large as they ever were, those of tho white people show diminishing numbers from year to year, and with the spread of education and the persistent demand for a higher standard of living this is likely to become more accentuated in tho future. It is a matter of tho gravest importance, and one that demands the closest study. To speak of East and West in this connection is only a rough classification, for America contains millions of colored people, but it is accurate enough to convey the meaning that is intended. A thoughtful and comprehensive study of the matter has been made by Dr IV. j. Gregory, E.R.S.,- professor of geology at the University of Glasgow, and Ids conclusions are contained in a book entitled ‘ The Menace of Color’ (Seeley, Service, and Co., Ltd., London). The difficulties duo to the association of the white and colored races are considered, and an account is given of the measures proposed for their solution. One important feature from the British Empire point of view is that special reference is made to white colonisation in the tropics and the While Australia policy. In this connection tho author’s conclusion is that Hie white man can colonise the tropics if he be secured suitable conditions of life. Of those conditions, the most essential is that all classes and qualities of residents in a country can bo provided with remunerative occupation, which may be impossible for white workers in the presence of a largo supply of cheap labor. The degeneration, physical and moral, due to such competition is the most serious danger from the association in mass of white and colored labor.

It is quite clear that in planning this bonk the author lias taken the greatestpains tn assembling his fads. lie has consulted endless authorities, and lie has travelled much and studied at. first hand the great color problem. Dealing with the threat to white, supremacy, he states that in the last available year before 1914 the approximate numbers of the groat races of mankind were: Whiles, 520,000.000: Mongolian, 620,000.000; brown, 370,000,000; negro, 190,000,000; total. 1,700.000,000. The, colored races therefore outnumber the white by more than two to otic. The great advantages possessed by the whites,.

owing lo Uioir more elaborate organisation, better equipment, and command of transport and machinery, should enable them lo hold their own in any direct conflict, in spite of inferior numbers. The danger to the white race comes from its dependence on the maintenance, in lands held by colored races, of conditions which would be jeopardised by the withdrawal of white supervision. Some overcrowded European markets would he ruined if they lost their markets among_ the colored peoples, and their trade with Asia and Africa would lie destroyed by restoration of the political conditions that held before those continents fell under European eontrol. Its maintenance, says the author, lavs a heavy burden on the white race, which directly governs eight-ninths ol the habitable land of the globe.

The position of the negro in America, a legacy banded down trom those who were engaged in the slave trade in days gone bv, is fidl of inlere.st, and this i,s dealt with very exhaustively. Then follow chapters on Asiatic immigration in the United Stales, South America, race problems in Africa, the menace of Asia, Australia and the Northern 'territory, while colonisation in (he. tropics, while, labor in (lie, Queensland sugar fields, and miscegenation and the result ol racial interbreeding. In concluding a notable contribution to a subject of rage diflinilty. Professor llregory says: ‘•Sympathetic intercourse between selected individuals, combined wilb Ihe segri■gal ion of each race as a whole, may be expected to lead to a happier and more peaceful world than the. jarring friction inevitable when dissimilar people meet in competition for their daily bread. If the racial segregation which the world has inherited from the past is confirmed instead of being broken down by the modern ease of tiansport, Europe, North America, ami Australia would naturally be the chief homes of the wl’ite race. Considering its contributions to humanity that would not be an nnlair share. If the white man can secure these coni incuts as his homo he can, for the benefit of all, continue to conquer the forces of Nature, and thereby strengthen the broad foundations of civilisation,” Our copy is from Angus and Kobertson. Eld. THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS, Aiks Winifred Ponder has eonliuluited manv at tides lo the Press and the magazines, She is very observant, and wipes with facility. Jicr happy luinting-gi ouud is the islands that are scattered atiou!,. ihe South Seas. In a scries ol sketches, entitled ‘.An Idler in the Islands,’ Mias Ponder places before us little word pictures of Fiji and Samoa, do her Suva P not, as :l is to most while | euple, luji. Instead she presents scenes from tin; villages and descriptions uf the natives and their customs and habits. She h ves these oui-of-tlic-way places, and she says she can imagine worse things than lo (beam liie away in a Fiji village. The book contains a chapter on Western .Samoa and a few remarks about the operation of New Zealand’s mandate there. Ali.-s Ponder dues not go very deeply into the matter, bather summary of the position is this; " ddie average visitor leaves Samoa with tire impression that, it is the while snb|i>cU not (ho brown who are discontented. The reason for this di.-won!coil. lii.-s I‘oii tier suggests, may he found in the t:e-l iluii Samoa is a- hot- and thirsty laud, and the New Zealand (loveriiinenr’.s "dry" ordi nance has accentuated the. eoniltiums tor the white man, dhe last chapter, ‘An 1,-dand Pilgrimage,’ takes the reader to Vailintn and ‘‘the grave of Tu.-alala." (humpy is from (lie publishers, Angu.-: and Hubert son, Ltd.

PARISIAN PLEASURE. Thcalrelaml of ” Gay i'arec ’’ is a s-T----ti.it; of L. 11. Brcnnitio'-s Jin', ii. ‘The Bntlerllv of Paris.’ Brilliant night, life, U-mplation. .stage jealousy, and mu: are the foundation stones of tins rather highly seasoned story. Tim reader is slmmWi a life of tinsel, perfumed boudoir,-, and manVt pursuit of pleasure and -women. One feels the want of fresh ail' and open spares while reading this story, yet it is well constructed and written, and there ts plent v of action: indeed, il heroine-, iii'd... dramatic, towards (he end. Our copy conies from (he pnhii-hers, -Messrs Ca.-ecll and to.. Ltd. (London!. , YOUTH CALLING.’ ‘Youth Calling,’ hy Heat rice I (at radon (Header and Ciknigliton, Ltd,), is rat her a slight book. It is really a sketch, and does not come within nicasmaole distance of ' Ships Unit Pass in the Noglii and ‘The. Fowler,’ but still it is a cie,er study of two individuals--one. who hm. pas-td the allotted span, and flav oilier lor wlmm the, battle of life is beginning. Mrs (Tv.-cr-don is a domineering, exclusive, and selfish old woman wrapped up in heraelt, her an IEUe paints for her own pleasure!, and a romance of days long past. ..Vt this stage there, enters into her life, againM. her desires, a girl of tweiily-fonr, full of tho joy of living, and with an ambition to have her name emida/.oned on the scroll of literary fame. Tim contrasting personalities and the benolicial clti'<T ot (iwen Kingsmcad’s assauli, on .Mrs (.'luvmhm'.-i citadel are cleverly skciclted. SPANISH GOLD. ‘Tito Galleon's Cold,’ by iloliert W. Sneddon (.Methuen ami Lo., Ltd. I, i,-, a, siraightfonvanl talo tvhich relates (ho story of a seatch lor the Armada's lirasuro ship, winch was said to have been wrecked on tlie Scottish coast. Alan .Maclean, the hero, arn'Te.s at JUt.lia.lvin, in .Mull, just in Unto to help Ids nnclo to search lor the treasure- On his. way across from America Alan observes among tho passengers an oddly-assorted trio who evidently arc- hound by «i im> conniii.n interest. One is a Spaniard of the hotter class; the. others ar * New York toughs. Shortly after Alim's arrival at, his uncle's pi,ico these men appear in the, vicinity m a small steamer. They, too, have got wind of tho treasure. They have with thorn a beautiful Spanish girl, who is to all intents and purposes llictr prisoner. •Scenes of breathless interest follow, m which Alan lights strenuously both for tho girl and the gold, in the end treachery and rascality arc defeated, and there, is a, satisfactory denouement to this romance of life and quest for long-lost, treasure. ' THE ROUND TABLE.' fu December tlie ‘Hound Table’ published an article, which has been described in the Literary Supplement ot ' The Tunes ’ as “probably the fullest and most- lucid account of tho famous Protocol which is anywhere to ho found.’’ Tho .March issue goes a, .step further. Ought wo, it asks, in an article entitled ‘Europe: Tho Covenant and the Protocol,' to amend the Covenant of the League of Nations’' Is it possible for us lo fulfil our obligations under it? To both these questions the ‘ Hound Table’ suggests an answer. The second article, ‘The Gold Standard,’ deals with another burning question. Now that, the pound and the dollar are almost on equal terms again, wo have to decide whether wc should go back to gold. Currency questions used to bo left to experts, blit to-day they concern everyone, and the ‘ Hound Table’ explains in language which anvone can follow exactly what the proposed change would mean. Ollier articles are entitled ‘China in Evolution,’ ‘Volcanoes in Industry,’ ‘lreland As It Is,’ and ‘lndia: The. Political Chaos.’ Tho internal political events of tho quarter are dealt with in ‘ Minted Kingdom: Current Politics.’ which is followed by tho usual articles from the dominions.

A benevolent olr] lady mj about to s?va her usual coin to the blind beggar at the corner nf the street when she. noticed that it was a different, man. “ You're not, the man I always give a penny In,” she said. “ Xo, mum,” replied Ibo man. “ I’m his brother.” “ I hojie your brother is not ill,” said the old lady.'' “Oh, no, mum!” was the unexpected answer. “ He’s taken tbc afternoon oil' and gone to the pictures.” A letter from' a London man in Yanconver, asking for assistance in rernrnir; a wife, has been received by the Mayor oi Islington,