"THE SHIP BEAUTIFUL."

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18365, 24 April 1925, Page 16

"THE SHIP BEAUTIFUL."

—.. ♦.. .. TWO TALES IN ONE. MR CHARLES ALLEN AS AN AUTHOR. FSOM OrS OwH COBKSrONBXST. LONDON, March 11. There are times when a musical critic must feel that his work is futile and commonplace. If tho presentation of the music ho writes of is poor ami faulty, words are adequate to express its deficiency; but when tho music is faultless and inspiring, verbal description is at best a compromise. Thero are rare occasions when a reviewer of books must feci as banal as a musical critic. One does not, for instance, bring the light of reason to bear on our best fairy talos. One cannot with any satisfaction to oneself explain in halting proso the beauty and purpose of a poem. And there are certain books which cannot be reviewed so as to convey adequately t& readers the mysterious something, belonging to emotion and art, which weaves its way like a golden thread through the fabric of a story. • There is a delicacy and mysticism in Mr Charles B. Allen's new book, "The Ship Beautiful,"' which compels a light touch. One can only indicate the framework of the story written by -tho son of the High Commissioner. The dream island of the man and boy is too intimate to explain. It is a secret, as it were, between each reader - and the author, and each will draw from it his own esoteric meaning. Thero is a touch of homeliness in the volume, for. the war-blinded man has made a home at tho invitation of his brother, in a little shack in a ©uncdin. garden. One remembers the scene from tho garden—tho scene that the nephew doubtless often '„ describes to his blinded uncle. Tho. garden rests on a certain rising spur, from which may be seen the whole circle .of tho hills to tho ocean. There are walks along the Port Chalmers road; there is a little scene on'the second beach at St. Clair; thero aro tramps up towards the pinnacle of Signal' Hill, Here is a pen picture which many will recognise. Tho man and boy were playing truant along the .-Port Chalmers road, . "There,was.music.even in the rattle of ■ tho dredge that scooped tho un- . certain • channel by which tho ships of. more modest draught make their way down the long arm of the harbour-; Then thero was tho 'chunkchunk' of tho motor launches, a

human note as an offset to tho molan-choly-screaA of sea gulls. -It was emphatically a morning on which to be: alive."

; Life's Great Adventure. . Thus there is > the : foundation, story, full, of delicate.pathos, and thero is a dream.story, woven by the boy and "man during:their happy 'hours - together. Undo Dick's famous packing., case arrived from England, and contained such articles of his London home which sentiment had dictated keeping. Last came item 136 or thereabouts in tho unpacking—a little red tin box:which once contained-a pound of Lane and Hartley's Keinforced Kation, On tho lid was a' picture: _ / "A boy in a white sleeping-suit is holding back a vermilion curtain disclosing an expanse of blue sea. v In; the middle.' distance thero ' rides a fullrigged ship of. antique build. The sun has. lately, risen,' a biirhislied half diso onp the Across the empyrean 'is spread the legend in letters of gold, of a r colour withthe sun and the boy's shock of.hair.. 'Fit yourself for.life's great adventure,' it runs. In his disengaged hand the'boy holds a whit© banner bearing -. tho inscription. in letters, of red to match the .lacquer : of the one-pound tin, .'Lane and Hartley's ReinfoTced; Ration.! " . .' A Spiritual Besponse. .' It is this picture-that is the foundation ' stone of the story. It was the reproduction of a once-famous' hoarding advertisementi arid the uncle recalls how thirty years before the poster had made for him one of his dies mirabiles. ' 'There -was that in the crude chromolithograph, which awakened a genuine spiritual response in me. By some happy fluke tlie artist, whoever he was, had succeeded in expressing, for me what no word or" picture had done before.' I suppose it was an effect of poise, a happy concordance of head and shoulder. I was- quite siye that with the help of that ship and in- the light of that glad morning the Tioy was going to accomplish something' better than anything one could read of in Tennyson or Kingsley, something less solemn* than'the finding of the Grail, something more jolly and intimate. He had been roused from sleep, and the reality was> better than any dream. I did no* wantto see his eyes. The eager profile expressed so perfectly^'that blend of joy and reverence vyith which he met tho day and the adventure." It ■ is a step frbm here to the story of Christopher who looks out from" an open French window at Brian's Bay, somewhere on the East Coast-of England, in the early morning when all his kinsfolk are asleep. There beyond the waves is " The Ship Beautiful.'' The call comes to. Christopher at midday when he and his brother and sister aro bathing:

• '.'Then; came that sudden hush when one exhausted wave has ' ceased its frothing and seething and the oncoraer is just flapping its crest. In that mopause Christopher heard' the summons. . Shaking the water from lii:j eyes he gazed out to sea. There beyond the ridge of the riext wave he caught the glint of, white sails. I", The ship! THe.ship!' he cried. 'Good-bye, Darek. Good-bye, Topsy. Dearest-and best, good-bye;' "Tlien' lie hurled himself at the toppling wave that was unon him."

Claribel Island. . I'he Ship Beautiful had come .from Claribel Island, where; dwelt waifs of the. ocean who had lost their interest in. the life that had gone'before, who possessed an overwhelming desire to live in the present ; calm, to provide for simple needs and to keep on forgetting. Then "came. a little boy' whose spirit chafed at the monotony and meanness of his Hays. He tried to infect his seniors with some of his own divine discontent. On tho sands one day he found a rich red butterfly, a creature of speech and sympathy—' Baldarcel Buzz. - ■

•."I am desire on the wing,"' he told the boy. "I am discernment embodied. I understand and sympathise and can give sha.pe to all your dreams." The spirit listened, to the boy's desires for festivals and ceremonies, distinction of rank among his people, a striving to'excel in, the arts. As he listened he grew in sfze so tliat presently he stood poked on the vouth's wrist like a falcon. Baldareet Buzz builds, a City Beautiful for the islanders, but he imposes one condition: that no man or woman shall ever express a desire to ler-.ve its precincts in search of something better. Years roll on sind the people comply with the conditions. One ship sets out from the island, l>ui B:>lthroel Buzz, who has grown to almighty sizo, destroys tho wanderers. Luzifuz,' the hoy whose ticsires brought the kingdom into being, grows into a rvery old »an, and hjfi

last desire is that bis be freed from their thraSolnliiSHll .In these latter days, girl is east up on the brings unrest among tho ~LSBSIIHII tho night of a royal ball day the king has made nljSWi offering of «. golden shieldl i&lBHl great red monster. Nautiia tfiHSll arrival, is speaking to tihcftMgHH sadder thing to see wife, and it has always bee»" Ikilil Clanbel Town.' «But lookIT tJsSI, vellou3 natural resources,' Prince, '"What need course with tho outer work) SuSHll aro ablo to satisfy every AwfrSSfM tilla stretched out a hand throng. Tho slender ■wrist wo&Silll from the small white cuff SttkaHgSii formed with a strength be bent back.'Desire!' aha mjJmKBSI do they know of any common desiro to avoid IriiSliSHK Oh, Lotns, if on this culled because to-day we more consented to live anottcrjlgSKl sham and ignorance—if on th&jggrai night you would offer me that you revolt against tions of life, it would please than all the tunes that ever wSaJJa of the woods or the sky or The Skip Beautiful is bnih\ fiflnHffl satisfied men of tho city embuPJjjSSl evading the Baldareel trick, sail for England and .n9S|g boy Christopher, who is to beu£|jߣ| This is the framework of "jffaiffilfl gorical story. It is enough to ggmH|l| when Christopher eventuallyattack upon the Baldareel great monster shrinks he is once more tho size of ttSißi But at that moment the grarcsHSni whirled away into thin air, "SpfKlf remain the rude huts which '■cnMbOni when the boy LuzifuE firit ftSl»ffl|P beantiful red creature on the ct^H^K The meaning of the story £HhQS| left to each individual it is allegorical of human life TQtMjjfJ but ono suspects that there u"4£mmß| meaning which has a beMMwHilB national life, and especially anggjlgßSi to the British race. Be that asamnf the story is not as heavy asJaujUHfi framework would indicate. of bright humour and not a on modern life. No doubt oa'agjjgßl reading new meanings wooH9||K The Human Story, -^llfjl One must not forget tho tinH story. It is like the setting It relates the blind man's sympathy with the boy of There is just one delicate hint QfggSßßj romance. Shirley is a siBwJSSfflH man has known in the dayaiWHH was "Lynx," of the "NigteffjgHß! man," of London. In his eaiiaflflWßi music critic ho has also Icsoin&HHl Somerset, the baritone. rives in New Zealand with *ffißHß] party. The manner of their >SHHm is worth quoting:— wW ''So it camo about that on a SJgaSSI morning soon after that which tho arrival of the and I were caught red-handejSMJBHI speak, at our foolishness by ifluHl in Harris tweeds. Wo were 'fBjHH upon bringing tho Cornish along tho last stage of her jaMMa Brian stoking coal that was SwßHwl smokeless, but invisible in cvcaljßHj respect, I alert at my footplate. Exeter was well oenjHH and,both driver and fireman miHlßi tertairiing visions of home, irimH come, purring kettle, and cbnEHH children. O'Dowd, the stoker, enthusiastic family man. It that kept his Socialist tendttjHMHl check. Both ho and John«M§|[||B driver,, held strong vicw3 ject of the idle rich. ihg throaty expressions to in the intervals from son assenting-to them with drawl, when an interruption eHiHI with the immediate result that *lraH| faced:' Brian and an embnrnaaefl|HH man- replaced O'Dowd and JjHH The interruption was caused ! li»B sound of a voice, the kind of timhH associates with the steps of club, oddly out of place by ci§9H at the back of beyond. -^-laMBl " 'Pardon me, is this tlio w^|Sh9H "I felt as if our little make-believe had been roddei™BH| uied by a thoroughly efficient unß : A perfectly unreasonable rcMJJHfII towards that voiee threatened,«JHHH master me. I felt that I was »ffiH| ing my best. The fellow PfO&ffflfHß me for a Hyde Park overseas for some offcneo.agsm^B '"Sorry if I internnrtftdiSWMß voice went on with a alight idnH piquo at my tonguo-ticdness. \*fjgnHH an easy insolence underlying llmhH that goaded me to nneonsidena»|HH '"Not at all,' I replied, doubt you've enjoyed »7'nHH Human naturo hasn't changwEMß since Samson made sport for'IIWMMH tines. I was merely trving-l^iHi| "I heard someona vanlt -t%J|ißfi that divided us, and the neiCaliljM 'I felt a hand on my shoulder* aw&HH Harris tweeds. ' iPIIIB " 'I appear to have badly,' said the - .voice. 'FfItSHH fully sorry. People glasses, yon know. I didn't it' that you, that yon—er —'^fifflHß : " "There's no seed for gise,' I replied, with' duawresßH should not have been acting tebank so near a public was trying to amuse the litile^nraHH "'You were Harris tweeds,- 'l've rierui.VmHH kiddy so wrapped up in a gatajWJSW At those words my resenfaaMHH ' 'You were asking for thcgMffflHß I said. 'lt's really up to pardon. Yon caught me at a ffiJSBBB tage and I was rattled.' " '|f|SH| At a later date, Shirley and B§|H| tour the Dominion .together. *|l|H| Barnard, the cx-critie of Lo»«§«|Hl tbroUgh a night of mental ffflH How Brian the boy picks waMg|H| and how Shirley shows the "miracle of nice that "God builds the nest to jjM|H[ bird" is the task of the "iffHß The Tjook is very finely iObmH| with black-and-white drawmp3fljMß