BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 62, 6 December 1919, Page 17

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

BOOKS OP THE DAY

Mr. Punch on tho War. l In his day our old friend Mr. Punch has been familiar With not a few wars. An editorial prologue to "Mr. Punch's History of the War" (Cassell and Co., Ber S, and W. Mackay) reminds us. that Mr. Punch was burn during the first Afghan campaign; in his youth England fought side by s:do ' with the ' French in the Crimea; he saw tho'old Queen bestow tho first-Victoria Crosses in 1857; ho was moved and stirred by the horrors and heroisms of the Indian Mutiny. The crushing of Denmark, tho overthrow of Austria at Sadowa,. the isolation and invasion of France—all these Mr. Punch had in his memory when in 1911 came tho greatest of all wars. Throughout that long ami. weary struggle the genial satirist played a notable and laudable part. The clever pencils and pens of hi 9 artists anil writers did good service in assisting to keep in full and intensely active blaze the fiuo patriotic spirit of the people. He lashed the hypocritical and cruel Hun with the whip of. iudiimunt scorn, he cheered the hearts of war sufferers with kindly sympathy, and stimulated a healthy spirit of optimism even in the darkest of the many dark davs of the colossal contest. Upon the cowardly shirker, "the soulless. profiteer, the selfish self-seeking politician, he poured nut a flood of healthy scorn. Ho championed the cause of the ill-paid Tommies, chatiwi official big-wigs wnoau red-tape methods stodd in the path of reform, and got much genial inn out of the training camps. His pictorial propaganda in favour of the Allies must have been of Splendid service, for the "Punch" cartoons—never brutal, but. none the letis eileptive for all that—were renroduced all the world over. Yes, Mr. Punch did his bit. How well ha did it m;iv be seen l.y looking through the ■pages of this lianusome vouiute in which the best cartoons and sketches dpnltug with tho war are preserved in handy, form, and the best articles, pooms, and short essays of the "Punch" stall', assisted, as it was, by so many clever corresvondents on the various fronts,-are republished. Messrs. Bernard Partridge Mid Haven Mill are mainly responsible for the cartoons. Their work lacks perhaps the classic dignity of Sir John Teunicl's splendid drawiugs— t am glad to see that the famous cartoon "Dropping tho Pilot,' and that equally celebrated ' drawing (dated ■' September 27, 1873). which shows France saying. "Au l?«voir" to Germany, who departs carrying her victorious tla,g and u bag filled with French gold, have been reproduced. But TonaiePs successors have hud their own sneciat successes. ~ir. Partridge's' powerful drawing, "'Unc.6uquer.itoe,'' which deuicts the young King of the Bateians confronting the Kais?r,-is admirable. The legend below reads:—

Tho Kaiser: "So, you see you've lust everything." The King of the Belgians: "Not my soul."

The same artist's "William o' the Wisp," showing-the Turk floundering m a bog whilst the Kaiser, aa deuiun, lurvjs him on to, plunge- into further unknown depths, is'equally effective: Of Mrltaven Mill's many excellent drawings that entitled "The Eud of a Perfect Tag," is a scathing reproof'of the Hun's premature gloatings over the hoped-for downiall of England, and another very powerful drawing is'the'same artist n "The Dance of Death "'in which Death is shown as a fiddling skeleton. The Kaiser cries "Stop! I'm tired";, but Death replies, "I started at your bidding; I stop when I choose."' Every uhase of the war is dealt with bv the "Punch" artists and writers. If only ns a pictorial war album,- this fine tiook'is well worth preservation,in:eve:-y library. The splcnutd patience of the people, their unfailing spirit of pluck, their cheerfulness under the most, depressing conditions, the humorous side of food and other problems; all find exposition in these pages. - Also, there arp many pwni3 which prove that Mr.'Punch has, as ever, a keen flair for clever verse, nnd that on,, occasion the famous jester can ddff his cap and bells and treat a pathetic theme with' as much grave dignity as he can invest a grotesque situation with some cleverly original touch of humour. In a -word, h«re is the best of- . the war-time "Punch," and' how good our old friend can be at that same best—well, as to that, Britons all over the world will cheerfully testify. Mr.' Punch's "History of the Great AVar" irould niako. let mo •hero say, an ideal Christmas £\tt book.

"Modern Germany." Th« fact that a sixth edition of "Modern Germany: Its Rise, Growth, Downfall, and Future" (London :• John Murray; per .'Whitcomba and Tombs) haa now appeared affords concksive testimony as to the esteem in which Mr. J. Ellis Barker's historical w.ork is, held. The book has been used as an historical text-book in, 6ome of tho leading American Universities, and has been translated, into Japanese and Mahratti, as well as into several European -languages. In its present greatly enlarged form, "Modern Germany" is a companion volume to "The Foundations of. Germany," the second edition of which appeared in tho autumn of 1915. The two books are designed to complement one another, and both, so it is claimed by the author, should be equally useful to bludents of German affairs, and, so Mr. Barker might well have added, of latterday European history generally. Seven chapters of "Modern Germany" in its latest form are entirely new, and the work generally has been largely Towritten. The two chapters entitled respectively "German demands for domination of the world," and "The future, of Germany and the German race," arc specially interesting in those passages which deal with the financial side of the German debacle. Quite apart from what Germany will have to pay tho Allies in the shape of indemnities, sho will, says Mr. Barker, "obviously have to deal with her own war expenditure either by paying interest on her enormous debt'by means of hugely-increased taxes, or by repudiating ner war loans. By the latler plan she would, of course, utterly ruin her capitalists, huth great and small."

Those who may be inclined to think that the Allies arc treating their conquered foe unmercifully—with regard to iin;inoinl reparation—am reminded t»y Mr. Barker that on August 29, 1915, Herr Ilelfferich, Secretary of the Imperial Treasury, and a former director of the Deutsche Bank, • concluded a speech iu the Reichstag as follows: ■ Tho futuro life of the German people' muat at, Far ns possible be kept free from the burden which has arneu through the war. (Hear, hear.) The leaden weijht of a debt of thousands of nntlionu f.houlu doEervedly be borne by Uioeo who have brought about the war. (Hear, Iwar.) Let our enemisß, not the Germans, bo crushed by that load for decades.. (Loud npplaune.) And yet there are those in Great Britain and in New Zealand who would fain have Great Britain and the British Umpire suffer under that "leaden weight," ■unaided by the relief which ought justifiably to come from the exaction of indemnities from a foe who, > had he been victorious, would have mercilessly crushed the very life's blood I out of Knglnnd and her oversea dominions. Mr. Barker has a valuable chapter on the "Future of Austria," but space limits forbid quotation. His work, in its present enlarged and greatly-improved ,orm. should bo welcome to all siude.il Is ,>1 contemporary Knropenii hislury.

(Bl LlBEB.) Give a man a pipe he can moke, Give ■ a man a book he can read; And his home it bright with a calm delight Though the room be poor indeed. —Jambs Thomsou.