IN BOOKLAND

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 16 July 1927, Page 7

IN BOOKLAND

Air. .Murray a imouiue., a now vo>muo i;il Hieirlwi k Holmes slurio> by >:r A. C onan Doyle entitled !bo C u.'o- - <>f -Sherlock Holme*.” r J lii'O v,) ' ii.tno com-plet es the en.ree-r of Sherlock 1 loline-s, and 'brings to an oml the- tn!o-" of :his exploits ami adventures.

It i>’ expected that In the next *>e*sioii of Federal Parliament. the C>nnmonwealth Lite vary Fund. out m wh-ibh pent-ions are paid Lo- persons who have shown ii terary ability, and hate made some distinctive contribution to Australian literature. will be increased from L'Boo to .1:1.200. The latest reel ote.nl ~t a pension—£2o a year—-ts Air A J. Bovd. <>f Queensland. AirBoyd. who i-s aged St years, wrote two Australian novels. “The Shell Back and “The Old Colonial. - ’ many pamphlets on -agriculture. and edited “Inc Queenslander.” He was once part proprietor of the “Cleveland Hay Express.” which later became the < ‘Tow ns.vil le Herald. ’'

Lord Hi.ster, according to l)r. J. In Lec-xon. who writes- “Jester as .1. Knew hi tin..” had the courage to confess tin mistakes, and the wisdom to profit jv them : Another unique characteristic was his habit of lecturing upon Ins mistake*. • • You can imagine . • • the astonishment when one day at. the close <>t a lecture Duster quietly announced that at our next meeting he would lecture upon the mistake he had made the day before . . . the operation was now . . . the haemorrhage was appalling, and the patient tried. Lister was deeply moved • - • on reflection it occurred to him that had he ligatured the thvroid arteries be I ore lie removed the eland a life might have been saved.

Air. Allan Foa, the author of “ltccoileetions ot Sixty Years,” was as a young man secretary to Lord Strathmuni, lormeiiy eom-inaiider-in-chiei m India. whose .hobby was writing .spc'cviies in the middle of the night tor ue livery* in the House ot Lords. Air tea. writes: One night i. was kept so close at u. and almost famished, that towards midnight .1 mutinied —and to rebel in tiie heat of composing a speech was almost tantamount to treason when he was devastating Central India. lo eat it short, we had a. set-to-hat tie. "] he iservant., had all retiied to roost, and t here we were, standing • in the midst of pajsers". glaring at one anodic;-. for he refused point-blank to let mo depart that night. h.verv minute I cxjieeted to he knocked through the window. I.t washy no means a pleasant. experience when this worked-up fiery fanatic hissed in my ear. “For far less- impudence. sir. 1 ve .shot, men dead!” That, was enough; I watcliel my opportunity and bolted.”

When Fiances Trollope, the mother of Anthony Troliope, found it difficult to support, her young family, she resolved to write -books; ami tier “Domestic Manners of the Americans’’ yielded a large profit. Th-i.s ha., been reprinted bv' Ivoutietlge. Mrs. Trollope shows a niisciiievou.s enjoyment iin collecting anecdotes ot the ultra-refined who fainted when they saw a statue oj heard the word corset, turned their e/es down, if a French dancer were mentioned, and subbed hysterically it they encountered an unknown man on the' stairs of their boarding house, flow -manners, have changed in America may he judged from the following paragraph written in 18.12 : J once men tin lied to a young lady that I thought a picnic party would he reev im.-rc.ea tile. and that 1. would propose it to some of our friends. 81ki- I reed that it would be delightful, but she added.' “I fear you will not. succeed; we are not used to such sort <>l thing., here, and I knuiv it is considered' vc tv indelicate for ladies and c,.|it!e.meu 't«• sii down together oil the

A currospoiuloni of i lie- London “Sunday I nut's." taking part. in the liist'ii.ssion nn tlit* origin nl tin’ \v«>rii ' Mapper." writes :

L mink naval olticer* had a good 'tea! in tin with popularising Lite mini “flapper ’ to describe a gill "’it'll iter hair dow n Lei .back. Alter that stage lliey eea.sed to. be flappers. The officers of til to China sia-t'ion seemed 1.0 use the' term more than others. To town It certainly was derived freni the young ducks which could only jiinl 1! y. presumably a favourite .hag for the hunter in C’hina in the eighties .and e.irlv 'nineties. I in.vse.lil' was in the 1 (ova I Navy with midshipman's rankin Nort h America in IKSKL LS9L and Hs)n. and the term was very popular at that time, especially in Canada, among naval ollieers and their friends at Kali lax. Nova Scotta. I remember a doggerel correspondent bo-tween s 1.1110 young oflioor.s and society girls in those years, of which one “poem began:

A flapper is. I'm told. Who's not too young and nut too obi. A specialty in Halifax. Cuhlcn hair hangs down (heir hacksThe metre was that of Lottie Coilius s j hen popular song. “Ta-ra-ra-boom-do-avl" The "Mapper ’ referred to sjieci.all v was then 14. tor a girl old enough to have ‘‘co.nve out to be called a, "Mapper” at that date would have aroused .shouts ol sarcastic derision.

“The trades and callings mentioned in the Bible are still carried on in I’a lest i tie, ' writes Mi-ss Kstelle .Myth in her book. “When We Lived in .Jerusalem.'' “and by the same primitive methods." Airis lily th continues.:

The old plough, roughly fashioned from a tree and tipped with iron, still turn* the surface of the .soil. Men plough with oxen when they have them, otherwise with mule, horse, camel, or donkey, whichever they happen to posThe goat- i,>.. unfortunately, much in use. -(font is threshed upon any large Mir,fane oil rock which i.s eullieiontilv even for the purpose. [ have s;,eu the ox muzzled when treading out the corn. 'lhe ripe (dives are “beaten ’’ from the branches with long sticks, but. tlrank's no doubt; to the- grinding oxaerimiis of the- Turkish tax-collectors, the fellah could liardiy ahold Co obey the old. command not to “go- over the houghs again." hilt to leave that slender ""gleaning “for the strange'', the fatherless a.ltd the widow. : Kvery village has its ancient press for erushii)(r |ln> oil from, the olives; a great stone is turned round and round (by means of donkey or camel), working in -a large stone basin filled with olives until the uttermost ounce of oil has been extra'led from t.he fruit. The potter and the tanner and the tentmaker still .pursue their trades; and the water-ves>eh of Palestine are s.ifill formed iit'-'ii t.he ehl models with which our Lord was familiar. 'lhero are si ill fishermen in llie wafers ol the along the eon.st, and .*n the Sen of tialdeo. though the Turks 'lid 'their best to- tax the industry out of existence.