NEW BOOKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18333, 24 February 1923, Page 6 (Supplement)

NEW BOOKS.

♦ BY CBXTIC. Diplomacy is so much secret history to the world at large: the reading public, long after its curiosity is dulled, does at last read this secret history through the medium of memoirs and reminiscences. One sometimes is driven to wonder if much harm might not bo averted by the immediate publication of the little happenings on which great things apparently hinge. At least the .world would be interested. The memoirs come so late that the interest is usually exhausted and the tepid curiosity of a later generation is the reward of the writer. Someone has said that memoirs, should be published in the lifetime of the writer, and a few English writers are now adopting the practice of putting their reminiscences on the market to-day. REMINISCENCES. " Yesterday and To-day"—by Ralph . vill (Methuen, London). The author, in a large and amusing volume, contrasts pAst and present times. There is the woman of to-day and her Victorian predecessor; the "new rich," come in for caustic notice. Clubland is exposed to to its bones, and the average Englishman is laughed at. There are some good stories; there are also, it is pleasant to relate, some inconsistencies in the argument which still further provide entertaining reading. Englishmen have a faculty, excelled by people of no other nationality, of criticising and deriding themselves, which is perhaps their form of humour. Anyway, Ralph Nevill is amusing.

[ " Forty Years of Diplomacy"by Baron Rosen (George Allen and Unwin, London). A record of fifty years of international politics by one who represented Russia in Japan, Greece, America, and other countries. He was in Petrograd during the Revolution, escaping thence to America. In one of his stories he is much surprised at the Mexican courtesy which returns his cheque for the third month's rent of a residence in which he was unable to complete his term. He relates also that as a boy in the little seaside town where he went to school, an American Consulate had just been established. The consul had a mast from which waved the Stars and Stripes. After school ho,urs, instead of going home, I used to start awav and run up to the consulate to take off my cap to the flag that represented to my boyish mind an emblem, of what I could not "exactly define, but which I felt deeply. The indulgent reader may be astonished to learn that such were the feelings of a Russian 1 boy in the sixties of last century. But this particular boy was hot the only one: there must have been hundreds of them in Russia, and surely many thousands in Europe, who felt like this. ' America was not only the land of promise and the blessed haven of refuge to the oppressed and hopeless, it was also the beginning of the realisation of their dreams to the believers in a better future for mankind. His volume covers very interesting times up to 1921. \

, " From Sawdust to Windsor Oastlo "— by Whimsical Walker (Stanley Paul, London) I n this diverting volume, the famous Drury Lane clown gives the history of his life. Its ups and downs, his trained animals, his varied engagements, and even his troubles, make light reading, for the hook is a mass of anecdotes, and the author, at the age of 71, can still laugh and make others laugh. His career by no means ended with* the Windsor Castle episodefor that was in Queen Victoria's day. and the veteran was in pantomime m., 1921. He has "done"' clown, acrobatics, drama of the legitimate kind, animal training, harleauin, and has even taken part in film production. He is . therefore more than well qualified to write reminiscences. His are of a frivolous, breezy nature, with all kinds o? fun scattered between his genuine theatrical experiences. general fiction. R ''s abesil^ ""by Margaret Baillie Saunders (Hutchinson, London). A clergyman is being tried by his peers for misconduct. • An unknown girl is advert sed for to give evidence that will save or rum him U Because she, Owena Rhos, a draper s daughter, fears the publicity, she refuses to give evidence of her quite innocent and chance meeting with the man who is condemned and unfrocked. Owena F™ P & eai * S ' becomes a soubrette on the French opens a season in, London, and meets Herve Ransome. He intro-, duces her to quaint weaver-folk practising one of the home industries. She I leaves , the stage, conducts a species of mission in the East End; discovers Ransome ai identity—, is the ex-clergyman— loved him, gives the evidence which clears nim, and afterwards marries him. The home-industry" characters are particularly interesting; and Owena Rhos is given a charming and piquant personality. ■!! T mo ° b y Margaret Peterson (Cassell, London). A certain daintiness in the telling gives interest to this book. A young, boldly-dressed girl attracts the attention of a fellow passenger on a liner coming from South African ports. The steamer is wrecked Sutley rescues Ninon, and afterwards proposes marriage. i ?X™ falr happy . until her vulgar stepfather with malicious intent, tells Nnt.lflv fhof _t i * m I

outiey that .Ninon a character/before marriage was questionable." Mr. Sutley takes his wife back to Africa; and to comfort his jinhappmess a certain young Rachel Moultray says she loves him. Ninon, to leave them free, disappears with an infamous Mr. Luck and his wife. Luck offers her to Zidoki, a negro who has been university-educated and who admires Mrs. Sutley. Zidoki, in his drunken rage, kills Luck, and dies. The two women get away; later both are arrested; the true story is given, and the Sutleys discover* that they love each other greatly and that lies have caused their separation. "Voiceless Victims "-by Guy Thome (Australasian Publishing Company, Svd™y)'. Under this pseudonym the author likes disclosing sensations. In this case he has discovered that the training of circus and menagerie animals is in some cases perfected by means of cruelty. Animals may be, and often are, trained by kindness, but it takes a much longer time. In his book he describes the doings at Stax Park, where Van Keren has a commercial menagerie. Muriel Tressady becoming secretary to Colonel Bullinedon, who is interested in the subject of cruelty to animals, takes an active part in disclosing the, terrible treatment that is part of the animal training at this establishment. The disclosures are not pleasant. One hopes that " Guy Thorne" exaggerates. If he does not, he performs a sercruelties the exposure of these alleged cruelties. h

" The Backsliders' William Lindsey (Houghton, Mifflin, New York, Australasian Publishing Company, Sydney)— is a typical American "small town" story. The Rev. John Gray, who comes to his first post in Pratt's, is a curious and yet unknown type of man. H e has been brought up by a misanthropic professor to shun women. He is narrow and prejudiced He is thrust among a community half led by a sanctimonious scoundrelly storekeeper. His first action is to sit in judgment upon such backsliders as no longer deserve the approval of the Church. Therefore, formally, one man is cast out because he neglects church duties; another girl is similarly branded because she has a baby and will not proclaim its fatherhood. Then the parson gets- to know Alice Hale, who is an artist. She protects Faith Harding and her child gives friendship to Jude, who has been denounced for his weekly spree; almost promises to marry the first outcast because he loves her. But when everyone's troubles are.righted, Alice herself falls £ t ln !i. , ® arson ' and he discovers that the love of a woman is well worth having. 1