BOOKS-NEW AND OLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 161, 6 January 1912, Page 10 (Supplement)

BOOKS-NEW AND OLD.

(By James Wortley). ♦"The Ne'er-do-Well," by Rex Beach, author of "The Spoilers," "The Barrier," etc. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911. This tale is one that would be styled on the advertisement boards as "right up to the minute." It is the account of how a millionaire's son came to a right understanding of life. Kirk Anthony is a university graduate who chooses the life of a football coach above all the alluring propositions which can be set before a rich man's son. His association with sport leads him into doubtful company in the Tenderloin district of New York. Drunk, and incapable, a forger put him under his (the forger's name) on a passenger boat for the Panama. A timely friendship struck up with .Mrs. Cortlandt, wife of an American diplomat, rescues him from a Panamanian gaol, and a very awkward predicament. Ultimately he proves his metal by taking an under position on the P.P.R. Railroad. A good deal of the tale, which moves throughout with great spirit and verve, is taken up with an account of Mrs. Cortlandt's growing passion for Anthony, which, however, he does not reciprocate. Incidentally, we get a kaleidescopic glance at Central American politics, which is enlightening, if true to life. It is one of those books the reader does not lay down till the last page is turned. *"The Land of Veiled Women: Some Wanderings in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco," by John Foster Fraser. Cassell and Co., Ltd., London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne, 1911. A series of pen pictures in Mr. Fraser's very best style. Since reading this author's book on Australia I have very much doubted the accuracy of his deductions, and this being so I am quite unable to recommend it to students of Eastern questions. Mr. Fraser has travelled so far and so fast that his methods ! cannot make for historical correctness.. Still, for all that, there is a literary charm about his works that shows still further excellence in this his latest book. The description of what he has seen is very fine, and the chapters on the Roman ruins and the Foreign Legation deserve special mention. To the desultory reader, and most of us are that to-day, it comes almost as news that the Romans colonised North-West Africa, although a little rummaging among the remains of our early studies leads us to a hazy conclusion that we have heard of it before. Here is a peep at the "show" citv of Roman remains in 1910:—'The main street, heavily flagged with stones, shows the deep ruts of the carts. There is a crack, and a peep can be got into the dry drain. What fine buildings and magnificent colonnades! There is the semicircular Curia, with marble seats for the senators, and on the pedestals are the names, as though graven last year, of men who were important in their day. ■ . . . . Trojan's arch; what a noble and I enduring monument it is. And the | (baths— all there save the roof—cold ] baths and vapour baths, swimming tanks, reposing and dressing rooms. Why, the bricks are so new one might think it was the beginning of a new erection instead of the ruins of an old place." And so forth. Here is a tragic touch referring to the cemetery of the Foreign Legion at Saida: "A forlorn, weed-strewn corner of the cemetery—very quiet that hot morning. That patch of earth was a volume of mystery. Blackguards lay there, men who had betrayed women, brave men, men who had panted for adventure and sought it in Algeria, and now had their last camp at Saida, men of noble lineage who had shamed their families. How many mothers in distant lands, thinking of their wild boys who had gone away and never returned, knew they were under the soil at Saida?" The' book contains a mxiltitude of sketches of the inhabitants, their cus- { toms, their dances, their habits of thought and outlook on life, or what the author in his hurried tour gathered, to be typical of the country. These are , all admirably, and vividly told. The impression conveyed is that little has been done, or is being done now, to civilise either the Arab or the Moor. The men are jealous, fierce yet cowardly—the women resented because they are compelled to be. Lack of settled and strong government through generations has had the usual result of practically turning every man's hand against his neighbor. Yes, the book is thoroughly readable. (*We are indebted for books reviewed to Messrs Brooker and Keig, booksellers, Devon street).