January 17, 19 18 
LAND & WATER 
19 
Books of the Week 
The Night Club. By Herbert Jenkins. Author of B/«rf/' 
Herbert Jenkins. Ltd. 3s. net. 
The Don a id Some Others. By .'Escul.\pius. W. and 
R. Chambers. 3s. 6d. net. 
■We of Italy. By -Mrs. K. R. Steege. J. M. Dent and 
Sons. 4s. 6d. net. 
Rebels and Refor^meps. By A. .\sv> I). Ponsonby. George 
.\!len and Unwin. 6s. net. 
The Keeper's Book. lUustrated War Edition. Bv P- 
JiCFEERV Mackie. McCorquodale and Co., Glasgow- 
I2S. 6d. 
BINDLE wass) great a success that his witty aulho'" 
has been seduced into attempting that most dangerous 
of literary experiments— a sequel. In The Night Club, 
Bindle and his friends reappear, but it cannot be 
\vritt(;n down an unqualified success ; it is too much like a jar 
of pickled eggs, some are splendid, but others do not please. 
This defect is in part due to! he author's excellences. Given a ' 
v'ood idea, no writer can work out a bettei;^ story ; take the 
following three chapters: " The Prime M mister decides to 
advertise." " The Barabbas C ub," and " A Dramatic Engage- 
ment." Each of them is a "night" one delights to hear 
ab3utand never forgets, and the tale is told with a mastery of 
lechniqut; which mtrits the highest praise. But when ideas 
are lacking, and the author has to put in a chapter of padding, 
it is deplorable. .We arc given jokes and cynicism tliat were 
j^enerally and hopefully believed to have been buried long 
ago in tlie coffin of the last red-nosed low comedian of the 
mid- Victorian music-hall. It is evidently a dangerous thing 
for a publisher to do his own publishing, thereby escaping 
the pitiless criticism of the professional " taster." We are 
. ertain there are pages in The Nirjit Club which no comrnon 
or garden author would ever have been allowed to print, 
M'hile there are others (they are the more numerous) which 
any author would have been proud to have written for they 
are good literature and display a shrewd and kindly know- 
ledge of the weaknesses of human nature. 
• • ♦ « * 
.Anonymity seems to be a peculiar delight to writers on 
iia\al matters, though perhaps necessity has something to 
«lo with the matter. A certain Mscidapius, author of The 
Doc, and Some Others, is very obviously a member of the 
personnel of the Grand Fleet, for he writes with the sure 
touch of experience, and fully equals BartimcBus in the vigour 
of his descriptions and the' dramatic strength of his narra- 
tives. This book is a collection of short stories of varying 
types, both humorous and dramatic — it is a patchwork of 
life, as a matter of fact, and each story is a blend of humour 
and pathos. Probably thf best story of the lot is that which 
tells how Mackellar left the mess, in accordance with the 
<-.\pressed wish of other members of that mess, at the battle 
of Jutland, but it is difficult to pick out a " best " whefe all 
are good. " ;^isculapius " has rendered the spirit of the Navy 
\'ery well indeed ; without undue use of technicalities he has 
shown the men of the Grand Fleet and the mechanism with 
•sv'hich they do their work— the story of a submarine cruise, 
lor instance, is enlightening with regard to submirine warfare 
and the way in which men take the risks of under-sea Ufe. 
'1 he great point about the book is that its authof shows that 
the officers of the British Navy, and the rank and file as well, 
are not a peculiar breed of men apart from all the world, as 
some writers have made them, but are of just such material 
as makes the world of landsmen ; through necessity a little 
more centred on their work, perhaps, but "just as mixed in 
the matter of type, as companionable, as eccentric, as the 
men of a battalion, or the men of a business house. This 
-obvious truth with regard to the whole is made clear through 
a few individuals and incidents, s(i well depicted that the 
hook is to be commended without reserve. 
***** 
Wc oj Italy, by Mrs. K. R. Steege, consists mainly of letters 
written by Italian soldiers to their friends, and thus is ^descrip- 
tive of the work in the field and the circumstances under which 
that work is carried out. It has been often and very truly 
said that the soldier knows less of thi' plans ol battles than any 
other person, and here in th sj pages is full evidence 
of the fact, for the descriptipns of actions given by these men 
show that tactics were not nearly so much in their thoughts 
as were personal experience, and that, for the most part, 
they had httle idea of the real nature of the work wlich 
they were doing so valiantly. 
Here and there are touches of unconscious humour 
— conscious humour is rare, for, as has been noted by all 
who have had the opportunity of miking comparisons, both 
French and Italian troops take their work very seriously, 
and it remains for the British soldier to make a joke of hi^ 
work. One man writes : "In those instants, my dear parents, 
I saw and remembered everything. I saw thee, Mamma, at 
work in thy usual seat, and thee, Papa, going about the shop 
as usual, and a sob closed nsv throat." This was while waiting 
for the signal for attack— a British Tommy would probabh- 
have wished for a glass of bitter, or whistled the latest music- 
hall tune he could remember, under similar circumstances, 
for the Latin tendency to sentiment is entirely absent from 
his composition. Quite apart from these things, however, 
the author has made such a selection of letters as gives a 
picture of the work done by the Italian armies, and brings out 
the tremendous diffi;ulties of thz battles among the heights 
— before the tragedy of last October. 
There is one section given up to description of the way 
in which the King of Italy has identified himself with his 
people in the war, in which he is shown as worthy of admira- 
tion as is Albert of Belgium, and, since this book will do 
much to give understanding of the way in which Italy regards 
the war, the section is all too short, for the example of the 
House of Savoy is a matter for the fullest possible recognition. 
***** 
The fives of a dpzen of the great figures of history, none of 
whom are British, are sketched in Rebels and Reformers, 
by A. and D, Ponsonby. The object has been to produce a 
w^ork wh.ch shall induce young people to take an interest in 
history, and regard it as "recreative rather than as a difficult 
study of dates and names, and for that purpose the authors 
have set down sketches of Savonarola, William the Silent, 
Tyeho Brahe, Cervantes, Grotius, Voltaire, Ma^./.ini, Thorcau, 
and others. 
Although simply written, these sketches omit no csstn- 
tial acts in the fives that thev portray, and it might 
be said that this is a book for those of aU ages who have 
managed to preserve young minds, more especially since 
history, as taught hitherto, has in this country very largelx 
neglected the great men of other countries — except for one 01 
two figures— and thus at least half of these names are very 
little known to old as well as young. Thoreau, Tycho Brahe, 
and Giordano Bruno, for exainple, are unknown names to the 
majority of British folk, or at the best are vague figures who 
did something in some past time, and thus such sketches as 
these are welcome, since they will tempt readers to search for 
fuller biographies of men who have influenced the world. 
The authors have been wise in introducing personages to whom 
the term " rebel " may be applied in the sense in which thcN" 
have used it, implying such moral courage arid independence 
of action as set itself against evil tendencies of the times w hicli 
these men influenced. A book fike this breaks new ground fti 
many readers, and tiuis has a very definite value. 
***** 
A war edition of Mr. P. J. Mackie's well-known Keeper's 
Book has just been brought out. This " guide to the duties 
of a gamekeeper " wgis originally pubfished fourteen years 
ago, and in the intervening period it has come to be recognised 
as a standard work. It contains a multitude of useful facts 
and information, presented in a very agreeable manner, and 
their value is considerably enhanced by an admirable index. 
There is a delightful chapter on tiger-shooting, the batlue 
on a big scale, though English gamekeepers do not, as a rule, 
have to arrange for elephant beaters, or to place stops- td 
turn " stripes." 
This new War Edition contains a dedication to llic 
boys of Britain, in effect an appreciation by the author ol 
the admirable work that has been done by the Boy Scouts 
movement. There is also a preface deahng with the future 
of the country after the war, which, in ts nature, is^ contro- 
versial, but provides another useful sign of that strong 
determination to ^irotect the industries and agriculture of this 
country in a more elficient way than has ever happened 
before. But the outstanding merit of the volume hes m its 
dractical treatment of the field life and sport of these islai ds. 
cocci.es 
WIND- SCREENS 
AWINDOW5 
.^^ ^^^ 
THE ONUY -^ 
SAFETY CLASS 
