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BOOKS OF THE DAY

"ONE CROWDED HOUR." Mr Sydney Do Loghe, author of that excellent book on the Dardanelles campaign, "Tlio Straits Impregnable," is now responsible for a little booklet entitled "One Crowded Hour," a call to arms. (Melbourne: The Australasian Authors' Agency.) It is an eloquent and forccful appeal to the author's fellow-countrymen to rise to a full a.nd immediato recognition of their duty towards Australia and the Empire. It is to be hoped that Mr. Do Loghe's appeal is being circulated broadcast throughout tho Commonwealth, for never has tho path of duty—and honour—been moro forcefully and distinctly indicated. 1" quote two passages as exemplifying the earnestness and eloquence with which tho author appeals to his countrymen to shake oil' their selfish torpor and practically assist the gallant leilows who aire laying down their lives at the front, and whose numbers Jiavo been' so sadly diminishsd by lack of tho reinforcements -which should liayo been sent wit|i regularity had Australia, dono her duty. In Ihe cliaplcr headed "Tho Day's Work" I find tho following passage:—

They must have men. Tliey must liavo men with new breath and now strength. Whore are your right arms? Oh, will you sit forever there at odds -with youreclf? Ono by one theso wonderful days go by. dropping out of our lives, drop by drop, as on tho other side of the-world is dropping away the blood of thoso men wo are betraying, dropping out of their bodies, drop b.v drop, the same and yet with a- difference. For each of tjiesc days lost from the total of bur lives leaves thcirn a little weaker and a little feebly bitterer. But when a soldier of that thinning wall feels his Wood fall, and weakness enters into his joints, ami the battlo swims in his face. I think there comes a. draught of raro air into his closing lungs, and a moro piercing .sight into liis bleared eyeballs, bo that whilo you and I sec Britain as a fair land where a man may go about the day's business in peace, ho sees it as a land In -whose woods justice and freedom grow as the wild (lowers, whose skies must bn kept, clear and whose soil must not bo trodden by unclean feet, as a land that would not share the sunshine and dishonour, but was ready to nass away into the mist and fogs end be forgotten. And as lie totters to his knees that voice speaks (o him,that will sneak to us this nieht. "The day's work in over. The enemy gathered about the gate.- 7lany sat by and waited. But you put down whot y,-,u v-ro doing and helped to hold it. to. Tho day's work is over. It has been well 'done.". . , . But what are you and X going to do today before the sun goes down?

In tho final chapter, "The Beveille,' the author pictures a trumpeter who'calls in turn to the British.' tho I'trcnch, and their Allies. Here is the concluding passage:—

"Trumpeter, have you much loimer to blow?" "No, sir, Half my notca arc blown Hwav. I have blown loud and X liavo blown lons, for I cannot tell how the battle bocs. And many a day ill sorrow I put my trumpet to my lips, for tbo clash and the clang ever como nearer, and I .think the Britain I love ia hard beset. Melliought she had stumbled when last the dust drifted apart. When last the wind blow low methougbt I heard her laboured breath. Js T ow in this final houj' I blow and blow again that the last of her sons may be blown awake and haste to fenco her about. I have marched north and south; X have marched east mid west, and many a thousand men havo tossed their blankets away. Hut I know a land washed round balmy seas where men grow tall an<l straight, but where slticii are too blue and breezes are ton warm and wooinc, for they lie lonpc abed there. And for the last time I put my trumnct to hit lips to blow those sleepers awake, for as I spoke to you just. now. sir. tho dust parted and I saw Britain with a kueo upon the ground, and about lier thoso that would, null her down because they aro not worths' to sit up beside hor. Up. then, with my trumpet to my lips, <ind if X wako them all will be well; but if they sleep Boun<l it will be too lato to blpw nijain. Britain, I blow for you. God, jivo me breath!"

Mir. T)e Logho's booklet costs but- a modest shilling. Tlioro is muoli in it of interest to New Zenlanders ns_ well as Australians, although its special appeal may not apply to the Dominion.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19180824.2.78.1

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 288, 24 August 1918, Page 11

Word count
Tapeke kupu
804

BOOKS OF THE DAY Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 288, 24 August 1918, Page 11

BOOKS OF THE DAY Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 288, 24 August 1918, Page 11

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