BOOK NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 283, 27 October 1934, Page 12

BOOK NOTES

“LAMB IN HIS BOSOM.” So'many novels have appeared on the subject of American pioneer families that it requires a distinguished, freshly-written story like Caroline Miller’s “Lamb in His Bosom” to reawaken interest. This is the latest Pulitzer prize novel, chosen as the best work of fiction published during the year by an American author. Certainly 'Miss Miller’s technique and treatment of her characters owe little or nothing to current American tendencies in fiction; nor has the novel any particularly original features. But the story of the Carter family’s progress in the backwoods of Georgia just before the American Civil War is a solid, inspiring achievement which many readers will enjoy. LORD CURZON. Mr Harold Nicolson completes his trilogy of modern diplomatic history, the previous volumes of while were “Lord Carnoek” and “Peacemaking, 1919,” with “Curzon the Last Phase; a Study in Post-War Diplomacy.” George Nathaniel, first Marquis Curzon of Kedleston, was Foreign Secretary at the termination of the Great AVar. and until 1924—“ a period of unparalleled difficulty in international affairs and of great personal worry and sometimes tribulation.” So he explains or. palliates his failure, which Mr Nicholson describes thus: “To this man was granted an opportunity such as falls seldom to anv modern stateman; and yet, although in almost every event his judgment was correct and his vision enlightened, British policy under his guidance declined from the very summit of authority to a level of impotence such as, since the Restoration, it has seldom reached.” Several explanations can, as a matter of fact,, be readily offered, but, while admitting an element of truth in each, Mr Nicolson prefers to examine the problem not of why things happened, but “why they happened in that peculiar way,” and begins with a study of Curzon’s character, his faith and temperament. The influences out of which his imperialism grew were “the self-righteous materialism of the Victorian bourgeoisie” and “the intellectual rigidity induced very early in his life, owing to spinal illness.” He believed and held consistently that the British Empire was the greatest agent for good ever known, the very instrument of God. It was a religious faith that stood in natural opposition to democracy, and in India he did his best to justify it. At the same time he was egocentric, and lacked a sense of proportion, which caused him to misunderstand post-war developments. CAPPY RICKS AGAIN. The announcement some years ago that Cappy Ricks had retired from business was properly held suspect by discerning admirers of the shrewd Californian shipping and timber magnate. So that a volume entitled “Cappy Ricks Comes Back” has beeen confidently awaited, and now here it is, with Peter B. Kyne’s name also on the title page. Various reasons may be offered for Cappy’s re-emergence, including the war, the post-war slump in shipping, the fact that he was quite irreplaceable, and, best reason of all, the fact that Cappy really never retired at all. The cunning old fellow merely styled himself “emeritus president” of his various business concerns;' and then proceeded to surpi-ise everybody, as we learn in this book, by demonstrating the powers an emeritus president may assume when he feels like it. Seven stories relate the outstanding events of Cappy Ricks’s later career in the San Francisco business world, with the expected accompaniment of quick-fire conversation and equally quick profits. But Mr Kyne never forgets that, to Cappy, business is really an adventure, a species of glorious fun, in which dividends seems scarcely relevant.

TRAVELS IN THE NEAR EAST.

The Tziganes or gypsies of Roumania are still curious nomads whose life even to-day sounds like a page out of Borrow. They still practise magic, read fortunes, and possess an exceptional talent for music, nearly every Roumanian town or village having its Tzigane fiddlers. Some tribes are specialists in various trades—spoonmakers, locksmiths, bricklayers and farriers. But the old traditions of Zingari begging and stealing still hold good as well. The description of the Tziganes forms the most interesting chapter of Miss Edith Nepean’s “Romance and Realism in the Near East.” The authoress travelled in Roumania, the mountains of the Carpathians, along the B l ack Sea, and down the Danube. She was received by Queen Marie in her palace at Balcic, on the Black Sea, with its beautiful garden of lilies, although no conversation is recorded and no character sketch given of one of the most interesting women of Europe. Ren pictures are essayed, of the fashionable “plages” or seaside resorts of Roumania, of Istambul with the mosque of Saint Sophia, Bucharest, “the little Paris of the Orient,” the monasteries of the mountains, and religious ceremonies of Christians and the Now Year, including the Bapteme of Jesus Christ in which King Carol takes part. The travels are seen through romantic eyes, and the cliches of “enchantment,” “glamour,” “mystery,” and “beauty” are ever-present, together with a liberal largesse of exclamation marks. The book is well illustrated by photographs taken bv the authoress.

IN QUEST OF MILLIONS. In “The Treasure Trail,” by Stratford D. Jolly, we have untold wealth supposed to be lying beneath the earth in Bolivia. For a prize of £12,000,000, the expedition related in this book set oat from Europe, with more or less warranty due to partial finds in connection with a story in 1778. A few years after Pizarro’s brutal heroes established themselves in the country of the Incas, Jesuit missionaries set themselves to convert the Indians, and they built fortified monasteries cut off by the Andes from the authority of the Spanish Viceroy at Lima. The Spanish Crown claimed one-fifth of all treasure from the New World* Continued refusal resulted in a blockade, and finally expulsion. It was said that hundreds of Indians were at work for years malting underground hiding-places for immense wealth that had been won from the mines and converted into money, ingots, jewels, and Church treasures. When the Spanish troops arrived there was no trace of the treasure and no information could be gained about it. This was no mere adventurers’ expedition related by Mr Jolly. A company was formed, men picked, air compressors, tractors and a great quantity of material got tos'otlier, and operations began at the supposed place under tremendous difficulties. Tunnels were unearthed and other peculiar circumstances surrounded the finds, but no gold was forthcoming, and floods at the workings ended the enterprise. The author nevertheless has a splendid story to tell.