LIBER'S NOTE-BOOK

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2546, 21 August 1915, Page 9

LIBER'S NOTE-BOOK

A New Life of Henry Fawcett. Years ago the'late Sir' Leslie Stephen .wrote. a biographical sketch; of the famous Victorian blind statesman, Henry 'Fawpett,: who 'was a" prominent Liberal, .himself a singularly success- . ful administrator as. Postmaster-General in more than one Gladstonian Cabinet. Fawcett was a, brilliant yo,ung Cambridge don when, at the'age of tw;entyfive, he became "totally blind,'as! tho result of a shooting accident. His own father, I 1 Ibeliove, fired the-, shot., Stephens's biography des.lt morewith, Fawcett as scholar and' politician, but in a new "life," entitled "A Beacon for the Blind: The i Life, of Henry Fawcett, the Blind Postmaster-Geheral," just . published by Constable and Co., Miss ' Winifred Holt enlarges upon the singular success with which Fawcett rose su-. Tierior; to the disabilities imposed upon him by his affliction.' It seems astonishing that once he bad settled down to his altered position he still indulged in rowing, fishing, riding, skating, and even mountaineering. . When roller-skating became the rage, Mrs. Fawcett visited a rink-I and found great interest being taken in a very tall man, who was darting about tho polished floor with the impetuous enjoyment of a schoolboy. "A blind nan skating I" said a bystander. The bljnd man was Mr. Fawcett. Walk-' . ing one occasion across Wimbledon Common \)'ith Mr.,'now Lord Morley, thelatter, contemplating the calm, beauty ;of the sunset, was startled to hear 1 Fawcettask,. "Morley, is the sunset very beautiful?" ' '"Yes," was the answer; '"Ah, I thought so," came the - comment; and "then there was a -long silence, in which the blind man seemed to be/taking,'in "the sunset' through, his sightless'eyes. Fawcett was an inci-' siye speaker in . the House, \ paying special attention to Indian affairs, ana. becoming very-'.jropular. with :the public, through his vigorous defence of tho* rights of the people in the commons and forests. '

: A Blind Postmaster-General. When he' was appointed Post-master-General the Departmental, officials were astounded to find that tho blind Minister could make himself acquainted _ with the smallest., details of the working of the. post office, and was not only a most zealous but exceedingly able administrator. Mrs. Holt tells a story which throws a curious side-light / on German psychology. . A German official had been allowed to study the ■ work of .certain Department of the Post Office, and Eawcett sent him word that lie would be glad to see him,in his room. Immediately. the msesago was delivered the German left in a cab. Fawc'ett was kept waiting, a'long time, but the German ultimately appeared, gorgeous in full official costume. The Postmaster-General expressed Ins regret; that so muclf ttouble should be wasted on a : blind man. : The German then explained that in no case, could he have presented himself before "a Minister of ; a-foreign Power in ordinary "attire. .To have' done 'so havo rendered him liable topmost,, sendus'xcensure from his aw I !!'official superior. As to 'the thor- . bughness which marked , the blind Minitser's administration, Mrs. Holt tells if a. deputation from a .sleepy .little townin ■Surrey : waiting upon him, and asking for, an extra postman; To the astonishment of the deputation Fawcett displayed such an intimate knowledge . of the streets and lanes in tho town that lie out-argued the chairman, a local doctor,■■

Sladen and Sarah. .■ In "Twenty Years - of■ My.' Life," Douglas Sladen, founder and editor of ■ "Who's Who?" and famous with Australians, as having compiled a peculiarly awful anthology of Australian verse, tells a few goods stories' and'.' many "more that which are singularly pointless. The engaging naivette on the good man is displayed in a story ho tails of; an interview ho had on one occasion with Sarah Bernhardt. He was .. invited, he informs ns, "because. I hear French 60 badly, to . spend the rest if'the evening in her dressing-room. It was .extremely interesting,"- ho adds,/"So watch her dressing, and she did not talw any more notice of my pres- , encs than if I had been a fly." Italian Novels,

Now'.that Italy has joined the 'Allies English, readers may take a new interest in Italian literature. ■ Unfortunately few of 'us can read Italian with sufficient facility as to enjoy an Italian book in the, original, .although to those who have" a fair knowledge .'of Latin plus a decent acquaintance with French, .there is no great difficulty.in puzzling out the sentences in an Italian newspaper. Good' English: translations l©f Italian fiction are not; so numerous as they might be. D'Annunzio, however, has been fairly well treated by the translators, and Mr..Heinepiann's latest venture, ,a new; edition of. some 'six or seven ; of D'Annunzio's ' beist-known novels, should be a success. Personally, I find such novels as "Tho Triumph of Death" and "The Virgins of the Rocks" too persistently, deliberately sensuous in' tone to be altogether palatable, but there is no denying that even in a translation there, are passages of conspicuous beauty in D'Annunzio's novels. But his sentiment has for mo a sickly flavour, and when he attempts the-dramatic'ho is, to not a few English readers, far from convincing. One hears the stage machinry creakiug belling the scenes, and cannot accept the figures as convincing presentments of the realities of life. It may be, to some, a confossion of. bad taste, but I prefer tho stories of Matilda Sorao, the Neapolitan novelist. - Italy has produced great, poets, but in fiction, especially, modern fiction, fier achievement is hardly to be considered notable.

Bergson on the War, A Bergson book on tho war was evitable, but the famous French philosopher hardly says 'anything new or strik- , ingly, original in his "Meaning of tho "War; Life and Matter in Conflict." His main idea is that Germany's material prosperity, after the victory of 1870, has deceived her into thinking that there is some Divino virtue in force;' and tint her moral force, being only the prido which comes from material force, is exposed to the same vicissitudes as the latter. "Hence their need for a short war; this kind of moral force is mechanical, gets used up, and cannot repair its own : injuries." Such is a "Times" reviewer's summary of tho Bergson,ian argument. But the using up of the German, force, mechanical though it be, is terribly slow. Most of ns are far more concerned just now about her purely material force, which, so it would appear, is much further away from exhaustion than a few months ago wo hoped it would have been by this time.

A Truthful German. > . In his book, "A German-Ainorican's Confession of Faith," Professor Kuno Francj;e, curator of the Germanic Museum at Harvard University, denounces thp American.traffic in arms as hideous and vicious, probably because his dear friends in Germany cannot get supplies from New York. At the same time ho admits that it would bo an evil day for -America were the German-Americana to

(combine with the sole idea of sending pro-German representatives to Washing- ' ton. One of his correspondents having expressed the hopo that the time would come when the German element in tho United States would have 125 represen-' tatives, Francke replies: I cannot think of anytliing more disastrous for American political life than tho-possibility of having in Congress numerous factions held together by racial instincts forelga ;• to the interests of the whole people. . ..That would,be the end of a : .large national life'; it would be:the ' end of American freedom. I '. ;■ ■■For once a Hun professor has been found who can speak'the truth. Ibsen and "Detective"* Fiction.

: Dr. Sigurd Ibsen,. son of . the late Hendrik Ibsen, recently presented his famous father's private library to the Museum at Brekke, a little Norwegian town. The famous playwright's library seems to have been a somewhat curious collection. It consisted' mainly of works on philosophy and "detective" fiction', tho latter including full'sets-of the stories of Gaboria-u and Do Boisgobey. These two writers, it may here be mentioned, have been prime favourites with not a few people famous in the spheres of polities,, science and art. By tho way, it is curious that no uniform cheap re-issue of Vizotolly's edition of tine two French novelists has appeared. Five or.six of the bestknown of the Lecocq stories have been republished in the three-and-sixponny form, and some of them in the paper eixpemiies. A shilling cloth-bound complete edition would have,, I believe, a, big sale. Gaboriau's stories in particular were much, superior" 'to the Arsene Lupin yarns of Maurice Leblanc, and even. Conan. Doyle has acknowledged .the debt of the two famous Frenchmen. '' ...' ", '

Stray Leaves. The Oxford University Press is about to publish, a small book ,by Professor Gilbert Murray on the. foreign policy of Sir Edward' Grey, written, it is announced, as a reply to certain strictures of that policy. Such a book was, no doubt, necessary in view of the eager republication, in the German-American Press, of the -unpatriotic and mendacious statements of George Bernard Shaw and similar mischievous cranks, who, in any other country but England, would long ago have been, sent to gaol. It i 3 some time now —four years to ba exact —since we had' a now story from Mr. Anthony Hope,' but Methuen's now announce a new romance, "A Young Man's Year," from the same' pen which gave us the once famous "Prisoner of Zenda." The hero of "A Young Man's Year" is "Arthur Leslie, of the Middle Temple, ;Esquire," and the story recounts his fortunes and his doings, professional, speculative, and venturesome. ' The best thing in John Galsworthy's latest - book, "The Little Man and Other Satires," is a dohgh'tfully original little sketch in a vein of that quiet, but-penetrating,.'.irony; which is .Galsworthy's . forte; " the .' subject being the meeting of. a chance company of Continental travellers. The volume includes a series of "Studies of Extravagance," of the best of which are "The Writer'! and "The Critic.'' Galsworthy has also published his latest play, "A Bit of Love."

Cassells announce a volume entitled "The Battle Glory of Canada," containing .the record of the Canadians, at the front, with special references to their share, in the second tattle of Ypres. i The "New York Times" Literary Supplement of. July 11 contains • a long bibliography of woman suffrage literature. To students of feminist questions this should prove a most useful list. Booth Tarkington's last novel, "The Turmoil," heads the lists of the American best sellers. Tho novel is having a- good sale in New Zealand, but whether it is a "best seller" here I am not able to 6ay. ; The late Charles Frohman, the famous American theatrical manager, was, it appears, a bosom friend of Sir J. M. Barrie. "New York Bookman" says:— "They were inseparable when he was in England; they wandered about, Barrie with, his pipe ' glued' to his mouth, Frohman swinging a stick, looking at shop windows; shooting the chute at seaside resorts." - This may or may'not be correct, but somehow I fail to visualise the author of "The Little Minister" shooting the chute. Frohman, so another American journal asserts, paid so many visits.to England that an English" wag once referred to him as "The To and Frohman." Tho' biographical sketches of the late Sidney Porter (O. Henry), hy A. TV. Page, which appeared in "The New York Bookman"'last.year, are to be republished in volume form. •