LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3519, 23 August 1921, Page 54

LITERATURE.

HOOK XOTK’MS. "Fifty X ears of Golf : Mv Aremories.” j By Andra Kirkaldy, of St. Andrews. 1 fold to Clyde Foster. (T. Fisher j Unwin.) Golf-p.avers will welcome this weli-got-up volume, containing tile reminiscences oi ihe Well-Known ana popular "AiiUra, prcifssioiial golfer of m. Andrews Club. Bincira lias a great repuiation as a raconteur—•"liaebouy couio till a guv.lin' story it Ice him is one among many quoted trioutes to his persouaiitv aucl | ability. “Alan and boy, caddie and pio- J it'.ssiojial goiter, ’ t.ays ne, “1 have passed 1 luli>' 5’J years of nu hie at is.. mmnv.s, | the headquarters or' the roval ami ancient ! game, ana U 1 timid be sure oi 6U vears | LO come It Is there, and nowhere “ci. e, I 1d be wanting to spend tiiem. yiali is j tne game pair excellence ot the leisured I classes ai.-u of mature tile. Among us devotees it numbers ir.a:iy<o>::e n wn.i ldl a large piace m the world’s re 'arct, and "--viidra has sometning to sav oi nianv of these—Ficlu-imirshiu ilsi>,' Au Jt.u'-lti-nr, Air Asquith, tile liisaop m Loudon, others. “sir Balnjur was aiv.ats ill deadly earnest about the game, taking care witn each shot to make the best oi it. lie did not talk much, and anything I he might say had always reference to the j game. If he made a bad shot, lie wolljd mutter i-ot her;.! I ion,’ but never auvUiiiig stronger. 11 is manner had a sort of ,-oi.oring etlect on me—you know what l moan it put me on my very best behaviour, •if tlie end ot a round Air Balfour never failed to say, ‘ llutnk you, Andrew, for a very nice game, or words like that, just as if 1 had done him a favour.’ lie. notes Mrs Asquith has been writing a book—''too dear for ino to buy : but r need not- trouble my head about that, for my name was never mentioned I in it from cover to cover. Well, that's ' no reason why J. should not mention Airs | Asquith's name in my memories. We all I lu-.ed -Mrs Asquith at St. Andrews,” and tneu he recounts a characteristic anecdote of her at a- St. Andrews fair. “Airs Asquith was Inc happiest lady golfer I e\er saw on the links. She did not come there to wrinkle her brows at bad lies or bad shots.” Early this century Atiaru, 1 visited America, and among his experiences records a bull-light, “(if course, Herd and I could not he in Texas for the first lime without feeing a Gullngbt, but 1 think we could be in Texas again without seeing one. . One bullfight is one too many in my lifetime. We saw 10 poor horses killed and about as many bulls. He remarked : “That fellow lighting the bulls nsimia face a coo, because a coo fights with her eves open and a bull shuts Iris eyes when he comes at you.” On some 'Spaniards who understood iiis remarks jeering at him. lie offered for a hundred dollars to go into the ring and face any of “their blind bulls,” a challenge which fortunately was not taken up. The greatest golfer he ever knew was Thomas Morris, the younger, who played before any presentday champions handled the club. “Great golfers are born, good ones are made,” is an aphorism heading the chapter “The Making of a Golfer.” lie counsels playing os naturally as possible, without worrying and over theorising. In conclusion, he cites Lord Rosebery as saying that the charm of golf lay in the fact that all its followers played it, unlike the hundreds of thousands who attend football and cricket matches. The book contains 21 good illustrations —many of notabilities engaged in the game. The frontispiece shows “An,ha” himself “at tile top of his form.” A .Minor Literay Journal. M.A.B. (Mainly About Books) is a small magazine published at the low price oi 2d a copy, and containing in short com,on s much literary intelligence and extracts from high-class current literature. The number for June, which has been sent to the Witness Office, lias for ■ first article a ‘'London Literary Letter,” which contains short notices of a number of new Looks. Live short articles follow, and announcements of just j published and forthcoming books are son- j plied. One of the extracts given is j Hubert W. Service's patlmtic bit he noem. j “loddy Hear, which will become a uni- j versa 1 household favourite, with the prose \ introduction published with it hv the i author. Another, “Crows in the Bub- j orbs." is l iken from If. .). .Massingham's Xature-book .“Some Birds of the ('osmirv- i side.” “Mental Contagion,” treating of the spontaneous transmission of ideas and emotion among human being, in close | association, is taken from “The World in I Revolt : A Psychological Study of (),„• j Times.” by the french writer. Gustave le | Ihui. Sur'ii passive absorption of beliefs ! and emotions is seen in its highest degree I among races and classes of low mental I development., but probably not even the individual of strong intellect and high j culture is wholly imnerviotis. “It, was hv mental contagion. sa\ the author, "that the vast Rus-iun army was die- | solved in a few months. Socialism was ! iua ei:i triumphant far more hv contagion I 1 than by virtue of its chimerical, pro - j mi-ms.“ As au instance of the power of j mental contagion to dominate weak eharj after. the n-e ■< Philiime Kgalite. Duke lof Orleans, is cited. “On the eve of the j I day when the ('onvention was to d-'oide ' the fate of Louis XVI. the Due d’Orleans | protested with indignation against the j idea tliit he could rote for the death •of the King. But. lie did vote for it. I Having returned home, where he was no I longer subject to this influence, the Due | burst into tears, declaring to his children j that he was unworthy to embrace them. ! and added : “Mv misery is more than f | r-iiii Lear : I can no longei imagine how j f could have been led into doing what 1 | did.” Fortunately good impulses as well as cruel and cowardly ones may be

ahsornecl. ami of this the writer gives an illustration from war oxpcriru -s. Winn during aerial raids on Paris people of all classes and mental types crowded for rc.ru on into cellars, “all felt suddenly that they were members of the same Liii.i.iiy. The ltace was present, an invism.e goddess, uniting all hearts by mental contagion. Lverybn.lv was calm, obscurely feeling that a word or a gesture that- spoke of anxiety might evoke in his neighbour a degree of mental distress that would quickly spread from one person to the next. Ihe wave of collective panic never gathered itself up, because the wave of courage, sustained by mental contagion. was sufficiently powerful to prevent it from arising.” His conclusion is that “beliefs spread by mental contagion cannot be opposed by arguments, out only by contrary beliefs, propagated witt! the help of leaders who possess the peculiar art- of exciting crowds.” A1.A.8. certainly gives wonderful value for the money. Two Now v.S.W. Bookstall Novels. H “ I tie Fortunes of Geoffrev Vane.” J>v Charles Rodda. * ! -s a tale of early Australian days. Ihe hero, having quarrelled with iiis father, comes out to Bydiicy. takes up ■ and with a friend made on the voyage, deserts him when drought and other troubles bring their labours to nought, let urns __ to Sydney, and, having re-mit-t.-incc- from home, gives himself up to gaining and general dissipation : then, being m danger ~f arrest \m a murder cnarge, owing us the result of a quarrel, decides as his life is forfeit to turn highwayman. Fate is kind to him. The first wayfarer he challenges fires on him, his horse throws him, breaking one of his leg''. 1 lie man he waylaid turns out to lie his former partner, ami proves a veritable good Samaritan to him. And thereafter he meets with good fortune ami happiness. i hero is plenty of adventure and good description in the book, both before and after Australia is reached. XX e are shown the not uncommon misery in those days of a long calm in the tropics ; then the Sydney of convict days and the hardships and vicissitudes of pioneering in a land the naturalconditions of which were not yet understood. XX hen Geoffrey Vane landed the Blue Mountain barrier had not been pierced; Bass and Cayley had failed to find a passage, and many deemed the range impenetrable. But while Geoftrw and liis partner wore struggling on their newly-taken farm, XX’entwort-h, Blaxlaud. and Lawson achieved the task, and from the conquered heights gazed down on the great panorama of the inner plains. This story is a very good Bookstall number, and incidentally gives a good deal of information about the early history of New South Wales. 2. “Fettered by Fate.” By Arthur XVright, author of “Gamblers’ Gold,” “Rogues’ Luck, etc. Illustrations bv Percy Lindsay. This is a racing story of the presentday. Tlie plot hinges on the trickery of a notable racing trainer, who systematically victimises horse-owners with more money than sense. Finally retribution overtakes him ; he is found dead, killed bv a revolver shot, and the hero of the story is suspected of having shot him in revenge for his horse being made to lose the race ii should have won. The suspected man. Phil Ferill, eludes arrest, and after a course of adventure and danger is finally cleared. A love interest is supplied by the attachment between Phil Ferill and the step-daughter of the trainer. The final chapiter gives a picture of a race at llandwick. when Fenll's horse wins the Summer Cup.