BOOKS OF THE DAY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 18141, 5 July 1919, Page 4

BOOKS OF THE DAY.

(By LIBER.) "THE MUD LARKS AGAIN." By all means put on tho next order list you send to your bookseller a little book of humorous war stories and sketches entitled "Tho Mud Larks Again," by Lieutenant Orosbie Garstin (Angus and Robertson, per Simpson and WilKams). Contributed to "Punch," the author there using the nom-do-plume of " Patlander," these highly diverting stories of adventures, misadventures and high spirits in the British and colonial lines during tho latter days of tho Great War made a welldeserved hit, and many of those who, like myself, road and enjoyed them in the pages of the popular English periodical, will be glad to renew acquaintance with them in collected form, whilst an even greater number of new readers will, I trust, find in them an unfailing mine of humour. Mr Garstin is a born humorist, who knows the British subaltern and tho British " Tommy " right through; knows his unfailing cheerfulness his vigorous but frankly sincere speech, and above all, appreciates his unfailing readiness to perceive and recognise and revel in the humorous side of things. In these stories he takes us to the British front in Flanders, to Ttaly even, too, as far afield as East Africa and never fails to enlist our in-' terost and to put and keep us in good humour. . . The difficulty of the avorago British subaltern in coping with linguistic problems is the subject of some good funmaking in the opening sketch. " A Change of Front." En routo to Rome was suggested by one of the party, -n incenubus ycath known as " The Babe." that " son.ebody'd bettor hop off the bus at the next stop and buy a book of the words." The author continues : At the next halt I dodged the inevitable deputation and purchased a. phrase-book with a Union Jack on the cover, entitled "The English Soldier in Italy," published in Milan. , . Among military terms, grouped under tho heading of "The Worldly War," a saretU (sentey-hos) is defined as a ' watch-box, and the machine-gunner will bo surprised to find himself described os " a graposhot man." It has also short conversations for current uso. "Have you of any English papers? " Yes, sir. Hero is the ' Times ' and ' TitBits.' (Is it possible that tho land of Virgil, Horaco and Danto, knows not tho Daily Mail"?) • „ " Give mo, please, many biscuits, " No, sir, wo have no biscuits; tho fabrication of them has been avoided by tho Government." , , . . "Waiter; show mo a good bed, where one may sleep undisturbatod." In the train: "Dickens! I have lost my ticket. " Alas, you phall pay the pried of another." A jocular vein is recommondod with cabbies:— " Coachman—are you free?' "Yes, sir." "Then long live liberty!" Vory young subalterns with romantio notions may wasto good beer-money on foreign phrase-books and get thomselvo3 ravelled in hopoles3 international tangles, but not old Atkins. Tho English soldier in Italy will speak what ho has always spoken with oomplete success in Poperinghe, Amiens, Cairo, Salonika, Dar-es-Salaam, Bagdad and Jerusalem, to wit, English. One of tho best of the stories, " The Convert," takes us to German East Vfrica. Here we learn how a Rhodesian ix-settler and war-time soldier, Trooper -lartley, No. 764, .was taken unawares by a Gorman, ono Gustavo Muller, whom he had first met " ' on the wallaby' in 1913, with nothing on but a topee, an irmy overcoat, and a box of parlour nagic." Sot up as a wizard in Chala's Kraal, used to produce yards of ribbon out of tho mouths .)£ the afflicted, e.nd collapsible flower-pots jut of their .nostrils —casting but devils, you imdoratandj ■•■ Was scratching together a very omfortable pxactioe; but he began to dabble black politics, so I movod him on. An ontertaining old rogue, but harmless.

During the war tho ex-Teuton magician ourned up again, and, despite tho fact ihat he hadn't been in Germany for shjrty years, was quite ferociously Hun in his sympathies. He captured his old icquaintance, tho trooper, who says:,

Ho had me bailed up all right. Arguments weren't no use with the cuss. " I'm a Sherman" was all he'd sny, and next day we starts to hoof it to German territory, mo promenading in front calling Gustav every namo but Lis proper ono, and him marching behind, prodding mo in the back with tho blunderbuss. He disenjoyed that trip_ even more than I did; he had to step behind mo all day for fear I'd dodge him into tho bush, and he eat up all night, for fear the boys would rescue me. He not as red-eyed as a bear, and his figure dropped off him in bucketfula.

At iho end of a month we crossed the border and hit the trail of tho Deutsche*— burnt villages everywhere, with the mcssedut> bodies of women and piccannies lyins about, stakes driven through them. Waugh! "Are you still a Sherman?" I esked; but Gustav says nothing; he'd gone » bit i white obout the gills all tho same, Then one morning wo tumbles into one of the Him columns and the gume is up. I wag given a few swipes with a buck-hide kiboko for wolcome, and hauled before the comrnander, a little short cove with yellow hair, a. hand-carved jaw, and spectacles. Ho diagnosed my oaso as serious, prescribed me somo more kiboko, and I was hovo into a gross hut, under guard, pending tho obsequies. The called Gustav n. pood sport, gave him a six-by-four cigar, avd took him off to dinner. I noticed he looked back at me once or twice. So I sits down in the hut, and meditates on some perrons' sense of humour, with a Askori buck nodding it up and down outside, whiling away the sunmy hours with a bit of discmbowollingi practice on his bayonet. • That night something happened to the Askari guard, something which made him crumple up, "give a couple of kicks and stretch out as if ho was tired." "Whistl Is that you. Bill?" oomes a wlnspor through the holo. "What's left of me," says I. "Who are you?" " M|e—Gustov," says the whisperer. What s tho antic this time?'' " Captuxin mo again?" says I. " m°' *' m rew; «ins you now," says ho. .1 '. t , d ? v i'' you Rro >" s *y» I. nJ><3 with that I glided out through tho hole, and followed him on my stomnch A sontry go-vo tongue on the scrub edge, but Gustav rose up out of tho grass and bumped him behind the oar, and ho went on. "Well, you're a lively quiok-chango artist, capturing a bloke one moment and rescuing him the next," says I presently. What's come over you. Am't you a Sherman no longer?" Gustav groans as if his heart would break. Ive been awav thirty yoar. I didn't know they was like that. I'd forgotten. Oh, my Gawd, what swine!" And he spits like «, man that has bit sour beer, and wo ran on again. There is not a dull page in Mr G arson's jolly; little book. There is not too much of it, only a hundred odd pages or so, but it is a veritable mine of good fun. DEMOCRATIC IDEALS AND REALITY. Mr H. J.. Mac Kinder, the author of "Democratic Ideals and Unityj A in tho Politics of Reconstruction " (Constable and Co.) has sat in the Houso of Commons as the Unionist member for the Camlachio Division of Glasgow. He had a brilliant university career and has specialised in geography and political science in connection with which he has published several works of importance. In his new book Mr Mac Kinder sets himself the task of examining the (problems of international reconstruction and readjustment which have arisen out of „tho Great War. It is clear that lie distrusts the power of a League of Nations to maintain justice as between nation and nation. He says in his preface:— The power which is necessary for th 0 rule of law among citizens passes easily into tyranny. Can wo establish such a world power ns shall suffice to koop tho law botwoon groat and small States, and yet shall not grow info a world tyranny? There aro two words to such a tyranny, tho ono the conquest of All other nations by one -nation, th 0 other the perversion of tho very international power iteolf which may bo sot up to coerce tho lawless nation. In our groat replanning of human socioty we must recognise that tho skill utid opportunity of tho robber aro prior facts to tho Law of Kobbory. In other words, wo must onvisago our vast problem as business men dealing with roalitiea of growth and opportunity, and not merely aa lawyers defining rights and remedies. In successive chapters Mr Mac Kinder deals with tho natural social mo.

mentum hy which one State gains preeminence over its neighbours, with'! tho problem of combined international power considered first from tho seaman's and next from the landsman's point of view, with the rivalry of empires, the freedom of nations, i and finally with what is of more importance than anything, the preservation of individual freedom. Mr Mac Kinder is evidently not a freetrader, holding that freetrade leads to the over-development of one industry and tho consequent necessity of securing a worldwide market for that industry which in its turn may all too probably result in economic conflict and war. What he has to say as to sea power may sound heretical to some ears, to others if may come as a well-Kaasoned warning against undue reliance upon one, and one only, arm of defence. Where Mr Mac Kinder is most interesting and convincing is in his careful and detailed analysis of the geographical and racial factors in the great problem of how best to prevent international war. Tho whole book teems with useful suggestions for profitable thought and study. THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE. Mr A. W. Pearse, F.R.G.S., editor of tho well known periodical, " The Pastoralists' Review," has long > been recognised as an expert authority on tho meat trado. On two occasions he has ~ been the representative of all the meat exporting companies of Australia and New Zealand at international congrosses, tho first in Paris, in, 1908, and the second in Chicago in 1913. Mr Poarso has now published a work of considerable importance to all who are interested in the meat export trade. Tho title is "The World's Meat Future." An account of the live stock position and meat prospects of all the leading stock countries Of the world, with full lists of freezing works (J. Andrew and Co., Sydney). In a brief foreword Mr Pearse says he is not pessimistic as regards tho meat supply oi tho future, holding as ho does that for many years cattle and sheep raising "were going to be the, most profitable of all industries." AVool and meat, says tho author, will always be in strong demand, and there is no sign that either will be in over supplv for many years. Mr Pearse contends' that Governments must assist and not handicap the stock-breeders, and minimum prices, not maximum, should be the rule if prices have to be fixed at all. Mr Pearse gives a brief summary of the history of the meat trade in 'Australia and New Zealand, Argentina, Canada, the United States and Soutli Africa, quoting freely from statistics and making special reference to changes in prices and cost of production- He also gives somo interesting information as to meat production and consumption m countries not usually associated, in tho popular mind ' with stock raising, such as Brazil, Madagascar, British East Africa and Siberia. His book contains a largo number of interesting illustrav?S s Vr u . din B a Portrait of a bonny) little Maori princess who, in her capacity of war-worker, shepherded Mr Ensor 8v»ln able flock of Corriedalc sheep at white Bock, Rnngiora),' also many useful d-agrams. Special chapters dealing with th 0 dipping of cattle, cattle tick eradication, the statistical study of body weights are also included, 'and there is a useful list of meat canning and preserving and refrigerating works in # the various meat-producing countries. It is n pity that such a carefully planned and comprehensive work should not have been provided with an index, but, this exception made, Mr Pearse's book is deserving of high praise. RECENT FICTION. "Birth," by Zona Gale (Macmillan and Co., New York and Melbourne), is the story of two generations. Again the scene is a small, inland town, a mere village, and as in Mr White's novel it is the strong character-drawing which constitutes the chief attraction of the story. It is the story of a well-meaning man who is one of life's failures, and of a son who, a curious combination of strength and weakness, threatens for a while to inherit the paternal curse of inefficiency, but whom wo leave, at the end of the story, on the verge'of a real manhood in which dreams promise to make place for action and success. Poor Marshall Pitt, whom his fellowtownsmen of Burage put down as a "mau of no account," is, in his way, a very lovable fellow, but it is easy to understand that his bright and clever wife should have found him impossible to live with, especially in such a dead-and-alive hole as Burage- Nevertheless, iu is to the failures in life that t&bJa heart often goes out more readily than to the successful. Miss Gale's pictures of the little Western community are simply but sharply drawn, veritable verbal dry points.

STRAY LEAVES. No wonder all tho rare books and literary items which crop up for sale go nowadays to New York. American Collectors' apparently have '' money to burn," far beyond the financial capacity of English bibliophiles. For instance, just take a Stevenson item sold in March last at tho Anderson Galleries, New York, for 2600 dollars (£520). This was the price realised by two numbers, Nos. 1 and 2, of a mantir script magazine, "The Sunbeam," edited by R.L.S. when he was a student at Mr Tomlinson's day school, Edinburgh. It contained coloured'and uncoloured illustrations, also instalments of a serial story, "The Banker's Ward," which is claimed to be from Stevenson's pen. " The Sunbeam,".the sub-titlo of which is "The Illustrated Miscellany of Fact, Fiction and Fancy," and which consists of 24 pages per part, was, it is said, passed from hand to hand at a charge of a penny a night, "the proceeds of which are to be devoted to the Sealccto Orphanage " American collectors are also giving high prices for any original drawings by Aubrey Beardsley; that eccentric young artist, a veritable master- of lino, whom "Punch" called Mr Weirdsly Daubsloy. Forty-three small drawings by Beardsley recently realisod £I4OO at a Now York sale. They were originally the property of a Mr Evans, the bookseller m Cheapside, London, who gave Beardsley, then a mere youtn, an introduction to Mr J. M. Dent, the publisher who entrusted him with the work of illustrating a new edition of "Le Morte d'Arthur." The story goes that Burne Jones gave Beardsley some valuable hints. Another London publisher, John Lane (who was tho publisher of "The Yellow Book," in which so much'of Beardsley's earlier work appeared), had a splendid collection of Beardsley's drawings, but unfortunately they' were all destroyed by a fire in the English Pavilion at tho Leipzig Exhibition in 1914. Amongst tho most sensational naval feats of tho war was the raid on Zeebrugge and Ostend -last year. Those, and there must be many, who desire to possess a detailed and thoroughly reliable history of the raid, or rather the raids, should note the fact that a volume containing all tho British official dispatches concerning the raids is to bo published by tho Oxford University Press, under the editorship of Professor Sunford Terry. In a recently published book, " The New Eastern Empire," Mi' Ralph Butler points out that the Russian village commune is not generally an East European institution. To tho Finnish, or Lettish, or Polish peasant it makes, says Mr Butler, scant appeal, and even the Ukrainian peasants are out of sympathy with it. The Russian temperament is, he says, profoundly Socialistic, but any attempt to apply tho principles of the Bolshevik agrarian revolution to East European social conditions generally at once, says Mr Butler, "rallies to the side of reaction every class or individual whit&i owns any property at all." He is, J. notice, very severe upon " Polish Imperialism," which is, he says, " blossoming again like the aloe alter a hundred barren years." Europe needs a strong Poland, ibut the cpieu+ioii is, ti ill the moderation P. ' .