READER'S COLUMN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 205, 6 February 1915, Page 6

READER'S COLUMN.

(By James Wortley.) A POWERFUL INDICTMKXT FOR OUR SOCIAL CUSTOMS. *" John Barleycorn," by Jack London, author of "The Valley of tlie Moon.*' Mills and Boon. This vivid, and frankly biographical record of the author's experience with alcoholic liquors gives one another viewpoint of the temperance question. And yet, the natural recital of the var.ous bacchanial feasts in Mr. London's early career is so obviously with the special pleading of the partisan, that his opinions and conclusions carry the more weight. Drunk at five and again at seven! Such is the burden of chapters three and four. And it took twenty years of hard drinking to acquire the taste for beer. Such 11 sum air! substance is the experience of the : author of "John Barleycorn." The ac 1 count of the dance and drinking bout ! on the farm in San -Mateo county, near San Francisco is thrill'iig: "One Sun- . day morning .... found me at the ' Morrisey ranch. Besides the youngsters ! gathered . . . the. oldsters had been j drinking since dawn. The Morrisevs I were a" huge bred—heavy booted, b'g [ fisted, rough-voiced. Suddenly there i were screams from the girls and cries of : ''Fight." There was a rush and men hurled themselves from the kitchen, i Two giants, flushed-faced. with greying ' hair were locked in each other < units. 1 , . . . Great was my disappointment, Black Matt and Tom Morrisev merely 1 held on to each other. . . They were ; too drunk to fight. . . . Peace-mak-ers got hold of them and led them back to the kitchen. Black Matt and Tom f-nnvlcd over the table, arms about each other's necks, weeping lovingly." It was on this occasion, at the mature age of seven, that the author got so I drunk as to be nearly dead. The stuff j that made strong men pleasantly jolly I was an irritant poison to the little lad. But he was determined to be a , man, and steadily persevered in takinj • liquor on all the occasions, and tliev j were many, that commended themselves j to liis mates. So it went on. lAt seventeen he was drinking on the water front of San Francisco with a harpooner' anr a sailor. "Scotty's reeling brain soon could not control his muscles. . . . The harponer and I drank on, grinninf at Scotty's plight. The last flask \vuopened and we drank to the accompani incut of Scotty's stentorious breathing 1 Then the harpooner faded into his bunl< 1 , and I was left alone, untlirown on tlu ! field of battle.. 1 was very proud 1 ! could carry my drink. I was a man.' ! And so his experiences go on. Alway: • celebrating the finish of the old voyage i and the beginning of a new one, witl | a carousal, and yet never satisfied witl 1 j the drinking, but filled with a grea ' repugnance to the taste. The book ii | a startling account of the daily socia 1 life of the bibulous population whicl I frequented the wharves and waterway! I of San Francisco bay. The accesibilitj i of alcohol is its curse. "If ever a mar I was not born an alcoholic I believe | am that man. And yet alcohol becami { more and more important to me in or der to meet people and in order to becom< sociably fit. I had to get the kick am | the hit of the stuff into me ere I could j join my fellows and make one of them.' | A stronger indictment of the open bai j it would be difficult to pen. "The point i is that it is the accessibility of alcoho that has given me my taste. I did nol care for it. I used to laugh at it. Yei here I am at last possessed with a drinker's desire. It took twenty yean to implant that desire, and for tei more that desire, has grown. And tin effect of satisfying that desire is any thing but good. Temperamentally I am wholesome-hearted and merry. Yei • when I walk with John Barleycorn 1 suffer all the damnation of intellectua pessimism." AN EULOGIUM. *The Girl who Found the Blue Bird, by Madame Maurice Maeterlinck (Geor gette Leblanc.) London: liodder ami Stoughton, sa. It seems but the other day a friend was singing with much gusto the praises of Helen Keller, and was giving me an account of her life, after a visit paid this wonderful woman, who, dumb, deaf, and blind, has become a foremost educationalist in the States. A similar visit has recently been paid Helen Keller by Madame Maeterlinck, and with similar results. The personality of this great and good woman is striking ■ indeed to so dominate the minds of j those with whom she conies in contact, i Madame book is a very ' fine touching tribute to a great soul. I Wilit the attitude almost of a worshipj per she gives us the life history ot Hellen Keller. "Until nine years of age, [ Helen Keller is a monster. iX peevish j unmanageable litle animal, she strugI gles and suffers without knowing it. : Then a young governess, Annie Mase- ! field Sullivan, cowes and undertakes her j education with the patience of a saint, ' She invents methods of communication with one cut off from licr fellows by both eyesight, hearing and speech. First i the designation of objects, which she j traces on the child's hand; next the connection between words and things, ' follows the awakening of thought, the i exercise of reflection till at last, by | means of more and more subtle cxperi- ! ments, a conception of the abstract is attained. One fine summer's day, while Miss Sullivan is endeavoring to make : the child enter the kingdom of feelings. Helen, after hesitating between Jie j warmth of the sun and the scent of the flowers, clasped in her small fingers, throws herself into her teacher's arms. ; She has grasped the fact that love lies ! there, in the heart of her rescuer. Of how Miss Keller communicates with ihe world and enjoys the companionship of ! others, this one incident from the book must suffice. "Helen spoke to me of her fondness for children and in doing so, j used a charming phrase. 'I wish you j knew,' she said, 'how prettily children ! spell into one's hand. They are the i first blossoms of humanity; and their tiny fingers are. as it were, the wild flowers of conversation. It, is delicious to feel one's palm t'.ckled by a baby's silky laughter.' '' And in further explanation: "Try to understand me. You will find lin sound, however beautiful, has Jie eloquence of silence, and that we learn more by touch than by looking. T.s there not something divine in the power of tlie human hand? They tell me that the glance of a loved one makes you quiver at" a distance; but there is :io distance in the touch of a cherished hand f'

NUT!'.

Just as thin colir'r: ;..(»■ i:i •:■.-..' i have received a la; 1: <>.' i:: • < .| which will he noticed if. ii, n- '• : ! stalment of the "■■■:■ >' ' ' \ Among them are fir.:;' s!.'!!'v v.j/f . : : descriptive of the \n\ ■<.■>. ■ ■ i ■, '.■■■. ; . : field, 'by ■competent i:.;ti■■. r i < .-. "Books supplied for review by \l: A. S. Brooker, the B.K. book shop, Devon street.