LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2705, 26 February 1916, Page 9

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

"Russia of To-day," Those who have read! the many books of travel sketches produced by that industrious and entertaining writer, Mr. J. Foster Fraser. will not expect to find in-his latest-book, "Russia of To-day" ,(Oassell and Co.; per. Whitcombe and Tombs) ■ any sucli profound and'penetrating study of Russian State institutions or the Russian people as have, been given,us by the Hon. Maurice Baring or Mr.' StopJien Graham. Mr. Fraser is an impressionist first arid foremost.' His object is to give his readers a series of agreeably written sketches rather than any deeply analytical study of the Tsar's-European : -Empire and.his subjects. ' ■■Nevertheless," it is only fair to say tha|;i£|, this;; vol ime Mr! jjraser/ appears to' v have fj avoided' much', if not all, of that fault of over-hasty general-, isation to which so much objection was taken, both by Australian and Argentine. critips, to certain. statements and conclusions in his books dealing with their countries. He now gives us a series of well-written and certainly most readable studios of .Russia as she is todajy the. greatest of European countries- engaged' in the greatest of all European wars. ' His pictures of Petrograd and Moscow in war time are fresh' and' interesting. Clearly a great change has come over modern Russia, and a still greater change, so the author evidently considers, 'may result from the war. Russia; is .waking up. The dreamy, impractical, highly spiritual character--as writers like Maurice Baring and Stephen Graham have discerned it—of the people, may not 'altogether disappear, but it is. being tinctured by a' new spirit of vigorous activity which is bearing splendidly practical fruit. . Perhaps the ' most interesting and useful of Mr. Eraser's chapters are those in which he deals with commercial and industrial Russia, and di9cus6es the splendid opportunities which after the war will present themselves to the British merchant manufaoturer. Before the war Russian trade and commerce were very largely in German hands. Mr. Fraser, indeed, estimates that 85 per cent, of the business of Russia, at one stage or another, passed through the hands of men of Gprman origin. It is the knowledge of this, behind the fury of war, -which (says the author) is stirring the Russian to n de-' termination that when peaceful times come, iiis country will gird herself to industiial aotion, that she "will no longer he vassal in commerce of agnation.'' ■

No mind (says Mr. Fraser) could differ more radically from the Russian than the German mind. Peter the Great invited the German to his Empire. The new capital of Petrograd was largely made in Germany. The German colonist lived isolated in the towns, and preened himself in his superiority before the gaze of the mere moudjik. The Germanic race got its foot well into Russia. Nearly all business Russians speak German. Yaroslav, the city of mil-, lionaires, gave all its official posts to Germans. The Director of the Lyceum of Jurisprudence, the Government Architect, the Government Engineer, all were Germans. Petiograd had its German daily paper. In Government offices in Petrograd it was quite customary to hear German spoken.

Nowadays, of course, all this is changed, but Mr. Fraser warns us that after tho war the British merchant and manufacturer who wishes to capture Russian trade will have to adopt the same intelligeut and progressive methods by which the Germans scored their commercial successes in the past. Upon this and other matters concerning the Russia o{ the future Mr. Fraser's book is quite' noticeably informativo and suggestive. In other chapters he deals with tho curious jumble of.races over which the Tsar rules, the new keenness for educa, tion, the land question, the splendid results of prohibition—"during all tho time I was in, Russia, although I ran into varying shades of opinion, I met no one who disputed the benefits ol the change"—the life of tho English communities in Moscow and Petrograd, and with Russian social_ life and with Russian artistic and literary movements.

Mr. Fraser is always interesting, and although here and there the narrative is sketchy, and unconvincing as to tho .reliableness df its basic information, it is always essentially readable. A welcome feature of tho book is its wealth of illustration, the volume containing close upon fifty excellent plates from photographic originals, city and country scenes, and various types of Russians, from princes down to peasants. Alto, gether, this latest book of Mr. Fraser's is by far the best thing he has yet done, and should be widely read, affording, as it does, a vividly picturesquo and, in its way, usefully instructive deserintian of a country concerning which

thd average Briton lias had in the past but a somewhat scanty knowledge. (Now Zealand price 3s. 6d.)

Pierre Lotl on Jerusalem. f To his handsomely-produced series of translations from. Pierre Loti's works of travel, the publisher, Mr. Werner Laurie, has recently added a translation of''the well-known French author's book on Jerusalem. It is a niasterpiece of verbal beauty, containing as it does many exquisitely worded descriptions of the picturesque, though decaying, splondour of tlio sacred city, whither so many hundreds of thousands of reverent pilgrims from all lands havsf directed their steps. The spirit of the book is disclosed in one of the opening paragraphs;

Perhaps (says M. Loti) I shall tell also of the impression of a soul—ray own—which was amongst the tormented spirits of the clos-

ing century. But other souls aro in like case and will be able to follow me. We are of those whose

lot it is to suffer the gloomy anguish of the present day, who stand on the brink of the dark

chasm into which everything seems destined to fall, there to perish utterly; but who, nevertheless, can still descry, in the scarce distin-

guishable distance, rising out of all tile outworn trappings of human religions, the promise of pardon which Jesus brought, the, consolation and hope of heavenly reunion? Oh! surely nothing else ever had any reality. All the rest is void and negligible, alike in the theorisings of the great modern philosophers as in the arcana of millenary India, and in the visions of the inspired and marvellous seers of the early ages. And thus out of the depths of our despond, there continues 1 to ascend towards Him who once was called the Redeemer, a vague, desolate adora-

The whole book is tinged frith the spirit of reverence for a faith which the author, "doomed," as he says, '•'to unbelief," camiot fail to admire and respect, and, perhaps, to long for as his own possession. His descriptions of the Holy Places, notably the Holy Sepulchre, contain passages of compelling charm. To-day the streets of Jerusalem echo the tramp of armed men who, at the bidding of a tottering regime, temporarily rejuvenated by fanaticism and fed with the gold of a Western Government and a nation nominally Christian are dreaming dreams of victory over other Christian nations. To-day the Russian and oither European pilgrims whom Loti saw in Jerusalem are absent. The bitterest enemies Christianity ever had now alone populate the Sacred City. But only for a time, .for the day, as we must all hope and trust, will yet come when the baleful shadow of tho Crescent will be removed from the Holy Places, and men and women of all nations will flock once again to the most sacred scenes of Christianity's glorious story. Meanwhile Loti's detailed and eloquently beautiful descriptions of the Sacred City, as Jerusalem was before the war, are possessed of a special 'and peculiar fascination. Tho interest and charm of the book, so different in spirit and tone from much of the work by which its author is known to most English readers, is enhanced by several fine illustrations in colour, reproduced from watercolour drawings by the well-known English artist John Fulleylove, R. 1., who has made a . special study of the scenic wonders and beauties of the Holy Land. (New Zealand price 95.).

Notices to Correspondent. "L.H.V." "Newtown): Am afraid I cannot publish your letter on' Stephen Phillips for some 6ome two or three weeks to come, tlio large number of books awaiting review making so great a demand on my space. "8.A.": Verses declined with thanks. Will return manuscript if address is forwarded. "G.R." (Palmerston North): Cannot afford-' space for your long complaint re rise in book prices. If you knew all the present conditions of book publishing in England you would not, I am sure, think so hardly of the booksellers as you do! Held Over. Reviews of a number of new Tiooks, including "The Capture of De Wet," bv P. J. Sampson; "South-West Africa" (Arnold) during the German Occupation," by A. F. Calvert; "A Tiger Slayer to Order," by C. B. GouldsTiury (Bell); and a large budget of notices of recently-published novels are held over,until next week. The Christmas "Bookman." The special Christmas number of "The Bookman" (Hoddet- and Stoughton) is wonderfully good value for the modest half-crown at which it is priced, and everyone to whom good books are welcome and cherished possessions should secure a copy. It is a bulky folio, bound in a. sober dress of gray buckram, and containing somo hundred and fifty pages of. letterpress and illustrations. Amongst the contributions of special articles on the publications of the autumn and winter season, or on various literary topics of the day are such well-known writers as Professor George Saintsbury, Roger Ingpeiij Reginald Buckley, Lewis Melville, Edwin *ugh, Francis Beckley, C. E. Lawrence, and A. St. John Adcock. Miss Winifred Stephens contributes an admirable article on "French Writers in War Time." The illustrations include a large number of plates in cojour and black and white, including pictures from the new books of the son, portraits of authors, oU;. In Hie four illustrated supplements will be found brief reviews or the principal new books of tho year, with reproductions of the illustrations therein, and a,' pertfolio of plates in colour from originals by Bernard Pntrridge (illustrating Rabbi Ben Ezra and other poems from Browning's "Dramatis Pereonae") is also an attractive feature. ,

Watts Dunton's Reminiscences. Under the title of "Old Familiar Faces," the veteran English literary critic and poet, Theodore Walter Dunton, has republished some of the many critical studios of Victorian writers which he contributed to the "Athenaeum," and. added isome interesting personal reminiscences, notably of Swinburne, with whom he lived for some thirty years in the same house at Putney; Morris, the poet, designer, craftsman; and George Borrow, of "Lavengro" and "Bible in Spain" fame. Mr. Dunton's Swinburne stories have been in print before, but both of Morris and Borrow ho has much to say that is comparatively new. Morris, who was poet, printer, eiaftsman, designer of furniture, weaver of tapestries, translator of _ Icelandic Sagas, story-teller, Socialistic agitator, was h tremendously industrious and terribly restless fellow. _ When not absorved in some occupation that he lo\ed —and in no other would he move—liis restless) says Wattb Dunton, "was that of a young tiger. In conversation he could rarely sit still for ten consecutive minutes, but must needs spring from his seat and walk round the room, as if eyery limb were eager to tako part in the talk." His conversation was so vehement that those who did not know liim wondered greately. Sayn Watts Dunton: "He and I used often to lunch together sat the 'Cock' in Fleet Street. He liked a sanded floor and quaint, old-fashioned settles. Moreover, the chops wero tho finest to. bo had in London. On tho day following our first foregathering at the 'Cock' I was lunching thoro with another poet—a friend of his—when tho waiter, who knew me well, -aid, 'Thaiwas a loudish pent, a-lunching with j'ou yesterday, sir l I tlioueht once you

was a-coming. to blows.' Morris had merely been declaiming against the Elizabethan dramatists, especially Cycil Tourneur. He shouted out, "You ought to know better than to claim Any merit for such work as "The Atheists's Tragedy," and wound up with the generalisation that 'the use of blank verse as a poetic medium ought to have been stopped by Act of Parliament for at least two generations.' "

Erich Sachs, the nresent head of the Concert Direction Jules Sachs (founded by Jules Sachs and Saul Liebling), has been called to Warsaw by the Gov-ernor-General of that city Fo reorganise the musical life of the Polish capital. Sachs, who is a man of large experience in musical affairs, is at present in Warsaw for the purpose. The development of the musical life of the famous Polish centre under German rule will be awaited with interest.