NEWS AND NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16020, 11 September 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS AND NOTES.

"Messrs. Blackwood promise immediately another volume by the author of "The Green Curve," now better known by-the familiar pseudonym of " The Eye-witness." "The Great Tab Dope" is a collection .of stories and sketches of army life. The Everyman Publishing Company will shortly issue '* The Life Romance, of Lloyd George," written by Mr. Beriah Evans Many portraits are included in the illustrations, together with reproductions of a selection of well-known cartoons. A pirated edition*' "War on German Trade" has been published in Berlin, and the German. Government has -distributed copies all over Germany, Austria, and neutral countries. ' The book was published by Mr. William Heinemann, but is now oat of print. A 'new'and revised edition is now in the press and will be published shortly. Messrs. Maemillan will shortly publish " The Sorrows of Belgium," translated by Herman -Bernstein from the Russian play by Leonid Andreyev, who, in six' scenes, has depicted the tragedy of "Belgium -ind • the sufferings of' her people as reflected in the home of a Belgian poet and thinker. It is said that the hero of the drama is intended to be Maeterlinck, and that one of the other characters is King Albert. As a writer in the Times has said, "rhetoric and invective, loftiness of aim, and an ' adequate expression of it,,- have been the mark of the verse that has. been poured out' in -such abundance during the war." But in the little .book of Mr. Wilfrid Gibson, of Hexham, which Elkin. Matthews has in preparation,"a different,a more individual " and- ultimate note, is struck. The book, which is to be called "Battle" will contain a series of dramatic lyrics of the war, many, of which have already attracted considerable attention in England and -'America on their publication in periodicals. ■...-. .., r. .

Coleridge, in one of his lectures, divided readers into four classes. ? The first „he compared to an hour-glass, their reading being as the sand, it runs in and runs out, and leaves not a vestige behind. A second-class he said, resembled a sponge, •which imbibes everything, and returns it in nearly the same* state only a little dirtier. A third-class he likened to a jelly-bag, -which allows all that "is pure to pass away, and retains only the refuse and the dregs. The fourth class be compared to the slaves in'the diamond mines of Golconda, who, casting aside < all- that is worthless, preserve only the pure gems.

In connection with the recent transfer j of the ashes of Rouget < de, I'lsle to the I Pantheon, "La Semaine Litteraire" recalls j a ; curious and' tragic episode of the 'composer post's youth. = Wheg be ; was , about twenty .■•he -was ■much, C enamoured of a young girl of Courbeyoie, Mile. Camille," the daughter: of a retired army officer,! and in. due coarse became engaged to her. .' To celebrate : the • occasion •a " family party was; given, with fireworks,- which totter the; young soldier ; arranged; should be off by . himself—-especially one "set piece," consisting of the monogram of his betrothed. Accordingly, when the time arrived/be ;. applied ? the light and \ set it off— alas! with direful. results, for one of r the,, fuses struck his unhappy; fiancee in ;the face and i injured severely that'she died a few/days later.

Mr. Henry, James,\the celebrated American litterateur, has just paid the.supreme compliment to England rof becoming la naturalised subject of ;the-"King.//~ In his petition for, naturalisation he gives the following reasons for ,faking: this step Because of his having lived and worked in England for the best part of 40 yearsbecause; of his attachment to the country and his sympathy with it/ and its ( people; because of the long friendships arid* associations and interests he has formed here —these | last including i the acquisition of some proper^;;- all of which tilings have brought-to a head his desire to throw his* moral weight and. personal allegiance, "for whatever they may be worth, into the scale of the contending nations' present and future fortune." Mr. James* sympathies have long been known. In December last he wrote a delightful little appreciation of the work at the front* of the American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps, formed of old Harvard, Yale, and Princeton graduates.