WITH PAPER-KNIFE AND PEN

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4259, 19 January 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

WITH PAPER-KNIFE AND PEN

1,-If. - -The We of Unrest,” hr Henry Scion Morrhmm : “Men of the Mcr■•■inlile Marino,” hv Frank T. Bidden. CUactnilbin’s Colonial Library.) London ; Macmillan and Co. 'Wellington : Whitcombe and Tombs.

- -At I lie Sign of the Cross Keys.'’ by Paul CTcswick. (Bell’s Colonial Library.) Melbourne: (Jcargo Robertson anil Co. Wellington; Whitlaker Bros.

-V. ‘-The .Heart's Highway,” h.v .Mary E. Wilkins. (John Murray’s Colonial Library.) "The Autobiography of a Charwoman,” by E Wakehain. (Boll’s Colonial Library.) Wellington: Wliiteombe and Tombs.

.Mr Henry Scion .Menriman, who-n "Snivels'’ at once stamped him as a novelist, of far above, the ordinary ruck of lattei-day writers of fiction, lias gone to Corsica for the scene of his latest story, ‘‘The Isle of Unrest” (I.). The period is the decade previous to the outbreak -if the Franco-German war, and the hero, a young French, officer, of Corsican birth. Cory tie Vassolot. .Between the Vasselols and the Peruccas, a family whose estates adjoin those of the former, had reigned tor many years a terrible vendetta, and the legacy of hatred and bloodshed is still in force when the story opens. It seems incredible Unit, such an insane and wicked custom a.s the vendetta, n- relic of the worst savagery of the middle, ages, 'should have survived the growth of civilisation and progress, but it is difficult, for English people to understand. the Latin races at auv time, and in many- ways tlie Corsicans arc still a people apart from ordinary European influences. Fate ordains that' Lory do Vassolot shall fall in love with a beautiful Parisionne. Denise Lange, whoso dead father's oousiu, Mattel Perucca, dies suddenly and leaves the lady an estate in Corsica. T-low the feud hetwen the Peruccas and the do Va-sselots is alfceted by this event, and in what way it is ended, we shall not say. but must refer our rcad,ers to Mr Me-rrimau’s fascinating pages. The author of “The Sowers” has not, in this, ins latest work, striven So much to invent those- sparkling epigrams with which the pages of “The Sowers”' and '“Willi Edged Teals” were studded, but in striking incident and well-drawn character sketches “The Trio of Unrest” is singularly rich. The older Vassolot is a specially picturesque character, and the win is a gallant, manly follow. As for Denise, wo venture to predict that every reader of Mr Mcrrinum’s story—and may they be many—will vote her an exceptionally charming heroine. “The Lie of Unrest” is a novel we can cordially recommend. The hook is well illustrated. (Price, 2s Gd paper, 3s 6d cloth.)

Another recent addition to Air Macuillau’s Colonial Library is Mr_ Frank P. Builcn’s ‘‘Men of the Mcrcanti'jj Marine” (II.), being ‘’The Polity or the Mercantile Marino for Longshore Readers.” Mr Billion's name is well known to most people by this time as the author of that remarkably able and picturesque account of the old whaling days, “The Cruise' of the Cachelot,” and his almost equally interesting book, “The Log of a Sea Waif.” Tho scope of the latest volume from his pen is correctly outlined in the sub-title quoted above. The author sketches, with a bright and vigorous pen, every conceivable phase of life on board a sailing ship. Like an older and equally popular writer, Mr Clarke Russell, Mr Billion has a deep affection for the “wind-jammers,” and never coascs to emphasise tho value of a sailing ship as “the only school wherein to train a thorough seafarer.” He docs not, however, entirely neglect that side of maritime life, which is peculiar to steamers, but the majority of his chapters deal with the “sailers.” Commencing with the master, or captain, ho takes each officer in turn, and explains his duties and daily life, sketches his ambitions and bis chances of success. Next comes the. turn of the mates, and gradually each member of the ship’s company, “bosun,” carpenter, sailmaker, steward, cook, apprentices, ship’s boy, “A.B.’s” and ‘'ordinaries,” arc dealt with, separate chapters being devoted to each. Two final chapters describe tho sea Jifo of tho engineers and firemen. Tho book may bo roughly described as a landsman’s encyclopaedia, of the mercantile marine, and ho who roads it will possess a remarkably comprehensive knowledge of one of the principal sources of Great Britain’s Commercial greatness, on sea and on land alike. The chapters on the modern British seaman, and tho author’s remarks on the Nava! Reserve question contain many theories and suggestions which should bo of value. They are certainly of the lushest interest to all wbo( are concerned as to tho ever-increasing invasion of British ships by foreign seamen. It is impossible to speak too highly ip praise of Mr Bullen’s easy, direct and eminently “readable” stylo. He puts tho pleasures and troubles, the rewards and drawbacks of the modern “sailorman’s” life (both officers’ and seamen’s), in tho clearest possible light. Every boy of an adventurous turn of mind, wlio may be hankering after a sea career, is strongly advised to tiqm to Mr Billion's capital book. (Price, 2s 6cl paper, 3s 6d doth.)

“At the Sign of tbo Cross Keys,” by Pa til Crcswick” (III.'), is an interesting romance of eighteenth century life in London. Some of the incidents are vrildlv improbable, and tho author’s introduction of that famous charlatan, Balsamo, Count Cagliostro, as one of his leading characters, is a mistake. Only Carlyle—and Dumas—can . make Balsamo live before us : in less skilful bands ho becomes the most extravagant of personified phantasies. Nor can that Mr Creswick’s boro, John Delfng, a young West Country gentleman who comes to London and sinks into the contcmntiblo character of a . professional eard-sharpef. impresses ns very favourably. When lie (loos reform, for lovo of a. fair young lady, whose brother bo has swindled, Dcring’s bettor nature triumphs, and be comes out in handsome moral colours. But, in the first instance, ho fell rather too easily into the arms of tho scampish '‘Brethren of the Cross Keys”’ to create a favourable impression upon the reader. The initiation ceremony in vogue with the "Cross Keys” is a trifle stagey, but Deiiugs’s persecution' by bis- oh! associates, when they suspect him of treachery, atfords the author scope for tho introduction of many stirring incidents. Phillip do Vans, who first leads Denng astray, and becomes his* friend afterwards, however, by a peculiarly dirty picccof work, threatening to oust him in the affections' of his sweetheart, is a

veil-drawn character. The story is readable enough, but in no wise notable. (Price, 2s Gd paper, 3s Gd doth.)

Yet another novel on what is now becoming the well-worn subject of lire in “Ole Virginny.” Miss Johnston’s “By Order of the Company,” and Paul Ford’s “Janice .Meredith” were both capital •stories with Virginia for a background, and now we have a tbtrd novel possessing the same scenario. This is Miss Mary E. Wilkins’ “The Heart’s Highway” (IV.). a story which has enjoyed an enormous popularity in America, and will, wc have no doubt, find a new host of admirers in these colonics. Miss Wilkins is well known to novel readers hy her charming stories of simple country life in the New England states. In her latest effort she breaks new ground and makes what we believe is, for her, a first essay in historical romance, achieving a decided success. The period is the later part of the seventeenth century, and the principal characters are Harry Wingfield, a young English gentleman of good birth, and Mary Cavendish, the daughter of a family of equally good descent who had settled in Virginia. Wingfield had been wrongfully charged, and unjustly convicted, of a crime in England, and arrives in Virginia with a dishonoured name. Ho finds friends, however, in the Cavendishes, who had known his family in the Old Country, and who hold him innocent. The young fellow promptly falls in love with tlie belle of the district, to whom he acts for a time in the capacity of tutor. Trouble, under many forms, is strewn over the path of true love, and the out look for Wingfield is soon gloomy enough. Miss 'Wilkins utilises an historical incident, when she describes how the Virginia planters, furious at the British Navigation Act, which injured the profit of their trade in tobacco, out down the young plants and indulge in behaviour of a riotous, not to say opeii.v rebellious nature. Mary Cavendish becomes involved in the planters’ plots, and is threatened with grave misfortune. Wingfield, however, .shields her and is himself arrested as a rioter and put in the stocks. The scene where tltn young man is in this humiliating position and is openly joined by his lady-love in her finest bravery of costume is a novel and well described episode. Needless to say that all ends happily for the lovers. Harry’s name being fully cleared of dishonour. Miss Wilkins has drawn some very picturesque characters, including rakish English noblemen, tippling English officers, rough-spoken but honest Virginian planters, a pretty waiting maid or two, and the inevitable jovial, roistering parson, who acts as a general good angel to the characters wno are in trouble. There is. of course, in a romance'of this kind, not so much scope for that quiet humour and simple charm which have pleased readers of Miss Wilkin’s many Now England stories, but in what is, for this writer, a now field and almost a: new style, she has succeeded remarkably well. “The Heart’s Highway” is decidedly a novel to be read. (Price 2s Gd paper, 3s 6d cloth.)

Miss Annie Wakeham’s. “Autobiography of. a Charwoman” (V.), is not, as some might expect from its title, a book of Cockney humour of the style affected by Mr .J. K. Jerome or Mr Barry Pain. It is written throughout, it is true, in what is generally understood to be the Cockney dialect, but it is far from being a “funny book.” On the contrary the autobiography of Betty Dobbs is a human document of no small interest—aye, and value also—to students and. would-be initiators of social reform. It is the lifestory of a woman of the people, of -what we are pleased to call the “lower orders,” a wonujn who had infinite sorrows and misfortunes, and yet ever maintained a gallant spirit of unflinching patience and pluck. From her start in life as a poor servant girl, villainously betrayed by a pitiful rascal in the shape of man—of whom, however, such is the mystery of woman’s nature, she cherishes almost to the last a kindly memory—to her two marriages, her rearing of a family, her battling with the ever-present problem of poverty, right through to the closing scene of death, the reader cannot but follow this life-story with irresistible fascination. It is not all dreariness and ugliness, not all sorrow and misfortune. The poor Ijavo their small joys and make much of 'them} and Betsy Dobbs had that best of equipments for the battle of life, a sunny cheerfulness which rose superior to the most unlovely and disheartening environment. One rises from a perusal of Miss Wakeham’s story with a fuller, and, it is to bo hoped, more charitable conception of what is called “slum life” iu Loudon. In. her own way this poor Cockney charwoman is as true a heroine as over lived. Very rightly does the author in a preface which should certainly be read, describe her as a “gentle, woman of the slums.” There is none of the repulsive so-called “realism” —of the grubbing in muck-heaps kind—who has disfigured more than one story of East End life that has achieved a certain fame, and the effect of the book is not in the least depressing, but rather the contrary, notwithstanding that the serious not® must necessarily be uppermost, “The Autobiography of a Charwoman” is vastly more entertaining than half-a-dozen novels of the day. Miss Wakeham is to be congratulated upon one of two things. Either she has been marvellously fortunate in being able to chronicle a genuine life history, or she has carefully gathered together and cleverly utilised material for a fiction which is a triumph of vraisemblance. Price 2s 6d paper, 3s 6cl cloth.

Some interesting particulars cl the veteran masters of hounds are given in the “County Gentleman.” Mr John (Jrozier is entering upon his 62nd season as Master of the Blencathra Fox Hounds. Mr George Race, who is still master of the Biggleswade Harriers, has shown sport to the followers of his excellent pack ever since 1840. Mr John Lawrence, the nonagenarian master of tho Lhingibby Foxhounds, commenced to hunt hounds as long ago as 1826. Ireland supplies such veterans as Mr Robert ■ Watson (master of the Carlow and Islahd since 1845), brother of Mr George Watson, who has an almost equal record here, and Mr W. de Salis Filgate (master of the Louth Foxhounds since I 860.) In Scotland there is Mr J. W. J. M. Paterson, who has ruled over the destinies of the Eskdaill since 1855; and Wales can boast of Mr J. P. Vaughan Prysc, who is entering upon his 42nd year as:a master of barriers.