READERS' COLUMN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 289, 15 May 1915, Page 3

READERS' COLUMN.

(By James Wortley). IX THE KENTUCKY MOUNTAINS. ""A Son of the Hills," by Harriet T. Comstock, author of ''Joyce of the North Woods." (New York: Doubleday! Tage and Co.) There must have been something all heart at bottom in Martin Morley, for his hoy Sandy to love him as lie did. And. though Martin had drifted because of the curse that was upon the family there was still in 'him something that was to enable him to be uplifted and set up again—a man .in the face of men. The. folk we meet are of the mountains and the soil —rough, ragged and unkempt, thriftless, too, anil jealous of tlloir rights. The struggle between North and South had left them in a blind pocket of the hills, where few came in and none went out. Tt remained for Sandy to shake off the heavy load of the years of penury and oppression, and seek for himself and his people a way out to a different life. From the age of seven he begins to lahor for the ' means to equip himself with to find that | outer world he dreamed of. His stead-I fastness of purpose is remarkable in one ] of the shiftless Mbrloy family, and a few determined to help' the lad to rise. ■ Cynthia Walden constitutes herself guardian over Sandy's hidden treasure, | and after seven years of patient toil he j gathers his hoard of thirty dollars and starts out to find his life. Cynthia extracts a promise that lie will come back a great man and marry her, Sandy, ; with the characteristic fortune that is i supposed to favor the brave, falls into ' the kind hands of Levi Markhnm and his devoted sister and housekeeper. Levi picks up the little waif on his way out from the mountains, finds he is ill with fever and takes Him home. Matilda, with the motherly instinct of every true 'woman, nurses the little fellow hack to health and strength. Sandy's story femes out and they determine to give l.im a chance. The end is that Sandy takes it and makes good, and finally returns to lost Hollow to redeem it from, poverty, ignorance and insanitary conditions. Filled witTr-the romance of this romantic locality, the book roaches a very high place among the novels that have been written of this country, and readers will be delighted with "every page.

THE BRITISH POINT OF VIEW. ""The Barbarism of Berlin," by G. K. Chesterton. This is a little sixpenny brochure issued from Cassell's press, and is a treatise written on the British attitude on the war. It is in Mr. Chesterton's most incisive style. It deals with the obligations which under the precise circumstances that arose it was Britain's duty to fulfil. Mr. Chesterton shows that Britain redeemed her obligations at the s ame moment that Ccrmanv broke hers. He rightly says that it is better to fulfil an engagement than to break one. The chief point made is that the series of recriminations which have resulted in so many of the nations taking sides in this great war has been to find the fountain from which flowed the poisonous militarism that has nigh overwhelmed so many of the European nations, and is the greatest modern evil. A SUCCESSFUL SEQUEL. '"The Keeper of the Door." by Ethel M. Dell, author of "The 'Rocks of A r alpre, etc. (London: T. Fisher Unwin; 1015). This talented New Zealand writer has attempted and accomplished in her latest work the writing of a successful sequel to her very successful novel. "The Way of an Eagle." It is a book full of thrills nnd traredies. The heroine. Olga, is the daughter of our old friend, Dr. Jim IU4cliffc. and she has some most trying experiences before the "happy-ever-after" period is arrived at. Mi.mr Hunt-G)--ing, a confirmed opium viotim. makes a thoroughly detestable villain of the plot. Nick Radeliffe is just such a lovable fellow as we found him at an owlier period of his life. His shrewd is distinctly helpful in u.iinvelliiu; tin tangle in which Dr. Max anil the other young folk find themselves DISRAELLI OX f!ERMA>: AMBTTIOX.

Monyp"nny's Life of BeninTti.-n Disradi. volume 111., covers the pcroil MO to "■;>. and lias a pood deal to say m the greai I statesman's 'prophetic, vinous in tlie ii.ir'.t j of present-dav knowledge. In 1848 lie speaks of "the dreamy and dangerous '■ nonsense preachy under tlie, guise of j German nalionalilv." Some years later j lie writes nim-e definitely: "But now, r taking advantage of tlie fact tliat the. King of Denmark possesses in Schleswig perhaps l."i(!,lll!0 subjects of flerman race, I liis dominions are to lie invaded and may lie conquered in order that Prussia may suddenly appear as a groat maritime Power. Ido not wish to argue the ease with respect to tlie interest of England, lint I do wish to lay down the : principle that it is for the interest, not of England alone, but of all Europe that peace should he maintained. I cannot believe, however, that tlie peace of Europe is to he maintained hy hiding our heads in the sand and comforting ourselves with tlie conviction that nothing will find us out. . . AVe guaranteed Schleswig to Denmark, and must not shirk our obligations." i ("Books for review supplied by <\. S. \ I Hooker, tlie B.K. Bookshop, Devon St.)