The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 5

THE OBSERVER, SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 1912. THE EASY CHAIR. BOOKS OF THE DAY. PICTURES PROBLEMS OF WEST AFRICA. MESSRS.

chapman hallA A a 'ij Bw Sk- pj PSfVJsrMsVr' gSsB A jSsa U-mm m'ml S'sfcfc JOURNALISTIC Edited by PERCY li PARKER. PUBLIC OPINION Tgreatr journalistic succcsss in a very diffidalt It? more than trebled its circulation in the" last four 'after---; 50 years has no rival. The chief object of Public Opinion is to provide the bi-V man and woman with a handy summary of the best thought' and activity ot the best men and women of the day from; best Papers, Books, and Magazines. It informs, stimulates, saves It is interested in Social Problems, in Religion, in Politics, in Science, in Literature, in all the Arts and Crafts, and in every-thing-that interests intelligent men and women, and maloes for-the good of the-State. The next six months will probably be the most momentous -time in.

therhistorjefre present generation. Important questions wdl arise-abroad and even more matters at home will come up for settlement and discussion; You wfll want be competent to form your own opinion on these subjects. Above all yon wDl-wantto be fsir and to read both sides. Then after weighing the facts and the evidence yon win be more likely to form a right There is only one way to do this. POBIJC OrtsOOT -is the one Weekly Journal that gives both sides on every hupulAUtpntion.

THE PAPER PUBLIC OPiNION." THE PAY THE PRICE Oopiei will be tent on rmxtpt of Specimen United it 10d. aU pUus THE OF FIRST FIRST LIST OF 1912? READY ON JANUARY S3. SPORT IN VANCOUVER AND NEWFOUNDLAND. By SIB JOHN ROGEBS, K.C.M.G.. D.S.O..

F.R.G.S. With 2'Mnp and 35 Illustrations by thr Author and from Photograph. Demy 8vo. 76 net. THE NIGHT OF FIRES, AND OTHER BRETON STUDIES.

By ANATOUE LE BRAZ, Author of "The LW of ParJons," Translated by Frances M. Goatling. Fully illustrated from Photograph. Crown 8vo. 5- net.

M. le Bra: has long ago mastered the psychology of Brittany. But it finds still more exquisite and unapproachable expression in The Night of 1'ALL Mall Gazettk. FRANZ LISZT. By james HUNEKER.

Fully illu Strated, Crown 8vo. 76 net. "There can be no doubt that the most entertaining form of biography for such a man as Ltaxt should be on the lines of Mr. Hun titer's volume. The reader will find that the net result is to present Liszt's many-sided character and ability from all points of view iu a dear and interesting light." PAXJL MaLL Gazette.

NEW FICTION. FOR THE DEFENCE: a BRIEF FOR LADY CAROL. This remark- able social study is the anonymous work oi a well-known author, who wishes to veil his identity upon tbis occasion. A sound human novel of modern Society, rich in character and true to life, admirably constructed and full of vitality." DAILY TELEGRAPH. THE TRIPLE CROWN.

By ROSE SCHUSTER. This first of remarkable promise by one of the youngest au bora who have ever had a novel accepted by a publisher. London CHAPMAN HALL, Const Garden. WERNER LAURIE'S List important Announcement Published January 15th. sod Largo Ediiion in preparation.

ALONE IN WEST AFRICA, By MARY GAUNT. 97 Plates. I5s. not. A record of one of the uckiest journeys ever mad by woman.

Thts is not a novel for littU jxofU nor for fools. IN A COTTAGE HOSPITAL By GEORGE TBELAWMEY. A Novel. 2s. nut.

An epoch-making novel. It is hoped thia book will do for the sick poor oF England whit "The Jungle" did for the Chicago Worker. By BARRY PAIN. STORIES IN GREY. 6s.

"This is the best collection of short stories I hive ever re.id." T. Werner Laokik. By F. HOPKINSON SMITH. KENNEDY SQUARE.

Illustrated. 6s-By the Author of The Fortunes of Oliver By G. B. HOWARD. AN ENEMY TO Illustrated.

6s. The Life Siory of Stephen the Magnificent cracksman and philanthropist. By SEWEL FORD. TORCHY. Illustrated.

6s. Screaming fun probably the slangiest book ever written. By THOMAS COBB. A GIVER IN SECRET. This is a new novel never before published, and first issued at 2a, net.

WERNER LAURIE, Clifford's Ion, London. 202nd Year ot the 0H.ce. SUN Fire Office. FncsDKD 171 J. The oldest Insurance) Offltsa In the, World Insurances effected on the following risks: FIR3 DAMAGE.

Resultant Loss of Kent and Profits. Employers' Liability ani Perianal AecMsat Workmen's Compansatlai. Sickness and OlSiUJ-Includlng Accidents ta Fidelity iuarantss. Domestic Servants. Burjlary.

Plato Glass. Messrs. JOHN LONG'S List is compiled with due regard Us. the prevailing tastes for reading, containing it doesNoOs Men and Women of the World, and Novels for those who Prefer. -Literature of the more quiet order.

NOW READY. SIX SHILLINGS EACH. At all Libraries and Booksellers. THE LAST STRONGHOLD EUein Ada Smith THE SECRET TONTINE R- Murray Gilchrist A CHANGE OF SEX Chttftei Ittfrow A GLORIOUS LIE Dor A FOOL Ta FAME J. E.

HarbM-Terry THE GUERDON FAITH Mrs. Charles: Martin -DANGEROUS DOROTHY CwrtUsYoirhe A THREE-CORNERED DUEL -Beaoice 'iKetaBo AT THE COURT OF 1L MORO L. M. Stacpbole Kearny READY TO-MORROW. TWO MEN AND A GOVERNESS Olhria Ramsay THE SPINDLE EKzabe Harden CHICANE 'OKyerSattdW MORE LETTERS OF LAFCADIO HEARN.

Lafcadio Hkabn His Lifk akdWoui. By Nina H. Kcnnard. (EveleigU Nash.) 12s. 6d.

uet. Whan. Miss Elizabeth Bidancl brought out her adinirable edition oi lafcauiio Hearn's Life and Letters (the two volumes wane published in the spring of 1906), she was uniortiina.tJy tunable to use of tlio very initarestuig letters which fleam wrote to JLr. Henry Wa-tkin, and the tetters lo an unknown Uwly, which, on thoir returned by hr, Hearn strangely enough prosonted. to ilr.

Watldiu Both chose scries were published in 1907, oditd by Air. ton Broiuior, in a book called letters from tho 1'iivon." Mr. llrcnr.er did his work of editing in the best jossible that i-s to say, he confined himself to comments sufficient to make the letters imt-p-1 1 i g-ible ami ended his (small volume with some extracts from the newsletters which Heaim wrote andex the name of Ozias Midwinter during the years 1877 and 1878 to the Ciiminina.ti It now appears that another batch of letterrs was kept from Miss Bisland's standard edition latters wrcMeu try Hearn to his half-sister, Mis. Atkinson, whom he har? never soon- Thoy contained xemarka on members of the family, and so the thought it wiser to keep thfun to themselves. Now, however, Mrs.

Arthur Kerarrard, a kimsiwoman of Heann, hae been perm i Mod to make use of them. She has not, like Mr. Milton Brormer, priirbed thom (or as much of them as was discreet) compactly together, with a few notes of hot own to make them intelligible she has concealed them in a lon.t; and loquacious account, of La; radio Team's life and writing. Her chisf oualification for the task would seom to lie the fact of heir kinship a very parlous one indeed. The account of his life is of as little value as is the criticism of his work.

Both lack insight and understanding. Neither are wanted For the facts of Ilearn's life have been told as well as they could be Uld by Miss Eliza.be.tih Bisland, conpicnously the risfht person to tell them, and a critic estimat of TIearn's work has just been written by M. do Smct (published hy the MeircuTe do But the letters themselves all lovors of Tjafcadio Hearn's work (and they are a frrowin.5 inimhor') will be arm'ons to read and will be irritated at heim; obliged to pick them ont. with the hclr of the index, from the pages of garrulity in which thoy are set. Mrs.

writes in hr preface: Tiwwo has been oorttiia amavnt of friction with tin Americxm editress ow'rrg to tl.o faco of my been given the riht to uso thceo lottcrs. 1 is as well therefore explain th.xt owing to arilnciBms And nsma-rks mad about people and relatives in II 's usual outepoktot fashion. A. would bnro been impoicaible, in their original iorm, to allow them to pass irrto tho harxta of anyone but a norson mtima'tol? corrrjectd with tio Hcern family." K.inshii with a man, however, does not always imply capacity to write about hi'n and we oan sympathise warmly with Misa Bisland's inferred amnoyance. CeirtaoLnly Mrs.

Koonard has left no stone unrtiurned, the saying is. She has got into commujrioation with the ecclesiastical uthoiutnes at Ushaw, wherre Hearn was at school, and with Mr. Achilles Daunt, who "was apparently Lafcadio's most. intimate comrade at Ushaw." She has also, with a deprcssinc. display of frankness, givon fur-tlieir details of the Jiegress, Alt.li.-oa FcJoy Many -no his Kickshdings, evert to the extent of modifcatuig saic-ido, during the first years of his sojonirm Now Orleans, but never did he fall so morally low as at Cincinnati.

That life of sordidness and Lijnominy was left behind, -the unclean spirit exorcised and cast forth Ho had made his body a hon? of shame, arid so forth in quite the best manner) and she has given an accoumt of her own. journey to Japan wrtih Mrs. Atkinson and Mrs. Atkinson's daughter Dorothy, in which she describes at some length her own. feeliunss on being Japan, on seeing Heann's wife and children and house, on having a Japanese dinmer with the family.

She tells the patient reader how tired she got on the way to the house (266, Nishi Okubo), and how oold she was at the cemetery, where the family took her to pay honour to Hearn's grave, and how she burnt her furs in the brazier before starting, and how much she disliked Japanese tea, and how inadequate was the Japanese- dinner, and how funny their ceremonial customs of welcoming sruests. In fact, she chats amiably about many things, as a clover woman might who felt happilv conscious of being in the ITjy" taik which would be delightful after dinner, but, being formless, becomes distressing in a book which contains letters not to be found elsewhere. The story of these letters is interesting. 6s. Bv EVELYN BRENTWOOD JOHN-LONG.

12. 13, 14, NORRI3 STREET. HA-TJf In the Press io appear VICTORI A-ABAD SHABJAMIMMt) A respectfully Loyal Appeal for, possibly, a Archibald Constable, sometime MJnst.CE., a Publisher the India, Office and, more recently still, Acting Chief Engineer for Construction Burma Railways. Mr. Maurice Bsrinf Dramatist.

In one respect Mr. Maurice Baring's literary work never fails there is always the suggestion at the back of it of a highly sympathetic personality. And his new volume The Grey Stocking, and Other Plays (Constable. 4s. 6d.

net) is no exception. Wherever the author's own predilections seem to peep forth, they are those of a man who judges urbanely out of a large knowledge of uf and a wide general culture. The two first plays in the book, "The Grey Stocking" and "The Green Elephant," have their scene in England, and both have been acted in London. Technically, fahey are richer in ''atmosphere'' than in popular dramatic effect. Each amounts to little more than elegant trifling a 6ort of general delicate dttlettanteism.

The scene of the third, A Double Game," is' Russia, and here the author deals with passion and politics a3 they rage among a people more elemental and self-exprccsional than ourselves. Here the issue' is tragic, and Mr. Baring is at his best. We should not be sorry to hear that, like tho Lady of Shalott, ho has grown "Half sick of shadows." Sussex in Literature. In The Sussex Coast," by Ian C.

Hannah (Fisher Unwin. 5s. net), the author has written about as complete a book of the kmnd as we-have seen. He has not rummaged prosperously among all sorts of ancient records for arahteologioal and historical. detail; he has caught the present character of most the places he describes in a most felicitous way.

And as, moreover, all is set down in smooth prose, with plenty of colour in it and always a sympathetic suggestion of character behind it, the reader spends an agreeable time. It is not possible, in a necessarily brief notice, to describe, the book in detail. We may, however, draw attention to the variety and number of its references to Sussex's literary associations. Blake and Hayley at Felphom Campbell writing one of his poems at St. Leonards the Autocrat 'e panegyric of Brighton in hes Hundred Days in Europe and Elia's very rude remarks in tho Essays; Kipling's magnificent verses on the Downs; Tennyson's description of Bosham in Becket," still marvellously apt; and a host of further local references to Pope, Shelley, Swinburne, Ruokin and many other famous writers lend a distinct charm to the is agreeably illustrated by Edith Brand Hannah.

Mr. Barry Pain, Mr. Barry Pain seems to have no limitations of scope or theme in his handling of the short story. His "Stories in Grey" (Werner Laurie, 6s.) range from the embryonic to the fully developed comedy. In his mood there is less variety, for the author always presents himself to us as the possessor of a keeoily humorous observation and a strong taste for satire, coupled with a vein of deep tenderness for the troubles of humanity.

He can submit a picture of lower middle spiritless banality and depression as grim as any of George Gissing's but the stroke is never absent which communicates th thrill of pity between author and reader. But Mt. Pain is most entertaining, of course, when he is avowedly out for fun," and his drollery' is often of the most delicate and intellectual. Tihe episode'in which a couple of -South Sea Islanders make their first acquaintance with a bottle of gin is of this species it is satire of the larger kind, which has the whole race for its target, and when the dusky Polynesian recalls through the mists of next morning's bead-ache the impression of having been unusually witty" oveaxueht, he' may be said 'to shake harnds with civilisation. liners is a moat dexterous equipoise of humour and pathos in the story of a man who conceived a masterstroke of comicality at the funeral, of his fiancee and could never regain his self-respect from the involuntary outrage.

Mr. Barry Pain is a master, of one of the purest strains of high comedy, and those who have a gentuine taste for ftnithedi writing, must rank him among their steadiest favourites. re loo Sketches. There oto four places where, according to his proverbs, a Breton is always willing to linger at the inn before a cup of cider, at tho foot of a strawstack with his sweetheart, at the church before God, and at the corner of the hearth smoking his pipe. In The Night, of Fires (Ohapman and Hall, o.

net) M. Anatolo le Braz has done justice in his previous books to the piety of his native Brittany the present is more in the hearthside vein. It celebrates the Breton's cult of fire as a tenacious survival of the element-worship of their Pagan ancestors. It draws -from village crones and veterans the traditions, rhymes, and incantations they learned in- their childhood assembled round the Tan-tad, or moorland fire, on the night of St. Peter's feast.

Why St. Peter's it would be hard to say, but as the Pagan ceremony would not be trodden down the Church seems to have wisely mode a compromise for once and consecrated it to the first saint. upon her' books. And. that is why wo find even scholars among her Breton clergy tolerating these strange old rites, usually with something like a mild impatience or amusement, or even with a genuine curiosity.

M. le Braz hae found, as before, a. translator with a happy blend of the right sympathy and knowledge in Mrs. Frances (jostling, and she renders the primitive and rugged Breton dialogue as well as any English reader can expect. After all, ono must go and tramp among these bare moorlands, wild Druid monoliths, and sculpture hardly tamer, to catch the spirit of Armorica.

And perhaps after long 6earch. one runs it to earth the failing frame of some old inhabitant, bound by the narrow limits' of the fireside and the village church. Antidote to Solomon. None of the innumerable volumes about the Child more accurately reflects the mood of tho time than Dr. Woods Hutchinson's We and Our Children" (Cassell, 6s.

net). It is a book which would have made our grandmothers stare, and they might even have considered a trifle improper its frank insistence on the paramount importance of those who used to he bidden to be seen and not heard. AJ1 honour to age and to authority," the author says in a breezy preface, but it is the honour paid the child and the mother that stamps the rank of a civilisation Again Run your politics and your government in the interests of your children, and the world will become a Utopia within three generations." There is the same brave and. sanguine note throughout. Read the admirable chapter on' "The Child's Self -Respect," and learn a thing mothers and nurses are' alow to understand how the virtues grow with the body, and how it ia no good sign for a child to be unselfish and considerate beyond his yeans how absurd, too, it is to require of our children a standard of moral perfection which we have long given up ourselves.

Dr. Woods Hutchinson that, on the whole, spoiling does no harm to the average child, and that it is certainly better than the insensate repression and nagging of which so. much training consists. It is all in delightfully flat contradiction to Solomon and a whole literature of old wives' fables which has grown up round the question of the rearing and up-bringing of children. The Real Borgia.

If, in The Life of Cesare Borgia (Stanley Paul and 16s. net) Mr. Rafael Sabatini does not exactly canonise Borgia, he makes a very determined attempt to exhibit him in a light far removed from the lurid glare cast on him by history and legend. In place of the remorseless poisoner that is the accepted view of Cesare, we haye.in these pages the model of Machiayelii's Prince," the brilliant captain of condottieri, the most gallant figure of his age, the patron of arts and inventions, whom the gossip-mongers have all alone been' in a tacit conspiracy to mis-, represent. Mr.

Sabatini disposes to his own satisfaction of the various charges of assassination brought against the house of Borgia, and demurs even at the common report of simony and nepotism to have been practised wholesale by Alexander VI. before and after he became head of the Church. That malignant myth has done its' worst By the fame of -the Borgias few modern students would question. The slow poison by which they were alleged to Alonr in West Akjhca. By llary Gaunt.

(T. Werner Laurie.) 15s. nut. A year or so ago Miss Decaana Moore delighted us with a lively account of her adverjr tures in the Gold Coast and Aahanti It was, however, a case of We Two iu Weat Africa," for Miss Mooro was with her husband, Major Guggisberg, and uaidertook no independent traveL Uvtii Airs. Gaunt it was she journeytj alouc, managed, her own carai vain, win uer own risks, biie is perhaps the pioiiear wemuu travedex, so fair as the Gold Coast is for Mary Kingsley's wme furthox eatt.

uhietiy in French iJongo. niwry Kuigslcy's Travels in West Africa sUuios in vne category of great1 books. It tasowii.jjtfrd itasto.uct.ioii by urn intimate know-luuge of and syviipatihios with the African, Miss Klugutcy displayed. Aione in West Africa is ot a diflereiii, character, it is just a book of travols in strange- lands, written with a hue soiuo of ami enjoyment of life by a paesur-by las Mrs. G-aunt dosoribes herself) ono, too, wiho passed by a notable region becaufco I hud jiot brought enough photographic platc6." Wliat was the good of going, adus ili-s.

Gaunt, without taking photographs Here, indeed, is a sordous matter. The public, we aire to understand, wants pictures above all things. If this bo go, then the public should revel in this book, for the photographs Mrs. Gaunt ddd take Ithure are nearly a hundred of them) are all excellent whetiner they be of people, of scenery ox of the old forts scattered along uhe Gold Coast. To visit these old forts was the primary object of Mrs.

Gaunt '6 jounuuy, and to fulfil her purpose ahe marched overland along, the coast, subsequently extending her travels to the German posscesian of Togoiand and also to Ashaxjtti. iShe had vdsited other parts of West Africa, The chapter on the Gannbda, a magnificent waterway, is one of the best in the book. At Sierra Leone she mot Dr. BlycVm, one of those exceptionally gifted pure-bioodt'd Africans who have risen to lull intellectual equality with the most cultured ICuropeans. lyi ail the eight months of her travels Mrs.

Gaunt met with but one other negro fully civilised aocorddng to European standards. For the senri-civilised negro the author evinces a natural distaste, fie is truly often ail unlovely creature. Nor docs he rcaitly lose his inmate bmrbairism. He may strut down Freetown wearing a silk hat and a frock coat (for that matter, a silk hat and nothing else in particular is a recognised costume on the Wctst Coast), but ait groat festivals he will go secretly to uhe bush," join in the fotiih dauoo and in ouheT and more shocking rates. Tho ktsson to be learned by (he white nations who have thrust thcmseKes on the negro as overlords is that the black brother must be helped to develop on natural and racial lines.

So far and in tho curly days mds-aionmrros were to blame in the matter wo have been almost entirely can taint to make of him a bad copy of a E-UTOpeaiu These refleaUiana arise chiefly from the sad-dendng amd suggestive picture Mrs. Gacunt draws of the Libcrian. For the main part, however, the author writes in lighter vedn. She finds polygamy and antimacassars incon gruous shii approves tho birch for (African) school girhi fhe likes we imagiiio occasian-flijy to shock us by her Recounting bar adventures with unfuaggiiig vivacity, she impresses the reader with her dogged determination, her capacity to fall on her feet" and her unshakable love oi the open air. The climate for those who live sanely offers, she a wars, and with truth, no danger bctyoxid the normal, and she pours acorn on tho clearing of setitlenienrts of trees in order to avoid fever, thus making sure, as she puts it, that everyone shall, die of sunstroke.

Both in British and German territory Mrs. Gaunt travelled ir. perfect safety. Such, in-iced, wos the force of her personality that on one oooasion she made hjcr carriers take hiar by night through a dreaded ju-ju region. Thy feared greatly, but they did not disobey.

Though also does not appear to have been for many days at a time out of touch with some Kuxopciaii or another, it was a notable a.nd plucky journey. To a timid person one white woman amid a company of bWiks the risks mirjht well have appeared serious. Mra. Gairmt, baeang her conclusion on evidence which proves something quite different, seams abscised with the idea that England lis ceasijig to be a colonising Power. All she shows is that itn the rnanagemeri.t of tropical dependencies we havo something to learn from Germany.

Two other paints deserve mention. Mrs. Gaunt ranges herself with the almost extinct and discredited band of travellers who have no use for missions to the heathen and she gives a valiuable account of tho German sleeping sickness camp in Togo-land. KING MURAT. Napoleon and Kmo Mukat.

By Albert Espitalier. Translated by J. Lewis May. (John Lane.) 12s. 6d.

net. This is an admirable translation by J. Lewis May of the painstaking work of M. Espitalier on Murat's relations with Napoleon during the years when, thanks to his marriage with the Emperor's sister, the fiery cavalry leader had to play the part of a puppet King. It is a tragedy without the final scene, for -a.

Espitalier stops short of the deposed King's last wild enterprise, which ended with tho firing party in the courtyard at Pizzo. Tragic it is throughout, despite strange touches of comedy, for from the first Murat was doomed to failure and none the less tragic because that failure was as much due teethe defects of tho soldier-king's character as "to the impossible conditions under which he was called to rule. He had counted on the Crown of Spain. He went to Naples a disappointed man. He was made to understand clearly that he owed oven this promotion to his w'ife, and devoted as he was to Caroline Bonaparte, the proud man chafed at the idea of being a mere King-consort," and there was a new kind of jealousy between husband and wifo, Murat taking elaborate precautions to let it be seen he was not influenced by her in his public acts.

He tried to be a King, but at every turn he was forced to feel that he was little more than a French prefect residing at Naples. When the tension between him and tho Emperor at last reached breaking point, he tried to secure his Throne and assert his independence, now by allying himself with Austria and England, now by posing as the leader of a movement for a united Italy. But his statesmanship never rose above a poor kind of selfish cunning. Neither the allies nor the patriots could ever trust him. He blundered to his own destruction.

1 As one reads the story of his downfall in M. Espitalier's striking narrative one realises that it was but an evil that gave him the hand of Caroline and forced him to be a King. But for that he would have been spared those years of gilded misery, and would be remembered now not as one of the failures of but only as the greatest of the cavaliers of the Empire, first of that brilliant group of men like Montbrun and X'Hautpoul, Kellerman, Lasalle, the two Colberts and D'Espagne. Dr. Marcel A.

HerubeTs book, their Treasures. and will be published by Fisher TJnwin to-morrow. Mr. Murray has ready the important volume which Mrs. Arxnitage has written.

entitled Early- Norman Castles in the British Isles." Mr. Fisher TJnwin will publish this week an anthology of Cowboy Songs," edited by Mr. John A. Lomax, and collected from ell -over the cowboy lands of North America. Messrs.

Macmillan will publish immediately a work on "The Referendum monf the English a Manual of Submissions to the People in the American States," by Mr. S. R. a well-known member of the American Bar. "The Beginnings of Quakerism," by Mr.

William Braitbwaite, to be published this week by Messrs. Macmillan and traces the rise of the ftcct in the reign of Elizabeth, and carries on the story to the year of the Restoration. The romance of Hearn's father with Rosa Tessima, the girl from the island of Oerigo, is well known. It was unhappy, and he married again. In the second marriage he had three daughters.

Whan Lafcadio Hearn was becoming famous, after his Japanese marriage, the three sisters wrote to their half-brother. First Miss IiTlah Hearn wrote, and Teceivod no answer then Mrs. Brown wrote, and also received no answer and finally Mrs. Atkinson, the youngest, wrote, and in the proper fairy-tale fashion received a delightful answer. A correspondence herein, in which Hearn obviously enjoyed the of playing older brother to a lititlo sister whom he had never seen, and whom it was improbable that he over would see.

One letter bozins "Dear sister, I love you a Little bit more on hearing that you are little. The smaHler you are, the more I will be fond of you." In another he says And not must (rWo you a Vet-ure. I don't warrt morn than one eieter ha-vea't room 'n Jirv heart for more. All appear to he tbey sie sweeVJookinjr. I nerwtot to spo how they succeed, But don't ask me to write to everybody and don't show everybody nry ltors.

I' can't mvecif Tory feir. You eaid you wouM be my favourite. A ioo wyy yon go about it I Suppose I tcU you I am a very jetJoua nasty brohor, a.nd if Jve one sister hv IKmellf I doat want any sister alt xll Would thai be very, vary naugihty But -it in true. And now you can bo shocked just as much as you please. The most iraterresixrjg letter of all is hat which Hearn wrote to Mrs.

Atkinson on hearing the news of the birth of her daughter Dorothy. It is a beamtdful letter, written a fow momrtihs after the birth of his own eldest son Then it used to seam to mo that no mtfn died so jit'terly as tho man without children for him 1 fancied that death would be utter oternaJ blackness. When I did, however, hear tho first ory of my boy my boy droa-mcd -about in forgotten year I had for iha-c instant the g-horftly esonsataon of being tlotible. It was weird, but gave me thought thjit changed ail tpTO-oxitaon'g thoughts. My boy's gazo still eeenis to ixto a quoerry beautiful I still feel I aan looking at myseiif when ho looks at me.

Only tilio thought has booomn infinitely more complicated. For I think a-bour. all tho dead who dive in the little hoa-rt of him races aod oKfinorics diverso ue K.u-!; and Wost. He wrote to Watkin also about the birth of his son the old printer whi had first befriended him, a lonely boy, in Cmcininatd but far less intimately. In writinig to the old man of the event, he was chiefly reminded of his own youth.

What an idiot I was and how could you be so good 1 amd why do man change so? I often, wonder now at your infinite patiance with the extraordinary, superhuman foolishness and wickedness of the worst pet you ever had in your life." Such passages throw more lilut on Lafcadio Hearn's character than, hundreds of pages of gossip couild ever do. And it is a great pity that Mrs. Keransard was not comtoat to let the letters quietly speak for themselves, with the shortest, newtest accotsnit possible of the circumstances which brought them into existence." MORE TOLSTOY. Father SKttorns. By Connt Leo Tolstoy.

(Nelson.) 2s. The RfxtotON and Ethics op Toi.stot. Ry the Kev. H. Craufurd, M.A.

(Pishcr llnwin.) 3. 6di This second volume of Tolrtoy's posthumous works contains a play, The Light that Shines in Darkness," of unusual interest, because of its scmi-autobiographiral natrrre. The tragedy of the life of NicholaB Ivanoviteh, who cannot persuade his wife to renounce all their possessions and bring up their children like peasants, is Tolstoy's own tragedy. The play exercises a painful fascination on the reader's imagination, whether he sides with Nicholas, driven desperate by the struggle between his conscience and his affections, reiterating at each fresh sign of the luxury and ease of his life, "ft is impossible to live as we live. it is not possible to own anything or (more probably) with the poor distracted wife, Teady to sacrifice herself, but not her children'8 future.

Tho argument is carried pretty far. We must relinquish everything," Nicholas say3 to his sister-in-law we should give up our bread and our clothes even." "And the children bread also?" asks the sceptical Alexandra. Yes the children's also." But, as Mr. Aylmer Maude points out in his illuminating preface, Tolstoy, for dramatic reasons, did not force the logical conclusion. Nicholas's final offer is to retain enough to keep them from actual destitution a proposal Tolstoy refused to entertain in his own case.

Tho play is prohibited in Russia because of its arguments against "military service. In i'art, it cmlodie.i all tho main tenets of Tolstoy's creed, the crime of property, of war, of law, of oaths, of prisons. The luminous simplicity of his writing, the clear-cut outline of his beliefs, were never more evident. Further on in a scries of conversations he tries to convict out of the mouths of babes children demand the "Why?" of the evils of tho world and cannot understand the sophisticated explanations. In tho preface to There Arc NO Guilty People he abandons disguise and speaks out his weariness and disgust at the hateful compromise of his life.

I shall live on ojnid the depravity and sins of rich eocioty. and I oanmot leave it because I havo noithor the knowledge nor strength to do so. Now I ajn over eighty and havo become feeble I havo given up Lryirqr to free myself and, strange to say. as my feebleness inarcaecB 1 realise more and more strongly the wronetfulr-ees of my position, and it grows more and more intolerable to me." Only the first story, Father Sergins," has not the note of personal grief and shame, and preaches the moTe general creed of humility and kindness that has reached the hearts of every class in every country. It is the old contrast between the life of holiness apart and a lifo of humble service of one' fellows; the old appeal for honesty and gentleness to save tho world from its misery.

One's first thought on picking up Mr. Craufurd's book, The Religion and Ethics of Tolstoyt" ia to picture Tolstoy's ineffable disgust at having his religion explained by a clergyman. For his hostility 'to a definite Church never wavered and he considered the clergy the enemies of light and truth. But to Ttvaders devoid of his prejudice tbis commentary is a curiously irritating one. To a certain extent Mr.

CTaufurd does appreciate tho nobility of Tolstoy and his gospel of self-sacrifice. But he insists on measuring the great and universal spirit of Tolstoy by the conventional ordinary standards of mankind, and convicts him on page after page and in chapter after chapter of extravagance, of lack of logic, of inconsistency. It is very much as if one were to accuse a castle of lacking the modern conveniences of a suburban villa. Much of what the critic says is just and true, though rather obvious but he uses the articles of Tolstoy'6 belief as pegs on which to hang his own views of immortality, socialism, And there is a- suspicion of bland patronage in his frerraently expressed conviction that Tolstoy's eyes have been opened by death to his many errors. Seriorisly, the attitude of the book is a mis take.

It will annoy devoted Tolstoyans and it wiU not teach the others to appreciate Tolstoy. Of all men, the Russian thinker lends himself least to such analysis. The lorric of his doc trines even the magic of his personality does not mawer, courparua wiun uie lnrensc sinceruy of his spirit that penetrates and convinces all sorts and conditions of men. FRIDAY. TWOPENCE (mot drMjMamar.

PmNk Qgm abrood, IS. w- 1912 as soon as possible. HOTEL REMBRANDT LONDON. A Private Hotel on Mddcra lines of luxurious refinement, casuring ot privacy and condort. Running Hot? and; Cold water -in every 'bed-room.

A large numbeV orelf-enclocd -PRIVATE SUITES of bom' 4 to 6 rooms with Bath Room.rf Opposite the. 'Rembrandt-are the Victoria and Albert; and Natural History Museums, and also the worldnre no wn ed Brompton Oratory. Handsome Suttee of Rooms, tor -Weddings, Receptions, etc etpt-. dally, convenient celebrated at Brompton Church -and Dainty Afternoon Teas served is -the Lounge, which, with the Dining' Room, is OPEN TO NON-RESIDENTS. Moderate INCLUSIVE TERMS from 126 pw day.

All pnblic rooms and corridors are -Steam Heated to- maintain an equable and pleaiaot ore. HOTEL REMBRANDT, Telegrams: Choicest Telephone: 4300 Kensington lines). Fine New Novel. By the Author" of "The Harvest Moon," Daniel Quayne," 0- Now Ready mi aULibrarit, BpokttUtn, :36, King Street, CoventGwdeo HEw HOVELS have removed certain of the' obstacles in their path is probably of a like category with the story of the baboon, embodying the spirit of the devil, which capered about "the death chamber of the Pontiff. In hacking away such accretions as these, Mr.

Sabatini does the memory of the Borgias a service that is, however, greatly le whole rather-better than the age in whichi .1 1: 1 Ik. niiMliin rt nmf.ivfl xney wruutccj wviuu -arises in the crimes attributed to the Borgias. Mr. Sabatini is unsafe by reason of a predilection which he scarcely attempts to hide. Of the more vulgar conception of the Borgias set about by Hugo and Dumas, this book is destructive enough, and little as is -space given to Lucrezia it is sufficient to leave the impression that few characters in history have been more cruelly maligned.

The book has a number of portraits, for which all praise, and the binding, with the arms of Borgia stamped in gold on the black cover, is handsome. The Curve of Crime. The decrease in crime, which was one of the, most hopeful features of the latter, end of last century, nas since, shown an inclmation bo the backward streaming curve of the poet's lsn-ent, and, as Dr. R. F.

Quinton observes in his preface to The Modern Prison Curriculum (Macmillan, 5s. net), the fact, ia giving some disturbance to officials and experts. Dr. Quinton himself, who has been Governor and Medical Officer of Holloway, is disposed to throw part of the blame, at any rate, for this retrogression on tho sentimentality with which the subject has been invested. The reclamation of the criminal cannot be effected' without punishment or without a longer supervision than short sentences permit'; and those who are most eager to regenerate him are frequently the most, averse to his- liberty being' curtailed or his comfort impinged' The author specially cites the episode of Mr.

Churchill and the Dartmoor shepherd "a typical recidivist" as an illustration of the: forces that interfere with scientific penology; and he expresses a hope that the Prevention of Crimes Act "will not be' administered away before it has had a fair chance of showing its usefulness. Dr. Quinton also demurs. to the power 'of varying treatment; such as has been conferred on the Prison Commissioners as a result of the ludicro-terrific conduct of the suffragettes. SaperflnoBS Biography.

"A Queen -s Knight," by Mildred Carncgy (Mills and Boon, 7s. 6d. net), bolongs to a type of book that has become tiresomely persistent history- sentimentalised, biography flavoured by the novelette. It is hard to know wlhat purpose is' served by souffles of this kind. They lack the authority of serious study and the interest of independent research.

Two dozen books of memoira and biography from uhe London, library and a few portraits seem to be the materials commonly used in their making. They are, as a rule, excellently and the portraits admirably reproduced, and they coat something between 7s. 6d. and -16a. net.

It is possible that some people who like scandal and small talk, even when it is only about dead people, nna pleasure in hub mri ui thing, arid feel virtuous because their reading confined to books that are novels in name' as well as in nature. Those who care for biography as biography can-only be exasperated by this drawing-room gabble, and must wonder with irritation next. will be dragged' from the obscure corners of, history ancTdecked out with phbtogravures for. half a guinea. Miss Mildred iCarhegy's life of Count Axel de Fersen, the devoted, adherent of Marie Antoinette, is not even among, the best of-ite-nondescript classl It is in tone.

It neither produces new, facts nor throws new light on old Those who know nothing at all of 1 these old facte, however, may like to -have 'them set forth in this personable and 'easy form. FOUR NEW STARS! MR. JOHN LANE'S DISCOVERY. A NEW HISTORICAL NOVELIST. THE SHADOW OF POWER 6s.

PAm Bertram. ine no Wgoted End brutal fanaticism of all the religions sects of the per.od. (Ready. FIRST REVIEW "Few readers hating taken up 'The Shadow of Power' with Don Jaime He Jorauerafllw It town or refuse Mm a hearing until the book and his adventures come to an end. -Times.

A wbw MTTTTARY NOVELIST. HECTOR GRAEME life in India and South Africa. The hero is a most An enthralling novel of l'fadner1Dwhosc contcmpt for order and cruel indivi- dShy miiVtito asains, his chances of success. It is impossible to convey the stroogth of this study. A NEW REALIST.

THE STORY of a PLOUGHBOY 6s. james bryce a.o A NEW PORT OF PASSION. THE PAGAN TRINITY 5s. Beatrice irwin. Miss' Beatrice trwin's work win be TfSlt meteoric flashes.

"LONG JANF. AT IT AGAIN." Readers of PUNCH will find a diverting parody of tbis announcement, Rea uder the above title, in the Issue of Jan. 17. THE BODLEY HEAD, Vigo-street, W..