A LITERARY CORNER

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7979, 9 December 1911, Page 12

A LITERARY CORNER

BOOKS OF THE DAY (BY “LIBER.”) THE REAL AUSTRALIA "The King’s Caravan; Across Australia in a Wfigon,” By Edwin J. Brady. Illustrated, London.: Edward Arnold {VZti Gd not.) Mr Brady, deservedly one of the most popular JiiciiibiMo of wliat lias boon called “Tim Bulletin" school of poets, proved that ho can write prose which Tuily equal in -quality to ills verso, and that, as all of my rcatlww who know ’•Tho Wuyu of Many Waters” -will agree. Is 'no mean praise. To make a journey i—with the double object of pleasure and ■profit—in a caravan or wagon, is no new idea with English writers. Tho late Dr ■Gordon. Stables niade some excellent “copy" out .oC.budi a journey, anti so, too, quite recently, iuis .Mr Keble Howard in his “Happy Vanners." But in these books, as in William Blacks delightful, but now, 1 fear, .half-forgotten "Strange Adventures of a Phaeton," there woo a sentimental intercat, u happy blending of topographical detail with agreeable love-making. Mr Brody had no "disturbing petticoat” in the light one* ihor&e wagon in which ho ■ journeyed from Sydney, through New South Wales, Tight away up to Townsville in Queensland. Hie solo companion was a most pronaic but indirectly most entertaining youth, a cheeky but -resourceful young Australian, whoso Christian name was Joe, but who figures throughout tho narrative os tho , “Director of Travel. Hr Brady tells us that ho had long cherished tiie idea, of a travelling caravan, wishing to see the real Australia, "Australia away from the geography and the guide-book." In the early spring of 1899, “when tho sap began to rise, this wander-lust grow too strong for further denial," And so a light American wagon was built and bought, and Mr Brady, accompanied by file faithful factotum, the “Director of Travel/sot off on his journeying©. Tho “King© Caravan" wat> the title given to the vehicle by a prptty young actress who *aw the author "off." . From Sydney_Mr Brady journeyed up through , the Blue Mountains district to the Jenolan Caves and Bathurst, thence through Orange and Dubbo to Coonomble, Nurrabn, lnvoreil, and Grafton, and so on again to Ipswich and Brisbane. From Brisbane to Townsville tho coast road was followed, through Maryborough, Buudaberg, and Gladstone, to Rockhampton, and so on, still further north to Alackay, Bowen, and Townsville, where tho "King's Caravan" was Isold for what it would fetch, where the “Director of Travel" was paid off, and whence the author returned to Sydney 1 bv eteainer,' The journey occupied something over eleven month©, and, by doing journalistic and other literary work on route, ’the author paid hia expenses and had a nice little cnequo •to the good. Mr Brady has given a most entertaining account of which was eminently enjoyable. No book that 1 have read for some years gives, bo plain, unvarnished, fresh, .and original view of Australian, .especially Queens-, hind, life.' In the free open life of the road the author cleariy'took' th©"keenest interest. The book is full of telling little -diameter sketches—many quit© in the style of Hurry Dawson at his eariirst and best-of ewaggors and teamsters, riiop herds and roustabouts, sugarmill hand© ' and miners, wagoners and drawers, bushmen of every possible class. The book ds full of good, -wholesome fun, and a specially pleasant feature is the absence of that tendency to be cynical and pessimistic, which -is. too often a salient and very 'objectionable feature of literature that emanates from the “Bulletin" school. Mr Bradys comments and criticisms upon men, manners, and lifo are replete with a buoyant good humour which is captivating, whilst every now and then no writes in thoughtful strain concerning certain Australian political and social problems of importance- Thus ho touches on tho problem of white versus coloured labour on the Queensland sugar plantations, and (bus not a little to say concerning the. way tho flacks are treated, and something. "tdo, '’i6KVthg';mic©tioii cf land monopoly. As a' narrative oi the road, the book is most fascinating. How Stevenson would have revelled in such a book—or George Borrow —could they 'have known Queensland. Mr Brady's factotum is a delightful youth, with more fibrin, a dash of Tom Sawyer hi him, jjrlua a touch of one of “CadAs' youngsters in Steele Rudd's inimitable sketches, “On Our Selection. J I can warmly commend “The King & Oara•*an/' a perusal of which will give hew Zealanders an excellent idea of what Australian* and especially Queensland, life as like. The ■ illustrations, many from photographs taken by tho author, are, /numerous and excellently reproduced.

MAINLY ABOUT MELBOURNE

>‘on the Wallaby Through Victoria.” By E. M. Clowes. Loudon: /William Hoinemann.

•Mrs Clowes writes about Victorian *ud —incidentally—Australian, life, as she Iras known it. She know it for eight years, and during that period her experiences wore varied. Sjho “edited a woman’s fashion paper (‘of . sorts), wrote short stories and articles, decorated houses, painted friezes. made blouses for tea-room girls, designed embroideries for the elect of Toorak, even for tho sacredi denizens of Government Mouse, 'housokopt,' washed, ironed, cooked, made a garden, drew out the estimates, engaged tho men, bought soil ond manure, shrubs and plants, laid out a croquet-lawn, delved, sowed and planted shrubs/’ No doubt she had, in those eight years, a very intimate and varied acquaintance with, life in Melbourne, bnt I am not so euro that sho is quite justified in giving her book tho title of “On tho Wallaby.” For "on tho wallaby” suggests country rather than city experiences. It is, too, more suggestive of male rather than femalo wanderings. The “swagger,” ’ the “hamper” of "bluey," the "sun-downer,” is rarely of the softer sex.

Nevertheless, Mrs Clowcb’b hook, chough not free from grotesque inaccura.■ies, may servo a useful purpose in giving an average English reader some UlOie reasonably accurate idea of Ausiraliiui life than he or sho may bo able to gather from the “Over-Sous Column” yf tho “Daily Mail,”, or from “Home Chat,” or “Snappy Snips.” or similar periodical literature affected by so largo a section of English readers who are apt lo form their impressions of tho “Heinpire” from what they see in tho "papers.” It is no terrestrial paradise that Mrs Clowes -depicts in her book, and, on tho whole, it .would not be ill for Victoria—tho' Victoria outside Melbourne—had tho picture had even darker shadows, for what Victoria needs is not the “refined.” “cultured” “lady” immigrant, full of Old Country prejudices (pins not a little snobbery), bnt good healthy buxom lasses, willing to tacklo country work .and fit and proper mates tor the young' Victorians.

A good many Melbourne people ,*eem to imagine that Melbourne is Victoria. As a matter of fact the greatest curse that Victoria possesses is that vast. ugly, dreary -wen

ou the bank of tho Yarra. I’lioro ns iar too inucn Melbourne in -Mrs Ciovycs <•. Ixjok. Mrs Clowes'© experiences in Melbourne Gats, with tea-room girls, with M-rvaiils, and "helps," ail her many amusing pictures of city life, are very well iu their way, but of the real Aus-tralian—-or even Victorian—liie, the lile of tho bush, the life of the men and women on the land, she tells u.-> 'iciy little, and what little she does say is the veriest banality, hike most Englishwomen of her type, sho waxes enthusiastic over the servility of "John/ anu although she is not quite so open iy anti-democratic as arc most Old Country ladles who discuss the “Kasvluues, it evident that with the labour party, oi whoso desires and aims she writes with ludicrous inaccuracy, she has the' ©cantost sympathy.

Tho bock, however, . is, m its own way, valuable, in that it tdiows how a fairly well-educa-b-d English woman, of no profession, has lived in a big Australian city for 'eight rears. But the keeping of tea-rooms, tho designing of friezes—even for Government House —the editing of a woman’s fashion paper ("of sorts ), arc hardly tho occupations to which Australia desires to attract new comers. Australia wants good strong working women, not the "superior person" who wants to live ou "art aiecdletvork/' women who might bo "gawky" and ‘ provincial" in a drawingroom, but who can mako good farmers’ wives. Mrs Clowes is city bred, and lias city tastes, city likings, and city prejudices. Every now ami then she may endeavour, with tho assistance of statistics of tho "Year Book" variety, to get away from . tho city, but her heart is in Collin© Street, and sho gives us as little xeal idea of Australian lifo as a man who has never left the Strand or Elect Street, All this much said, it is only fair to add that what Mrs Clowes does say is said very brightly. Also, the illustrations, as Mrs Betsy Prig said of “tho drinks," aro "all good." A LITERARY LETTER (BY "LIBER.") A Charming Cook for Children. Next week I .hope to devoto no inconsiderable space <to several books which are suitable for Christmas -presenrts. Meanwhile, I want to recommend parents and all good folk who like—%nd who does not?—do delight a book-loving kid’di© with a Christmas gift, to mako a special, prompt and particular note of “Fairy Rings" (Cassell and Co., through Whiitcxmibo and Tombs), a book of fairy saorks by Edith Howes, whose previous book, “Tho Sun's Babies/' I so warmly praised in tliieaa columns a few months ago. Mrs Howes, who, X may say, is a New Zealander, a country school teach-’ er in Otago, (thrice lucky aro her .pupils), is u born story-fceUer, and peculiarly gifted in her ability to interest and •amuse young people. •■’Unices 1 am butt a poor prophet. Mis -Howes’ two books, the one .under notice, and its predecessor, will achieve in time a permanent popularity, not .only in Now Zealand put in America ana England, in her “Son's Biudc-s" the -very -cieveny utUioad natural history. Again, iu ‘T'oary Rings” she goes first to iNaturo for inspiration, buc on a foundation of fact cue builds a superdtructurtj of delightful romance. Her pdc«turcs of flower and bird life are specially -ciiraiiaiug, : butTfne> by ..no moans confines her attefAion to 1/uy' New Zealand bush, -but' travels far afield to countries where lives many a cneatur© unknown, tuvo iu story books, to moeft M’aorilaml youngsters. 1 cannot speak too highly in praise of this second uook of Mi's Bowes, a book in which t'iie iufe Lewis Carroll, and, before him, Ildus Anderson the great, would have vastly delighted. Interspersed In the /stories aro many quaint and pretty little poems, possessed of a Prosit ■ charming lilt, and —Hiis is important—not** too “literary" and too “clover" lor young folks to uudeiwtivnd and appreciate. The hairy land to which those fortunate youngsters. Win-and Twin, are introduced is the quaintest, most varied, most .completely romantic of worlds, and not the least praiseworthy of the book's many good features is its unforced and dainty humour. A veritable feast of good things for child readers lies in the pages of Mrs Howes's charming volume. > Mr Frank Watkyns contributes four illustrations in colour, and print, paper, and a tasteful binding bear testinfony- -to tho, care which has very rightly been displayed by tho publishers in tho production of -the volume. Cassells are the publishers, and the price is throe and sixpence. As I said above, my usual "Gift Book Budget" will appear in next week's “Literary Corner." The reason why I refer to Mrs Howes's book in this week's notes is. that 1 do not want my readers to miss securing a copy. Unless I am mistaken, local stocks will speedily 'Tun out." (Review copy tflirough Whjit'combc and Tombs.)’

"Breadfruit Bligh.” No one who is interested in the early history of Australia should fail to subscribe to “The Bono Hand,” if only dor •tho excellent series of articles, entitled “'Pages from our Past.” Which deal with various notable scenes and episodes in the history of civilised Australia. I do not know What other “Lone Hand.” subscribers are doing, but for my own part I carefully extract these articles, which, when ttho series is completed, I intend, to havo bound up as a welcome and valuable addition to tho “Australian” section of my - modest library. In the December number, Mr J. H. M. Abbott writes on “Breadfruit Bligh,” of Whom and tho famous Mutiny of tho Bounty ho gives a most interesting account. The article is illustrated by some capital drawings by Kerman Lindsay, for whoso art, when, the . artist is not in a wilfully eccentric and rcreliant jmood, I have tiro highest admiration. Mr Abbott gives what to many ,people will come as a surprise, namely, what is on tho whole a very favourable picture of Captain Bligh. True, ho was no “gentle nurse to his crew; ho was harsh, overbearing and rude in manner,” but ho was whatnorthoountrymen call a ‘ 'rare-plucked ’un,” and whatever his faults may have. been, that wonderful feat of his, tho bringing of tho eighteen men who, with him, wero put oil tho Bounty with their commander into a frail boat, and brought, moat of them, in safety to Timor, was a marvellous achievement. Mr Abbott calls Bligh’s enemies in New South Wales, “a miserable crow of hucksters, who used their rank and power to further their legal and illegal interests in trade.” The man whom Nelson had chosen as one of his ' captains. Who fought lus ship. Hie Glutton, so well at Copenhagen, that the Admiral sent for him to coma aboard h.:s flagship arid thanked him for his brilliant services must have had some good in him, and yet Mr Abbott says, as an Australian, that "as a small boy he was taught that Bligh was tho Very Devil, the incarnation of a bad man—as well as a coward.” “Tho years,” says Mr Abbott, “have justified the man. .. His awful temper was an incident —just as Pitt's love of port, Napoleon’s immorality, were incidents. The real Bligh shows ns a man who did great things, and did them well—an honest man, a brave man, and a good man.” Bligh was buried in a dreary- old churchyard at tho back of Lambeth Parish Church. Amoiigstother features of Hie December issue of the magazine, which the ex-'Wellingtonian, Mr Arthur Adams, edits so ably, are stories by “Kodak,” “G. B. Lancaster," .Tames Edmond, May Siede, and Edward Hyson. Also, there are many- interesting articles, and, as is only- fitting in a. magazine whoso editor is himself a poet, some excellent, voree.

The “Jack Harkaway” Books. When '‘Liber” was a l/oy it was accounted by many »torn parents of tmi** time a most desperate offence for lads tu buy and read a periodical known as "The Boys of England," in which appeared, lor some years, a series of stories relating /tho ad venture's of one Jack Uarkaway. Writing in a literary journal ou books for boys, Sir M iilium Bull, _M.IL, gives some reminiscences of what ho calls “a dashing publication," the “Boys of England,” the Weekly to which 1 refer, and which had an enormous vogue daring the “seventies," and made a largo fortune for its proprietor, Edwin J. Brett. Mr Braeebridge Hemming, who wrote, if 1 remember rightly, some highly sensational “detective” stories, published iu shilling paper-covered volumes, which, in my youth were to bo seen at every railway bookstall,-was the author of the “Jack Harkaway" stones, which were illustrated in a highly sensational manner. Sir William Bull puts the authorship down to one Stephen Hayward, but Hemming was -tho man. Sir William writes; —"This (tho Brett fortune) was largely duo to one story, “Jack Harkaway,” which, 1 believe', was written by a wayward genius named Stephens Hayward, who is just now attracting tho attention of ‘Notes and Queries/ Jack wont through incredible adventures. Tho story started with ‘Jack Ilarkuway's School-days/ which must have run for a year; then Jack Harkaway at Oxford,' then among the brigands, tho pirates, and savages in America, Asia, Africa, etc., finally winding up with tho comprehensive title of ‘Jack Harkaway And His Son's Adventures Round the World/ "Whether they went into the third generation I cannot tell, but every number ended up with a desperate situation, and they never succeeded iu quite killing tho villain, whose name, X think, was Hunsdon. I have not read it since those days, but I fancy a great many of the feats were annexed from better books, and the interest was kept up Horn week to week, and year to year, with on energy that never flagged. Wells, I road with interest tho other day, approved of ‘Jack Harkaway' as a. stimulant to the imagination, but .my parents mildly objected to him. Wo were given ‘Tom Brawn's Schooldays/ *St. Winifred’*/ ‘Eric; or. Little by Little/ and ‘Agatho.s/ on our birthdays, and dutifully read them! but ‘Harkaway/ 'Jack Rushton. or Alone in the Pirates’ Lair/ and somebody who was tho ‘Boy Chief of the Delawares, were the sweets at our literary feast.

Sunday Books in the ’Seventies. I can well remember the parental cane—no, it was a lathi —falling heavily ujion a prominent and -tender part _or my anatomy one fine ‘Sunday morning because I was discovered -reading a “Jack Harkaway" yarn. In those days the stock Sunday family literature consisted of “Tho Sunday at Homy" . and “The Christian ’World/' the latter a weekly journal, the chief features oi which were serial stories by a dreadful person called Emma Jano ‘Warboiso (with a wicked "Jesuit" iu every one of them, whoso nefarious design? were always, however, by a virtuous young Nonconformist minister), and several columns of advertisements, mostly emanating from rnous grocers and -drapers, who sought apprentices and assistants, and offered "only a small salary, but a good Christian home!" When I regal I the .sort of literary in ullock which was to bo found in the middlo-clas© Victorian household, I don't wonder at the popularity of “Jack Harkaway." It presented the mid, and later Victorian youth’s protest against the literary “Wo-wserism" of the period.

The Churton Collins Memoirs. Cimrtou Collins, lately deceased. Professor, Uaiyereily , Extension .Lecturer, criminologist, Shakespearian, . and the, most original of flankers and tlie most courageous and ’unconventional of literary critics, figures as a very likeable person in the recently published ‘‘Memoirs/’ Collins was—lor a time—a great friend of Swinburne, and was- al&o on intimate terms with Carlyle, whom lie quotes ns declaring that "Christ was a world historical humbug'’ (a dictum with which Collins did_not agree), burne was a “curious growth/’ George Eliot '‘dull,” Ouida's .-works “damnable,, hateful, abominable.” Carlyle must have been in a particularly savage mood when Collins heard him deliver those judgments. With Browning also, Collins was on good terms. Browning told him what the “path-linders” of his time thought of death and the hereafter. •‘Tennyson told me that ho t-eit positively certain of an extension ox individual consciousness after death. Carlyle said to mo a short time before his death: •1 have no notion at all, not thc-smallest idea, whether l am going to be annihilated, or whether 1 shall burst out into something splendid and quite strange/ Old Landor said; ‘I do not care a jot which way it goes. X am ready for either.’ Huxley felt very depressed and dissatisfied that ho would Ixe 'out of it’—felt the hardness of having to quit consciousness when his curiosity was cvO anient, when so many new truths were daily coming to light. Harriet Martineau was anxious to live because she hated the idea of annihilation, and that was, she felt, , certain. Ho (Browning) said himself that if he -were perfectly certain that a hew life was before him, that a hew series of experiences was awaiting him —ho should not scruplo to- determinate this life himself, after, he said, making arrangements to secure the comfort of those connected with him/-’ Browning goes on to say that his belief in God and God’s goodness is absolute, and that every time ho stretches forth his hand ho is conscious of a miracle. By tremendous work at lecturing, journalism, and authorship Collins is said- to have made <£-1000 a year the best ,part of twenty years, but he made several unwise investments and died a poor man. A Clever Kipling Parody. A writer in “Harper’s Weekly,” what time the “Reciprocity” light was raging in Canada, thought lit to poke fun, and very clever fun, at Kipling (whom he dubbed R. Pipling), whom ho pictured as addressing *'(Jur Lady of the Snows” as follows,; "What! for a. mess of Pottage small Would you .renounce the glories all • That I. have won Tor Englishmen ' Can you one moment contemplate Your ohillsome, isolated state When heath this Reciprocitee They’ve severed you from ME? Prom ME, the modest English Rose. Who penned 'Our Lady of the Snows’? Must I give o’er my long-kept hush To write ‘Our Lady of the Slush’? "O Canadee.! O Canadee! I beg you take it straight from ME, That Annexation Spells Vexation, As you’ll see As I have seen, who years Tried, ns perhaps you do .not know, 0 Pallid Pippin of the Snow, To work that Reciprocitee 'Twixt Uncle Sam and MB! For when I had the cuss annexed My daily life and ways were vexed. Because. O Lady of the 100. He never even sought advice I The odds, I found, were far too great For ME to try to run tho State, As I do hero At Burwashmero. “I laboured hard, I laboured well. To rouse the Yankee from the spell ’Neath which he’d slumbered ever since Ho handed George the Third tho Quince; And I who’vc faced the cannon’s roar, And fought the Wigwag and the Boor, And never flinched at sight of gore—--1 fled who’d never fled before! "Wherefore, beloved Canadee. Take pattern, Sister, after ME, And flee; - And give this plan nefarious Of Uncle Sam’s to sever US The slip I Yours ever, PIP.” All very smart and clever, no doubt,

but Kipling’s fervently-worded letters — against Reciprocity—in the Canadian pivss, told, and xhe last laugh, and therefore, proverbially, the longest:, rests with "Tip.” Five Good Novels. A corrckspondjnt (H.T., Waikanae) asks mo to give her the ikies of five "really good novels” to take away ou a holiday trip to Rotorua. So many different opinions ara held as to what is, or what is not, a “really good novel," limit, like Mr Jingle on a ianiuns occasion, i will not “presume to dictate/’ But X don't think my correspondent will go very far wrong it she takes, say. "The Glory o: Clementina Wing” (.Cocke); “Queed" (11. b. Harrison); “I lie Common Law” (Robert W. Chambers); "The Song of Remiy” (Maurice Hewlett); “Fox XVirm" (Warwick Deeping). “Queed.” You may remember that a few weeks ago i w.umiy Lommendid an American novel, “Queed/ by il, b. Harrison, as being one of the best, the very best novels of hue y-rar. V\ lurcher Che story lias “caught on ’—hideous bat convenient expression—in Now Zealand and Australia 1 can’t say, but I am very glad to 1 learn * from Mr C. K. Shorter r> always : most readable “Literary Berber" in Eon- , don “‘Sphere/’ that “Queed" is one ou tbo best soiling novels of the moment in England. Over 80,000 copies of the book have been sold in the States aiM in Great Britain. Mr Shorter remarks, inter alia: "I am not surprised at itb success, both in England and America, for the more 1 think of it tho more am I iiaprcssod with a. certain haunting quality that the book possesses. .So many of the novels that wo road and enjoy and praise aro speedily forgotten, but you will not soon -forget 'Queed' and its curious hero when you have read the story." Persia of To-:!:y. Just now, >» . u affairs Persian are so. prominent iff t ie cablegrams, M. Ponfadino's book, “Lifo in tho Moslem East 1 ” (Hodder and Stoughton), is of timely and special interest. Tho author wits for many years a consular officer of /the Persian Government and lists many curious stories to tell of his experiences of what tho Persian considers “law and order." It was his own extremely unpleasant experience during a morning riile to bo almost hit by the falling pieces of a criminal who had just been blown off from a gun, and lie adds; “How many times within the lasi, ten years have I seen headless bodies lying in. the .public squares of the large cities, or heads hanging over city gates, or the executioner leading a criminal whoso cut-off hand lay iu dhe hat in which ho collected money, or leading a thief by a string passed through the nostrils." The last is a punishment tor petty theft, whilst cutting off the hand, or four fingers of it, is tho distinction awarded for burglary. There is a delicacy, however, about the Persian mode of punishing women. Instead of amputating tho hand, they drop a heavy win-dow-sash on it and break the bones; and when women are ordered stripes they aro put into bags and beaten. Such is the tenderness of the successors of Omar Khayyam to the ladies ‘ einging In tho wilderness."

The Persian Idea of “Blood-Price.” M. Ponandino remembers highwaymen wailed up aiivo, or hacked in pieces, or blown from cannon, or publicly crucified as late as ISBO. Probably the same things go ou still, at least iu times of disturbance. There is no organised police service outside tho capital. .Gr course, many criminals get off by paying a bribe, and, as there are few secure .•prisons, any one who has money con ..usually escape. Moreover, a murderer may pay blood money inTiou of his own life. The manner iu which this is calculated’is one of the most complicated things about Persian law. A woman is worth only half a man, and so a man cannot be executed for the murder or a mere woman. A husband, whose wife had been killed by his steward, was obliged dust to pay half the stewards blood-prioe to the man'© relations, and thus the /steward, having been reduced to the value of half a man, equal to one Whole woman, was legally executed. "From ithis princiolc it follows that a man who has killed two women can be condemned to death, as equality is not infringed. If the murder of a. woman bo committed, by several men, the friends (upon whose initiative alone any proceedings can take place) can demand the death of but one of the murdererb, aud always by paying the difference in the price of blood. On tho same ground, if two women murder .a man, the- death of both can be demanded." Evidently one could make a comfortable fortune in Persia by getting one’s nven-folk...mur-dered by a woman apiece. Much the name plan is carried in the case of minor injuries, with this curious addition, that the part of tho body paid for is considered to be tho property oi the one who pays the blood-money. “For example, A cuts off a part of ( tlie car of B and pays the sum of money defmuided. In the meantime B has the bit of ear ©ewn on and the wound has healed. In this case A has the right to demand that tho money paid be returned to him or that the bit of ear be removed I"

A Famous English Bookbinder. Aa article of .special interest hookmen, especially tiioso who take (.vc-iight in a lino binding, is to Ixj found in the “Art Journal'" lor (October, whero Cyril Davenport writes ou 1110 “Bookbindings 01 itogor Payne." Payne wac* inclined to look upon the wine—the “wmo" in Ills case Bondon “porter * when it was red, but lie was u wondenully skilled craftsman, and hi.s bindings to-day are greatly sought after, fie--lived in tho middle and inter eighteeiu'h century and had a little bindery not far from St. Martin’s Lane. Ho was a queer character, of whom Mr Austin Dobson, in hie ‘’Eighteenth Century Vignettes," wrote a most curious account. Like Fepys he kept a diary, and just as honest Pepys jotted down what ho spout on "Spanish wine" at "Doll Martin’s," so Payne kept a record of his outgoings on baser liquor. Once, according to his son’s account, “Hoger’s day record contained but the two Falstaffiau items—‘Bacon, 1 halfpenny; Liquor, 1 shilling.’ " But when he did set to work tho product of his hand and eye was delightful. Mr Davenport, in tho course of his article, credits this tippling binder with being the first to study the production of systematic ornamentation upon the doublures, or insides of the boards, of his bindings. Neither Btrthelot nor Mcarne, ho says, thought anything about their doublures, and the only instances of this kind of ornamentation to be found in Italian or French bindings are rare, individual, and do not belong to any group whatever. Payne’s doublures form a valuable criterion of authenticity, and they always evinced a groat amount of consideration and study on his part or on tho part of his assistants. They vary from full morocco to almost plain paper. In the majority of tho bindings which were bound entirely by Payne, the doublures and end papers consist of a rich dullpurple paper with small gold tooling on tho edge turn-over of the leather of the binding, but sometimes this leather turn-over is broad and richly ornamented. Payno also used n pals pink end paper. The article is illustrated with pictures of some of Payne’s most famous designs

“The Sullivan Shakespeare.” , Clever Edmund J. Sullivan, who, many years ago now, made all England laugh at a aeries of caricatures, ‘Tho British Working Man,” by “One Who Knows Him,” which appeared iu tho now defunct 'Tun," and of late has been very prominent as a book illustrator, bo.s done a series of drawings for an illustrated.edition of Shakespeare, issued by Mr Dent, in three volumes (the "Everyman” text), at four and sixpence

each IVere I wealthv enough to indulge iuy bibliupliilic tastes to tiu-ir full bent, 1 would .promptly possess myself ot the “Sullivan'' Shakespeare, but already three editions of tne “Immortal Bard" reposo on my shelves. “The Old-fashioned Sort.” Down Chiswick way is a .email oldstyle bookshoo, which has lately chnngoil hands, ami is being; brought up-to-date Tho now proprietor is clearing out all tho antiquarian stock— Jio sane oifor refused." A passer-by . wanted a decent edition of Popys' Dinry, and thon-ht it would bo well to inquire liunv. The spick-and-span proprietor replied: "No, sir; but wo have Letts. Oh 1 can assure you they are much superior to (ho old-fashioned sort. . . ■’ Tilt/inquirer fled.-“Thc Book I’nider “With a Book.” most people of ordinary . susceptibilities have been convinced this week that our extraordinary rummer has really ••olio at last, and have tasted tho joys Sf sitting by the lire with a book, a pipe, or a person—ov perhaps all tiuee —tor company. , Lament as we will the passing -of tho long, warm days, (we will not whisper now that some of them were a trifle too warm), there is a sense ot luxury and well-being which only comes when fire-light biiffuses tho sniOKingroom or study, when the blinds are drawn, tho world shrinks to the illumined circle, and the memories and muriims of thing«> most cherished win through the silent hour. As a nation we love tiie frosty days—when we get them—and the lirelit evenings; hoe not “Flinch” pictured tho Englishman < a thousand times iu an attitude which has become more or less typical—until hands in nockets, feet wide apart, coattails before the blaze? Stevenson praised this comfortable rest-house on the day’s journey, and many another writer has joined with him; every freelance in London takes up his pen in October to compose essays on ‘‘Firelight •, every editor in London ©ends them back by the dozen between now and February* And so it will ever be, until we become a radiator-warmed nation and inspiration wings her way to less prosaic climes. — “The Academy/’

Wjill Ogilvie and His Verse. it is a good ten years and more ago since the writer of these lines reviewed/ a book of verso by a.u writer, Mr W. H. Ogilvie ts "lair Girls ami Gray' Horses." aud received <v u-analy expressed letter of thanks from Uio author. Mr Ogilvi-o now lives in Scotland, ■but still writes verse, much of it well above the average. In a recent number of the “Spectator" appear the following lines, entitled “The Gleaners ’:

When the pal© moon is leaning From Heaven’s high blue. When' faintly and far Gleams 'tho gold of a star. Then I know that God’s gleaners ore gleaning The dim stubbles over and through.

Little light feet are scaling The down-trodden stems. And black eyes aro bright. Seeing far through the night, Whole the field-mice their prizes aro trailing On a pavement of dew-fashioned gems.

Every track in the stubble Makes path for the haras, Loping over the hill To* feast at their will, Where the bent straws lie arching and double . ’ In eliin-set, innocent snares,

Come, swift little feet to the foray! j Coijie. gay little guests, to the feast! No night will betray ‘ The least word of your way.

And tho moon will tell no on© j-curstory, Till Dawn pin© her rose on tho East!

Wisdom for the Week. They who seek nothing but their own just liberty, have always right to win it ami keep it, whenever they have power, be the voices never so numerous that oppose it.—John Milton. There is in ©very * productive energy something mysterious and sacred, which it behoves us io consider as above discussion and judgment.—Paul Bourget. Tho evil of our present civilisation, from'the artist's point of view, is that he is compelled by the conditions to give of his second best, —Frank Harris.

Life is so obscure a thing that there is a sense in which all criticism is futile and impertinent.—A. B. Walkley/ The first step towards magnanimity is to perceive no lack of it in others.— John Davidson.

Change of labour is to great extent the healthiest form of recreation.—William Ewart Gladstone. The love of economy is the root of all virtue.—Bernard Shaw

He who possesseth little is possessed still less.—Nietzsche.

Virtu© consists not in abstaining from vice, /but in not desiring.it.—Bernard Shaw.

Perpetual aiming at wit is a very bacl part of conversation.—Swift.

What matters a book that cannot transport us* beyond all books? —Nietzsche.

Death is nothing; but to live defeated and ingloriously is do die every day.—: Napoleon. ' A man’s good work is effected by doing what he does: a woman’s by being what she is.—G. K. Chesterton. A now movement need not be a revolt, but rather a sortie to carry a fresh position.—Fiona Macleod. Of all charms that touch our soul the most moving is that of the mysterious.— Anatole France.

It is never good to desire something so much that everything else is a matter of indifference.—Ernest Henan. The sun is groat, but ho is only half a sun until his path is paved with the songs of skylarks.—John Davidson.

Stray Leaves. Tho "Australasian" refers to the author of "Love in a Little Town" and •'Down Onr Street" os "Mr” J. E. Buckrose So, too, do quite a number of English papers. And yet it has , long been an open secret that tho author or these charming stories is a lady, "Mrs" J. L. Buck rose.

Yoshio Mariano, whose ‘‘Japanese Artist in Loudon” was such a success, has done a long series of illustrations in colour and black-and-white for “A Little Pib-rinrago in Italy,” the text of which is by 0; At. Potter. Constables are tho publishers. Edward Thomas, whose ‘‘Nature" and ‘‘Tramp” books are so popular, has written a short biographical study and appreciation of Jjafoattio Jtleani, Which constables are rmblisning in a new- earice,-., entitled ‘‘Little Biographies.” May Sinclair, author of "The Divine Fire.'’ ■has “done” a little book on "The. Three Brontes” for the same series. Mr C. K. Shorter, in London ‘‘Sphere," announces that Mr J. L. Garvin, tho ablest, if. at times, the most ate journalistic champion of the English Conservatives, is to assume tho editorship of the ‘‘Pall Mall Gazette” ill January next. “Then,” says ‘‘C.K.S.," ‘‘the fireworks will begin. Nelsons have bought out the Victor Hugo copyrights and are adding Hugo’s complete' works—novels, poetry, and plays—to their new famous ‘‘Collection' Nelson," published in Paris at 1 franc 25c, and in England at a shilling - . Thev announced "Les Miserable*," in four volumes, for October; “Les Contemplations” and Napoleon I/e Fecit" for November. This 'month’s volumes include three plays, ‘‘Hay Bias,’’ ‘‘Les Burgraves" and ‘Torquemade,” onA a novel, ‘‘Han d’lslaude,” and ‘‘Le Pihin,” iu two volumes, for January. _ I wish Nelsons would give us all Balzac’s w-orks in similar form.