GINGER AND McGLUSKY.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 9, Issue 349, 16 January 1918, Page 5

GINGER AND McGLUSKY.

fHENGER AND McGLUSKY, by A. G. Hales. (Hodder and Stoughton, London.) "Ginger and McGlusky" is another •edition -to the multiplicity of war uojtele that float on the surface of the book market. Its author was widely read in Australia a couple of decades back, his first published book, SO Ifcr as this writer knows, being •The Wanderings of a Simple Child." "Smiler" Stales found his way to South Africa as a British war corre- " epondent during the Boer War, and one of the finest productions of his pen daring that campaign was a eulogy of President Steyn, of the Orange Free State—an "enemy of bore." "Smiler" now figures as a war correspondent in Europe; and in his spare time he oreated first "McGlusky the Befonner." Now he gives Bβ "Ginger and Mcpiusky." Ginger is * delightful Irish tribulation, and Me.Glusky is Scotch —of course. And — iequally, of course—they are both lanzacs. Into the volume under notice .their adventures are written. There is a generous sprinkling of jkumor in the .book, which opens with H row between a big Anzac and Gin- £•;; and MoGlueky comes on the fceene. He tells the bully:— "A dinna say All stop ye, but if ye lift yer ban' ter yon laddie, ye big overgrown gommerill, Ah'll pound yer carcase until ye're sac "Mft'zer frlen's wull be able ter pour ye intae a bottle an' no' hae ta cork ye doon tae keep ye theer." . . . "Aim no , quarrelsome, ye ken," he continued, throwing out one big knotted hand In a wide and comprehensive gesture towards the crowd, "JL'm a poet an' a lover o' peace an' concord; this hell's broth ye ca' war doesna appeal tame. A was suck-) led on peace, an' A love it, but gin yon body wi' th' face o' a transport mule an' a mind like a mud-heap leys a nan' on ma laddie, All alter th' geography o' his face so's th' either ay all th , monkeys wud no' care to ca' him kin." 'McGlusky -Is of a deeply religious temperament, and when he ajid Ginger jare vilely ill-used while held prisoners by the Germans and Ginger expresses bis determination to light a fire and kaake one of bis oppressors sit on it, McGlusky reproves him severely:— "Ye've a verra rerengefu , speerit, an' it's no' Christian, Ginger. F'r lnasel' All be content eef A can wring Mm inta a funnel till he's dry, an' what's left over o' th' Junker, buckle, we can push through the meshes o , a barbed wire fence. Burnin' ijeople's no , a Christian way o' •*erenin' oop scores; we maun be gentle an , reasonable In a' things." McGluaky'e peaceful disposition is etill further demonstrated when Black Hosaa jibes Ginger for his pledge to jUteafgpdre that be would cut out the * ' "A* disna mind daTlyin' wi , a fecht libso en' then, but na snowdrop loves peace malr than xnasel', but, Black Hogan, eef ye misca' th' wee laddie again f'r stickin* ta his oath aboot tb' drink, All push y'r whiskers doon y'r throat an' pu' 'em oot o' yr ears." 'dinger Is the possessor of an industrlous imagination, and Is eternally raying the thing that Is not, altiftmgh he stoutly protests that he jrev.ertells.alie when the truth will do. Wben McGlusky charges him with having told the CO. "awfu , lees,'* Ginfrer denies: — "Och, an' yez make mc toired, sorr. Ring off about lyin', divil a lie did Oi tell; ut—UT WAS DIPLOMACY." A comrade takes the measure of Ginger's accomplishments:— ". . . . Ginger's an artist; he never lays his colors on too thick; fcdfl nee creep on you like the coming of dawn when you're on sentry got; if her only had an education, he make the finest diplomat in Same one else explains that diplomacy is: "the art of lying like a gentleman." Some interesting philosophy is scattered among the book's pages. McGlusky opines:— "Some day when the world has grown wiser, mannie, reverence an' reapec' will fa' on th' men an' women who dae th' worl'B work, not: tm th' fules who loaf through life." Ginger is captured by the Germans, and: McGlusky also gets himself captured for the sake of rescuing Ginger. One of their captors is .a German officer who is a Socialist, and therefore exceedingly friendly towards the prisoners. With him McGlusky and Ginger discuss things. He is of the opinion that whether . Germany wins or loses, things will never be the same with her people after the war as they were before. The Kaiser and the Junkers are doomed. Ginger wants to |eaw vJ£hjr the, don't drown "He's a baste; he's like that mad divil Nayro." The German puts it this way:— , "Kaisers and Junkers have had their day all over the world; they belong as a class to an age that is passing. This war is going to move the world on a thousand years, and mankind is going to be all the better for "it in the long run, and no one will benefit so much as Germany by the change, for, win or lose, she'll be free of the so-called ruling classes." "What good's thim so-called rulin' classes, anyway?—och, they only ftll in th , scenery an , ate th' grub." The German smiled broadly. 'T dtn't suppose you've studied the question, but I'd describe you as an incipient Socialist. . . . Howdid you piclc up the seeds of Socialism?" "Oi expect I picked it up wid the odds an' ends ay grub Oi picked up when Oi cud before th' war." "Well, if you're a prisoner until the end, you may see a revolution following a war, and it will be crueller than the war." "Oi shan't do any weepin' if all them Junkers an"Crown Princes an' Kaisers get what's comin' to 'em." ■ "They're going to get it, and all

the military caste, and multi-mil-lionaire class too." "Sounds as if yez meant ter do th , job proper when yez starts, but tell mc, why didn't you Germans have a go on y'r own, an' clear things up respectable an' dacent wid a iew illigant hangin's ter make sure, instead ay takin' th , lid off hell an' spillin' th , contents over th' face ay th' wurruld?" "The Kaiser had too many bayonets behind him, but we're too used to bayonets now to be afraid of them, and Germany.is not the only country that will be revolutionised." "If yer mean England, y'r wrong. Oi've heard 'em talkin' about it in th' army often; they say their race evolutes and don't revolute." The German smiled at this crude-ly-expressed idea. "Revolution IS evolution; only it's evolution in action, Ginger." The German further states the case: ". . .. . They are swine, these cursed Junkers; what the French did to their Junkers in the great Revolution will seem child's play to what we will do to ours when the time comes." "Smiler" Hales is bitterly anti-Ger-Iman, but he gives the enemy credit for knowing how to fight. There is, he says, ". . . . no need to call the German a coward and talk of the throwing up of hands and the cry of 'Quarter, kamerad.' MOST OP THE MEN WHO HAVE HEARD THAT CRT SO OFTEN HAVE HEARD IT IN THEIR SLEEP, A HUNDRED MILES AWAY FROM THE FIGHTING LINE, and have made popular copy out of it. The Germans fought for every gun, for every foot of ground, for everything that soldiers hold dear, and they died where they fought; they had to die or run when that dour army got amongst them." And, writing of the titanic conflict when the Germans flung themselves, just as night was setting, upon the British position at Pozieres, "like sea waves on granite coasts," and the Anzacs flung them back, he says:— ". . . . none of the men who were in that bitter fighting would ever call the opposing side cowards." There is one sentence the author has put into the mouth of the German that might appropriately be quoted of our conscientious objectors. McGlusky had been subjected to almost unendurable tortures by another German officer, and he bore the agony in silence. The German Socialist sought to comfort him when the torturer was no longer present:—: "I know a brave man when I see one; ajiy one could run amuck and get killed under punishment; it takes rear courage to suffer and be etilL'J Add to the German's pronouncement this sentiment expressed by "Snowy," another of Hales's characters: "My own Impression of men in the lump Iβ they are curs—l don't mean in a fight—any damn fool thing inutrousers can an' ■will fight— ; thingsrtMfmatter." ■ The ntferance is not wholly true, but it comes dangerously close to being a statement of fact; and there is plenty of food for thought In the brevity of it. H.E.H.