No More Learning

BAT. Raruis-Phillip Chamber Concert, 2, Bechstein Hall.
Queen's Hall Orchestra, 3, Queen's Ball.
London Ballad Concert, 3, Royal Albert Hall
Extra Broad rood Concert, 3. 5, Polian Hall.


## p. 108 (#98) #############################################

108
No. 4396, Jan. 27, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
Important
Announcement.
as
“ an
>
when in the end the lonely spinster takes
DRAMA
her life, we are less shocked by the abrupt
catastrophe than relieved that her other
inconsequences are swallowed up in this
last inconsequence of all,
TWO PLAYS.
'The Clodhopper,' which occupies the rest
The Probationer (Gowans & Gray) would
of the volume, is hardly more successful
seem to be one of the plays produced by
than "The Waters of Bitterness. The
the Glasgow Repertory Theatre, and main-
author describes it
incredible
tains the reputation of the series to which comedy”; it is certainly incredible, but not
it belongs. Mr. Anthony Rowley's piece is particularly comic.
a drama of Scottish manse-life. A delight-
THE TIMES BOOK CLUB
fully unworldly old minister is shown
disappointed in the son who, he had hoped,
would follow in his footsteps, but is saved
Dramatic Gossip.
CIRCULATING LIBRARY
from a knowledge of how low the Absalom
of his affection could sink through weakness
MUCH excitement has been aroused in
IS NOW OPEN TO
of character and love of luxuries. It is
Dublin at the announcement of the arrest
bad enough that John Logan should dis- of the Abbey Players in Philadelphia, in | THE GENERAL PUBLIC.
tress his father by proposing to enter the consequence of the production of The
clerical profession though he has lost faith
Playboy. ' Commenting on the incident,
in his Church's dogmas, and should play a
Mr. Yeats says :-
double game with two girls, both of whom
“The Irish-American is now in the state of mind
are too good for him. But he also takes
that Ireland was in twenty years ago, when Irish Deliveries throughout the
literature expressed only what great numbers of
advantage of the immunity allowed him by
men could be got to believe. It was often spirited,
the minister's friendship with a bookseller sometimes charming, but never profound or dis whole of London and Suburbs
to drop to the level of a common book-thief, tinguished. . . . . . The Irish Theatre has merely proved
and let an innocent man-his sweetheart's its vitality. Its history is similar to that of the
sub-
on every week day;
National Theatre of Scandinavia and the realistic
father-be suspected of his felonies. Mr.
theatre of modern Germany. "
Rowley's characters are pleasantly indi-
scribers are not tied down to
vidualized ; he realizes successfully his JULIUS CÆSAR' is the play which the
Scottish atmosphere, and he works out his 0. U. D. S. are producing this year at Oxford. any particular day on which
plot adroitly, though his final scene, in The first performance is on February 14th,
which John's scapegoat is detected making and the play will be continued for the five to make their exchanges.
a false confession to save the young man, and following nights, with matinées on the 17th
is proved a “noble liar” by his employer, and the 19th. It is promised that the pro-
must be pronounced to be at once a little duction will be decidedly original. The
hurried and indirect in its management. orchestra will consist of brass and drums
The dialogue generally is apt and colloquial, only, and the music will be Italian, selected
Country subscribers are not
but now and then it becomes stilted, as from work of the school of Monteverde.
when a young girl, sent out to bring home Mr. Philip Guedalla will play Mark Antony. required to return their books
something savoury for her father's and
lover's supper, returns and declares :
MR. MARTIN HARVEY is continuing the until a fresh supply arrives,
“Then sought I the great secret ; found it esculent
Edipus Rex'at Covent Garden for an extra
and succulent; brought it home with me; and
week. The last performance will take place and are thus never without
within an hour it shall be communicated to you
on the evening of Saturday, February 3rd.
both for your approval-by sight, by smell, and by
books. This valuable con-
taste! ”
THE Westminster Gazette of last Thursday
The child who is responsible for these says there is some chance of “The Playboy' cession, which in practice is
remarks is supposed to be, and is ordinarily, being given in a German version under
a simple, unaffected, charming girl,
Prof. Reinhardt's direction.
equivalent to giving them a
• BUNTY PULLS THE STRINGS' has started double service for one sub-
The Waters of Bitterness. By S. M. Fox. touring for the year, and has been this week
(Fisher Unwin. )—To write a tragedy, upon at Kingston.
theme more proper to
a novel is a
scription, coupled with the
dangerous experiment. Mr. Fox has tried it,
wide
unusually
and, we regret to say, has in our opinion failed. TO CORRESPONDENTS. -C. G. -F. R. -H. B. C. -E. A. S.
of
range
A woman approaching middle age, without --C. J. -H. F. - Received.
function in life, unmarried, and yet eager J. D. S. -J. C. H. -Many thanks.
books, makes The Times
to lavish affection where it can never be
No notice can be taken of anonymous communications,
returned, is a pitiful figure, but not a dra-
Book Club service cheaper,
We cannot undertake to reply to inquiries concerning the
matic one. The patient pen of a Gissing appearance of reviews of books.
or an Arnold Bennett can draw these women We do not undertake to give the value of books, china, more useful, and more con-
well enough, tracing with minute care their pictures, &c.
origin and growth, adding detail to detail
venient than any other.
until the negative and featureless is clothed
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS.
with shape and colour before our eyes.
To realize them in the bold outlines
which drama demands is no work for any AUTHORS' AGENTS
BLACKWOOD & SONS
but the most practised hand. So in The
BRADSHAW'S EDUCATIONAL REGISTER
Waters of Bitterness Miss Marsden is a
TERMS AND FULL PARTICULARS
blank, and her actions are purposeless. EDUCATIONAL
“ We do not forbid an artist,” said Swinburne
ON APPLICATION.
in speaking of Charles Reade,
LAURIE
" to set before us strange instances of incon-
LONGMANS & Co.
sistency and eccentricity, in conduct; but we
do require of the artist that he should make us MAGAZINES, &c.
feel such aberrations to be as clearly inevitable
MISCELLANEOUS.
as they are confessedly exceptional. "
MURRAY
NOTES AND QUERIES
THE TIMES
Mr, Fox has not done this. His puppets
BOOK CLUB
dance, as it were, to a music which we
PROVIDENT INSTITUTIONS
cannot hear, and we see nothing but grotesque SALES BY AUCTION
contortions and fantastic motions.
We are
SITUATIONS VACANT
376 to 384, Oxford Street,
not interested in the unfolding of cha- SITUATIONS WANTED
SMITH, ELDER & Co.
racter, for there is none; we merely wonder
TIMES BOOK CLUB
what will happen next, and why. So, TYPE-WRITERS, &c.
LONDON, W.
6
a
CATALOGUES
.
ENGLISH REVIEW
EXHIBITIONS
LECTURES
MACMILLAN & Co.
MILLS & BOON
PAOR
90
111
109
90
89
111
89
92
89
91
92
90
91
90
92
110
90
89
90
110
89
90
112
108
90
PRINTERS . .
SHIPPING . .
::::


## p. 117 (#99) #############################################

No. 4397, FEB. 3, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
117
.
THE OXFORD DICTIONARY
ALONE IN WEST AFRICA
RODDLEY. .
117
118
119
119
124-125
"A
. .
THE
125-126
127
131
133-134
135-137
CLASSICAL
138-139
By the aid of these two books it has But the boundaries of copyright law
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1912.
become possible to take stock of the new
have been extended in another way.
position created by the Act, and to mark Hitherto, although the law has recognized
CONTENTS.
PAGE fairly clearly in what respects it differs a proprietary right” in unpublished
THE CONTRIGHT ACT, 1911
from the old.
literary work, and has been prepared to
restrain infringements of it by injunction,
To speak of the Act as a codification
TRAVEL AND TOPOGRAPHY-ENGLAND (The Sussex
Coast; Off the Beaten Track in Sussex; Selsey
of the law is scarcely accurate. In the copyright only existed from the date of
Bill; The “Flower of Gloster"; Memorials of first place, the ideal of embodying the publication. Henceforward, while the
Old Gloucestershire); NORTHERN REGIONS
former remedies are retained by section 31,
(Among the Eskimos of Labrador; Hunters and
whole law of copyright in one statute
Hunting in the Arctic ; Home Life in Norway); and the orders issued under it-an ideal copyright also exists from the date at
THE AMERICAN CONTINENT (Canada To-day and
which has been attained in the case of
which a work comes into being. This
To-morrow; The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mis.
sissippi; High Mountain Climbing in Peru and the United States Act of 1909–has un-
may give rise to much legal argument.
Bolivia); A PRICA (Nigeria, its People and its
When does a work become a work ? If
Problems; The Tailed Headhunters of Nigeria ; fortunately not been realized in this
Sport in the Eastern Sudan); THE SOUTH SEAS
(New Zealand, the Country and the People ; My
instance. The whole of the Musical a friend, to whom you have imparted in
a moment of confidence a brilliant and
Adventures among South Sea Cannibals) . . 120—124 Copyright Act of 1902, nearly the whole
OUR LIBRARY TABLE (Conrad's Reminiscences ; A
Peasant Sage of Japan ; Labour Representation ; of the Musical Copyright Act of 1906, highly original idea for the plot of a
Lafcadio Heam; Cabbages and Kings; Sagas of
novel which you mean some day to write,
and a mutilated fragment of the Fine
Olaf Tryggvason; The Library)
MISSING M88. OF FREDERICK THE GREAT ; 'HEL. Arts Copyright Act, 1862, survive to straightway embodies it in a book of his
LENISTIC ATHENS'; GRAMMAR OF
PERSIAN LANGUAGE'; BOOK SALE
mar the completeness of the Act of 1911 own, has he infringed your copyright?
LIST OF NEW BOOKS . .
The Act does not attempt to define the
and to ensnare the unwary. In the second
LITERARY Gossip
date of the making” of a work. More-
place, the word “codification ” suggests over, in the case of letters unpublished at
SCIENCE-HEREDITY AND SOCIETY; SOME PROBLEMS
OP GRODYNAMICS; SOCIETIES; MEETINGS NEXT a re-enactment of old law in a consolidated
WEEK; Gossip
the date of the author's death, as Messrs.
FINE ARTS- ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE ; form. But the new Act is far more than
CAIXNEYPIECES AND INGLE NOOKS; ARCHÆO-
Strahan and Oldham point out, there
LOGICAL NOTES; SALE; GOSSIP
that. In many important particulars it
MUSIC - FRANCK'S BÉATITUDES';
is new law.
appears to be a startling innovation in
SOCIETY'S CONCERT; POST-VICTORIAN MUSIC ; DE.
the law. For, unless there be a direct
VEJOPMENT OF OPERA; DICTIONRY OF MUSICAL
TERMS; GOSSIP; PERFORMANCES Next WEEK 137–138
To begin with, the boundaries of copy- bequest-see section 17 (2)—the copy-
DRAMA-THE PIGEON; THE BLINDNESS OF VIRTUE; right have been widely extended. Archi- right will apparently vest in the residuary
THE CORONATION; THE OXFORD SHAKESPEARE
GLOSSARY ; GOSSIP
tecture is protected for the first time, legatee or, if there be none, in the executors
though we note that Messrs. Strahan and or administrators of the deceased writer.
Oldham still share the scepticism of the And, as the new statutory fifty years
from the date of
LITERATURE
Royal Commission of 1878 as to whether of copyright run
such inclusion is really practicable. Re- publication, and the law as to compulsory
ferring to the elaborate definition of licences applies only to published works,
“architectural work of art in section 35, it seems that these
persons could
suppress
THE COPYRIGHT ACT, 1911.
they say that the new law “ means that the publication of private letters in the
HARD upon the heels of the new Copyright the. Court will have to become an art hands of others virtually for ever.
artistic'
Act come its editors and expositors. Of critic, and decide whether a new
One further striking illustration may
the two books before us, the first consists building infringes on the artistic merits be given of the truth that the
new
chiefly of a handy reprint of the text of of the ordinary architect was that the legal subtleties. The celebrated case of
The real grievance ' code” will prove a spring-board for fresh
the Act and such earlier legislation as
has survived its repealing Schedule, fol- plans he drew for one house became the Walter v. Lane decided that copyright
lowed by two valuable tables showing the property of the building owner, who could existed in the report of a political speech
extent to which the new law corresponds use them for 1,000 other houses. Whether in a newspaper. Is it still good law?
with its predecessors, and an excellent this grievance will be by any means Mr. Oldfield cites it as such without
index. To the whole is prefixed a thought- wholly remedied by the new law seems question. Messrs. Strahan and Oldham,
doubtful. ”
ful and highly suggestive Introduction,
Their verdict is that the on the other hand, whose work, though
from which it is abundantly plain that change" is of little importance, and will far less full, is more critical, argue most
as is usually the case with codifying law, probably prove unworkable. ” Mr. Oldfield, ingeniously that the new Act has probably
the new Act will be but a fresh starting-
on the other hand, is more hopeful. “As reversed it. Copyright, they point out,
point for legal labour and ingenuity. regards the new matter,” he says, is in future confined to work that is
Mr. Oldfield's book is more ambitious in the inclusion of architecture is perhaps the Åct of 1842. What precise restrictive
original," a word that was absent from
range, for not only does he supply a fully the most important. . . . Works of artistic force the Courts will give to this added
annotated edition of the present English craftsmanship, pieces for recitation, choreo force the Courts will give to this added
law, but also he adds a reprint of the graphic works (of which Mr. Oldfield is
word the future alone can disclose, but
law of the United States upon the subject, good enough to supply a definition which there seems to be good ground for arguing
and some valuable appendixes dealing the Act fails to give), cinematograph pro- that the copyright of a speech, even
with the laws in force in other countries, ductions, records, perforated rolls, and other though delivered extempore, will rest in
and the international treaties and con-
contrivances for mechanical performance future with the speaker, the mere utter-
ventions. In fact, he supplies as complete also come for the first time within the work” of it, although a newspaper report
ance of the words making "a literary
a handbook of the law as it now stands scope of copyright law. Boosey v. Wright does not, by special enactment, infringe
as could reasonably be expected so soon
after the passing of the new Act, and the decisions ; but, as Mr. Oldfield remarks,
thus passes into the limbo of dead the copyright. If the copyright does not
production of so full a work in so short a
belong to the speaker, what need for such
space of time is a very creditable achieve the
many
special enactment ? And if it does belong
exceptions affecting the special enactment?
ment.
different kinds of copyright
property in to the speaker, can a report of it be called
tended to safeguard public interests, as an“ original ” work and endowed with a
The Copyright Act, 1911. With Introduc- well as the doubtful system of compulsory copyright of its own ?
tion and Index by J. Andrew Strahan licences secured by the efforts of the manu.
and Norman H. ° Oldham. (Solicitors' facturers of mechanical instruments, in changes in the law, apart from its inter-
For the rest, probably the most material
Law Stationery Society. )
The Law of Copyright, induding the Copy. mittee that such a system should not be national aspects, are the altered period of
right 4d, 1911, the Unrepealed Sections adopted, have somewhat marted the sym- copyright and the abolition of registra-
tion. The former of these changes, by
of the Fine Arts Copyright Ad, 1862, the metry of the Act.
Musical (Summary Proceedings) Copy-
which copyright continues henceforth for
right Act, 1902, doc. By L. C. F. Oldfield. A perusal of the long and complicated fifty years after the date of death, remedies
(Butterworth & Co. )
19th section justifies his observation. a glaring injustice, and secures the added


## p. 118 (#100) ############################################

118
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4397, FEB.
3, 1912
6
66
>
>
6
common
read :
7)
►
advantage that all an author's works, Other novelties are see-er,”
also adoptions of Latin unchanged, gene-
except those published posthumously, go from 1882 rarely used “to avoid the rally for technical terms like "sella"
out of copyright at the same moment. customary suggestions of seer'”; (anatomy,
(anatomy, “A saddle-shaped portion of
As for the abolition of registration, the seem, sb. (1440–1596) = semblance;
semblance ; the sphenoid ”) and
the sphenoid ") and “senarius" (=an
change has not escaped criticism. Mr. seicentist” (1905, Athenæum); “seld,” iambic verse of six feet). The German
Oldfield contents himself with referring sb. , obsolete variation of Old English semester ; French “ séjour ” ; Spanish
to the condemnation of registration pro-
“setl "=" settle," sb. , meaning seat, seguidilla, selva”; Hebrew“Selah
nounced by the Berlin Convention and throne,” and later "shop"; and Caxton's Turkish “ selictar”; and Japanese “ sen,
the late Copyright Committee, and ex. adopted French “semence"=seed, used show further what varied sources have
presses no opinion of his own. He adds, for “ sowing,” 1859. The trade term gone to the making of English.
rather unguardedly, The result is that sempiternum," “A quality of woollen
Trade fabrications supply" seltzogene,”
an author no longer has to obtain copy cloth made in the 17th c. ,” is endued with
- selvyt," and " semola. ' There are also
right. ” An author had not to obtain literary interest by Braithwait's amusing several terms taken from proper names :
copyright before, except by publishing simile, "She would have her Husband's in the forties of last century the Sefton
his work. Registration only added legal Life of any Stuff rather than Perpetuano family provided a name for a
veal
protection to a subsisting copyright. or Sempiternum. ”
custard,” in the eighties for a kind of one-
Messrs. Strahan and Oldham, on the other The article on the
verb horse landau ; a sort of bridle bit is
hand, hail the change as “ entirely to the
entirely to the “ seem,” which represents an Old Norse called a “ segundo ” bridle or bit, after a
good. ” But, as the columns of The verb derived from sæmr (=fitting, seemly), Spanish writer on bridle hits in the time
Athenæum have already shown, there is but has generally been confused with the of George IV. ; a French chemist, Seignette,
another side to the question, and the Old English séman, thirteenth-century gave an alternative designation to Rochelle
passing of Stationers' Hall, with its
seme (=settle, reconcile, ratify), is an salt; while Seidlitz and Seltzer (altered
authentic list of protected publications, excellent example of the great advance from German“ Selterser") are named
has left a gap which urgently requires achieved by this Dictionary in the treat- | after places. The origin of “ seersucker,”
filling.
ment of words, As to etymology we the East Indian name of U. S. imitations
in cotton of a cool Indian fabric worn by
American clerks and railway servants,
From the same grade of the root are
sóm reconciliation
A New English Dictionary. -See-Senatory. OE. som
(whence séman
“is for the first time correctly given ” as
(Vol. VIII. ) By Henry Bradley. (OxSEEM v. '); the ablaut-variant *sam- appears from the Persian “shir o shakkar, lit.
milk and sugar. '
in SAME a. , SAMEN adv. , together. ”
ford, Clarendon Press. )
The article on the
The early obsolete meanings,“ befit. 1330 put into the mouth of Roland, and
vulgar “s'elp,” in a work dated about
ABOUT a sixth of this single section of beseem,” are properly placed first in also quoted from Barham and Mr. Rudyard
72 pages is devoted to the three important spite of the quotations extending to the Kipling, is redeemed by the interesting
verbs see,” “ seek,” “ seem,” and their first quarter of the seventeenth century, Middle High German parallel selftir=80
combinations and derivatives ; while while current senses are found early in the helfe dir, as well as by antiquity and
* self” and its following—without count- thirteenth. The analysis of variety, in association with a hero of romance.
ing “selvage," "selvagee,” “ apparently meaning and construction is very close
from self+edge'”-and combinations and clear, distinguishing more than thirty
Misprints and mistakes of any kind are
with “semi-," take up more than a third, different developments. The
The obsolete so rare in this masterpiece of lexicography
though only selections of the innumerable transitive senses" To think, deem, ima- that pointing one out simply relieves the
combinations of “ self” and of formations gine. . . . To think fit,” range from Chaucer's monotony of unbroken approbation. Under
with “semi-” have been included.
It was a ffairye, as al the peple semed, * selictar The London Gazette No. 4236
There must be more than a thousand to “ 1627 HAKEWILL. . . . Possunt, quia is dated 1606, while just above No. 1985
words beginning with “self- ” in the posse videntur. They can, because they is dated 1684. Most of the alien names
selection, a large percentage being regis- seeme they can. ” At least as admirable mentioned above appear for the first time
tered in a dictionary for the first time. are the longer articles on the verbs in one of the dictionaries of the English
Most of the additions are valuable, and and seek," and the noun “ seed,” all language, which are prone to exclude the
many of special interest, as may be Old English ; and that on“ seize," from foreign element too rigidly except in
inferred from a few taken at random. Old French, apparently first used about the case of technical terms. Several of
Spenser, for instance, is quoted for “self-1290 as a law-term in the form“ seise
Dr. Bradley's fresh importations are
assurance,
as well as Scott and Mr. to put in legal possession of property, omitted in The Stanford Dictionary,'
Hardy; Dickens for “self-assertingly”; office, or dignity; compare seisin which was mainly concerned with foreign
Wood (1692) for “selfcide”=suicide, (from 1297).
words and phrases.
another equivalent, self-killing," being The history of “self-respect," made
Under “ semblant," adj. , Caxton's
quoted from “Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm. ), clear by several quotations, reveals a rare Charles the Great,' 1485, is left the
dated about 1721. The quotations show exception to the usual tendency of words earliest quotation by the futility of obey-
that Bishop Ken (about 1711) was much to change their meaning from better to ing the direction, " 1377 [see SEMBLABLE
“ (
addicted to the use of self- combina- worse-illustrated by the descent of a. , 1),” as neither the date nor sem-
tions.
seely
from blessed to "simple, blant” is to be found where indicated ;
The multitude of “ semi-” compounds silly. From 1613 to 1675“ self-respect” but we find under“ semblance,' 2b,
has been chosen with similar judgment, expressed “ a private, personal, or selfish “ 1377 LANGL. P. Pl. B. xviii. 285 And
the methodical arrangement of the hun- end,” self-love, self-conceit,” but after in semblaunce [v. r. semblaunt] of a
|
dreds treated in one article being especially a penitent obscurity of more than a serpent sat on the apple-tree. This
noticeable for its fullness; yet an index century it emerges reformed.
coincidence suggests that a quotation
to the group would have been serviceable, The rest of the section-less than half- dated 1377 was removed inadvertently
and
the same may be said as to self-. " not occupied by the word-groups already | Huous after the reference
in question
had
“from semblable” article as super-
Among newly recorded semi-” com- mentioned, copiously illustrates the motley fluous after the reference in question had
pounds are
semi-bousy (1400). =half-assemblage, gathered from all quarters been inserted. Under Fuller's “semnable”
drunk; Bacon, 1628, is cited for“ semi-at divers times, which constitutes English (for “ semblable ") there might well have
concave”; nineteenth-century authors for vocabulary. There are Old English items, been a reference to “semenaunt” (for
semi-feral "=half-wild ; and Mortimer such as the noun seed and the verb
semblant”), where we find
the con
Collins for the ugly and superfluous “sell”; adaptations from Old French, verse variant remlant” for “ remnant. ”
“semihiant,” our objection being to its e. g. , “sell” (=saddle)“ seize”; from The innovation "seism," justly called
introduction into the language, not its Latin, e. g. select," "select-"; and from in one of the quotations " the awkward
inclusion in the N. E. D. '
Greek, as
seism, ," " seism-. " There are word,” might be dropped on the hint.
6
see
>
>
<<
>
66
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66
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## p. 119 (#101) ############################################

No. 4397, FEB. 3, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
119
It is to be hoped that this incomparable dipped down from Kumasi, its capital, to towards the theory of a benevolent
Dictionary will not encourage the use of the Atlantic seaboard at Sekondi, where despotism. ” That depends for its validity
many unnecessary terms. Rather, while her route ended.
on the temperament of the despot, with
vastly increasing our grip on ideas and
Like another district, which we deal with whom unlimited authority is hardly
words, it should relieve the ever-increasing elsewhere, much
of this country
had not favourable to the growth of sympathy and
strain imposed on the national memory been traversed before by a white woman.
understanding, and is apt to become
by the rapid and inevitable growth of our Mrs. Gaunt's facile and rather gusty style inoculated with the virus of Cæsarism.
vocabulary.
never drifts into mere enumeration of Such are the scope and achievement of
A further portion of T by Sir James peoples, places, and incidents. Her versa- Mrs. Gaunt's book-one fertile in sugges-
Murray is announced for April 1st. tility is such that, wherever she goes, she tion, felicitous in style, though not with-
kindles her narrative with patches and out its mannerisms, but imbued with the
splashes of colour. Particularly illu- saving grace of personality.
minating are her hard, penetrating com-
Alone in West Africa. By Mary Gaunt. ments on the prevailing fetishism con-
(Werner Laurie. )
cerning the West African climate. The
theory current as to its unredeemed vile-
NEW NOVEL.
The avidity with which travel books are
ness has, she observes, crystallized into
sought after by the public is apt to thrust superstition. Officials go there in con-
Roddles. By B. Paul Neuman. (John
into the market a type of descriptive work fident expectation of having their energies
Murray. )
which wilfully trades upon the reader's enervated and paralyzed by its humidity, MR. NEUMAN has written another notable
curiosity. The principle of “omne igno- and in a spirit of calculated disgust. They novel, which has no other continuity with
tum pro magnifico focuses attention flout Nature by burning the candle at his previous work than that provided by
on the unknown country rather than the both ends, by falling into sedentary habits an entirely wholesome sympathy with his
qualities that go to the visualizing of and a dumb mental resentment opposed
fellows.
it, and tends to submerge critical acumen. to physical well-being. So the consequent
To avoid careful study becomes an acute ill-health is as much the result of internal
The characters stand alone, by
temptation. For this reason, and on
as extraneous causes. It may be readily
their own inherent vitality, without any
account of the multiple and disconnected imagined how much the administration of the verbal explanatory props, so
impressions left by a book of this nature, of the country suffers when activities but necessary to the average fiction-maker.
personality is invaluable in supplying unity half-hearted and almost morose are applied For once the well-intentioned critic can
and distinction and fixing a rallying.
point for the reader. Mrs. Gaunt's new
gance and take the part of appreciator,
book fulfils this demand. It is not so
Mrs. Gaunt's picture of the Germans trying to show more clearly the reflection
much that her personality is virile and
as colonizers of Togo is in striking of light from the many facets presented
commanding, as that it is sufficient to cut
contrast to the verdict just given. Of to view. Artistry is here from the very
a way for the reader through the jungle their alertness, regularity, and cheerful. title, which centres our attention once
of her journeys. Her salient capacity is a
ness she speaks in terms of ungrudging and for all on the chief character—though
surprising and quickening common-sense ;
admiration. Their keen and trenchant intermittently Roddles may appear to
she refuses to take things on
methods of organization she opposes to have no more to do with the tale than
trust,
alert enough to test all she hears and the British lack of plan and casual attitude.
others. It is Roddles, the little drunken
sees by her own experience.
Our sole Without attempting to draw invidious tailor whom we think of when away from
objection to her lucid and conscientious comparisons, she speaks of the presence of the book-Roddles, the individualist who,
narrative is that she tends to lapse into broad, long roads, the facilities for transit, acknowledging his own responsibility to
impressionistic journalism. The purely the instinct for governing, the scientific society for his offspring, sees
descriptive portions of her adventurous warfare against sleeping sickness, the sponsibilities involved by his own exist-
jaunt through little-known districts in insistence on cleanliness and order, and
-Roddles, who shows the first joint
West Africa do not call for detailed treat-
the anxiety to preserve natural beauties, in his armour of self-sufficiency by failing
ment. Mrs. Gaunt started up the Gambia where “ England seems indifferent if the to thunder forth his lack of faith in the
from Bathurst through the ground-nut beautiful spot be not within the narrow spiritual when his stricken boy fearfully
colony,” a land of promise so far as
asks for confirmation of his father's
productivity is concerned. She skirted German women, too, live with their disbelief.
Sierra Leone“ the white man's grave husbands in Togo, their helpmeets there as We can permit ourselves the pleasure
staying a short time at its dirty, ill. at home. Englishmen, on the other hand, of only one quotation, that in which
kempt capital, Freetown, and spent some regard such itinerant companionship as Roddles sums up for his friend's benefit
interesting days in Liberia, autonomous akin to sacrilege. The tropics are no his life's philosophy :-
since 1822, through the courageous experi- white woman's country. Immorality
ment of America.
“ There, there, he left the first sentence
and discontent are the outcome.
unfinished, 'when a man 'as blasted luck
For the semi-cultured native she has So far as Ashanti is concerned, however, all 'is life, it's no good whining about it.
scant praise, insisting on his boorish- Mrs. Gaunt is less dispiriting. There a There 's luck, there's no luck, and there 's
ness, his arrogance, his raw and blatant succession of zealous administrators have blastod luck. They 've got luck, you've
egoism.
Passing through the Guinea rescued the country from internecine strife. got no luck, and I've got the rest. "
Coast, almost fabulous in its natural Strong measures have had the stimu- If the middle of the book is the less
beauties, she reached Half Assinie lating effect required. Concerning the entrancing, it is merely a case of partially
and the French border. From Elmina, vexed and seemingly inscrutable problem suspended animation while we watch the
the old Portuguese mining settlement, of the native population Mrs. Gaunt is fulfilment of the father's training of his
her pilgrimage took her to Accra, the more reticent than we could wish. Her Offspring, softened as it is by contact with
capital of the Gold Coast Colony; up the conclusions are enigmatic, varying in womanhood. The lessening of tension
Volta to the Krobo Hills, infamous for
accordance with the different status of the also serves to add poignancy to the
the mystic blood - orgies there practised aborigines in different parts. The half- dénouement-the conversion of Roddles
by the nearly savage inhabitants ; over emancipated native, with his veneer of and his Jonathan, a broken-down law.
the Eketo range, and so to the border culture, still, she declares, retains the writer, through the instrumentality of a
into the German colony of Togo. Thence rudiments of barbarism, combined with Salvation Army girl. The reader need
she travelled along the coast to the best the less agreeable characteristics of civi- not fear sermonizing--there is none;
point of vantage and turned inland into lization. His isolation from both white and but there is a true exposition of the self?
Ashanti which has cost England so much black, and his incapacity are complete. evident failure of lives whose only aim
money and so many lives; and finally For the primitive majority she veers I is an exclusively materialistic success.
no
re-
ence
seas. "
>>


## p. 120 (#102) ############################################

120
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4397, FEB. 3, 1912
6
book "
>
on
; that on the ‘Sussex Downs' is included in the survey; and as, in spite of
TRAVEL AND TOPOGRAPHY.
oddly prosy; while the occasional notes on the width of his knowledge, omniscience is
landscape elsewhere lack the vivifying touch. not one of the author's foibles, he has properly
To some degree the latter defect might have called in such experts as Mr. Salzmann, Mr.
been overcome by a closer attention to the Reginald Smith, and Mr. Clement Reid to
ENGLAND.
style, which is so loose and rambling that check his conclusions in their several pro-
MR. IAN HANNAH's book on The Sussex | it frequently defeats the writer's best vinces. It is not a little surprising that any
Coast--in “The County Coast Series attempts at vivacity. In so far as this is one man can write with such intimacy on so
(Fisher Unwin-may be heartily recom-
the case it might be remedied without much many subjects as the author of this sumptu-
mended to all lovers of Sussex, as well as,
trouble by revision in a later edition.
ously furnished volume. The discovery
in general, all lovers of antiquities. It
(p. 119) in Chichester Cathedral in 1891 of
makes a guide-book of much more than In of the Beaten Track in Sussex : a long-lost Anglo-Saxon charter of Oslac
ordinary value ; it contains enough informa- Sketches, Literary and Artistic (Hove, Com- | (A. D. 780) is significant evidence of the need
tion to serve as an adequate book of reference bridge), Mr. Arthur Stanley Cooke has for antiquaries thoroughly to examine their
for ordinary purposes; and it is calcu- made a book which will delight all true
own immediate surroundings.
lated to form an excellent starting point men of the county. These pages represent
for any one taking up local archæology as
artistic and literary impressions of nearly The “ Flower of Gloster. ” By E. Temple
a hobby. Every church in the tiny, almost two score rambles. The descriptive text is Thurston. (Williams & Norgate. ) – It is
forsaken villages beside the inconsequent lively and adequate, but the 160 illustrations not a very common way of taking a holiday
little streams which run down to the sea by Sussex artists, all reproduced from original to hire a canal bargo, its horse and man,
from the Downs is most carefully described ; black-and-white drawings, are the real and go up and down the most secluded
nor will the wanderer who follows this book feature of the book.