THE READER'S COLUMN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 176, 24 January 1914, Page 6

THE READER'S COLUMN.

(Conducted liy .I.iiik's Wortlcy). BOOKS Foil TIIK flllll.S. While sane writers like Kliicl Turin r and Annie Swan continue to write the (Id, there will not lie >.vaiitin;: an army of' thoroughly appreciative girls. ! have reeeive.l I'ru.,: the publishers, Mc-si's llodder aiel Sl.-Mi'jhton. "Tie: !!rid A L' BiiiM-rs." by A""!'.' S„-,n. ami fin.l it not oin-'whit b-hind aiiv o[ nic i very excellent stork- this writer lin - given 11.-. Writ {en wilh all the line ] lechniqile in wliieii the author is a past-master, the tale proceeds hlylhely upon its way. The hook is a full one of some three hundred closely printed pages, hut one gets ' aupiainU'd with Hie heroine. Isla '.U'lnrrieli', right oil' in the lira I ehapler, and interest ill her never Hags for a nioinent. In "The Seeret of the Sea," liy Ethel Turner (llodder ami Sloiightmi. per A. C. Hooker) there is all the idyllic clnirm of tin; vounjr life wiiich .Miss Tinner knows so well liir.v to write of. And l'atrieia is just like ail young I'.'lk ■- haughty and overbearing, i-evore ill her judgments, and uncompromising. I'he climax of the story is reached in a 'somewjial pathetic and natural manner, of which the readers will he most interested {o learn. We expect much ot i the author of "Sevi n Little Au-tia-linns/' and are not disappointed. PRESIDENT WILSON'S BOOK. 1 Professor, or as we must now stylo ' him, President, Woodrow Wilson's "The New freedom" (London: Chapman ami I tall), is a published edition of some of his campaign addresses delivered during last summer. As the preface tells us, it is llii' discussion of a number of \ very vital subjects in the free form of ' extemporaneously-spoken words. The ' note of the hook is a plea for a much I higher ethical standard in the conduct 1 of all public and national all'airs, and ] a demand that the enfranchised citi- [ zen shall interest himself to a very vital extent upon all subjects, and especially those upon which he is called to give his judgment, at the uullol-box. Uii--1 doubU'dly the first result of the awakened interest has been the placing of Ihe author in the. Presidential chair, but whether the new party of which he is ' the bead will realise the high ideals the ' constituents expect is another malter. The books is refreshingly vigorous and ', optimistic, and to our mind spea'.s up-' on (picßtions that need ventilation by. ' the thinkers of the time. i TWO EXCEIXEXT XOYELS. 1 ""Mr. Pratt's Patients." by Joseph '..'. ! Lincoln, author of "Cap'n Kri," etc. (New York and London: 1). Apple- ; ton and Co.; 1013). : Sol Pratt is a true Cape Codder as ; we have come to know them thrciugh ! Mr. Lincoln's novels. No writer—Ar- ■ nolil Bennett, with the Potteries district excepted—has in recent years so I localised bis stories as Joseph Lincoln , has done. At the mention of his name , : we can smell the sea. see the living send - of clouds, and hear the lap of the tide, '. as it comes up the Sound. If the latt est of these tales of the Maine coast s be a fair specimen. Mr. Lincoln has by - no means exhausted the humor of these I humble folk. The story is right up--1 10-date, and has for its theme the evergreen credulity of human nature in "quacks." Sol Pratt, out of a |Oi>. "? real good fortune, is taken on as handy man at the "Sea Breeze ItlnfV Sanitoriiun for Kight Living and Best." ilis adventures provide one, long laugh, but under all the humor runs a vein of l real "horse" sense. I f'The Story of Waits!ill Baxter," by I Kate Douglas. Wiggin. aulhor of , "Mrs. Wiggins of the Oalibage , Patch." (London and Xew York: j llodder and Stoughton). Surely there never was a worse man 0 than Deacon Baxter, and no doubt Dr. • Perry's assumption was correct that the 1 pleasure of the successive Mr. Baxters, s in joining the angels, '.vas mild in eomJ parison with their relief at parting with '■ the deacon. It is a typical Xew Eng- - land community that gathers in the 1 little village of Edgewood, and it has - its full share of tlie parochialism incid- ' ental to ignorance. Waits!ill and Pair.v '- 1 Ilax.cr lead a dog's life with thei'r 1' widowed father, and the story is one ■ | of emancipation of these two charming ■ girls from the cribbed existence at home ■to the simple joyous life, of the other ' village folk. The story is real and , |«t!ietic. Poor Mrs. Boynton lias ' eonugb of tragedy in her life for half • a town, and Ivory is a thoroughly nian- ! ly fellow in the way he upholds and • supports bis bereft mother. Mrs. YVTg--1 gin has packed her story with the love ; of the simple folk of the village, a type • which with the spread of education an<i travel must bo passing away—move's the pity.

i NOTES. The Christmas Bookman (Hodder and Stonghton) is a sumptuous affair in 'limp canvas cover, and runs to something over three hundred pages, very copiously illustrated with illustrations from the books dealt with. A recent photo of Sir .1. ,\f. Barrio adorns the cover, and is also reproduced as a frontispiece. There are a large number of colored plates and a presentation portrait of Krnest Thompson Scton. ■ The famous old publishing house of Airowsmith, of Bristol, has just issued a notable work. "Memories of Dickens,'' by -Mr. Percy Fitzgerald. It is seldom nowadays that one hears of important publications outside of London or New York, but this is an exception. We arc indebted to Arrowsniitbs for quite a number of unique publications. The liookman reports a growing interest in a novel which made a very unostentatious debut from Melrose's press a few week* airo. Although its advent was all but unheralded, a very keen public has seized upon the book, and various rumors are advanced anent its anonymous authorship. So moved ivas a London business man and his wife by it that they called upon the publishers with a gift of £25 for the hero and heroine, whom they felt must be (and may be) really in the flesh. Fur the modest sum of sixpence 1 secured this week an original edition ol one of Anthony Trollop's books, "The West Indies and the Spanish Main." It was published at 103 Piccadilly, by Chapman and Hall, in ISfiO. It is very .interesting reading about trawls in the Panama and (,'arrihhean area at a time when great events were taking place or had just taken place there. The P.ritish slaves hail just been liber'uleil. and the agitation in tho States was at its height. This famous novelist writes with keen insight on the manners ami customs of the people, race problems and the then political outlook. (* tteceived from Mr. A. S. Brooker, the B.K. Bookshop, Devon street, f Received from Hodder ami Stoughton, publishers, London).