The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 6

LITERARY SECTION THE AGE. SATURDAY. JULY 10; 1948 6 CAPRICORN lA'S BIRTHDAY POST- WAR REVIVAL GLORIES of LA SCALA II 1 OUR GREAT PROSE SATIRE A new edition of Xavier Herbert's "Capricornia," coming ten years after its I Kw. -1 f-gvv si zt tm first appearance, affords an occasion tor homage to a grear dook. ana a La Scala was sold out 24 hours before the doors opened for "Tristan and Isolde." Kirsten Flagstad was in the cast Regretting that my late arrival in Milan only a few hours before had denied me the rich experience of hearing Flagstad singing Isolde in one of Europe's most celebrated theatres, I went to La Scala square to see the crowd arrive.

By A Staff Correspondent By I.M. great talent. determinacy, the omnipotentlallty of I youth. I ITS FIRST APPEARANCE, "Capricornia" got a of warmongers' in Europe, of competitors in America, big business in Melbourne and Sydney Norman's great individuality is not I a C. 1.

-jrfi- fl If 11 Mil mixed reception. It was ing to maintain the vestig'" if for chiefly due to the overriding fact thit I The elaborate svstem La Scala has been such a centre almost from the day when it was awarded the Common of disguised place names is designed ne is a nau caste, ne is not the only half caste in the book by far; he opened, 270 years ago, with public praise for its "solidity, elegance, pro not to create a fantasy country out to give the author a let-out in a tries to iorget ne is one, and we forget it too. It is not due to the coun wealth sesquincentenary prize of 250 for the best Australian novel of 1938, and, although its author was almost unknown to the read-ine nubile. It was soon being re Commonwealth where satire and ex portions, acoustics, appearance everything grandiose, all for the best, tervailing influence of his boyhood In mer glories. The air raids, which precipitated, the roof Into the auditorium, devastated the galleries and seriously damaged the famous.

La Scala Museum, gave the directors of tbe theatre the opportunity of modem sing it after the liberation without racriflclng its classical beauty or the aristocrats dignity of its character. posure meet exaggerated resentment and attempts to suppress. Herbert's all perfect." the South and his mechanical habit of mind from his apprenticeship as a flu satire is chiefly against the treatment There are people in and about La Scala to-day who would like to re cognised as an important contribution. But it was over 500 pages long, and ter. It would have been easy to send store its highly aristocratic status.

Norman jittering through the book, an There are others equally determined opened with a four-page list ot characters that suggested lrrevocaDiy uprooted soul, rent to rib bons by irremediable contradiction. cursing God and biting his nails. But of halfcastes in our North. Last week's news from Northern Territory suggests that the satire has point. An Attitude to Life -In the face of Herbert's spendthrift creation of characters one says: Here I God's plenty.

And by his manner ot presenting the Invented characters he incidentally presents his own. r.niiert obviously rejects the prln- but eccentricity and disorder. So one Sydney reviewer (a man then well-known among literary people) ridiculed It in a special column. With one thing and another, the wrltei Herbert makes him Individual without making him at all unusual. As I FOE THE ARRIVAL OF A first-night opera audience In Milan in this immediate postwar period offers more than a titillatlon of curiosity; It Is a social, economic and political object lesson.

Italy was belted up hill and down dale in the war; she has lived largely for three years on American charity: and yet every first night in Milan a tide of wealth, bearing on Its many ample bosoms the richest finery, furs and jewels, flows into La Scala and laps the beautiful red plush contours a scene of vivacious splendor. Outside, just as the warning bells were ringing in the foyers and corridors, a doorman at the entrance to the gallery stairs accosted me. "A ticket for the platea," he said in a voice heavily overlaid with Italian wine. "Only 1400 lire" (roughly 15). "Isn't there one square foot of standing room in tha galleries I asked desoali-lngly.

"Come with me 150 lire l9." he said, with sudden awareness. To change a 1000-llre note was ueyond his resources, so he took what I had self-determination, to the last page wi I are asxing now ne will prosper and of this article did not yield to advice now ne win oenave. to read the book until a month ago. There are two women in the book' But before he had reached page one young and colored, one middle aged and toughened by frontier life. 50, he was recognising it as a great experience.

It prompted a revision of several cherished literary canons. What they are, as distinct from what they do, is conveyed by meagre touches, chiefly the wonderfully sensU tive line with which Herbert record! their speech. They become major figures In our fiction, contrasted type! of women In love. the revaluation of a reputation or so and a re-allotment of several superlatives. It is so big and so brilliant that we re-write the Australian literary tradition in our minds by Its light.

Toscanini acknowledging an ovation at the reopening of La Scala in 1946. Shouter" Bightit Is a barrister, I Xavier Herbert's narrative style is And now a soecial public for Wagner The audiences of La Scala, where grotesque as any in Lnccens; he bnnga I off a brilliant exoneration; surely Her. I and Mozart is scarcely less faithful Toti dal Monte was once the darling of the crowds, have already made Dert nas done enough to enrich this I In small notes the equivalent of 15 and led me up flight after flight of stairs and past the long counters almost as personal as Joseph Fur-phy's. He comments freely on the action, before and during and after. He crams his 500 pages with enough material for half a dozen books; per their favorites among the newer than the devotees of Verdi on whose operas the "Maestri" and the directors lavish all their resources.

figure. But no, the chapter singers, and- these have only 'Uproar 1 Policemen had to fleht ta I to hit a top note hard to bring wrongly-timed applause from sonal and family histories are begun, clear the court. The Shouter went I off shouting till he met his wife, who I Greatest Influence Arturo Toscanini was undoubtedly of the cloak room. The opera had begun when pushed me through the door of the first gallery, which is fifth of the sixth tiers that rise In a beautifully snenceo mm. the galleries.

Among the women singers who have come into promin the greatest influence in making La Scala's operatic and orchestral per recounted and ended with prodigal hand. Individual scenes contain photographic realism and undisguised proportioned curve from the floor to ence are Maria Caniglla and Elisabeth Barbato, while among the newer man formances" known throughout the world. It was he who was brought There is a nameless railway laborer who leads a demonstration. His speech is brilliant. Yet it Is not too good to be true.

It shows precisely the amount of political understanding one might have expected from an untrained agitator before the depression test back from the United States amidst wild acclaim to preside at the XAVIER HERBERT. opening of La Scala In May, 1948, and La Scala after an air raid in August, 1943. it is he who again this month clple, easy on those who are themselves colorless or dim, that an conducting the theatre's festival to the theatre. 1 got a toehold, and as the action of the first scene falls almost wholly on one side of the stage I was able to see It clearly enough. As for hearing, the acoustics of this remarkable theatre are so perfect that even in a press of standing people at the back I could hear almost as well as tf I had been at the back of the stalls.

Heavy Damage sucn men to tneir books. There is Tun O'Cannon. that the theatre and not just the commemorate the work of Boito. author must always efface himself singers the brightest name is that of the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano. The dread of the La Scala management is that singers like Stefano will be lured away by more richly endowed institutions such as the New York Metropolitan.

Government subsidies, however, hel' La Scala to present an exceedingly brave face to the world. La Scala, which Is air-conditioned and accommodates an audience of almost 3200, is open for artistic performances during 11 months of the year, with' two seasons of opera and ballet and two of symphonic two tiers at the top shall be the 'People's." The Issue is clearly joined also the principle that of the two weaitn of character, wealth of I scenes. There are two trial scenes, re- counted in two contrasting ways, each I In Milan, and increasingly In other musical centres, Victor de Sabata is recognised as a worthy successor to in Lounge Suit versus Tails. evils, omniscience and stupidity, stupidity is the less. While La Scala Is rightly cherished Toscanini.

The applause for even oriiuant. Each is breathlessly dramatic, Allied bombs had done deplorable damage; Allied genercslty in contri buting funds and material and in giving the constructional priorities which counted for so much in the wake of war, helped powerfully tc restore to Milan the great musical institution that has given an Italian industrial city a world-wide reputation as a cultural centre. yet runny. as one of the national glories of Italy, there Is no trace here of a nar Flagstad's superb singing was almost perfunctory until Sabata who limps La Scala received heavy damage There could never be any doubt that it is a man of action writing the book. Herbert describes people by their actions and by a wonderfully differentiated and faithful dia rrom bombs in three successive Allied row musical nationalism.

Even under A Chinese half caste In a lugger I buffetted around the Timor Sea, then I cast ashore where he had started. I as a result of Infantile paralysi: air raids in August, 1943. It had the Fascist regime there was far less came on the stage at the end of each remained open until then, vainly try of it than there was in Germany. act. Herbert cracks a grim lest and im caricature side by side.

Herbert confers grotesque surnames, as comical as those in Dickens and as openly descriptive as the Pullem, and "Doctor Sawbones" of a child's comic paper, upon characters so solid and active that any feeling of caricature that the names confer immediately forgotten. The total impression Is one -if complete unity and reality. Scene With Figures Unity and reality are conferred by the scene. Not that "Capricornia" contains a great deal of scene-painting, though what there is is excellently done. It is the social scene that gives life.

The people are what they are, they develop-as so surprisingly many of them do develop-as elements In a novel community, Northern Australia, where white and colored, Occident and Orient, Stone Age and 20th Century meet, mingle and become far more dependent on each other than convention would have it, where novel conditions breed eccentrics and unmarked clerks from the cities of the south swell to strange proportions. logue, not commonly by their appear mediately subjects him to a sadistic I cross-examination at the hands of a I ance and da) dreams. Though tough, he is not callous. He main. missionary.

tains his, and the reader's, affection WHEN EUROPE STOOD on the BRINK for scoundrels whose crimes are STATESMAN'S MEMOIRS There is a cattle muster, which! makes it unnecessary to look up Who'! I Who to learn that Herbert was once I scarlet. Capricorman me, almost without exception, Is tar less edifying than an ant hill, yet there is no a stockman. There Is the wedding at Black Adder I Olympian disdain about the author. Creek. And everywhere Is Herbert's style.

In his central character Herbert has brought off one of those feats that we imagine novelists In their cups dare Whether their revelations throw new light on events, or general impressions, memoirs by statesmen and diplomatists who took an active part in, or were close spectators of, the onset of the' second world war afford rich veins for historians of this remarkable era, and are not without instructive lessons. By E.N.A. land's fate was sealed, whoever shaped its external relations, and whatever his qualities. There is evidence that the collusion of the Third Reich and the Soviet Union which led to the agreement of August, 1939. was the result of a move each other to do.

He has presented a young man, full length, from birth fast yet flexible, sensitive yet masculine. If It was actually written as fluently as the rhythms and Informalities suggest, then the style Is a wonderful piece of virtuosity. If it as laboriously produced by artifice, then it is a wonderful piece of simu-i lation. It is probably the first really Australian prose, as distinct from Aum to late twenties, in the round. In Yet the land of Capricornia is no comparison with this, it is easy to depict people of 45 and over.

But in Norman Shilllngsworth, Herbert has Nepenthe the world forgetting, by presented a young man who is solid the world forgot. General and individual prosperity are at the mercy ano laentraaoie, yet nc.i witn tne in trauan siang. ordered by Hitler, not the outcome of sustained secret talks. According to a German version, opportunity was presented when, at a Moscow banquet to celebrate a' German-Russian commercial agreement, the possibility of agreeing "on still other questions" was suggested. The same evening, a iong telegram was sent by the German Em AN ACUTE OBSERVER OF the mighty drama then unfolding was Mr.

Grigore Gafencu, who, as Rumanian Minister for Foreign Affairs and a former Rumanian Minister to Moscow, made a round of visits to European capitals Just before the storm broke. In "The Last Days of Europe" (London, Frederick Muller Ltd; English price 21 net) he makes a penetrating study of nations on the brink of cataclysm, delineates their leaders, and traces the threads of destiny that shattered a whole inheritance, only to leave another enigma as to whither mankind is tending. A small, dangerously placed Power which the remorseless pressure ol events turned into an Axis satellite, Mr. Gafencu's country shared witn Poland and Greece the guarantees given by the Chamberlain Government, in a vain endeavor to restrain AMERICA and the CHURCH bassy to Berlin, and was at once put before Hitler. He jumped at the chance.

Irritated by the Allied military talks STORY OF A POPULAR PREACHER at Moscow, the Fuhrer immediately instructed Count Schulenberg, Ger man Ambassador to Moscow, to offer Russia a pact of friendship and nonr aggression. Moiotov was "cagey" and To those who remember "The Crucifixion of Philip Strong," and "In His Steps," this story "The Bishop's Mantle" by Agnes Sligh Turnbull (Collins Ltd.) of the life of a successful clergyman in modern America will contain Although the background is well-known to students of affairs, the author's depiction of many scenes and meetings with national spokesmen is Illuminating. One phase which Mr. Gafencu brings into relief was the role of Russia In the critical days. Then, as now, the men of the Kremlin were exacting, suspicious, pertinacious in logic, relentless about precision in proposed engagements.

Hopes of a Brltlsh-French-Russlan accord were wrecked over Poland's refusal to allow transit of Russian troops, in the event of German aggression. "In preferring the proposals of the Third Reich, which certainly were much more Russia chose Hitler, who wanted war," Mr. Gafencu says. "Had Soviet mistrust expressed itself more judiciously, it might have 'solved the as M. Molotov said, In such a.

fashion as to save the world perhaps as well as Russia, from disaster." Be this as it may, the Russian-German pact gave Hitler the green light. The news that it had been concluded sent him Into a delirium of pleasure. He was at Berchtesgaden, about to dine with a lew of his devotees, when the telegram from von Rlbbentrop arrived. Hitler waved It above his head, exclaiming: "I hold victory In my hand a hundred per cent, victory." procrastinating; he wanted to await the outcome of the talks with the western Powers. Hitler would hot some disappointments and several most significant differences.

By R.K.I wait. He told Schulenberg to warn HE SIGNIFICANT FACT IS Its congregation, fashionable and In his wish to make the church a U7 Molotov that such an offer was made only once, and would be withdrawn that the element of cruci conventional. Is proud of the brilliant Ing centre of real community life. i ii iXMkS'mmimMmmumS T1 fixion, of success by failure, unless accepted immediately. The un young man chosen to be its rector.

He also is justifiably proud of his ap petuosity of the German leader over self-abnegation, Is entirely Lord Vansittart and Mr. Gafencu (left) with Mr. Churchill, Attlee. pointment. The book starts off well.

The astounding thing Is that he apparently almost completely Ignorant of the trend of international aftalre-his rich father-in-law (himself a nun who has risen from the ranks) give) lurtner aggression oy uermany. Mr. Gafencu's easy style of writing "comes through" in translation. The reader Is taken to Berlin, London Paris, Rome, Belgrade, Athens and Ankara, where national leaders were either conspiring to destroy civllisa tion, or striving desperately to organise defences against the coming assault. His book is less concerned with the deeper moral and psychological significance of the catastrophe than with the tense atmosphere that then hung over Europe, the tortuous calculations, the recognition of impending doom, and the last-minute shifts to avoid it.

An air of- impending challenge hangs missing. This Is a success story In the mod came the Russian nesitai.ons. Mr. Gafencu has the outlook of European who sees Europe less as may over-simplify a complex picture. over it.

One feels the presence of clashing forces. ern sense. The central figure is not mm tne nrst eye-opener on Hitler's In. Beck was an obstinate, rigid man, torn between fear of Germany and mis congeries of nation-States, than as a unity capable of contributing greatly It cannot be said that the develop tentions. merely a paragon of a preacher, a dynamic personality, a shrewd, longheaded young rector who looks more like a rising lawyer than a man of That very night (August 21, 1939) he made preparations to attack Poland.

Hitler's' Impetuosity The author assigns to Colonel Beck, then Foreign Minister of Poland, the responsibility for failure of the Anglo-French negotiations with Russia. That to civilisation, but facing even worse catastroDhe than that of 1939-45 It trust of Russia. He made what he thought subtle moves to thwart Hit ment bears out this hope. No themes are thrashed out. Indeed, they are barely hinted at.

The rector sails from success to success, and Is saved at last He Is a consecrated man, but in this story it does not lead as In Sheldeni "In His Steps" to martyrdom. The implication is that times have changed disrupted or sundered into separate ler's intentions. But what did it the cloth; he is startllngly successful, and conflcting "zones of mnuence. matter The dtj had been cast; Po not only in his clerical duties, but In when the "frame-up" eventuates by in 4U years. his love Me, the intricate affairs of his parish work, the very ability to the most amazing piece of luck that ever came the way of the hero of a thriller.

Married to a wealthy, way The significance of this book Is that it emphasises the part played by the church in modern America, and tin many-sided aspects of Its contribution to Western civilisation. In city life this foil the snares of those who would entrap him. This is not to say the story Is with ward girl tor whom he waits several CENTENARY OF A UNIQUE PLAYER Although cricketing England (like its economic brother) is having an uphill fight to restore its former greatness, it Is unlikely we shall ever see again the cricketing England that A CRICKET GIANT out interest, even importance. It is months, and who loves him as fervently as he does her the climax comes in time to avert the first rup is particularly true, although the coun sympathetically written, often beau try parishes should not be under Grace knew. HAD A MUCH it has a wholeness about It that gives distinction and finish.

Yet ture oi their married life. Pearl Harbor, with its inevitable aftermath. It would seem that gone for ever estimated. Enduring Unit longer innings than Trum- Within a few days the centenary of the birth of Dr. W.

G. Grace, Gloucestershire and all-England captain known for long as the Grand Old Man of English cricket will be celebrated in Britain. He was bom on July 18, Is the extensive body of skilled amateurs (champions many of them) iper, both in the cricketing confirms him in his resolve to become an army chaplain. it lacks the element of real drama, deep tragedy. Often the situations are so hack sDhere and in tne wiaer 1848, and died on October Li, lyib, a tew months atter the death ot an- snhere of life.

Nevertheless, his which could find time and the money (or relations with the money) to enable two games to be played a week neyed as to be almost ludicrous. The in vears 67 was not By F.L.M. a other great cricketer the Australian V. Trumper. But, as Mrs.

Turnbull points out, the city may live on after civilisation In a national sense has collapsed. It a more enduring unit. City churches therefore have a double obligation; to their own membership and the larjer vestryman, who owns apartment nartlcularlv great one, but dur- houses on the shady side i The woman the question ox amateur status, then This great cricketer made his first for the fun of the thing instead oi ior the wherewithal to pay rent and buy real siren who deliberately under discussion, Wisdeu wrote: "Mr. aopearance in a Test match against "frames" the clergyman The "gossip" life of the community. W.

G. Grace's position, has, for years, Australia at Kennington uvai wnen ne was in his 33rd year (scoring 152 and everyone knows, been an anomalous writer so devilishly clever I who Is always snooping for exciting pieces of information, and manufacturing them 9 not out, and taking two for 1 and Hilary Laurens realises this, and II Is his hope that the fine old church of which he is rector will once again play its formative part in the life ol the city. Here, however, the story one, but 'nice customs curtsey to great and the work he has done in popularising cricket outweighs a hundredfold every other consideration." Ing 43 of them he took part in first class cricket matches He was a member of a cricketing family; his father was a keen enthusiast and two of his brothers were particularly good players. "W.G." played in a representative match when he was only nine years of age, and was only 14 when he made his debut In senior cricket. A few days before his 16th birthday Grace came under public notice on two for 66) and his last at Nottingham when he was 51.

It was not a spectacular farewell against our men, his if necessary I Despite these well-tried expedients, falters. figures being 28 and 1, and none for Cricket was a very grim matter witn the book remain one that will repay reading and thought. It is the story 31 and none for 6. But, of course, Test cricket is one thing and county cricket On his first tour of Australia which was a honeymoon tour tor him fifteen games were played, but in each match England played against odds. Consequently there were no first-class matches.

England won 10 games, lost two and three were drawn. The tour opened in Melbourne, and amidst the greatest enthusiasm the local team (Eighteen of Victoria) won the match. Boyle was a hero for several years after bowling Grace for nil. However, the champion, then 25 years of age, evened up matters somewhat by capturing ten wickets. One of the engagements of the English team was a single-wicket match between seven of England and 12 of New South Wales.

The scores were England 30, N.S.W. 29, Grace compil of a young priest who has nearly all The deeper cancer of modern its enmeshment In tenuous webs oil unseen power economic overlordshlnj Grace. He played It "hard," and not always in the best of temper. Although not built like one, he was as The othei matters are trifling his triumph over the worldly vestryman, his ability to appeal alike to the intelligentsia and the humble poor; his realisation that old-time fundamentalism Is insufficient to meet the needs of the modern man. It cannot be said that "The Bishops Mantle" takes its place side by side with Walpole's description of English athedral life.

Yet It Is true that It presents a picture at least a sidelight on the corporate life of the American institutional church. Worldly Wisdom What Is the essence of this picture It Is that people will respond to goodness. Not an unworthy Ideal. One that has the sanction of some philosophy and much' pious Idealism. Hilary Laurens steps into the picture ready made.

He is already a rising young with plenty of worldly wisdom, and a sound sense of the true Importance of his office. Not a snob. By no means a fool. An executive in his ability to 'handle the affairs of the church, and something of a reformer the talents. Foremost among these is the possession of a grandfather who something quite different, and Grace had passed the half century In years.

propaganda, the whole tenor cunning as a fox. He had many can worldllness" is unaccounted for, ap Grace continued to appear on the is a Important Call parently unrealised. cricket fields for nine more years did critics, even amongst his friends. Lord Hawke, Yorkshire captain, and president, who played many games with and against Grace, wrote in Ms The story commences with the compiling 170 and 66 not out against the Gentlemen of Sussex. In the same year he entered the first-class sphere, being chosen for the Gentlemen of England against the Players.

In that match he scored 23 and 12 not out, rd took seven wickets for 125 runs. Prom that stage he dominated the cricketing world as unmistakably as death oi the bishop a man well ad 'Recollections and Reminiscences," vanced In years and the call of the young man to the most Important bread and margarine. Further, there is-evidence that at least some of the numerous doors which so rigidly separated "amateurs from. "pros" are swinging very Insecurely on their hinges; In other words a more tolerant attitude is shown towards tbe professionals than hitherto; even as late as 22 years ago an English noble Lord declared he prayed he would not live to see the day when a professional would captain England. However, although since his departure the game has produced a few more consistently great batsmen such as Bradman phenomenon from beneath the Southern Cross" -as a foremost English cricketer described him) and the imperturbable Surrey champion, Hobbs Grace was supreme In his day and generation Not only that, he was unique in his all-round ability, combined with his astonishing length of service, and.

of course, the length of his beard He revolutionised cricket and did much more than any other man to lift the game lrom a village-green status to that of a "national Institution." Gentlemen (and players), On this historic occasion I give you a toast: "To Britain, may she soon have some dollars to SDare. and may she soon discover another W. G. Grace." that Grace "hated losing" and "would stretch the laws of cricket uncommonly taut In his own favor." church in a great American city. From The book is evidence of the fact that the modern world, far from having done with religion, is more than 'ever concerned about the things of the spirit, and is ready to heed the councils of those who advocate that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceed! out of the mouth of God.

It Is a witness both to the power of tradition ing all the runs except a bye for the the start Hilary Laurens is conscious of the over-looking presence of his When the world was considerably visitors, and Llllywhlte (England) taking all the wickets. Queen Victoria dominated tne mem dead grandfather, who has, incident bers of the Royal family. He was monarch of all he surveyed, standing There are still many elderly enthu younger the writer of this article had the privilege ot associating frequently with a number of cricket veterans who bad played against "W.O." both here and in England. It was certainly in head and shoulders, in most ally, left him among other things, his own personal scrap book, from which the young man frequently finds siasts who can recall Grace's tout of Australia in 1891. He was then 43 years ot age, but he played in ano tne need of the future.

literally, above his fellow players. For items that console and edify him hi a time he practised as a pansn doctor, but it was not long before the chief teresting and frequently amusing to moments of difficulty. hear these men tell of the way Grace practice he had was at the practise The time is a year or so before the JUNIOR BOOKSHELF nets, on tne playing neius ui juibuuju every match. The Tests had been inaugurated in 1877 (four years alter his first visit here) and in this series Australia won two of the three Tests played. In the first class games "W.G." had a batting average of 44.8 outbreak of war.

No sense of danger would try to stretch the laws, and of his attempts to bluff opposing captains and even umpires. But they hreatens the serenity and security oi and the colonies. Many Innings the wealthy Church of St. Matthew. It is the "classy" church of the city.

were of the opinion that he had letterpress says "all starfish have flu arms" then let there be five, not six throughout the inside cover platea of and took Ave wickets, average 26.4 made" cricket, and that, desulte his Playing two games a week for many vears. Grace batted no fewer than Old, too: its past settled deep In the Included In the Englishmen's Vic very foundations of the city that has 1493 times In first-class matches. What onoers or aea Life." tncKs and moods, tnere was some thing about, the old devil" that ap pealed to them. grown up with It. torian Itinerary were games against odds on the grounds of the following clubs: South Melbourne, East Mel that means may be gauged irom tne fact that it is nearly 1200 times more frequently than Bradman has batted to date I In addition, Grace played in bourne mow portion of the Jollmont 5 "(COUNTRY HOLIDAY." A STORY of children on a holiday the fabric (slightly ragged) ui which is woven the elements of such useful Information as how to catch 'pHREE RECENT.

PUFFIN PICTURE books are "The Arabs," "Wonders of Sea Life," and "Country All are informative, like their forerunners in the Puffin Book Series "The Arabs" gives an Introduction to the history and customs of the Arabs and the geography ol their countries The traditional color and romanct associated with Arabs are passively accepted in the story and many Illustrations, unsoUed by the squalidness which present-day observers associate with them. Nevertheless, the account is Interesting and useful particularly as background to news of the world's current explosion hundreds of minor matches. railway yards), Williamstown, Malvern, Ballarat and Bairnsdale. As before indicated Grace was prac' Grace's aggregate in the first-class W. G.

GRACE. This photograph was taken when he was 25 years of age (hla age when he Orst visited Australia.) minnows, tickle trout, build a wlf- games was 54,896 runs (126 centuries), average 39.5, and with his medium-slow bowling he captured 2864 wickets, warn, fire clay models and tie a clove I hitch (Invaluable for assembling suspension bridge made of clothes Una I average 17.9. In Test matches against Australia he played 36 Inning, for a tically a law unto himself throughout almost the whole of his cricketing career. He was the Big Boss, but he did not have a reputation of being a good captain. He was an upholder ol the amateur (alias gentleman) professional (alias player) distinc and willow branches).

total of 1098 runs (two centuries), ave with varying fortunes. On his 58th birthday this extraordinary man by a superhuman effort (aided by a gala spirit-displayed by bowlers and fieldsmen) scored 74 In a game between the Gentlemen and Players. He was, given out for the last time when (mark rage 32.2. He tork nine wickets. ave rage 26.2.

More than 30 years after his sensa- tions, and this despite the fact that Like to make a bow and arrow' Right. For the arrow you "sharpen the point and then weight It by putting In a nail or winding some wire "Country Holiday" may cause mother some anxious moments when younf Arthur has been missing for an hour the question of his own amateur tlonal batting against the Sussex Gentlemen, Grace astonished the you) he was 60 years of age. His final appearance was in a game status was publicly discussed in Eng land more than once. Matter of "Expenses" cricketing world by compiling in Eng. or two Dut young Artnur wiu it" between the Gentlemen and Surrey, his farewell Items being 15 and 25, and In this connection it is illuminating that when an effort was made to get PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED RICH and COWAN.

London, sllverlwt, land In the first month of the 1895 season when he was 47 years of age a total of 1000 runs. This performance had followed a lean period With the bat; Indeed, even 10 years earlier the critics had declared that he was in none for 16, In Australio New CM- 3SSs3a52 1'HE BOOK ON SEA LIFE IS A somewhat superficial study of fish, corals, echlnoderms and other dwellers In the deep. Attempting to covet an enormous subject in a very small (pace it is an unenthralllng introduction. Pelican's "Fish by A. F.

Magrl McMahon, much fuller, is much better. The subject Is not one that appeals greatly to the very young. Such subjects can safely be left to books designed for older youngsters, and then be dealt with more comprehensively. A point for illustrators: pictures are a major part ol instructional books for children. When the novel ov Marman bona; Ho.

KENNETH CRAIGIE, Sydney, grtpiiy, by B. H. Palmer; 101(1 him to make a second tour of Australia some years before his 1891 visit he refused an offer of travelling and Grace came to Australia twice In 1873, when the population of Mel- a rapid decline as a batsman. How. mmmm hotel expenses for himself and nis by ceorne Selerli: The confidence Man.

by H. min Melville: 86 The Voyilt-Magellan, by Laurie Lee; iO6 (Enf.l. MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS. TW Australian Coal Induttry, by A. O.

L. Shaw ana ever, he often made up for batting bourne and suburbs was only a little more than 200,000, and in 1891,. by Trar slumns with success as a bowler. wife, and "special expenses" ol 2000. It was asserted In cricketing Rruna: 17R which time the metropolitan popula Hjreff INVINCIBLE PRESS.

Sydney. The Pall, nnvl hv Rurid Shi circles that the bid was not deemed navld To mark the 1000 runs feat, Grace received public testimonials organised by the Marylebone Club. Gloucestershire County and the London "Dally tion had grown to nearly 600.000. He was captain of the English team on tlAMISlf HAMiLruN. ixmaon.

hleh enough. King, a novel by Gladya Schmltt This is not a team without a tail: YV. G. Grace is leading the amateurs; the professionals are Ing the field by another gate. The Chlldrai'i Some years later, in referring to DDHAHa r-HKjuj.

umaon, Own Book or the world. each visit. leiegrapn aggregating.