IS 
LAND & WATER 
J3ecember 20, 1917 
Books of the Week 
The Romance of Commerce. By H. Gordon Selfridoic. 
llhistratod. loliu Laiu-. los. 6d. net. 
From the Fire Step. Experiences of an American Soldier in 
the British Army. By Artipk r.rv Et^ipey. I. O. 
Putnam s Sons. 5s. net. 
Conscript Tich. By Jack Spiuk. W • and K. C]iamher-=. 
js. u\. net. 
Cheerio. Sonic Sfjldier Yams. By J. Frederick Tilsley. 
W. and K. Chambers. 2S. Cd. net. 
TRADE, wholesale and retail, henceforth owes a 
special debt of gratitude to I^Ir. Gordon SeUndge 
for he has gone to the libraries of all nations and 
taken from them golden passages to add glory to 
the Romance of Comiinrcf. .And this volume he has adorned 
uith a gallery of old prints, so that the illustrations in them- 
selves are a valuable contribution to his subit>ct. llie obvicnis 
criticism is that trade and commerce are treated too cursorily 
in its pages, that the book itself is too much of a compilation ; 
but this criticism the author himself anticipates in the very 
opening sentence of the first chapter : " To write on commerce 
anil trade and do the subject justice would require more 
volumes than any library could hold and involve more detail 
than any mind could grasp." 
In fairness to Mr. Selfridge we must not dwell on rather 
ohvious omissions, but we do regret that as he could find 
space for a chapter on the ennobled families of these islands 
who owe their origin to trade, he did not also include a 
list of the splendid benevolences and endowments which have 
their source from the same fount. Has ever a merchant 
uttered a nobler prayer than that of Sir Th( mas Sutton, 
founder of the Hospital and School of the Charterhouse : 
' Lord, Thou hast given me a large and liberal estate, give 
me also an heart to make use thereof." 
The chief perplexity of British public opinion towards 
trade and commerce lies in the curious distinction which is 
<lrawn between wholesale and retail trade. To this day in the 
outer parts of the Empire, the wholesale merchant who 
sells, say, Whisky by the dozen, is eligible for the leadirig 
Club of "the station,' while the retail merchant who sells it 
by the bottle is ipso facto debarred, notwithstanding that the 
latter personally may be of better birth, higher education and 
a pleasanter fellow all round than the former. This attitude 
is the outcome ot tradition, but the present writer has never 
been able to ascertain any sound reason for the tradition which 
has taken such strong growth on a nation which has never 
allowed outstanding, merit to be barred bv birth or origin 
though it has often sneered at both. 
* m Hi * * 
Mr. Gordon Selfridge's work has two outstanding vir- 
tues ; it is thorouglily readable from cover to cover, and it 
is mentally stimulating. It does force attention on trade and 
commerce at a time when it is badly needed, and he does pro- 
voke thought, which leads, as with this writer, to criticism 
and reflection. The final chapter will be read with peculiar 
interest, in that it tells of the prganisation of " a repre- 
sentative business of the Twentieth Century." Here we know 
the writer is thoroughly at home, and it is instructive to get 
a glimpse of the secret complicated works of a great general 
store. The question, of course, arises whether the General 
Store, which will take ciiarge of a civilised being and provide 
him or her with everything each needs from the cradle to the 
grave, even though life be extended to four-score years, is 
good for a nation. Does it or does it not tend to convert 
the multitude of workers into machines, and to reserve 
initiative and the cultivation of mind and imagination for 
the few ? In other words, is not the Cireat General Store 
liable to become a " commercial militarism," and to deaden 
democratic development ? 
We arc tolcl at the outset that this book was practically 
written before the war, otherwise we might have looked for 
a chapter on that V'ery irritating and sore subject " pro- 
fiteering." It may be that here is the very thing which has 
given birth to the illogical contempt of retail trade to which 
we ha\'e referred. The retail trader is brought into direct 
contact with the consumer, and when times arc out of joint 
and out of a good many other things as well, he is apt to be 
made the general scapegoat for all the sins and failures of 
trade and commerce. However, on the whole, he bears 
his burden lightly, and he has not much cause for complaint 
For commerce has this glorious advantage, that it is regally 
generous to its favourites and to those of its subjects who 
Succeed The playwright, WiUiam Shakespeare, for instance, 
made nothing Ukc as big a success in his life-time as did the 
tailor William Craven, who possibly cut^ his coats; and 
John Milton, who sold his greatest work for a hve-pound- 
iiote must have been thought a poor creature when contrasted 
with William Robinson, the Turkey merchant of \ork, 
who got himself a baronetcy and begot marquesses. 
^ * * * * 
A " war book" in the full. sense of the term, deserving of 
more than the normal amount of attention accorded to books 
of this class, is From the Fire Step, by Arthur Guy Empey, an 
American soldier who joined the British Army after the 
Lnsilania outrage, and went through the normal experiences 
of an infantryman.up to the battle of the Somme, when he was 
" outed " and finislied up in a convalescent home in England. 
American humour is rampant in every page. "We had an 
orchestra of seven men and seven different instruments. 
This orchestra was excellent— while they were not playing." 
" The average English officer is a good sport, he will sit on a 
fire step and hsten respectfully to Private Jones's theory 
of the way the war should be conducted." And from an 
appendix entitled " Tommy's dictionary "— " Spud "— 
Tommy's name for the solitary potato which gets into the 
stew, it's a great mysterv how that lonely little spud got into 
such bad company." these are very small samples from 
a large host, but the author has other views on the state of 
affairs in the firing line, as well as humorous ones. 
" Returning to Tommv. I think his spirit is best shown in 
the qne'^tions he asks. It is never ' Who is going to win ? ' 
b\it ■ How long will it take ? '" " In Virginia, at school, 
I was fed on old McGnffy's primary reader, which gave me an 
opinion of an Englisliman about equal to a '76 Minute Man's 
backed up by a Sinn Feiner's. But 1 found Tommy to he 
the best of mates and a gentleman through and tinoueh. 
... It is. exactly the same as it was at Balaclava to 
say nothing of Gallipoli, Xeuve Chapelle, and Loos." 
These things are worth quoting, but they are not all the 
book, by any means. Ian Hay has done no better work in 
showing the British soldier in action and in " rest billets." 
In training, and as a casualty in hospital. With a keen sense 
of humour, this author has also a grasp of the magnitude of 
the war and its tragedy ; he has written life as a soldier 
knows it, and he has written well. 
* * Us * * 
Conscript Tich, by Jack Spurr, is just the sort of book 
that a boy will delight in. Tich was a Httle man who joined 
the Army because he couldn't help it, and came to see that 
military life brings out the best in a man, makes him appre- 
ciate his fellows at their true value, and forms excellent 
training for life in any station and capacity. There is just 
the right amount of trench and billet experience in the book 
with enough thrills to maintain the interest throughout, and 
there are also certain incidents which will raise a series of 
smiles — notably the story of how Tich, when escorted as a 
prisoner back to his unit for overstaying his leave, arrived 
back at headquarters without the escort. Without any pre- 
tensions to literary style, the author tells a good story, 
and one specially suited to juvenile tastes. < 
Of rather different quality is Cheerio, soldier yarns by J. F. 
Tilsley, on whom, to a certain extent, seems to have fallen 
the mantle of O. Henry — certainly some of these stories are 
clever enough for that author to own them, were he still able 
to own printed matter, and they have, in many cases, that 
curious and provoking " twist '"' at the end \vhich was so 
characteristic of Henry's work. This is specially noteworthy 
in the story of Shy McGie, the boxer ; in certain other stories 
figures Private James Thompson, whom many folk will be 
glatl to meet. This is an excellent \olumc for company 
either in a railway train or beside the fire ; its main point is 
an impish humour which will raise smiles in the most unlikely 
situations, and it is to be thoroughly commended bv reason 
of the original treatment which the author has brought to 
bear on subjects that might have proved banal. 
Copies of "The British Firing Line Portfolio' 
containing a series of Engravings in Colour by Captain 
Handley-Read and forming a wonderful record of the 
Battle-area, may be obtained, price 5 guineas each, 
from the Leicester Galleries, Leicester Square, W. 
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