BOOK NOTICES. IN CAMP AND BARRACK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2265, 29 July 1897, Page 59

BOOK NOTICES. IN CAMP AND BARRACK.

' By W. Ferbaes Aububn.

London, Melbourne, &c. : Ward, Lock, and Go. Danedin : J. Braithwaite. Under this title we are presented with a number of thoße short stories — mere episodes all of! them ; some indeed nothing more than sketches of special routine or occasion — which have recently come so much into vogue. In a former collection, " Boot and Saddle Stories," Mr Auburn proved his capability for writing these brief sketches of military life, and in the little volume before us there are many excellent numbers. Ab a soldier himself, the author is naturally at home in every detail of the soldier's life; therefore his pictures have a certain merit of their own. It may be — the lay brother cannot judge in these matters — that be is right in insisting that the average British " Tommy Atkins " does not drop 'his he, murder the Queen's English, or powder his conversation with " strange oaths," as do the immortal '" soldiers three " of Rudyard Kipling. Let us concede the point -the Thomas Atkins of Mr Auburn may be an infinitely superior person to the careless singer of " On the road to Mandalay," but ha will never move us to laughter and to tears as does the " Tommy Atkins " with wbom\Rudya'rd Kipling, and he * : aldne, has put up iv toucb. Nevertheless there will be a certain number of readers who will enjoy Mr Auburn's plain and praotical style, and to' them we commend with sufficient heartiness " In Oamp and Barrack."