(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks._)
In _No Man's Land_ (HODDER AND STOUGHTON) is revealed a breadth of
vision which may astonish some of us who have been inclined to regard
SAPPER as merely a talented story-teller. Among the writers on the War I
place him first, for the simple reason that I like him best; and I am
not at all sure that I should like him any better if he cured himself of
his cardinal fault. With his tongue in his cheek he dashes away from his
story to give us either a long or short digression; no more confirmed
digressionist ever put pen to paper, and the wonderful thing is that
these wanton excursions are worth following. True he often apologises
for them, but I do not think that we need take these apologies
seriously. This book is divided into four parts, "The Way to the Land,"
"The Land," "Seed Time," and "Harvest," and in "Seed Time," at any rate,
we have a series of chapters which require not only to be read but to be
thought over. But whether he is out for fun, as in "Bendigo Jones--His
Tree," or for pathos, as in "Morphia," he obtains his effects without
the smallest appearance of effort. And I reserve a special word of
praise for "My Lady of the Jasmine," and commend it to the notice of
those pessimists who hold that only the French and the Americans can
write a good short story. Thank the powers that be for SAPPER.
* * * * *
_The Loom of Youth_ (GRANT RICHARDS) is yet another school story, but
with a difference, the difference being, partly at least, that it is
written by one who has so lately ceased to belong himself to the life
described that his account must carry an authority altogether unusual.
Here, one feels, is that strange and so-soon-forgotten country revealed
for us from within, and by a native denizen. For this alone Mr. ALEC
WAUGH'S book merits the epithet remarkable; indeed, considered as the
work of "a lad of seventeen," its vitality, discretion and general
maturity of tone seem little short of amazing. Realism is the note of
it. The modern schoolboy, as Mr. WAUGH paints him, employs, for example,
a vocabulary whose frequency, and freedom may possibly startle the
parental reader. Apart from this one might call the book an indictment
of hero-worship, as heroism is understood in a society where (still!)
athletic eminence places its possessor above all laws. This in itself is
so old an educational problem that it is interesting to find it handled
afresh in a study of ultra-modern boyhood. The actual matter of the
tale, individual character in its reaction to system, is naturally
common to most school stories; but even here Mr. WAUGH has contrived to
give an ending both original and sincere. Prophecy is dangerous; but
from a writer who has proved so brilliantly that, for once, _jeunesse
peut_, one seems justified in hoping that enlarged experience will
result in work of the highest quality.
* * * * *
Quite a host of moral reflections, none of them very original, flock to
one's mind in considering by what devious ways our Italian allies came
to range themselves on the side of that freedom which they have always
loved as well and bravely as any of the rest of us. For instance--a very
stale reflection--one sees Germany overdoing her own cleverness and
under-rating that of her neighbours--this more especially in her
arrogant dominance of Italy's commerce; further, one notices the Hun's
Belgian brutalities costing him dear in a quarter least expected; and
again one realises Italy's decision as a thing mainly dependent, in
spite of all Germany's taking little ways, on a righteous hatred of
Austria--a consideration which brings one surprisingly near to gratitude
towards the big-bully Government of Vienna. Our southern ally's loyalty
to her beautiful "unredeemed" provinces, and her claim, which all
right-minded Englishmen (I include myself) most heartily endorse, to
dominate the historically Italian waters of the Adriatic, happily proved
too strong for a machine-made sympathy for Berlin based on nothing
better than a superficial resemblance between the histories of Piedmont
and Prussia, and a record of nominal alliance with powers whose respect
for paper treaties was always fairly apparent. All the same, in reading
Mr. W. KAY WALLACE'S essay in recent history, _Greater Italy_
(CONSTABLE), a volume which I cannot too strongly commend for its
admirable way of telling these and similar things, I am struck most of
all by the super-incumbent mass of Germanism that had to be burst
asunder before the true Italy broke free. The story of that liberation
is romance of an amazing order, for in it one sees the very soul of a
great and ancient people struggling to renewal of life. It is more than
good to have such an ally, it is an inspiration.
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Allotment Tripper._ "THIS HERE NORTH SEA DON'T HALF WANT
WEEDING."]
* * * * *
If you wish to complete your knowledge of the working of our new armies
and learn something of the business of the A.S.C. you can do so without
being bored in _L. of C._ (CONSTABLE), by Captain JAMES AGATE. The
author is one of that bright band of Mancunians which _The Manchester
Guardian_ has attached to its august fringes. He writes of the business
in hand, the vagaries of stores and indents and mere men and brass hats,
on this and the other side of the Channel, all with a very light and
engaging pen, and then spreads himself on any old far-off thing that
interests him, such as the theatre, perhaps a little self-consciously
and with a pleasant air of swagger most forgivable and, indeed,
enjoyable. His chief preoccupation is with art and letters, it is clear;
but, turning from them to the handling of urgent things and difficult
men, he faces the business manfully. Of the men in particular he has
illuminating things to say, redounding to their credit and, by
implication, to his. To those who appreciate form in penwork this book
may be safely recommended.
* * * * *
The Welcome.
"Mr. F.H. ----, the newly co-opted member of the Hampstead Board
of Guardians, attended his first meeting of the Board on
Thursday, and lost his umbrella."--_Hampstead and Highgate
Express._
* * * * *
"BEET COMMISSION CONCLUDES BUSINESS.
Petrograd, July 9.--Except for a few final conferences with the
members of the Russian Government, the work here of the Root
Commission virtually has been concluded."
_The Daily Gleaner (Jamaica)._
How headlines jump to conclusions! The Hon. ELIHU ROOT is, we feel
confident, anything but beet.
* * * * *