BOOK NOTICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15824, 24 July 1913, Page 3

BOOK NOTICES

* Jewels in Brass." By Jittie HorlicL London: Duckworth and. Co. Icloth; 3s 6d.) "Jewels in Brass"—precious ffenifi in poor or shabby setting—is the title of_ an extraordinarily interesting psychological novel into which the author contrives to weave much Eastern philosophy in eo subtle a way as to engage the attention of the reader without arousing his antagonism. The faith in a continual succession of lives is delicately hinted at rather than baldly stated, with ail the reaping and sowing, canse and effect, implied in the initial statement. Very early in the story we are introduced to Boko, a strange being who haa the gift of looking into people's eyes and reading "the vejry far past—for he talked of a thousand years as most men talk of yesterday,—the immediate past, and the future," Soko looks into the eyes of Antonio, the heroine—then only a child of four—and sees many things. Some of these he tells to her reputed father, and they form the keynote of the ensuing story, giving to it that slight touch of occultism which is so attractive to many readers. With rare skill Mlk Horl'ck paints for us a- most attractive heroine, pure and beautiful in mind and body, steadfast, loyal, tender, faithful, of strong mentality, perfect physique, a most engaging innocence, a strong sense of honour, and the binding force of a contract. In the long past ages Antonio and Raby have met more than once, and then the '"jewel" of the woman's soul was indeed set in "brass," and his recognition of its value came too late. In tho more immediate past their lives have touched but not blended, but in this story we see them drawing towards the final union. Many obstacles are in the way, but they have patience, and have no desire to force their evolution. Glimpses fromthe pMt oomes to them, as well a 6 promises f or the future; they know that they have all the time there is, and they are too wise to snatch happiness at the price of another's pain. Tl\e three principal characters in the book are happily individualised and attractive. A difficult situation _is handled with great delicacy, and the enigmatic promise of the title is fully carried out.

•"The Guardian." By Frederick' Orin Bartlett. Boston: Spall, Maynard, and Co. (cloth; coloured frontispiece; 3s 6d.) This is a novel of the great woods, breathing the keen ait of out-of-doors and portraying -with sincerity and skill the characters of lumbermen, foresters, woodlanders, and their women folk, The interest chiefly centres round two brothers and the two women to whom they are attached. Nat Page, "the Guardian," is one of those manly men who combine all the primitive virtues with tenderness of heart and devotion to all women for the Bake of one. When the "one" woman engages herself, in a weak moment, to his younger brother, Nat at once pute his own feelings on one side and sets himself to act as self-appointed guardian to both; for, unfortunately, the younger brother is neither strong nor " stfaighl" nor "white." For Julie's sake Nat tries to make a man of him and fails, because the material is absent. The central theme is therefore simple though stupendous, no less than man's responsibility for his fellowman, and on its broad application to the lives of the men and women in this book it carries conviction and possesses a fundamental quality which gives the tale a wide filiation. •

" The Beacon-watchers." By Violet E. Simpson. London: G. Bell and Sons. (3s 6d> 2s 6d.) The interest o£ this story largely centres round the powerful personality of Jeremiah Starkey, a misshapen dwarf, who, in spite of great physical drawbacks, shows mental and moral powens of the highest order developed to their uttermost. Starkey is nominally a chemist, but in reality a very learned and skilful physician. He lives in a quaint corner of Old London, and, being "well off," practises only when .he feels inclined. To him come a delightful mother and chfld, the mother apparently dying of consumption; the eirl, a wonder-child nourished on fairy tale 6, who accepts ( him immediately as a "beautiful gnome." In time he learns their sad story—that they are the wife nnd child of Algernon Frenant> now imprisoned in Pentonville for the -forgery of his own father's name.. This Algernon is an abnormal being, born without any sense of right and wrong. Duty and responsibility convey no meaning to hia mind. Yet he is beautiful, gay, charming, a delightful companion, even'although it is not sa,fe to leave for a moment lest he pnt his hand in the till or otherwise filch his neighbour's treasure. In the delineation of this character the author shows much skill, and the conception is— 60 far as we know—absolutely original. The whole tale is unusual in plot and execution and decidedly clever and forceful. Fortunately for herself, Algernon's liltle daughter is early removed from her father's influence and adopted by her trrandfather; but from first to last the -wife, Ginevra, is the loving slave and devoted admirer of her husband, to whose faults she is strangely blind, and for whose sake she abandons the whole world and considers it well lost. "The Wind Among the Barley." By M. P. WiUocks. London: Mills and Boon. (Cloth; 3s 6d.) This is a delightfid collection of short stories and' sketches dealing with rural life and interests in " tho land of blue distances," where the wind sweeps and the breeze whistles amid the tall, bearded, swaying heads of the barley, making weird, music and telling homely, pathetic tales to those who know how to hear. To those who thus listen the whole world is "Cupid's Garden," bush "afirej with God." Comedy and tragody, black spirits and grey, mingle in the cup of life | and provide food for thought for this observant onlooker. "The New Parson'' has a tale to tell, as well as the old woman in the chimney-corner; the "shipman" tells his yarn and so does "the widow at the gate." . All alike are racy of the soil, all alike carry us to the Devon hills and dales, the deep overhung lanes, the wide wind-swept downs, and all the countless out-of-door attractions of one of the most picturesque of all the English counties. Nor are the superstitions of the old-world region forgotten, for, " though trains lush past us almost "every hour of the day, our environment changes not.''

'"Die Cnree." By Fergus TTume. London: T. Werner Laurie. 3s 6d, 2s 6d.)

A mysterious, carefully-hidden " black cell" and its attendant mediteval "Curse" form the theme of Mr Fergus Hume's latest sensational story. To these are added the bane and antidote of a South American poison which has the power, when used in small doses, of producing physical paraJysis while setting the mind froo to move clairvoyantly as in hypnotism, save that in the case of this poison trio patient remains inert until the antidote is applied. A large dose of the poison kills. With- these materials, plus a hunchbacked, suppressed heir and a young lady murderess, Mr Hume contrives a- most thrilling story, calculated to curdle the blood and drive sleep from the eyelids of any rash enough to read if in the witching hours of the night. " Outlaw's Luck." By Dorothea Mackeller. London: Mills and Boon. |3s 6d, 2s 6d.) The hero, a horse thief of marvellous gifts and impudence, with the face of a baby and the cunning of a fox, makes many friends and a few relentless

enemies, and in the end, having sown a more than usually prolific crop of wild oats, settles down to domesticity on a nice little estancia of his own in the Argentine, his companion being the heroine with whom he ran away, as he would with a horse, 'because eho interfered with his schemes. Katherine's'adventures during the forcible kidnapping are quite the most amusing part of the story, which is full of fun and frolic from the first page to the last.

"British *Boys: Their Training and Prospects." By M. J. King-Barman. London : G. Bell and Sons. (Cloth, 2s 6d net.)

The scope and object of this very useful manual may be best understood by its table of contents, which includes the following " Elementary Schools; Complaints Against and Supposed Defects in School Life; Higher Elementary Schools; Reformatory and Industrial Schools; Poverty and Bad Homes'; Rural and Practical Education; Compulsory Education — What it has Done; Religious Instruction; Socialist Sunday Schools; Physical Training and Feeding; Medical Inspection; Patriotism; Discipline." In his preface Mr King-Harman makes some illuminating remarks on the nature and adaptability of boys, winding up with the following statement, which will be heartily endorsed by many colonial educationalists:—"No one who has followed the Boy Scout movement as closely as I have done an fail to be convinced that the present generation of boys_ can easily be made better men than their predecessors. .if they are only trained in the right way and their environment improved."