CURRENT LITERATURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18711, 17 May 1924, Page 22 (Supplement)

CURRENT LITERATURE.

flotsam AND jetsam. ~ - .?V' v ' -•• -■ , '• • i'Ci' 'M'v- ' BI H.J.C. 1 r " Bole, Britannia! , . . , Patriotism and the variety of its mani- ? festations form >am . interesting", subject • / for the student of humau nature.' ; During the war there were many who • grieved fact that while the Gtr"V man soldier marched to' battle singing " Deutschland über . Alles" or .'' The Watch on the Rhine", Tommy Atkins ' did not display any eagerness to retaliate with "Rule Britannia" ' but preferred : "Tipperary" or such ironical verses as ' Bond for , the boys of the gills' brigade - To set old England free; _ , _ Bend for my mother, my ulster' ana m. But -heaven's sake don't' send for me! But for heaven's sake don t send for me! By that ' dissimilarity of v tastes' in ; varsongs is revealed : one great difference be- , - tween the British arid' the Teutonicmind. . Readers of . "Stalky and Co." may remember the incident of the patriotic ' lecturer who, with his sloppy enthusiasm sought to violate the reserve that makes the Briton seek in ' light irony a cover for his • deepest feelings. , . The men that marched to battle singing the verse quoted above without douot were, many of- them, inspired by a* Inga and holy .a patriotism as> any Rhine- ;: lander, < bu>. they would have died before admitting . it; indeed, . in the end, did- die—for their country—without admitting it.

The Catalogue of the Ships.

Shins are far more living realities to ns tlian they were to the ancients, for : "hat would a St. of <" warships be without their glorious na ™ e *; { tho A famous passage.m Book Iwo oi.xne Tlifd is known as " the catalogue of the Iliad is Knowu a ca t, a logue of ships, but i s ships themselves thoir commanders, ine . snips t have no individuality, so whether we read that -• • ' ' • . , NesSfth^e\ a aU f c°onduc y tilis a cho y senX^ or that .. . . :> a j™ 7 85Ste A SEW?" n ti» it is impossible to take , a lively interest in these anonymous navies. True thev were small vessels, their crewfUraJin hardly more than eighty, rati craft that a breath from an insulted drill, a goddess Witt • grievance, could - fee like the 1 foam of the ?.« they sailed- yet," to our way of thinking, even . a small ship may have a character and a soul of her own. . . • The . gallant "Arethusa" was no •' * 4 Hood", but ,;.'F : She was a frigate tight and brave : As ever stemmed the dashing wave, and when she met " the famed Belle Poule" at odds, in numbers,, of five to . two, she hailed • the French ship— , " " Bear down.' d'ye see. ; \ To ; our Admirals lee " " No, no," aaya the Frenchman. that ; i must he." »] on K ... 00 ~ " '""Then I must lug ycu along with mo • si-*; Says the Saucy Arethusa • _

; , Little and Great. ' ~ And the Arethusa is only one of a long " line of little ships whose great exploits are enshrined in the songs and the hearts ; of the nation. Less well-known than she , deserves to be is the "Angel GabrieL • While - having •up and down the seas ii : upon the ' ocean .. main , this . lusty _ ship of Bristol fell in with: three large Span- . u ish vessels. ;,i. - ■■■ ' The s Spaniards, cin -their ~ innocence, thought to make her a prize, little know--y ing that the" hero: of , a melodrama .is no V" "more; certain of ultimate victory .than on. English • ship in an English ballad. < • The fighting men of the Angel Gabriel. : numbered J forty. The; Spanish total is not given, 1 but after] a lively contest last- <■> ~ ins v seven - hoars,; the / English had killed five hundred and - wounded many more. ■\M Their own ' casualty - list, , given with all •' V the exactness of , untruth, was remark- : ably light. . -%' ;■ We had within out . English ship ;>:? But only three men slam ■ I - ■••"And five men hurt, the - which I nope r- ' . Will soon be well . a*ain. , . . : The little "Revenge" and the wonderful fight of' " the one - and the fifty-three* ; is made safe for posterity by Tennyson s stirring * poem. ■* < ... , i ' Newbolt. ' has i worthily maintained - the '• -tradition with his ballad of -: the ''bright < Medusa," whose fame will last. ' . ■ vf Till England's ' sun •be . set—- .. .. 'Aid it's not for setting- yeti Lastly, ' Kipling, "in " Sea Warfare" celebrates the less spectacular but posV sibly more useful work of :r those very modem little : ships, " the sweepers (and sweepings) • of the . seas, whose war-task v?-'-'it* was to keep the sea-roads open' for \ ** traffic. And very methodically, without r fuss or heroics;-the work was done. w ' ■ j "Sweep completed in the fairway.- . „ *- No more mines remain. . * ' •' ; • gent back Unity, Clanbel.' Assyrian ' 'Stormwckf-and ; Golden Gam A . V ■: jilpv M'-. v Allan ."Qnatermain Redivivus. Of all the tragedies in- literature, the '. greatest :'. surely : is summed up m the phrase: "The . name died before the man." , „ . Rider Hair, - was once a name to coSure wift He could thrill his read- •'.! e ers— and A their name v was . legion—with : ' . the riches' of « " King Solomon s Mines , the; heroism of Umslopogaas or the horrors -of " She ..• , -4r' /•«_' ,• • •- Allan ;Qoatsrmain,- .--Sir Henry_ Carta,, - 'and Good of the : " beautiful white legs ■were as familiar figures as Sherlock ■: . . Holmes. v Their author's literary popularity' seemed assured, yet where is he to-day? In'" Hen-henor the Monster •' (Hutchinson), his latest effort, the flogcing of a .tired 'brain, is cruelly evident. ; Or to change the metaphor, all the old . and . tried ingredients 1 are there- -' mystery; : terror, hair-breadth escapes- " hut -there is something wrong with . the baking; the result is lumpy,.' heavy, and ' indigestible. " V Perhaps..;: it is that tho, public taste has changed, and the anci- : V: > ait..recipe's .no longer please the modern palate.V. It !is/ ! in- short, : impossible to say why .. Hen-hen" is a failure, but it is equally . impossible to mistake it for . a success. . -