LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1740, 3 May 1913, Page 11

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

More Bussollian Memories. The author of "Collections and Recollections, by Ono Who lias lCcpt a Diary," Mr. CI. W. E. Russell, has published yet another volumo of recollections, anecdotes, and literary essays, reprinted, as before, from his contributions to the Manchester "Guardian' 'and other periodicals. 1 have quito a nieo little row of Mr. Russell's highly entertaining books on my shelves, and his latest production, "Half Lengths," wall no doubt prove as enjoyable as "A Londoner's Log Book," "Afterthoughts," "A Pocketful of Sixpences," and "Sketches and Snapshots," to say nothing of tho two volumes of "Collections and ■Recollections," Wliich latter, by tho nay, you can now buy for fil'teenpenco a volume in Nelson's useful pocket series. Judging by the reviews in tho Home papers, "Half Lengths" contains some good tilings, notably a parallel between Sewman and Manning, are! a capital portrait sketch of Labby. Other celebrities dealt with aro the late Duke of Devonshire, the first Lord Coleridge, and Lord Kimberley. In a,n essay on "Friendship," there is a story to the effect that when Lord Houghton left tho room after ho had been chatting in a group of friends, one of the company said, "That's the man to whom I would turn if I were in trouble," to which W. E. Forster rejoined, "He is tlio man to whom I should turn, were I in disgrace."

Bench and Bar Anecdotes. Books of legal anecdotes seem to be in great demand nowadays, judging by the liberality of the supply. Tho latest collection is "Anecdotes of Bench and Bar," edited by A. H. Engelbacht, ahd published by Grant Richards. According to one reviewer, the book is mainly remarkable for its omissions, "not a bon mot of Lord Justice Knight, ViceChancellor Bacon, or Lord Macnaghten— three of tho most scholarly wits who have ever sat on tho Bench—is included." Tho reviewer contributes a good saying of Lord- Westbury. It was uttered during the hearing of an action brought by a churchwarden against his vicar refusing to administer tho Holy Communion to him, on the ground that he did not believe in tho personality of the devil. "The poor churchwarden, who did not at one time believe in tho personality of the devil, seems," said Lord Westbury, "to have returned .to the true orthodox faith when he received his attorney's bill." Ono of Mr. Engelbracht's stories—relating to Mr. Justice Maule. I think we have read befQre, but it may be new to somo of my readers. .Maule, who was accounted a princo of judicial wits, onco rehiarked to a garrulous advocate that

"by introducing a littlo order into your narrative, you might possibly render yourself a trifle more _ intelligible. I should liko. to stipulate for somo kind of order. There is the chronological, tho botanical, the metaphysical, tho geographical—even the alphabetical would bo better than, none.'

Talking of legal and judicial stories, tlioso interested in this class of literature should mako a note of Judge Parrys book, "What the Judge Saw, or Twentyfivo Years in Manchester, by one who has (lobo it." There aro some excellent anecdotes, soma quite new, in this book (Csl), but they ore too long for mo to quote any of them here. Judge Parry, it may lie remembered, is tho author of several excellent "nonsense books" for children. AVas he not the creator of the famous Katywumpus? Pyschology ahd Industrial Efficicncy .In a recently published work bearing tho above title, Professor Muns'terberg, of Harvard, pleads for tho wedding of physchological laboratory tests to the methods of scientific management. By means of scientific. management, so he tells us, Mr. T. W. Taylor, tho apostle of this new method, succeeded in making tho men at a certain job, in which handling pig-iron was tho principal operas lion, carry, not their usual 12J tons a day, but 47J tons! This was done by the study of physical movements, time needed for rests, etc. When those were ascertained, tho men had to perform tho samo duties ovor tho precise periods, timed by a foreman. From a purely commercial point of view tho increased capacity of nearly 30D per cent is •eminently satisfac-; tory, and tlie men's wages wero raised.GO'' per cent. But this may well be, says olio of tho professor's "critics, "at the expense of a transformation from man to automaton. . . . When a man has been metamorphosed into a machine, cthical considerations may cease to enter into the question of his treatment."

Elinor Glyn's Latest. Elinor Glyn's latest production is a volume of short stories, "The-'Contrast, and other Short Stories." Onco again sho introduces a heroino with dazzling green eyes," who moved "about tho Louis .Quatarzo drawing-room with all: tho sinuous graco of a panther" (I hopo sho didn't swish.over any bric-a-brac with .hoi tail!).-'and as-for tho ."lovo passages," they are quite characteristically Glynian. As thus: "But I could not answer him — and so - wo looked into each other's eyes nnd wb said a wordless farewell, with scorching,„burning tears." There, now! Readers',who-like this sort of thing will know where' they can get it. Leonard Merrick's Stories. - The "American Bookman" for March publishes a well-written appreciation, by A. B. Maurice, of Leonard Merricly's novels and short stories. Tho American critic holds Merrick to bo the .'only British rival to the American, 0. Henry. Somo of' the Merrick titles (ire, "Tho Position of Peggy," "The Bishop's Comedy," "Conrad in Search'of his Youth," and "The Actor Manager." There is, I may say, an excellent littlo collection of short stories by this aittllor, "The Call from the Past, and other tiiort Stories," published in Nelson's Sevenponny Library. Many of -the yarns in this collection have Paris, and especially tho Quartier Latin, for their background. Two of tho chief characters, Pitou and Tricotrin (no relation to Ouida's hero of that name) remind me not a littlo of some of Henri Murgcr's characters in "La Vie do Boheme." The Russian Reactionaries. Pancgyrics of the Russian revolutionaries are common enough, but I'fancy Mr. Rothay Reynolds, author of "My Russian Year" ((Mill and Boon), is the first English writer to say n good word for' tho Russian Conservatives, or "Reactionaries," as they are generally styled. Mr. Reynolds says: To meet them is to discover' that they aro not the villains of a melodrama, but differ in no way from tho peoplo to bo met at a London dinner party. Their wives and daughters aro as tender and as sensitive as Enclish women of the same class, and -often better educated. The sacrifices to duty mado by many Russian Conservatives are as worthy of admiration as tho heroism of the revolutionaries. Mr. Reynolds can even appreciate the ideal of the Black Hundred, though ho, acknowledges it to be obsolete and hopeless. Ho describes a service held at Moscow in adoration of Moscow's' : Mother of God, as typifying Russia's ideal of union in religion, spcech, and automatic government, and says: Tho old ideal was only attainable when the Tsar ruled men of bno raco and ono faith. . . . But in Moscow thc third Rome, men were unable to understand this. They clung to their theory, and a thousand crimes wero committed to save a beautiful ideal, already shattered in the blast of conquest. The method of defence has boon invariable, nnd is embodied in the word Russification. To force every subject of the Russian Tsar to speak the language ho speaks, to believe the creed he believes, to prny the prayers he prays, is the object of the reactionary; many volumes might "be filled with the sorrowful history of the efforts made.to attain thosts ends." It would be interesting lo read Polish or Finnish reviews of Mr. Reynolds's book. The Dickens Originals. A week of. two aso I had'something to sn,v on tho of Sum Wollor, What 1 then

said about tho famous Sam is, I find, very largely confirmed by what I read in. a prettily-got-up volume which I liavo just ndded to my collection of Dickensiana. This is "The Charles Dickens Originals, by Edwin Pugh (Foulis, Edinburgh, <>;.)■ Mr. Pugh has made use of much material gathered by his predecessors iu tho same tleld, .\Lr. Percy Fitzgerald, tho late Frederic Kitton,* and others, but tliero is much that is new in his book, a special l'eaturo of which is its excellent gallery of portraits. Many of Dickens's characters were, as it we're, composite portraits, but in certain instances they were almost photographic. Ho mado free use "of tho members of his family circle. John. Dickens was undoubtedly tho original of Micawber, whilst Boz's mother stood for Mrs. Nickleby. Poor Nowman Noggs was drawn from life, the original being ono Newman Knott, a broken-down tenant farmer, who used to call' in at irregular intervals at the office of Blackmore and Ellis, where Dickens, in the pre-Pickwick days, was a junior clerk, for "a weekly dole allowed him by some wealthy relative as the price of his self-immolation.' Old Wcller was said, by the lato Mrs. Lynn Linton, who lived at Gad's Hill before Dickens bought his famous Kentish home, to liavo been "Old Chumley," who drovo tho stage coach daily from London to Rochester and back again . . "a redlaced, good-natured old fellow," but Mr. Pughsays tho real original of tho "old un was ono Cole, driving the Shannon coach between London and Ipswich. A few quaint sayings are attributed to Cole. On ono occasion, says Mr. Pugh, he was asked about an old companion of his named Stedman, and replied: "Stedman? Law bless you, sir, he's been dead this many a year. Leastways, if ho ain't, they've used him werry bod, for they've burried him!" This is quite in the Tony Weller vein. According to a writer in the "N.Y. Bookman," Fagin, the horrible old fence in ''Oliver Twist," had, as his original, ono Ikey Solomons, who, after a highly variegated criminal career, ended his life in a Tasnmnian convict settlement. George Cruikshanks always wou'd have it/that it was he who gayo "Eoz tho whole idea of "Oliver Twist,' and that Dickens merely "wxoto up" to his designs. But Cruikshanks was constantly claiming to be the real author of books which ho merely illustrated, and was wont to pose as tho author of more than ono of Harrison Ainsworth's novels. The famous old artist has put it on record how, failing to get a model into the Tight position for his famous drawing of "Fagin in tho Condemned Cell," he sat down himself before a mirror and drew his own faco. Dickens's Lawyers. Some of these fine days, some legal member of tho local Savage Club might do worse than givo a brief "talk" on the Law and tho Lawyers oi Dickens. Mr. Porker was, it is said, founded on .Mr. Ellis, a member of-tho firm of solicitors for whom young Charles Dickens kept tho petty cash book, a page of which has recently been printed, and tho fact that Sergeant Buzfuz was the original of tho famous Sergeant Bompas has been quito candidly admitted by tho Sergeant's son, an eminent K.C. still. living. Mr. Justice Stareleigk was, in real life, Mr. Justice Gazelee, and it is now generally held that Mi. Fang, tho/ bullying police magistrate in "Oliver Twist," was drawn with meticulous care from a magistTato named Laing, who administered justice, or what he held to be such, at tho Hatton Garden Court. Mr. Tulkinghorrte, in "Bleak House," always seems to me to-be a rather, stagey figure. It is said his original was a Mr. Ouvry, tho family solicitor of tho Dickens family. Dickens numbered' many eminent members of tho legal profession amongst his friends—Mr. Justice Talfourd (author of that once famous, but now forgotten, tragedy, "Ion") ; Lord Campbell, who said he would, have rather written "Pickwick" than be Lord Chancellor of England; anil Lord Dennian. And perhaps it may bo news to some of my readers that the late Baron Brampton (Sir Henry Hawkins) tool: a small part iii the performance at Knebworth (in 1851) of "livery Man in His Humour" bv tin. amateur company organised by Dickens (who himself played Captain Bobadil). There are at least three little books all devoted to Dickens's connection, with tho law. One, the best, is a reprint of a lecture, "Tho Law ami the Lawyers of Pickwick," delivered by the lato Sir Frank Lqckwood,'. the eminent English Q.C. Another is an account of tho famous "Bardell versus Pickwick" case, with notes and commentaries, both learned ahd amusing, .by' Sir. Percy Fitzgerald, a barrister and author,' who is, I tho solo survivor of the. littlo band of Dickens's intimate friends.' The third is the reprint of a lecture,

"Charles Dickens and the Law," delivered a couple of years or so ago, by a Glasgow magistrate, -Mr. Thomas Alexander Fyfe. Should any Savage care to take my hint aiul give a talk, as suggested, I shall bo gland to lend him the three volumes just mentioned. '

Stray Leaves. Later on there is to be a formal and authorised biography of Professor William James, of "Pragmatism" fame, but meanwhile Henry James, 'the professor's brother, and a fambus American novelist, is to give us a little book, "A Small Boy and Others: A Chapter on Autobiography," giving an account of tho early years of tho author and his equally distinguished brother. Macmillans will publish tho English edition . Note, in Nelson's Shilling Library (Is. 3d. here), a new volume which ought to be worth buying. This is Maurice Baring's "What I Saw in Russia," No ono knows present-day Russia better than Mr. Baring. What is said to be one of the best, of latter-day stories of school life is "Nash and Some Others," by C. S. Evans. • Por onco it is not tho "swell" public school boy who is written for the hero knows not Eton, or Harrow, or Rugby, and the like, but is iust an L.C.C. elementary school boy. "The Times" gives the book* a most appreciative review. Tho complete edition (English translation) of Nietzsche's works, which has been edited by Dr. Oscar Levy, and published by Foulis, of Edinburgh, comes to a closs with an eighteenth volume, which contains a full index to tho contents of tho set, a translation of all foreign words and phrases occurring in the edition, and a terminal essay ("The Nietzschean Movement in England—a Retrospect, a. Confession, and a Prospect") by the editor. Personally I should prefer to tako my Nietzsche in • a smaller dose than an oighteen-volumo edition.

New novels which will lie looked for when they get into a colonial edition aro Prank Danby's "Concert Pitch"; "Tho Combined Maze," by May Sinclair, author of that really fine story "Tho Divino Firo"; and "Come Rack, Come Rope," by Monsignor 11. 11. Benson. Benson s brother, tho layman, Mr. E. F. Benson, has also a new story just, out, "Tho Weaker Vessel," which ono reviewer declares to bo "quite Trollopian." I am afraid tho author of "Bnrchestor Towers" would hardly approve of "Dodo,' but Mr. Benson has chastoned his stylo of late. •

That excellent novel—ono of the best of this year's cron so far—Mr. Hutchinson's "Tito Happy Warrior," is. I read, having a big sale in America. Those who have hitherto missed "The Happy Warrior" should certainly put it on their, next order list. It is by tho sanio author as that capital novel "Once Aboard the Lugger," but is a stronger and better story in every way. Buy "Tho ITapijy Warrior" if you can find a copy in town. If not, it is worth ordering and waiting for.

A "Life of O. Henry" (the late Sydney Porter) was to have been published very shortly in America, but unfortunately the gentleman entrusted with tho task, a Mr. H. Peyton Steger, died early in February, and tho book will have to bo finished by another hand, and will bo therefore delayed in publication. That capital American novel "Quecd," by llcnrv Svnor Harrison, lias now been translated into Dutch. French and German translations had already appeared. "Quecd" is in my opinion one of the few recent American novels worth buying "for keeps."

The Into Mr. Picrpont Morgan's journey to Romo from Alexandria was a costly one. His passage from Alexandria to Naples cost him -CriflOO, and the spccial train from Naples to Homo cont .EtiOO,