22 
Land & Water 
February 14, 1918 
Books of the Week 
West Point. By Robert C. RrcHARDSON, Junior. Illus- 
trated, (x. P. Putnam's Sons. 8g. 6d. net 
The Bag of Saffron. By B.\roness von Hutten. Hut- 
cliinson and Co. h'^- net. 
Captivity and Escape. By Jean Martin, a French 
Sergcant-Major. John Murray. 5s- net 
Nineteen Impressions. By J._ D. Bekesford. Sidgwick 
and Jackson. 6s. 
The Black IVIan's Part in the War. By Sir Harry John- 
ston-. Illustrated. Simpkin, Marshall and Co. is. 6d. 
net. 
w 
Point. It 
pt-ndence, 
ITH the American Armv fighting shoulder 
to shoulder with the Allies in France, 
everything that appertains unto it becomes of 
sjKcial interest. There is no better known 
militan' institution in the world than West 
^ link with America's struggle for inde- 
and forms the main connection of 
all her 
fighting hitherto. An intimate picture of this national 
military academy and of the life of the cadet there has been 
written by Captain Robert Richardson, 2nd Cavalry . U.S. 
.\rmy. and is appropriately enough published by G. P. 
Putnam's Sons, for Putnam is a name honourably associated 
with West Point. The situation of the Academy on the 
banks of the River Hudson is most picturesque, as can be seen 
from the photograph reproduced here from this volume. 
The discipline is severe, and the life itself demands that the 
youth shall have character and grit, if he is to derive full 
benefit from the traditions that have been slowly built up during 
the last hundred years. How high is the military opinion held 
West Point from the Hudson River 
of a West Point man in the United States may be judged from 
the dedication to this volume, in which it speaks of the corps 
of cadets as "representative of the best American manhood 
the most highminded, loyal, disciplined body of 
student officers in the world." The book is very pleasantly 
written ; it touches on history lightly but illuminatively ; the 
story of the cadet's career at West Point is brightly and 
amusingly told, and we are given as an index a glossary of its 
peculiar slang, none of which, with one exception, seems to 
have any common meaning with English slang. 
* * . ' ♦ * * 
The article whch gives its title to the Baroness von Hutten's 
latest book, The Bag of Saffron, was a curious old jewel of the 
Janeways family, wliich the head of the family gave, only to 
one woman in each feneration — and that woman, stood for 
the best of her generation. Nicoleta Blundell, commonly 
known as "Cuckoo," was an unpromising person as recipient 
-)f this gift ; the daughter of a worthless father, she grew up in 
the care of her aunts with a cramped soul, and a. passion for 
material good of life that prevented her from realising that 
there are other things tlian material well-being. ■ In a moment 
<jf pique she contracted a foolish marriage— or so it seemed 
at the time— with a poor artist, and later, ' having grown so 
tired of poverty that she consented to run away with 
Janeways, she was divorced and married to the owner of 
the bag of saffron, from whom, eventually, in curious fashion, 
she won the gift by winning her own soul. 
Such an outline of the plot may not make the book appear 
commendable, but those who know the work of tliis author 
will understand that the story is told in such a way as to make 
it worth while. There is a quaint and quiet humour running 
through the narrative, and a presentation of the characters 
that is better than realism of the modern sort. There 
are passages reminiscent of Jane Austen's descriptive genius, 
more especially the way in which one is led to see how much 
of worth there was in this " Cuckoo " who hterally lived up 
to her nickname, and knew all the time that she had no nest of 
her own, but for the sake of the " things " she wanted, believing 
that they would make life of value, went on striving to occupy 
other nests. Her portrait, and that of Peregrine Janeways, 
the owner of the bag of saffron, are real creations on the part 
of the author ; they are studies of unusual folk, and yet of two 
people with such traits as we recognise and like or detest 
every day of our lives. The book is in many ways the best that 
this author has written. 
***** 
M. Jean Martin, author of Captivity and Escape, takes 
care to warn his readers that hi? experiences must not be 
taken as typical of all German concentration camps, for there 
are some establishments in Germany in which prisoners are 
treated like men. Having read the book, however, we take 
this statement with a certain amount of doubt, for this 
Frenchman unfortunately corroborates the accounts given 
by many British prisoners of their experiences in the hands 
of the Huns. 
But M. Jean Martin had sufficient sense of humour to make 
good " copy " of even the worst experiences ; it shows in the 
clever drawings with which he has illustrated his work, as 
well as in the actual writing, which tells of food — or the lack 
of it— in prison camps, of barbarous punishments inflicted 
on the slightest pretexts, of the horrible monotony of life, 
varied only by German attempts to break the spirit of the . 
prisoners, and finally of escape carefully planned and 
dramatically achieved. 
Possibly in the last chapter, which tells of the escape to a 
neutral country, the author has done his best work, for it is 
a breathless bit of reading, with a thrill to every half-dozen 
lines. The added attraction in this part of the story may be 
due to the fact that prisoners are many, and escapes are few. 
1* 1* 1* n* *** 
It was once said of J. D. Beresford that he " mixed brains 
with his writing," and in his latest volume. Nineteen Im- 
pressions, he has continued the practice. The contents of this 
book are certainly impressions rather than stories, and each of 
them is distinctive in idea — and in execution as well. It is a 
cold survey of the universe that Mr. Beresford affects ; he has 
a fine sense of the inevitable, and is but little concerned with 
sympathetic pi-eseritment. So long as he achieves accuraCN' 
he troubles little about the harshness of the lines which com- 
pose his pictures. Evidence of this may be found practically 
in all of these " impressions," and most of all in The Ashes 
of Last Night's Fire " and The Great Tradition. Probably 
most readers will find the last sketch. Lost in the Fog, the best ; 
it is the story d1 a village in the mist where the various families 
qoarelled among themselves and killed each other over a 
quarrel which ^started through the greed of one particular 
group. It is a little parable of the war and the ugliness of 
war, and is, too, the only impression out of the nineteen which 
is in the least connected with the war. 
***** 
Sir Harry Johnston's account of the coloured races who 
have taken part in trie war is issued under a slightly mis- 
leading title. The Black Man's Part in the War, for the book is 
more an account of 'the coloured races themselves than the 
part they have taken in the struggle. It outlines the 
characteristics of practically all the coloured races under British 
rule, and such a work could be done by no better authority, 
for Sir Harry. Johnston has devoted a lifetime to the study of 
these races, and for such a sketch as this — in the limits of such 
a book, only a sketch is possible — he is admirably qualified. 
The book deals with the people of East and West Africa, and 
with the natives of the Pacific Islands, as well as the coloured 
West Indian population, and it is packed with facts relating to 
tribar characteristics and racial differences. There is, at the 
same time, a good deal of information about the work of these 
peoples in the war, but, as might be expected from such an 
authority on the subject, the peoples themselves are given more 
prominence than their war activities. 
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