READERS' COLUMN.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1915, Page 9

READERS' COLUMN.

(By James Wortley). FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS. Little, Brown and Co., of New York, have just published the tenth edition of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, which is the American, counterpart of Dalbiac's Dictionary of Quotations. It is a monumental work and extends to over a thousand pages of quotations and over foUT hundred pages of index. The selection betrays its American origin, for we find that comparatively little-known authors on that side of the Atlantic are well represented, while Dickens has only twenty-two quotations to his credit and Stevenson twelve. Walt Whitman is quoted thirty-eight times and Wendell Holmes forty-four. So far the new president has not said anything which has become current coin in the language, for Mr. Wilson is not mentioned. Washington's famous dictum, "To be prepared for war,is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace," finds timely place.

A GREAT DICTIONARY AND A GREAT MAW. Sir James Murray, the great philologist, under whose direction the greatest English dictionary has been edited, is dead. For twenty-seven years Mr. Murray has been engaged upon the work, and of the ten volumes which will complete it, nine have already been publish. ed. Although the dictionary bears his name, the foundation of the work was laid by -Dr. Furnival, who preceded Sir James as editor of the journals of the Early English Text Society, and it is not expected the work will be delayed in completion by his death. For years an enormous ttaff of readers were engaged. They were said to total some fifteen hundred persons, under the direction of thirty assistant editors. Some idea of the stupendous nature of the task may be gained from the fact that every book published in English prior to 1500 A.D, was read by this staff, and every book of importance since then. The dictionary, as far as published, is on the shelves of the local library. A MILITARY HISTORY OF THE WAR. Mr. Hillaire Belloc, who, by a strangely accurate forecast of the trend which events took in Belgium, jumped from the position of a light novelist to a front-rank military critic, has commenced a history of the Great War. Mr. Belloc has a splendid aptitude for presenting the great issues which lie before us in a manner to be understood by the common people, and for this reason he la Tead with avidity. No doubt the history, on this account, will be eagerly received. We believe the first volume has already left the press. As illustrating Mr. Belloc's methods, we quote here his way of setting forth the task of the Allies. For example: "The enemy sets out with 32 men, of whom he bids 10 men against the Russians, and sends. 22 against the French. The Russians meet the 10 men with about 12, and the French meet the 22 with about 10; but as they have not the whole 22 to meet in the first shook they arc struck rather in the proportion of 10 to 16 or 17, while the presence of the British contingent makes them rather more than 10'/ 2 . But these initial figures rapidly change with the growth of the armies, and before the first period is over the Germans have 22 in the west against 15 French and 1 British, making 16; while in the east the Russian has grown to, say, 24, but the Austro-Ger-mans in the east, against these 24, have grown to be quite 32. And there is the numerical situation of the first period clearly, and I think accurately put, supposing the wastage to be equal in proportion throughout all the armies. The importance of appreciating these figures is that they permit us to understand why the enemy was morally certain of winning.

CURRENT FICTION. "The Land of Content," by Edith Barnard Delano. New York: D. Appleton and Co. (per A. S, Booker, Devon street). "Fed up," as the Australasians put it, with the long round of social festivities and wearisome empty functions of a great city; Rosamund Randall is in just the mood when the appeal to be useful reaches her. Away up the mountains, on her way to stay with her sister and friends at Flood's place, the big silent car runa over a starved little fragment of humanity, at the same time knocking over hid companion, a girl from the factory, life of New York. How these two came to be found in the mountains is explained when they take the poor little fellow to Mother Cary's. Dr. Ogilvie, who turns out to be a city specialist living in the mountains at first for health's sake, and afterwards from choice, is sent for. He arrives at tne little farmhouse to find Rosamund in charge of the boy. Circumstances compel the doctor to insist that Rosamund remain as nurse, at least for the night, much to the disgust of her sister Cecilia and the disappointment of Flood. However, nothing moves her from her decision to become of some little use even if only in a country cottage, rather than be the gilded butterfly of the city. Her association with Ogilvie in his work among the poor whites of the district affords a capital study of some of the contrasting types of the Americans. Here, in the mountains, far from the maddening crowds, Rosamund finds the "Land of Content." It is a contenting book, and after the red literature of war, it rests the mind like the picture of a quiet homely landscape.

"Follow After," by Gertrude Page, author of "The Edge o' Beyond,", ete, London: Hurst and Blackett, Limited (per A. S. Brooker). "Follow after. We are waiting by the trails that we lost For the sound of many footsteps, for the tread of a host. Follow after! Follow after! for the harvest is sown; By the bones about the wayside ye shall come to your own." —Kipling. These famous lines, which were some year 9 ago so admirably illustrated with a drawing by Heath Robinson, have now been used as a text for what will possibly be considered Gertrude Page's best novel yet. Its theme is the everengrossing one of the war, and it is dedicated to the "overseas soldiermen." Being a South African, Miss Page naturally Introduces the local section of the war —that of De Wet's rebellion and the eonquest of German West Africa. Advantage is taken to continue and verv satisfactorily deal with the life stories of Joe and Jack Desborough. Joe is more lovable, if possible, than in "Where the Strange Roads go Down." Jack by no act of meanness becomes less Sof a man than we have known him, and through strange and devious ways these j two come to their own—about which the >rt*dir mj Sad out for hiuttU,