LITERARY NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6487, 16 May 1899, Page 3

LITERARY NOTES.

[Correspondent "Canterbury Times."] LONDON, March 17. Those who care about a lively volume of quite extra-special "globe-trotting" should send to the library for Mr Arnot Reid's " From Peking to Petersburg," the record of an overland journey from China to Russia. Mr Reid knew something of Asiatic travel, and believed he could penetrate the Celestial Empire, across the desertt of Gobi, and rattle across Siberia without serious difficulties of any kind. ' In this he proved correct, and his book forms an excellent guide for anybody desirous of doing something novel and inexpensive. (The cost of the journey home, including eighty-three days', travelling, was £129. Best accommodation everywhere). One of Mr Reid's most amusing adventures took place at Kiakhta, the first town he came to in Siberia. For days the party had been making their way through barbarism of the feeble Mongolian type, and the change on ariving -in Russian territory was startling. Kiakhta is a city of carefully yriade roads, clean white-washed houses, European shops and store's; streets; squares, "Tardens, schools, schoolchildren — and millionaires!' ■'There .are a dozen men in; the city who' are' reputed to : be. worth more than ■i ,: million sterling, and a score more worth,; a quarter of a million. The people roll in Tioney:" The sources of this prosperity are partly the old caravan trade, and partly the new gold-mining. And the hospitality! Though the extract is rather long, I think I must let Mr Reid describe it :— " At" five o'clock in the afternoon, at the invitation of „ „,„„ _!,„ i, n ji e ri us in the street, we en- .....„' .. Fussi'h^ 'iprcliant**. house, explaining that we could not wait half an hour ; •■•\i ! . it was after midnight when we left. I Our introducer was a young Russian who had spent four years at an American university, and some months in England and among the Clyde shipbuilding yards. Our host was the introducer's elder brother,, a tea merchant of Kiakhta, and interested inVgp\<^^B^fJ : : v^ e '?5T tered the fcpiiseat five and left it after mid-, night. ; The ihteTyal/' to 1 T» quite frank/ was:

spent in drinking and in resisting efforts to .make us drink more. There was also a good deal of casual and miscellaneous eating, beginning with a dinner, merging into tea with cakes, ending with a substantial hot supper. But the drinking was the feature. In addition to our host's family, there were a dozen or more of other guests, who had dropped in casually — officials in rich uniforms, and the mercantile people plainly dressed— for it was no formal gathering. Each desired us to drink with him, and usually in a different liquor. Champagne was flowing as freely as water does in towns where there is no meter check. Chartreuse, benedictine, and other liqueurs were being tossed off in wineglasses. Sherry, ddreC, port, beer and stouts— all carried thousands of miles by land— were being drunk as one might say bumper about. Between whiles neat vodka was being taken by the glassful ... Further, the company were most amiably discussing international politics, in the Russian language, with occasional interpretation, and one had to make speeches, and propose toasts,- and pledge Russia, and America, and England, and invite the Rusian occupation 01 Manchuria, and agree that the world was big enough for the two nations, and to do it all with much drinking. Finally, one old gentleman, with a gorgeous uniform*— let me call him the admiral — challenged me in vodka, and would not accept my willingness to drink champagne. But I was obstinate, because I did not wish to become drunk ; and the admiral grew hot. Where it might have ended I cannot say; but I had the -good fortune to be sitting next the hostess, and very, very quietly, she gently slipped behind the range of bottles the glass of vodka that the admiral had filled for me and subtituted one of water. In appearance the two are precisely the same. Then I drank with the admiral, and we both turned our empty glasses upside down. Then, in a minute or so, i my kindly, hostess slipped me another glass of water, and amidst cheers I challenged the admiral, and we drank again. But that did not end the difficulty, for other people •began to challenge me 'in champagne and port and stout, and the hostess could not help me there. So I pretended to go to sleep. Meanwhile, the company sang American college songs, without knowing the words or the tune, and pledged everybody and everything in every liquor. Well, it came to an end, and I have to thank the kindness and tact of my hostess that I remained sober without appearing to sliffht the national drink." • The most successful of the jubilations in verse anent Kipling's recovery is Mr T W Crosland's parody "Kips," on the poet's famous "Bobs" (i.e., Lord Roberts), in the current " Outlook." It runs to seven verses of which the following are three:— There's a, little round-faced man. Which is. Kip's, Writes the finest stuff he can, Our Kips, Takes the cake for fancy prose, Has the Muses by the nose, Makes us all sit up in rows Don't yer, Kips? * * ♦ * . ■• Wot 'c don't know about life, Mister Kips, You can arst a pleeceinan's wife — Can't they, Kips? If the nation cheers and yells, An' its buzzim kinder swells, 'E trots out Eecessionals, Sined, "R. Kips." * ■ * * * ♦ -i Nay, we couldn't let 'im go, ; Little Kips, 'Cos we found we loved 'im so, Our Kips; 'E has suffered grief and pain 'Nuff to turn a feller's brain ; . .But 'e's.getthi . well> ; again— :- . ; Aint yer,. Kips? : ■ ■ • Talking of parodies and metrical compe^ titions, if such things amuse you turn idthe current "Truth," where you will find, on. the prize-page (which few people ever look at, though it often contains amusement), a series of recipes, a la cookery book, for most of the popular novels of the day. The following really brilliant specimen on the notorious "Open Question" will show your trouble is likely to be well repaid :-- SOLES . 'i A. LA QUESTION OUVERTE" Take a, ; pair of young souls and carefully skin, i Dissect them, examine without and within; Preserve all the essences selfish . and .vain, Add a dash of heredity, passion and 1 pain; Mix well with depressions of diver 3 degree, And flavour ' with Ibsen and felo-de-se ; Dish up with a garnish of turquoise and lace, Then serve in a boat, and push out into space. ■.-..•:... And here are four lines on " The Christian":— ■ ' ■ QUAYLE A LA CAINE. Take a Storm in a teacup and flavour with Manx, With some bad upper ten. and some clerical ' cranks; Add the Derby, some Scripture, the first at , St Paul's, And serve it up hot, with some spice from the Hallß. ; Mr Hamilton Aide has, owing, perhaps, to his smattering of many talents and engaging personality, always commanded a large following of readers and influential ■friends on the Press. But, excepting " Penruddocke". and "Carr of Carlyon," I cannot recall any book of his very far above "pot-boiler" level. Unquestionably, " Jane* Treachell," Mr Aide's latest work, just published by Hurst and Blackett, should not enhance his reputation, though truth compels me to add it is ; selling very: well. The best thing' l. can say of it is -that the story niight have been written . by Miss 'Braddon in the sixties. The ferbine is bur old friend, the ■wicked; seductive , irresistible and remorseless' adventuress, who, in the guise of governess, partially ous,ts a fair young wife from the affections of! her rich husband, and then attempts to poison her. Of course, however, this little game doesat come off. The wife's true friend is on the watch, and discovers Miss Treachell adopting the "fine old crusted" expedient of injecting poison into an orange (it is generally a peach) by means of a hypodermic syringe. Oh being trapped the governess impartially insults everybody, which is perhaps why the injured parties, instead of sending for a policeman, allow her to disappear into the vortez which yawns for disconcerted Borgias. A new and cheaper edition of. Lord Tennyson's memoir of the late Laureate is in preparation for immediate issue. The price ?n England will be 6s. Professor Edgeworth David, of Sydney, is alleged by his wife to have remarked •that as her "unscientific record" of their expedition to the coral island of Funafuti in 1897 had sent him to sleep three times, it ought to prove an infallible cure for insomnia, and as such be worth publishing Passing the marital gibe in silpnc<> because of its phenomenal antiquity (if Eve pub lishcd any acrount of her mis-r-'uWl p!» '.inderings with the serppnt- I fl~n' L 'jnub Adam perpetrated just such a mad waggery on perusing the production), lot me say at one? "Funafute" is capital reading. 'Mrs David has no thrilling experiences to relate, but she possesses rare powers of observation and narration, and her description of life on this distant atoll of the Ellice group brims with graphic and entertaining pictures. The book has been brought out by John Murray (a sure guarantee of quality), and: is illustrated with some interesting photographs. In the. .preface the author acknowledges obligations to Professor Scott, of Sydney University, for "severe but kindly- criticisms "; to *Dr Bullen-Beattie, of H.M.S. Royalist, for photographs, and to the Rev Mr EUa, of Sydney, and Mr J. O'Brien, of Funafiite, for translations of native songs and stories. .