CURRENT LITERATURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15948, 19 June 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

CURRENT LITERATURE

•*. . < • I® NOTES ON NEW. BOOKS. HI CMTIO. As in species, so evidently it is in races H , —that the passing on of slight individual variations leads in time to distinctly new races. The Americans, while Englishspeaking, have a speech, habits of thought, customs which certainly show differentiation from modern Britishers. It may be that their speech is the direct descendant of the old Cromwelliau tongue-—for readers of history will remember that to the Puritans is attributed a strongly nasal, singsong habit of voice. They, undisturbed by thd many influences of European visitors which insensibly affected and altered the standards of English speech and, probably only perpetuated what the Pilgrim Fathers brought to America, whereas their cousins in Britain acquired fineness of speech. But, however, we may theorise about their speech it is a significant fact that educated American writers use as classic an English as the most cultured of Englishmen. Their written language, except for the idiosyncrasies of those 20th century people who have a crazo for altering the spelling of English words, is the written language of the British. Obviously, must one exclude that curious freakwriting winch embraces all the local slang vocabulary of its particular district, But speech among the Americans at once separates them from us, and classes them as prominently emphatic, and down to the essentials in the meaning of words. Their popular speakers excite the amusement of the more reserved British; they throw what we consider superfluous energy into their oratory, but throughout them all is the common desire to be free of trammels, of the niceties of conventional speech, to get. down to bedrock, to as they would say "deliver ; the goods.", Here we probably get -the gist of the matter. The American has become, first and foremost, a man of business. Ho takes his business into his language; lie speaks through it,"takes his metaphor from it, and concluding that business is intelligible to all ; intelligent folk, he makes it the medium by which Ids highly-expressive speech is made to impress 1 his listeners. y -■ , ■ " The Billy Sunday Boolt"-wby W. T. Ellis, LL.D. (Yir Publishing Company, London).— Sunday- is a man, and it is in the fitness of things that Billy Sunday, with 6uch a name, should be an _ evangelist. The American evangelist is :,v| largely of the pugilist type., Very often 4 he has. been an athlete before becoming " converted to propaganda work. So athletic is Billy, Sunday's oratory that the photographs of him suggest themselves as cari- . j. cature. " But, cis you • read this. biography . end learn his methods,'you lose the idea of caricature, ' and see the t ex-baseballer, convinced Christian ius a very strong physical type who, having , acquired a personality of delivery, has the good sense ■to put " that" first ; and to keep' it . promi- / ■ nent. By doing this he preserves a strong, y ■ clear individuality in 'a . country where ' each man cultivates his own idiosyncrasies ar.d uses ; them as bis special advertisement. The Britishers like' to be cast in one : mould; the 'Americans; prefer to -be i'-r, . essentially individual, and to secure permarieit individuality by. exaggerating •i; h those sight variations with which each 'is . born. * .. The Age in Which I Live. ■is aliw iiiji'bS'j . ;~v ; Billy Sunday, so his book, tells us, preaches . for the age in which he lives. He casts aside tradition; ' he contemns the orthodox parson method; ; he battles with "booze," as ,i ■ ■ he' calls . it, because he: considers it : we'd that his country should have prohibition;, he 'speaks of and to God in ' a personal hail-fellow-well-met style; ' he ■ summarises

. JMIWWJIJW-Wcu-uieu CKJiC f >HO • ouuuuiuwta ■-t v .the Deity's opinions, tabulates them, and r l gives you the net result. He harangues • you' and spares you no blows. Ha hits straight • out , from the shoulder. t v . "The : law stands between you. and per- ■■■ . sonal ! liberty, you miserable dog," he f shouts at his audience. - " You can't build ; ' a slaughter-house in your - front yard, because the law says you can't ; ■ As long as i. v- •>lv am standing son this platform , I ha\e ' personal liberty. I can swing my arms at will: But the minute anyone else steps on,the platform my personal liberty ceases. It stops juf,t on# inch from. the other fel- ; low's nose.'? Personal liberty is not per- - sonal licewa. ; ' '■ "Go straight on," he . counsels, "and break the lion's neck and turn it into a ; ; beehive, out of which you will some "day take the beat and sweetest . honey ever . ', tasted, - for the : flavour of a dead lion ■in the honey beats that of clover and buckwheat all to pieces. Be a man, therefore, ■, by "going, straight on to breathe the air - that has in it the smoke of battle. - Don't spend much time looking for an easy : chair, with a soft cushion 'in it, if" you would write your name high in .the hall ■ of . fame where the names of real men are found. • < The man who is willing to be r carried over all rough places might as well have. wooden legs. The true value of life lies in: the preciousness of , striving. No ■; :. .tears are ever shed for the chick that dies '/ r (n ■ its' shell." * ■Vl-' '' * Imagery and Rhetoric. These ' two things ' have the evan- ». gelist cultivated, and his biographer .'«tells it of him . that not always ;% 4 was he worth listening "to. . He has gradually acquired the art of letting himself "go," but also he has in the meantime educated himself and choscn the more fy, cultivated reading. His preaching is de- ;' scribed as "acrobatic," but it draws thou?v V| sands 'to the . tabernacles in which he v.-. •' holds forth, preferring these to any build■pj ing where fire and panic may endanger f - life. t " We've got churches, lots of them; r.. ~ we've got preachers, seminaries, and they are turning out preachers, and putting them into , little theological • moulds and \ keeping them there till they get cold enough to practise preaching. Clergymen will find their authority for out-of-the- . ordinary methods ' in the lowering of a paralytic through a roof ea told of in the Bible. If that isn't sensationalism, then trot sonic out." Of religion up-to-date, piping hot applications of the principles of religion, Billy Sunday's book is an excellent compendium. ." Bound the World in Strange Company"—by Nicholas Everitt (Werner Laurie).—Mr. Everitt did not go round the world this time; he stepped aboard the Mauretaaia, and he landed in New York, and from there he crossed the Btaten and visited British Columbia. Now, this suggests the ordinary route of the ordinary tourist, followed by the usual book of impressions. Well, to a certain extent, this is so in his case; but only to that degree.. For he is not afraid of a , - joke, and often tells one very well even against himself., He has apparently that * ' Benße of humour, and that gift of repartee .which are especially, possessed by Ameri- : cans themselves. Indeed) if his own story, be /true—and his subsequent narrative ; bean; it out—at the end :of his Atlantic . prosiang, he was approached by a Yankee entrepreneur .on board,;" with leng hair, -" . ; heavy jaw, and large, gold-rimmed glasses, -fowjdeiE a -six i ■<-3st"

• "Vf/s j?.p ; ' :<W $ x*'■ ' week's coutract y under ", the j gentleman's guidance in * the theatrical and «. variety business." ; Before he could explain his lack of desire, J" another American gentleman of even more pronounced professional type bore down. He plunged at once into business. "Say, boy; guess I'll give you two hundred dollars a week for 'attain; twelve hours on ' and twelve hours off. You to work theatres, movies, private houses, or dime shows at my call—thousand dollar minimum—start,, when .• you like. Is it a deal?" The lawyer certainly enjoyed hie holiday in America; he took friends where lie found them, and evi-' dently laughed at and with tha Americans,. and got to "know the best side of'them. His impressions are well'above the average for freshness and ' candour. • "A Book >of Dear, Dead Women"—by Edna W.' Underwood (Little, . Brown, and Co., Boston; Robertson, Melbourne).— Surely Mrs. Underwood has discovered the art of Maupassant. She knows how to write a short - story, to excise;, the superfluous and to, end on the sudden ' dramatic note. She has vividness and ' colour; she catches nationalism. When .she' writes of Poles, they seem Polish; the Spanish dancer is Mediterranese; the Italian is from Italy. And there is just that tinge >of cynicism which-again suggests the>subtle' French master of short fiction. , Besides 1 the cynicism there is ever/'the : tragedy. The "dear dead women" are i mostly "women who have suffered ' greatly; in their loving. A very vivid picture is drawn of Napoleoij, "who, ' according to ' the story, was lured, to Moscow by means of his love for a ! Polish s beauty. "Another of a young nun'is terrible in its tragedy; yet another is wonderfully vibrant with.the description of the novice's 'red'monk. : Intense they all are' and ' dramatic with that sudden denouement which is the gift of the real short story-teller. i ' '

11 Germany's "Vanishing; Colonies"—by Gordon Le Sueur {Everett, London).—The author gives ft Very concise story of the German dream of colonial', expansion.. He describes in detail the methods used 'by .Germanyto acquire possessions, and the tactlessness with "which she' failed : to 'secure' true, allegiance from the subject peoples. Southwest Africa, East Africa, Togolan'd,' the: Paoific Island, and 'Kiau Chjiu' are among' the chapters, chosen for discussion. General descriptions of the colonies are given, and interesting summaries of the commercial value of each.' '