BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 19274, 12 June 1926, Page 14

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

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VERSES SPRING'S SARABAND. Over the bills of April, With soft -winds hand in hand, Impnasionato mid dreamy-eyed, Spring Rada her saraband. Hor garments float and .gather And swirl along the plain, Her headgear is the golden sun, Her cloak the-silver rain. With color and with music, With perfumes and with pomp, By meaclowland and upland, ’Through pasture, wood, and swamp; With promise and enchantment Leading her mystic mime, Sho comes to lure the world anew With joy as old ns time. Quick lifts tho marshy chorus To transport, trill on trill; There’s not a rod of stony ground Unansworing on tho hill. The brooks and little rivers Dance down thoir wild ravines, And children in the city squares Keep time to tambourines. ■ —Bliss Cabman. FEAR. I am weary of youth—l wish that I were old, For then my present would bo full of pence, My future free from fear, since it could bring ‘Nothing more strange than death. Oh, maybe then I should not have this riot in my heart Of ecstasy, these gusts of sudden joy, Swift as tho winds that shako tho woods in springy I should not know delight nor feel desire, Nor with love’s 'golden star-dust fill ray eyes, All bright.and blinding-sweet. But then, oh then I should not have this panic in my soul, These moments when I shrink from life’s unknown, Desperate, sick with fear; these craven moods, Moods when the blackest shadows of to-day Seem white against tho blackness of to-morrow, And terror stifles thought. If I were old, Serene and safe, I should not suffer thus. Wisdom would temper feeling. 1 should know How little or how much or not at all Life matters. I should look with tranquil oyes And quiet understanding on the young, And pity thorn —1 who had found content Instead of joy, and rest instead of sorrow. I am afraid. . . . Would God that I wore old. —.Tan Stbuthek, in ‘John o’ London’s Weekly/ e MEW BOOKS 1 THE SECRET OF HIGH WAGES’ ‘The Secret of High Wages/ published by Messrs T. Fisher Unwin in England at 3s (id, is a book that may comfortably be road through in an evening, seeing that it contains only 110 fairly largo-print pages. But its value does not depend on quantity. Its authors, Messrs B. Austin, M.8.E., M.A., and W. Francis Lloyd, M.A., A.M.1.E.E., have probed America’s unexampled prosperity and succinctly told British manufacturers how their methods and general outlook on the industrial problem are keeping Britain in the slough of trade depression and allowing America a long start in tho raco for the capture or recapture (in Britain’s fase) of the world’s markets. For, as tho authors point out, those markets still exist. “ Bad trade only moans, in effect, that other people do not require our services, and tho only reason why they do not require our services is because they are too expensive. Our services are expensive because wo do not get tho utmost results from our activities.” How to get those results, it is the authors’ conviction, is to_ follow America’s example. Tho principles which are being followed there were fairly fully outlined in onr loading article on Wednesday, in which free quotation from this remarkablo_ book was made. The w,sy to make Britain’s services less expensive is, perhaps paradoxically, to, pay higher wages to the British workman. The reason is that high wages have been proved by America to ho an index of efficiency. ‘‘ln Great Britain to-day inefficiency has become almost a vested interest, declare the authors. ‘‘Speeches are mado to the public and shareholders of public companies to explain why increased uneconomic expenditure has become necessary or that losses arc being incurred by a company on account of some outside forces ovor which it has no control.” The authors do not minimise tho difficulties, arising from some of those outside forces, which British manufacturers are up against. When there is a falling off in orders firms are tempted to increase tho ordinary bank overdrafts used to finance work in progress, so as to meet working expenses. If trade depression persists firms are further tempted not to write down plant, since this would reduce tho assets on the strength of which a debenture issue depends. The next step is to reduce expenditure on machinery and plant improvement _ and replacement. Thus manufacturing costs tend to increase if only because of obsolescent plant. This leads to a rise in sellin" prices, and the volume of sales declines. The firm may now_ be tempted to join a manufacturers’ ring to maintain or raise prices to the consumer, qi to participate in joint or non-competi-tive tendering for contracts. All this is only getting deeper into tho mire. People go without the article, or orders are placed outside Britain. Then managements declare that tho only remedy is to reduce wages or lengthen working hours. Inevitably the workers reduce output, and cost of production is again raised, additionally so because overhead charges relatively increase because of the lowered output. This is but a step yet deeper into the mire. It produces bad feeling between employers and trade unions, and leads to the greatest 1 waste-of all, industrial strife, strikes, , and lock-outs. Then comes the Labor I cry that Capitalism has failed, though j in America it is proving an unparalleled success, not only in prosperity for employers and workers, but in the elimination of industrial strife, the number of American ■ disputes having decreased steadily from 4,450 in 1917 to 1,227 in 1924.. Messrs Austin and Lloyd state explicitly that as management has tho controlling power in Industrial enterprise the initiative must He with employers to convince the workers that, if trade unionism is out for better i wages and conditions, _ and employers are out for profits, it is not necessary that for tho one party to succeed in its objective the. other must fail in its objective. For his part the worker must give of his best, instigated thereto by the system of promotion by merit, Among other minor points mentioned in the book is tho “ unfair compelstion - from countries jvith depreciated

A LITERARY CORNER

currency. The authors say that since Britain'can do nothing to ini prove another country’s currency, _it _is waste of time to complain, pointing out, however, that export of goods from such a country is tantamount to a free gift of part of that country’s wealth, and an end must come to it sooner or later. Franco, indeed, seems to ho recognising this already. Then there .is tho undoubted burden lo British overhead charges duo to heavy rates and taxes, to reduce which tho authors seo no other course hut to make drastic cuts in governmental _ expenditure. It is of interest to us in Now Zealand?, where tho experiment of a cost-of-living bonus has been tried, that this hook states (p. 471 ; “Agreements which hind wages to a sliding scale depending upon l;h(T level of commodity prices .also fix the standard of living, and are’ thus a bar to progress ” —for by progress the authors mean wages showing nn > increasing surplus over commodity prices, It will’bo interesting to see in which direction British industrialism is impelled. There are two nations tugging at her. Russia shows the fruits of attempted Communism, and is concentrating money and propaganda, to stir Britain into n revolt that will resolve itself into following her example. America,, on the other hand, shows what the Capitalistic ®vstem < can be made to produce if handled nrmht. The secret of American success is high efficiency. demanded by competitive individualism, and brought about by payment for results.

‘ the RURAL PCTTOOT,.’ ‘The Rural School—lts Problems and Functions ’ is the title of a new book by Mr Jam W. Elijah, of Melbourne. Up-to-date methods for use in rural schools are discussed, and some sound advice on organisation and management of rural schools is given. School gardening and school libraries aro dealt with in separate chapters, the gardening chapter, specially written by an expert for this book, being a very useful one indeed. All of these things aro of practical interest to the rural school teacher. There are also several chapters dealing with tho theory of rural school teaching. These chapters contain much that all teachers will find interesting, while rural teachers will, perhaps, find much made explicit which previously they have never formulated clearly. The author’s discussion of tho question of consolidation shows him not to lie enthusiastic about its possibilities in Victoria, Much of what ho says applies also to New Zealand; he appears to favor a scheme whereby tho older children should attend what might bo termed a “ central ” school. This would appear to be a better method than the conveyance of all children to the central school, but cases vary so much that principles of general applicability cannot be discovered. Tit is book can be recommended to school teachers as an exposition of modern ideas applied to rural schools. The publishers aro Robertson and Mullens, Ltd., Melbourne. TRAGIC BUT ENGROSSING. A book that has been a great deal discussed is ‘ Adam’s Breed/_ by Miss Radcliffo Hall. It is sad, ironic; a tragedy, this story of Soho; yet it is rather a beautiful story. Giau-Luca, of tho poetic soul, comes unwanted into the world, the son of unwod Olga, daughter of tho typical Soho Italian couple Teresa and Fabio. Tho mother dies in giving him birth, and the event brings hate into the heart of Teresa; hate’ and a shattering of her former belief in God and the Madonna. And as Giau-Luca grows up in this atmosphere of suppression, his self-puzzling flights of fancy, his vain struggles for expression, and the unsympathetic repression that stunt his soul aro pathetic, resulting, as they do, in the inevitable glide into tho recognised calling of the more personable and mannerly of tho young men of tho quarter—that of a restaurant waiter. But tho polishing of glasses,, the serving, “with a flourish,” of dainty dishes, the timely offering of lighted matches does not kill altogether the poetry that is born in this lonely youth. He loves, of course, first tho Padrona of tho restaurant at which ho served, wife of tho Padrone and old enough to bo his mother. Her treatment of him is tho first great shock of his innocent soul. He siibsequently loves and marries Madelena, a kitchen girl. Then one day there arrives at the “Doric” restaurant Ugo Doria, a poet whoso works GiauLuca had loved, and whom ho had worshipped in imagination. Here is another disillusionment, for tho poet proves to be a coarse, elderly, bloated sensualist. And Ugo Doria, it transpires on that tragic occasion, is GianLuca’s father. Sickened and horrified, the young waiter burns the tip his father had given him, together with tho once-prized volume of liis father’s poems; goes forth into the forest and dies of starvation.. It is symohlic, this story, and, written in a style that grips and holds the imagination from first to last, it is one that leaves a lasting impression in the mind of the render. Onr copy is from the publishers, Messrs Cassell and Co., Ltd.

Tho books of Mr Pott Ridge, though this modern novelist has not the •master’s touch, have a Dickens flavor. ‘Ernest Escaping’ (Methuen and Co.) i.s a diverting book. It is evident that the author knows London and its ways with the exactitude of long intimacy. Ho has an observant eye, and a flair for_ picking out tho eccentric characteristics or people who are in that section of society which embraces tho small shop-keeping class and their customers and associates. Ernest comes to London a simple country lad, and beauty draws him by a single' hair. When tho tale opens ho is in an embarrassing position, for three members of the fair sex Hold him in chains. Ernest resolves to escape from London, but this, in his case, is not so easy as it sounds, and a series of amusing adventures begins. Incidentally before the story ends the inconsistency of man is repeated, and in tho end Ernest is just as eager to find Winifred Broughton ns he was to lose her in the beginning. Mr Pett Ridge sets an example to many novelists. Ho knows how to be amusing without over-step-ping the lines towards impropriety.

■Well-written and cleverly-constructed mystery stories will always find a demand from readers of fiction. Of this type is ‘ The House of the Purple Stairs/ written by Jeannette Helm, and published by Messrs Herbert Jenkins. The theme is the villainous plotting of a man who is in the succession to a large fortune, and who designs to get rid of those with a prior right to his. At different times' two people fall dead, strangely enough, _on the same spot on a stairway, and it is not till a young lawyer comes on tho scone that tho. mystery; is solved and the Hfo of tho next in succession, a beautiful young girl, is saved from a similar end. By a strange stroke of fate the villain is himself killed by tho trap which ho had sat for hor. It is not till the ond of tho story that tho reader, who by that time is keyed up to a high niton of interest, learns that tho scoundrel, by moans of, an elaborate apparatus, arranged for a fatal current of electricity to pass through one step of the stairs.

Seldom hare humor and mystery, or humor and been combined in more refreshing fashion than Mr Edgar Jepsou contrives to combine them. ‘Tim Smuggled Masterpiece’ _ and ‘ Buried Rubios * were instances of this happy combination, and iiow r comes 1 Peter Intervenes,’ which, in a delightfully trivial fashion, carries the reader chuckling along and wondering. Peter is a I'Oftl schoolboy with n real schoolgirl for a sister. Ho proves bis schoolboyishness by punching the respective heads of two of his schoolfellows in order to influence the conduct of two schoolgirls towards a third. This in itself appears a little complicated, but it works out quite well. Arid, in any case, Peter has a clever brain, for lie docs quite a lot of things that would bring fame to a real grown-up detective, and in doing thorn he helps his friends, Jenny Helston and her father, who, in spite of their ready and skilful use of the “ gat ” or. automatic pistol, turn out not to ho the aristocratic "crooks" Peter thinks—and hoped—they were, but something more philanthropic and less criminal. The book is written in delightful style, nod from the moment Peter encounters Jenny running away from two suspicious characters and receives from her a mysterious packet of rubies, until his uncle George takes Jenny_to his heart and arms, it is full of thrills'and fun. Our copy is from the publishers, Herbert Jenkins, Ltd.

‘The Crooked Lip/ by Herbert Adams (Methuen and Co,), has a iiiyr,tory well concealed, an amateur detective and his "Dr Watson," a Scotland Yard detective, a beautiful heroine, and two unscrupulous scoundrels. The story is well constructed and briskly told. Tho author makes the common mistake of having his heroine chloroformed by one of his villains. Tho procedure in novels is simple. A little chloroform is poured on to a handkerchief, which is dabbed on the face of the victim,_ who straightway lapses into unconsciousness, But we must not be too critical. What happens in tho realm of fiction does not always occur in the operating theatre. This is a small matter, and does not detract from tbo interest of a welltold tale.

The heroine of the latest novel by May Christie, who has earned welldeserved recognition with some of her works of fiction, is a girl, who, like thousands of others in every-day _ life, wishes to get out of the endless groove in which hot lot nas been cast. At last her chance comes, and she accepts a position as secretary to a wealthy writer, with whom she travels to America. Romance and adventure come aplenty. She again meets the young man who had rescued her from an accident, and who had advised her to get out of the groove. The young man becomes heir to a largo estate, but a woman appears who 10present herself as the widow' of his elder brother, and who claims tho estate on behalf of her child. There are many complications before rhe is proved to be a fraud, and tho rightful heir enters into the property at last, ' claiming as his wife ‘ Tho Girl Mho ! Dared,’ ns Miss Christie has entitled j her story. Tho publishers are Messrs I Ilodder and Stoughton, London. I THE WORK OF COHRAD I AH AMERICAN APPiIECiATIOH | For all who had eyes to see and : imaginations to he kindled, with the I publishing of ‘Tho Nigger of the Nar- : cissus ’ there stopped upon tho stage 1 of fiction one of the greatest of modern writers. Wo must almost hold our breath when wo learn that had this earliest manuscript been rejected Coni rad was determined to abandon the craft of writing there and then. Tho first publisher offered im encouragement, but the second, with the urge of one who knew the real thing when bo found it, ushered Conrad before tho footlights. Gradually the genius ol tho man, together with his strango dramatic history, brought fame, hut until the publishing of ‘ Notes on Life and Letters’ in 1921, the_ multitude who rend his hooks knew little of him except that lie was a Dole, that he had been a sailor, and that ho had not known the English which ho wrote with such mastery until ho was no longer a child. Someone else, not Conrad, has told us that ho hesitated at one time whether to write in English or m French. He chose English not for tho sake of tho language, hut because it belonged to the greatest of explorers. It sounds a remote sort of reason perhaps, and yet not so to tho student of Conrad. " There was enough in those autobiographical essays in 1921 to argue for such a decision; there is even more in the present volume. “LATENT DEVOTION TO GEOGRAPHY.” Fierro Loti pored over hooks of sea travel and went into tho navy for tho sole purpose of seeing those far-distant countries which tho artist in him had pictured since he was a tiny child. Conrad, belonging to an inland country, with no first-hand no tradition of the sea, found, as had Pjerro Loti, that it was always in tho direction or spaces and wide horizons that his thought carried him, whatever the task or tho occupation in hand. He discovered, in his own words, “ a latent devotion to geography which interfered with my devotion (such as it was) to any other school work.” Exploration in the direction of one antipode or another, how eagerly this little Polish boy followed every step of it, how he pored over the maps, how ho hero worshipped the men who had taken part in itl Captain Cook, perhaps the greatest of them all; Dr Barth, protege of Lord Palmerston; David Livingston—and further back to tiizabethan days there were other great British explorers who had come and gone, bringing nows of distant worlds back with them. “My imagination could depict to itself these worthy, adventurous, and devoted men nibbling at the edges, attacking from north and south and east and west, conquering a bit of truth here and a bit of truth there, and sometimes swallowed up by the mystery their hearts were bo persistently set on unveiling.” LIGHT ON SAILOR AND WRITER. . If this last book of essays from Conrad’s pen had contained nothing hut an account of those early days of childhood, when he lived and grew up in the company of great explorers, great seafarers, we should value it inexpressibly, throwing, as it does, so much light upon the sailor and then, the writer of later years. But it contains much else besides, written in Conrad’s indomitable style, sardonic at times with those flashes of humor, at_ others _ full of a rare beayty when he is describing some scene on land or sea. There are passages here, as, for instance, in his account of a voyage which he made in command of a cargo boat through Torres Strait, as fine as anything Conrad lias .written., It was the same stretch

of..water, over which ho had passed in imagination so many limes in those far-off. days.. Abel Tasman., James Cook, ilio chiefest among his heroes, and Ho!* lander—“ Great shades! AH friends of my youth!”-—had pAsscd this way, proving for themselves, • ns ovor.v explorer was bound to do* '-'that -oft-times that gigantic ocean, the Pacific, had nought pacific jn it beyond its name. With’ that reverence and devotion which a sailor perhaps alone can understand, Conrad writes of the Torrens. Ho was chief officer onlicr lor two years, and lie loved her not only lor »er extraordinary beauty, hut ior her skill and endurance under all circumstances. Ho is, however, capable of an as noble, an enthusiasm not loss arresting because of its restraint, when describing his friendship with Stephen Crane. This tribute of insight, of devotion and of recognition was surely one of the most, rare and exquisite things to como form, Conrad’s pen. That he was entirely satisfied with his adopted country Wo know. Ho loft his readers in no doubt ol that by constant, generous reassurances s but perhaps tlio chapters boro included certain phases of tho Groat War asjio saw thorn, nt sea and on land, moving with gerfoct comprehension among soldiers and sailors alike, help us to realise how extraordinarily at homo Conrad was among tho English; how eagerly, how naturally, how inevitably ho .came to identify'himself with those whose _ literature and language he has ho signally enriched by his iranscemleiit genius.— "E.F.H.,” in ‘Christian Science Monitor,’ Boston. MOTES It is understood that the second volume of tho ‘ Life of King Edward ’ was loft practically finished by tho late Sir Sidney Leo. A tablet in memory of Joseph Conrad has been placed on the wall of a house nt Cracow on tho site of that in whicli the groat author lived as a boy. ! believe that literary taste, by which I mean ft real lore and honest appreciation of literature, can only bo acquired by hoys try them salves and for themselves.* Tho reading must he under supervision to a certain extent, but tbo amount of freedom allowed will be sufficient to give a boy the sense that ho is the conductor of his own explorations.—Stanley Rowland, in tho ‘English Review,’ - Lord Oxford and Asquith laid tbo other day a commemorative ; Rtono lu the now building. which is being orynhscl In London, in order to enlarge tho offices of the ' Daily News/ A commemorative stone foi‘ the ‘Star whs laid by Mr T. P. O’Connor, M.P., its founder and first editor. At luncheon afterwards Lord Oxford proposed the ‘Dally Nows,’ and Mr O'Connor tho ‘ film ' in a speech full of rennnisronoos, Mr O’Connor mentioned that when he Wna with tho ‘ Star ‘ Mr Bernard Shaw was an assistant leader writer at £3 10s a week. He himself had never a man in his life, nnd was very woniod us to what ho would do whh Mr Shaw. Eventually, on the advice of Mr Mnssingham, ho made him musical critic, with an increase) in salary of 10s a week.

r Jho Vatican library, tho recent growth of which by various bequests has nocoisitated extended accommodation, is probably tho must sumptuouslyhoused collection in the world. f rlus, of course, is only as it should bo, riticfl it contains .iomo of blso_ most precious literary treasures in existence, including the Biblical ‘Codex Vaticnnlis ’ of the fourth century, a fifth century Virgil, the palimpsest ‘Do Ropublica * of Cicero, and a folio Hebrew Bible from the Urhino collection which is worth considerably more than thrice it« weight in gold. The printed books include over 2.500 fifteenth century editions, many of them vellum copies.

The subject for the Itnoert Bronko Literary Prisso of £25 th>« year will bo ‘ Migration,’ and Mr Lathsun, K.G. (Commonwealth Attorney-General), Professor Gibson (Melbourne University), and Sir Archibald Strong (Adelaide University) have conaenica to net as judges. The prize, which is axvarded every three years, was inaugurated .by the Old Collegians of the Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Melbourne, in commemoration of peace (states the ‘.Australasian ’). It is open to any .Britishborn subject who has been resident in Australia or New Zealand for not less than five years. The essays, which should not exceed 2,500 words, must lie in the hands of the secretary, Mrs J. H. Mirams, P.L.C., Old Collegians’ Club, Auditorium Building, Melbourne, by September 31 next.

In General Brnmwell Booth’s autobiography, ‘Echoes and Memories,’ just published by Hodder and Stoughton, it.is related of Dr Parker, of thp City Temple, that in 1885 it was proposed to hold a meeting there in connection with the Purity Campaign. The question arose as to whether a certain Labor leader, then prominent, should be asked to speak or not. Me had been sounded, but appeared to have certain qualms, for, when he expressed his willingness to come, he added; “ But, mind, none of your damned religion.” Dr Parker was asked his opinion. “ Oli,, let him come,” he replied. Then he added, in bis deepest tone, “ But, mind, none of his damned infidelity.”

A correspondent has been good enough to Bend mo. a copy of the report on the reconstruction of the library of the University of Louvain, by Dr Henry Guppy, librarian ol the John Hylands Library (states ‘John o’ London’s Weekly’). Not long after the famous library was destroyed, in the early days of the war, the movement for. its reconstruction was initiated in this country. Within ten years a new library building has been erected with American money, and a nucleus of 55,782 volumes has been sent off from Britain. All sorts and conditions of people have given volumes, though, naturally, the largest donations are from learned societies. The most considerable gift was the bequest of the late Bishop Casartclli of Salford, who bequeathed to his alma mater his splendid collection of Oriental and general literature. The British Foreign Office came down handsomely with 4,402 books, and the governors of the John Hylands Library supplied 2,066. It is a remarkable achievement in organisation, and Dr Guppy is to be congratulated on. his work. We know that the authorities at Louvain, have expressed themselves most eloquently in appreciation of the British gift.

‘ Lord Timothy Lexter of Newburyport,’ hv Mr J. P. Marquand, which Fisher Unwin announces, is the biography of an amazing eccentric who flourished at Newburyport, Mass., from about 1750 to 1800. This almost incredible person, who gave hira&elf the title of Lord, who had his private “ poet laureate,” who described himself as “ first in the East,'first in the West, and the greatest philosopher in the Western World,” was, indeed, a fantastic figure. He was, in fact, a sort of megalomaniac, almost illiterate, yet capable of compiling most remarkable documents in a language of bis own. He was the owner of a. handsomely appointed private tomb and the promoter of an elaborate dress rehearsal of his funeral.

For a long period Dickens was employed ns a shorthand writer, working slavishly away at the police courts. Mr W. J. Carlton, who has been doing some interesting Dickens research work, has written a book on the subject, which he has entitled ‘ Charles Dickens, Shorthand Writer.’ It tells of how Dickens, then in poverty, sparred on by his passion for Maria Beadnell (the original Dora), took up shorthand and first made Ms way, in tho world,