(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks._)
The heroine of _Alberta and the Others_ (SIDGWICK AND JACKSON) was the
eldest of an orphaned family of girls and boys who were finding life a
little boring in an English village; and when an unexpected legacy made
her mistress of a couple of town lots in a place called Sunshine, in
Western Canada, nothing would content her but to emigrate with the whole
tribe--reinforced by a delightful _Aunt Mary_ and an animal known as the
Meritorious Cat--to the Land of Promise. The book is the history of how
they got on there. Naturally, from the circumstances of their start and
the giddy altitude of _Alberta's_ hopes, you will be prepared for its
being, to some extent at least, a story of disillusion. Miss MADGE S.
SMITH, who wrote it, says that it is all true; and indeed there is much
in the tale that stamps it as the outcome of personal experience. This
being so, I could wish that her attitude in the matter had been a little
less uncompromisingly English. In many ways the language and general
outlook of the daughter of an Oxford don will no doubt differ
considerably from that of a Canadian-born inhabitant of a prairie
township; but that is no good reason for assuming an air of patronage.
However, this defect, though it exists, is not so pronounced as to spoil
one's enjoyment of an entertaining record, written, as the publishers
say, "in high spirits throughout," and having, I fancy, just this much
fiction mingled with its obvious fact, that it ends with a general
pairing off and the prospect of three weddings--which seems, as _Lady
Bracknell_ observed in a similar connection, "a number considerably
above the average that statistics have laid down for our guidance." But
at least it is the _amende honorable_ to the Land of Promise.
* * * * *
From the cover of _A Tail of Gold_ (HODDER AND STOUGHTON) I gather with
respectful interest that its author, Mr. DAVID HENNESSEY, recently won
four hundred pounds with another story in open competition. I did not
read the story in question, but in view of its satisfactory financial
result I may be permitted to express a hope that it was considerably
better work than the present volume. Let me be entirely fair. _A Tail of
Gold_ has some pictures of Australian mining life that are not without
interest; but I am bound to add that a careful and sympathetic perusal
has failed to disclose any other reason for its existence. The plot, so
far as there is one, concerns the chequered career of a certain _Major
Smart_, who seems to have been by no means all that a major should be.
Amongst other unpleasing peculiarities, he was apparently possessed of a
fetish that brought misfortune or death to all who were associated with
him. These results were in the main involuntary; but it is only just to
add that _Smart_ was not above assisting nature to take her course.
Thus, some years before the opening of the story, he had deliberately
buried one poor lady alive in a cave containing sulphide of mercury.
Never ask me why. I am as muddled by this as I am over his further
conduct in leaving with the corpse every possible clue in the way of
letters and ciphers that could bring his guilt home to him. In any
ordinary novel he would have been convicted in a few chapters; but _A
Tail of Gold_ wags (if I may use the term) so leisurely, and its action
is so much impeded by false starts and repetitions and general
haphazardness, that there is no telling how long it might not have
continued but for the limitations of volume form. No, I can't pretend I
liked it much.
* * * * *
Madame ALBANESI, in _The Cap of Youth_ (HUTCHINSON), cannot be accused
of excessive kindness to her own sex, for the charming women of the
book are almost snuffed out by two poisonous females, _Lady Bollington_
and _Lady Catherine Chiltern_. Indeed these ladies are a little too much
of a bad thing, and, not for the first time, I am left thinking how
wonderfully Madame ALBANESI'S novels might be improved if she could
persuade herself to bestow an occasional virtue upon her wicked
characters. The heroine, _Virginia_, escaped from the hands of one of
the pair only to fall under the thumb of the other. I must admit,
however, that _Lady Catherine_ had some reason to be angry at having
_Virginia_ suddenly dumped upon her as a derelict daughter-in-law. Why
_Brian Chiltern_ married in haste and then left his wife to endure such
impossible conditions you must find out for yourself, but I fancy you
will agree that his delicacy of feeling amounted to sheer stupidity.
Nevertheless this story is bound to be popular, and I should have had no
complaint to make if I did not feel that its author has it in her to do
better work.
* * * * *
Even readers to whom American humour is generally a little indigestible
may glean some smiles from _Penrod_ (HODDER AND STOUGHTON), provided
that it is taken in small doses and not in the lump. If this book were
to be considered a study of the normal American boy I should cry with
vigour, "Save me from the breed," but as a fanciful account of a
thorough and egregious imp of mischief I can, within limits, offer my
congratulations to Mr. BOOTH TARKINGTON. The triumph of _Penrod_ lies in
the fact that, although he brought woe and tribulation to his relations
and exasperated his friends to the point of insanity, it is nevertheless
impossible to suppress an affection for him. Ofttimes and hard his
father chastised him with rods, but _Penrod_ merely accepted these
beatings as the price that had to be paid for leading an adventurous
life, and showed not the smallest signs of repentance. Yes, I like
_Penrod_, though I have not any great desire to meet him in the flesh.
It grieves me, however, that such a character as _Mr. Kinosling_ should
have been dragged in by the heels. If fatuous clerics are worth any
novelist's attention they certainly are not worth Mr. TARKINGTON'S, and
the only effect _Mr. Kinosling_ had upon me was to fortify my conviction
that it is far easier to begin a book of humour than to finish it.
* * * * *
Illustration: THE NORTH SEA PERIL.
"BY JOVE, I PITY THE GERMANS IF _SHE_ GETS HOLD OF 'EM!"
* * * * *
_EN PASSANT._
Loud swells the roar of traffic in the street,
The motor-buses rumble on and wind
Their plaintive warnings as they come behind
Faint folk who dally, dazed by summer heat;
The reckless taxis seem a deal too fleet
To country cousins nervously inclined,
And raucous news-boys fret the curious mind
With spicy rumours of the foe's defeat.
But suddenly a hush falls everywhere:
Stopp'd is each taxi with its languid load,
And, as the City's silence deeper grows,
Only a barrel-organ churns the air
While Peggy (in the middle of the road)
Pauses to put some powder on her nose!
* * * * *
Mr. Chaplin as an Apache.
"RETIREMENT OF MR. HENRY CHAPLIN.