September 6, 1917 . 
LAND & WATER 
17 
true love, teach Gyp what she had never known before. 
Alone, outdoors again, she changes her old opinion : 
Love — the love she had thought she would never want ? 
Ah, but she wanted it now, wanted it at last with all her 
being ! 
With a shudder, she sprang up : the"ant^i had got to her and 
she had to pick them ofif her neck and dress. 
This last may, perhaps, ba best d^scribad as an Anti-climax ; 
or perhaps it is only local colour. 
* « * * * 
One cannot detail the rest. How Daphne \\'ing has a cliild 
by Fiorsen ; how Fiorsen kidnaps Gvp's child and Daphne 
\\ ing recovers it for her ; how Gyp goes to live, undivorccd, 
with Brian Summerhay, the perfect lo\'er ; how she catches 
(for in this book e\'crybody goes wrong ; and nobody goes 
wrong with impunity) Brian kissing his cousin ; and ho,v 
Brian is killed riding, so that Gvp, robbed of everything but 
her child, is left with her old father. But if one quoted ten 
times as much it would all be the same. 
* « ' « * * 
It is not with pleasure that one compares a book by ]\[r. 
Galsworthy with the latqr novels of Miss Marie Corclli. Mr. 
(ialsworthy wrote The Country Huiisc and The Silver Box, 
which, if not masterpieces, were, at any rate, very interesting 
works. He is a high-minded man who devotes himself to 
good and unpopular causes, and he hates caddish behaviour 
to man, woman or beast. But a critic would be a useless 
critic who allowed considerations like those to affect his 
reviews. This novel appears to me to be unmitigatedly 
bad. The English is the English of the cheap serial ; the 
incessant dabs of banal and irrelevant description are almo.st 
maddening ; and scarcely anything that the characters do 
is credible. So set is Mr. Galsworthy on representing life as 
vile that he (not Fate, and not themselves) bowls them over 
like ninepins and jumps on them when they are down : the 
one consolation being that they are puppets who have never 
come to life. In so far as they have come to life one dislikes 
them all, except Winton. If a book neither amuses one, 
makes one feel, makes one think_ nor interests one by the 
accuracy of its observation or the graces of its language, one 
has no option but to say so. 
H 
Across the Bridges 
URRY and po\erty and the acute g<ographical 
separation of rich and poor have dragged down 
the ideals of a London street, robbing it of 
, charm and colour and all those odd f(}rma 
tions by which Englishmen are wont to remember their 
native town." So writes Mr. Alexander Patcrson,. in his 
book Across the Bridges (Edward Arnold, is. net). It is not a 
new work, but one to which we may well draw special attention 
at this time when the betterment of the poor of our big cities 
is engaging earnest and sincere attention. " 
■■ Onre things arc dirty or noisy or untidy or unattractise, 
everything conspires to increase the failing and weaken the 
powers of natural resistance." Even now this truism only 
slowly permeates the public mind. If any continue to 
question it, let them place themselves under the guidance of 
Mr. Patcrson and be led by him across the London bridges 
that span the Thames to the cheerless wartens of toiling 
humanity in South\\ark and Lambeth. If they doubt the 
truth of his words an evening's walk will contirm it. 
.\cross the bridges human existence has to be made as 
bright, cheerful and hapiiy as north of the bridges if the old 
evils are to be abolished. Mr. Paterson' demonstrates here 
what a procession of meannesses and littlenesses life is from 
the cradle to the grave. Indeed, death or rather burial is 
the great event. " The ceremony of marriage has curiously 
little emphasis set upon it by custom in these parts. A 
funeral demands special clothes and carriages, very con- 
siderable expense and to attend such an event second cousins 
will take a day off work and think it but dutifully spent." 
Could any fact be more eloquent or more pathetic than this. 
And how is it to be changed ? " Before legislation can sweep 
boldly along the path of r-form, the men who vote and the , 
men who rule must have greater knowledge, of each other's 
lives. . . . The most urgent need in all social questions 
is for this knowledge and sympathy." Believing this to 
be entirely. true, we draw attention to this marvellously 
clear-sighted little work. Xo one can possibly understand 
London life who has not read it. 
The summer number of the Hritisli Attslralasian (is.), contaiii.s 
a wcjflth of stories, articles, and verses of high literary quality, 
together with a number of illustrations, some of tlie-War zone, 
and others picturing " down under," but all exceptionally gojtl. 
It is an' excellent production, and will appeal to everyone 
The " Unsoldierlike Sub." 
A LETTER FROM THE FRONT. 
There has come to hand, within the last fortnight, a letter 
from a Captain with the B.E.F. which is well worth reprinthig in 
its entirety here, both in view of its distinctive difference from the 
majority of "letters from the Front" and of what iias been lately 
written in the pages of Land & W.uer regarding the remarkable 
extent Jo which "Pelmanism" is being adopted by ofliccrs of 
His Majesty's Army and Navy. 
Here is the letter in question : — 
I should like to call your attention to the facts of the story- of my 
Pelman Course. 
When I began I was looked upon \\^th disfavour bv the CO. of my 
battalion at home as being a sleepy, forgetful, and linsoldierlikc sub. 
When I began >our Course my star began to ri.se— I had the ability. 
but had not been able to use it. I left the home battalion with niy 
C.O.'s recommendation us being the best officer he had had for more 
than a year, and came to France. 
I was then appomted as a second-lieutenant to command a company 
over the heads of four men with two " pips," and have now three stars 
and an M.C 
That I was able to make use of my abiUtics so successfully I 
attribute entirely to the Pelman System. 
, Captain. 
As an isolated letter, the foregoing might fail to carrvmuch 
weight. But when it is taken as typical of some hundreds of 
similar letters from .\rmy and Navy "officers, then, indeed, one is 
forced to concede that there must be "something in Pelmanism," 
More than thirty Generals and Admirals and well over 300 
naval and regimental commanders — to say nothing of j.ooo other 
officers and a multitude of N.C.O's. and men — have adopted 
Pelmanism since the outbreak of war, and every day brings reports 
from them as to substantial benefits derived. There is indeed 
"something in Pelmanism." 
Let us take a few examples. A Naval Captain reports pro- 
motion to the command of a fine cruiser — thanks to his Pelman 
training. \ Lieutenant-Colonel reports "a step in rank" within 
two months of starting the Course. .\ Major writes attributing 
his majority a«rf his D.S.O. to the same agency. .\ General and a 
Rear-.\dmiral also write giving testimony which it is, at presen , 
inadvisable to pubHsh. There is not a rank or unit of either 
service which has not supplied convincing evidence of the fact that 
Pelmanism is truly the short road to progress. 
Many officers find that, in addition to assisting them to greater 
military efficiency, the Pelman Course serves other desirable ends. 
For example : — 
The Course has prevented me becoming slack and stagnating during 
my Army life — this is a most virulent danger, 1 may add. It inculcates 
a clear, thorough, courageous method of playing the game of Life — 
admirably suited to the ]'.nglish temperament^ and should prove woral 
salvation to many a business man. " Success," too, would follow 
but I consider this as secondary. 
Such letters render comment superfluous. 
" A few weeks ago a well-known peer called here in uniform," 
said the Secretary of the Pelman Institute in an interview, " to enrol 
for the Pelman^Course. He told us that General had strongly 
urged him to do so. 
" We are continually enrolling military officers who have been 
sent to us by their superior officers. The value of Pelmanism is well 
appreciated by the higher command. There arc twenty British 
Generals at present studying the course, which now includes Special 
Military Supplements contributed by two Staff officers. 
" Officers sometimes tell us that their enrolment is the result of 
hearing the Course praised by brother officers at the mess. A Rear- 
» Admiral decided to enrol after hearing two officers of his ship speak 
highly of the benefits received from the Course. 
" But in civil life the same thing happens. .Men and women taking 
up new positions and responsibilities arc instructed by their employers 
to get in touch with the Pelman Institute. 
" The variety of callers at the Institute is extraordinary. In a 
single morning we have interviewed a Doctor of Philosophy, the manager 
of a munition works, an authoress, a famous flying-man, several clerks 
and salesmen, a teacher, a Brigadier-General and other officers, and 
the Governor of a great Bank. All the Wrid comes to the Pelman 
Institute for help and advice, and I do not think we ever disappoint 
them." 
As a system, Pelmanism is distinguished by its inexhaustible 
adaptability. It is this whic^j makes it of value to the University 
graduate equally with the salesman, to the woman of leisure, and 
to the busy financier, to the Army officer and to the commercial 
clerk. The Pelmanist is in no danger of becoming stereotyped in 
thought, speech, or action ; on the contrary, individuahty becomes 
more pronounced. 
V.vcry reader of Land & Water— whatever his position and 
whatever his aims and interests — should read Mind and Memory, 
in whi( h the Pelman Course is fully described and explained. A 
copy will be sent, "gratis and post free, to any reader who sends a 
post card to The Pelman Institute, y\ WVnliain House, Bloomsbury 
Street, London, W,C.i ; and he will thus be placed in possession 
of the simple facts of the case and be enabled to judge for liimself 
the extent to which "Pelmanism" would forward liis aim or 
ambition. 
