Eevieu of Revieus, IJll/lS. 



BOOKS /X BRIEF. 



927 



tality, and being absolutely sure, after a 

 slight investigation, that he is on the 

 heels of a great political discovery — for 

 the girl has apparently be<?n taken away 

 by a Chinaman — he convinces his Chief 

 also, and is allowed a fr-^e hand and given 

 an 0]ien cheque. Then come four or five 

 fast and furious days, wlien li<' is almost 

 lost sight of even "by the " plump little 

 party" who is his sweetheart. Needless 

 . to say, the hero behaves with great cour- 

 . age. and is irresistibly attractable to the 

 people who help hini. He is protected 

 by an extraordinary laundress, is himself 

 abducted and carriixl away to the Chinese 

 Legation (presumably) by means of an 

 underground ]iassage, but comes up smil- 

 ing at last, having solved the political 

 ])roblem and returned the abducted girl 

 to her mother, to be reunited, only 

 sliglitly damaged, to the tender " little 

 party '' who has behaved like a brick all 

 through. The l)ook closes with the sound 

 of marriage bells, for the Chief presents 

 liim with £1(KH), with which the two 

 forthwith buy furniture. 



Die, Man in the Car. By Alan Raleigh. 

 (Long, 3s. 6d.) 

 A clever detective story opening with a 

 motor car accident, which takes place in 

 the proper romantic fashion within a few 

 minutes of the spot where a clever doc- 

 tor and an amateur detective, who is a 

 lawyer, are .standing. A man has been 

 killed — a well-known financier — and the 

 necessary mysterious circumstance is that 

 his death was due to a blow on the temple, 

 though when thrown from the car he fell 

 on the back of his head. A very charm- 

 ing love story is woven into the tale. 



Vnu'lope's, Door.H. By Sophie Cole. (Mills 

 and Boon.) 

 One of those tender romances which bear 

 reading again. Penelope is forty-two. 

 and on a .small income has brought up 

 three nieces, when suddenly her invest- 

 ments go wrong. But I'enelope believes 

 that whenever a misfortune has hap- 

 pened or a door being shut, another has 

 •ilwavs opened: and this tale of her 

 ••doors" gives us de.scnptions of some 

 ori'-inal and lovable pe<-iple and an m- 

 M.dit into the mind of a modern girl 

 whose love of adventure and brightness 

 makes her an easy prey to a man who 

 •'loathes ties" and does not look beyond 

 the present lif«'. ''"he little actor who saves 

 tier deserves to g<>t TcMielope's love. 



Weird WrdJork. Hy H. .^^urray Gilchrist. 

 (Long, 3s. (id.) 

 \ series of exciting adventures nnder- 

 ■ rone by a prettv voung actress. In mira- 

 culous " fashion she is discovered, m the 

 nick of time, by her fathers cousin, for 

 she is wanted to p<'rsonate another girl 

 who is being liypnotised by a bad hus- 



• band Pret^>nding to be wife to a man 

 must be rather awkward at times, and 

 the offender cannot always expect to 

 ♦-scape without material damage, as Miii- 

 rav Gilchrist's heroine happily does. 



tions, finances and banking, travel and 

 transportation are well de.scrib<"d and 



Colombia. By Bhanor James Eder. (Un- 

 win, 10s. (id. net.) 

 A valuable and interesting account of tho 

 countrv which lies at the very gates of 

 the Panama Canal. Its diplomatic rela 



banking, 



well de.' 

 finely' illustrated. Ai)])en(lix 1. contains 

 the "amendment to the Constitution of 

 Colombia which was adopted by Legisla- 

 tive act in 1910. Appendix II. deals with 

 the language ; a bibliography is also 

 added. The author, in his preface, telk 

 us that the main hindrance to progress 

 in the country is lack of monev, and the 

 great problem, how to obtain it without 

 subjecting the country to the risk of 

 foreign domination, seeing that it is 

 almost impossible to levy new forms of 

 taxes to which the i)(M)ple are not accus- 

 tomed. Oddly enough, the writer sup- 

 poses that the Panama Canal has been lost 

 to Cohmibia owing to her own short- 

 sightedness, when in reality such a coun- 

 try as Colombia, however foiesighted, 

 could in no wise have financed such a 

 tremendous undertaking. 



Brazil in 1912. By J. C. Oakenfull. (Robert 

 Atkinson, 5s.) 



.\ handy encyclopaedia of the country and 

 everything connected with it, well illus- 

 trated and containing appendices dealing 

 witli finance, commerce, and bibliograi)hy. 



The Farr. and Hnv to Bead It. By Annie 

 T. Oppenheim. (The De La More 

 Press, 2s. (5d.) 

 Miss Oppenheim, quoting from Charles 



Dickens, observes: • \Ye are all natural 

 l)hysiognomists : our fault lies in not 

 heeding our instincts or first impressions 

 suflficientlv, by allowing people to come 

 too near "us, and by their false actions ex- 

 plaining away their real characters." The 

 writer contends that if we have a scien- 

 tific knowledge of physiognomy we shall 

 be able to detect the real character of the 

 persons with whom we come in contact 

 through our reasoning capacity. She 

 gives descrii)tions, illustrated by outlines, 

 of the nio.st <-haracteristic parts of the 

 face, furnishes an alphabetic index of 

 those characU-ristics. and illustrates her 

 thenx^ by jiictures of many celebrated 

 ])eoi)le, "accompanying them with com- 

 nuMits. There is one omission; there is 

 no representation of a person with 

 markedly bad qualities. 



lifflc Wars. Bv H. G. Wells. (Frank 



Palmer, 2s. (id. net.> 



Here the well-known author of '" several 

 minor and inferior works" shows that 

 folk whose ages vary from twelv(> to a 

 hundred and fifty can i)lay together if 

 only the game be such a Kriegsjjiel as is 

 liere set forth. Concealed und<>r his 

 masque of fun, H. G. Wells is in as deadly 

 earnest as heretofore. The materials to 

 be u.sed in the game — blocks, tin soldiers, 

 etc. — and the rules are clearly ex])liined 

 and the illustrations are bountiful. The 

 idea originated one day when W<'lls was 

 lunching with a friend in a room littered 

 witii children's toys. 



