THE NEW BOOKS

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19899, 30 May 1936, Page 20 (Supplement)

THE NEW BOOKS

LATE LORD READING. An Able Biography. INTOLERANCE 0F HUMDRUM. Lord Reading, who died last year, was successively Attorney-General, Lord Chief Justice, Ambassador at \Vashington, Viceroy of India, and Foreign Secretary. And he was the first Jew to hold any one of these high ofl‘ices. It is too early to expect a full—dress life of this remarkable man, but .‘ in “Rufus Isaacs: First Marquess of] Reading," Stanley Jackson gives us an able, judicious biography. Few] careers of modern times better merit[ the overworked epithet “romantic.” As a boy Lord Reading ran away to sea to escape the humdrum of commercial life; a similar intolerance of the humdrum marked him to the end. Rufus Isaacs came to the Bar a desperate man. Quick-witted and ambitious, he had sought to make an early success on the Stock Exchange. The City had offered excitement, the spice of uncertainty, and the chance of rapid prosperity."Progress at the Bar. He made no headway in the City, but very rapid progress at the Bar. The cases in which he was engaged ! are familiar legal 'history. Mr Jackson describes them adequately: if there is anything new to be said about any of them he has failed to find it. Rhetoric and emotional appeal lay out—side Lord Reading’s range. Suave and well-dressed, smooth and sedative, he was the perfect exponent of the legal bedside manner. In cross-examination he did not bully the man in the witness-box, but coiled himself about him. Suave and enticing, he led the victim to his doom‘ with perfect taste. i He was not a spell—binder, either, in the courts or in politics. He was\ too ready to see both sides of a ques~ tion; his gifts lay in adaptation rather than innovation. It is as a~man of profound sagacity and unerring judgment, genial, tolerant, and prodigiously hard-working that he emerges from these pages. STORY OF AN AGITATOR. V and, Human Tale. lIARDSHIP AND DISCOURAGEMENT. “Sir James Sexton, Agitator," is, as Mr Lloyd George observes in a preface, “a vivid, human tale of one of the most sterling characters and attractive personalities in the ranks of the Labour Party." The veteran “Dockers’ MP.” has known the extremes of hardship and discouragement. He served at sea in the days of bucko mates and “workup” ships, and as a casual labourer at the Liverpool Docks in the days before the Dock Strike of 1889. The gruesome conditions under which he and his fellows worked made him an “agitator.” The part he has played in improving the social mnditions. of his country has been a noticeable one. He tells his tale frankly and with good humour. Ile provides lively anecdotes of such men as T. P. O’Con—nor, Jim Larkin, Bob Smillie, and Keir Hardie. His narrative is always vivid and never over-strained. Story of King George. One of his stories concerns the late King, whom he met in Lord Derby’s box at the Grand National. “His Majesty asked me what horse I had hacked, and when I said Shawn Spadah, the previous year‘s Winner, he inquired, “Who gave you that tip 1’” I told him I had got it from the Prince of Wales. The King laughed and said,

"THE FIGHTING BREED." ’ A Story of The West. ! LIFE IN THE OPEN SPACES. ‘ ‘ “The Fighting Breed” is a story by Daniel Ward, of the adventures in the wild West of Joe Matthews. Joe was a mystery man recently hired by the owner of the Bar M ranch, Rigby, one of the bad men of that particular part of the West. Joe was dismissed by the men as a fool and became the butt of the ranch jokes. In fact he shares with the famous Thomas Acquinas the title of “The Dumb Ox," but a succession of events following his meeting with Stella McCarthy give Joe an opportunity of proving that the title was a misnomer as it was in the case of the Angelic Doc—tor. No matter how quick a bad gunman was on the draw Joe was there first and no fist fighter was qiuck enough for him. Grim gunmanship and pugilistic prowess form the greater part of the story. In the end of course, most of the bad men are shot, the bad sheriff is dismissed and Joe gets married. There is nothing bad in the book to condemn it, though on the other hand it has little to recommend it. The story is readable, though it is the familiar one of the quasi-omni-potent Western hero protecting the defenceless girl ranch-owner from her ruthless enemies. It has the merit of possessing a quality not always found 1 in better stories—freedom from mand;lin sentiment and far-fetched romani tic episodes. —--W.J. ‘ “The Fighting Breed,” by Daniel “Ward, published by Wm. Collins and Co. Ltd., London and Glasgow. i PROCESSION OF RASCALS. , i ’ Narratives of Error. “BOTH SIDES OF THE DOCK." “Both Sides of the Dock." By Charles Kingston. If it is human to err, it is still more ]so to enjoy narratives of error, and the most skilful writer cannot hope to make the careers of philanthropists beguile our idle hours so pleasantly as the exploits of swindlers. In “Both Sides of the Dock” Charles Kingston parades before us achoice procession of rascals, and moral distaste remains regrettably in abeyance while we hang upon the vicissitj‘des of their l pursuit of fortune. And it can hardly be said that conscience is even tardily I awakened when they arrive (as do the majority) at a bad end. Even the more familiar of these stories stand repetition in the brisk irony with which the author sets them forth. Crime almost invariably entails hazard, but one of Mr Kingston’s practitioners struck a “line” that looked, and for a long time, virtually safe. Posing as a bookseller, he would sen-d to the address of an eminent clergyman recently deceased a bill for items of pornographic literature, and the horrified executors would pay it in order to avoid the scandal which resistance would create. He was brought to justice only when he selected for an alleged customer an individual who had been blind for the last twenty years of his life. “Why, he’s the worst tipster I know. Take my tip and back Master Robert. I don’t bet myself, but the oWner is staying at Knowsley, and the whole party is backing it.” It is pleasant to record that both Sir James and the present King took this sound advice, to the benefit of their pockets.