TWO WAR BOOKS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2781, 27 May 1916, Page 11

TWO WAR BOOKS

THE FIRST.HUNDHED THOUSAND. When the "Junior Sub.'s" " cleverlywritten papers on the .''making" of a Scottish regiment iii Kitchener's Army began to appear in. Blackwood's Magazine they were speodilv identified as tne work of "that',popular writer, Ism liny Beith, who, as lan Hay, gavo us "The Kight Stuff," "A Mau'o Man," "Pip," and whose latest story, "A Knight on Wheels," published just before, the war, proved one,of the best sellers of its season. The author is now a captain in a Highland regiment at the front. The Blsekwood- papers are iuiw collected in o volume tuhtlfld ''Tho First Hundred Thousand" (Blackwoods, per. Whir-combo and Tombs).- To the enormous snccess the toiik..has achiovod in the Old Country and to tiie widespread demand for copies in Jse.w Zealand 1 have alluded mors once in these columns, 'i'he vivacity of the stylo, tho happy delineation of much varying character, the author's broadly human outlook and per soii?.! sympathies, • &U niak« "Tho First Hanrli-od -Thousand" one oi the best Uoks on the British 's6WI«- of to-day, and itiove •particulnrls the siaw ftritkh soldier ' tb&.Tutclu-iwr. brand, ihat ha? yet U-e?. I thibli-irh«d. 'Plicy are & gjanri !»t of foli lows, ''th? SpvoiiUi (Si'i'vice) Battalion o. 1 f.th? Brucj- aad Wallace Highlanders," t ; battel ion of Sofltwnea; most of them re- : iTHittd from Gls%>W and the Clyde <!is- . iriot. but ewri-jring into the fighting line : nil ti>.e finest traditions—so .far as cour- : .Md,'nnd. rfeterioiaation 'go—of tho old Highland icjimnnto. Mr. Beith eMehes the 1 battalion, hits off, in a ; w'riis «' iiappity drawn- sketches, the individual ha.bito and idio^ncreeies' of its : s;irnb?rs, glories in its col'.ect'ive and all-- ; dominant spirit of hardness and fitness, ■ and fighting grit; and tells us how these i iadsfrom the mine, the bench, the quayside, 1 the foundry; the factory, and cno merchant's office came to recognise and admit each other's good qualities; albeit, never tiring of satirising each other's peculiarities. The author adopts a fictional, form for. hie' record, and uci'tUcss to say the humorous aid*- a! life intho trenches receives' How gallantly those Jocks nr.'. -iaadios. and indies—and Tims and Terences—for the Uriah element is not absent in the "Highland". themselves on the bloody - Bold of Loos and elsewhere all .the world- knows by this time. The realism of the narrative is no more scusationmongering. It io as convincing as a transcript from actual life—that life, alas, Wherein grim Death is hourly intruding. Mr. Beith's picture of the Battle of the Slag Heaps—the "biiigs" as the Lanark, shire lads, called tho dreary black mounds which' were in turn drenched with British and German blood, is positively tragic in its itensity. Tho "Junior Sub" is continuing, his war pictures in Blackwood, and in due- course, I presume, a second instalment will appear in volume form.. Meanwhile, everyone should read - "The First. Hundred Thousand." So long as Britain can turn out such loughty warriors as those of whpse exploits Mr. Beith .has written, there need be ho fear of pourparlers for peace first emanating from London. "THE WAY THEY HAVE IN THE ARMY. A'. few words only, but those of .unreserved commendation, can today be devoted to a' little shilling book, ' published :by Mr. John Lnne, uniform in get-up with the well-known "Kitchener' Chaps" and "Joffre Chaps" ] volumes,. entitled "The Way They Have in -the Army." Roughly, it may bo described' as >a handy cyclopaedia of army life, regulations, military grades, terms, eto. Even despite the long continuance of the war there is still, n, vast amount of popular ignorance on the subject of the difference .between civil and military life. In this book Mr. "Thomas OToolo" makes plain what thes& differences are, and adds an abundance of-'curious - and often amusing information upon soldiering iii general. A welcome chapter is that on "nicknames, and other regimental distinctions," including such curious terms as tho "Linseed Lancers," the "Dirty Shirts," • "The Fogs," "The Tigers," "The Resurrectionists, tho "Holy Boys, and so forth. By the time a second edition is called for the author will no donbt • add. a special: page or, two devoted to that now deathless name, "'Tho Anzacs." A coloured plate. of military ribbons is a useful feature,- and an excellent index affords : ready reference to any particular point dealt with in a capi-. tal little publication. (N.Z. price, Is. 6d.)