BITS FROM NEW BOOKS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIX, Issue 4, 22 January 1913, Page 50

BITS FROM NEW BOOKS.

Our Boys. “Strange the amount of education a boy can stand without learning anything!”—“A Rogue’s March,” by Evelyn Tempest. Modern Clubs. “Nowadays men’s clubs are full of old women, and women’s clubs are full of young men."—“Thirteen Years of a Busy Woman’s Life,” by Mrs. Alec Tweedie. The French Manner. “Of course, the Frenchman is insincere —but who wants sincerity in a casual acquaintance? Surely it is more pleasant to be told that you never looked more charming, that your hat is the very choicest thing possible, and so on, than to be greeted witli an indifferent handshake and a remark about the weather? What does it matter that he has forgotten you an hour after? He has made, you feel ‘purry-purry’ at the time, and has given you the added confidence and the brightness of outlook that only the consciousness of a becoming hat can give a woman."—“My Parisian Year,” by Maude Annesly. Quarrelling Wittily.

“A doctor and a painter once quarrelled. They lived in neighbouring houses, garden to garden, with a door between.

This door was the cause of the quarrel. But after a time peace . prevailed. .‘Let him do what he likes with the door save paint it,’ said one. ‘i’ll take anything from him except his physic,” said the other. Two such genial wits couldn’t quarrel long.”—“The Doctor and the People,” by H. de Carle Woodcock. Matchmaking in France.

“The young Frenchman begins his matchmaking by first making the home or establishing the possibility of one, before starting to look for the girl. He then begs one of his female relations or an old family friend to seek a ‘fiancee’ for him. This the lady proceeds to do without delay, inquiring right and left among her acquaintances with what would appear in English or American eyes to be a total lack of reserve, into the position, character, dowry, and expectations of those of her young friends and acquaintances whose family and social position meet with the young man's requirements. When a satisfactory candidate is found, the two young people are brought together for the first time—often neither of them is aware of the importance of the interview. A favourite place for

arranging a first meeting is a box at * theatre. Now in Paris, the only theatre which young girls are allowed to visit is the Opera Comique, wnere ‘Mignon,’ or some such mild opera may be heard. And so well-known a meeting-place for intending ‘fiancees’ is this, that there is a favourite joke in Paris concerning it, and if you happen to mention to any Parisian that you are about to pay a visit to the Opera Comique, you will find that the information is generally received with a knowing half smile, and the question immediately follows: ‘ls it for a marriage?’”—“France from Within," by Claire de Pratz. The Merchant King. “ King Edward created a new type of monarch. Until the year 1902 there was no such thing as a king who visited spies, heated hell for his rivals, and brought home from every journey a solid business achievement. Edward protected and enlarged the nation’s resources. There was not in the whole United Kingdom a more industrious commercial traveller or a better merchant.” —-“Monarchs and Men,” by Maximilian Harden. ■ Eveleigh Nash.