10
Hints For Winter Reading
Now that summer-time has gene
and the dark nights suggest pleasant books, our thoughts turn to the library shelves, and we ask the question, "What shall my reading be this winter?"
Of course, we wish to tackle seme ΟΣ the outstanding new books, novels which take the reviewers and read- ing public by storm, blographiles uf the great, which Introduce us to men of mark we have little chance of meeting in any other way, or re- cords of travel und adventure which are far more thrilling (besides being true) than the very intest delective Action.
'But along with those, let us not forget those "classics" (prohibitive name) which have stood the test of years and emerged triumphant, And as we enjoy during the summer months our annual holiday, why should we not during winter love those "fireside travels" which, on the magic carpet of imagination, trans- port us across the world, and with- out the expense of rallway, steam- boat, or aeroplane, open up to us all the countries of the world?
Here, then, are a few hints for winter reading which will launch us on a voyage of exploration comporn. ble to lint of the fearless nuvigators of Elizabethan
daya.
Lure of the Near East
As a beginning, here is a book of Eastern travel published as long ngo as 1844, which still keeps its place as one of the finest books of its lond writ- ever written. It is "Eathen,"
ten by Kinglake, the historien of the Crimean War, aml it is ns readable to-day as it was when published nearly century since. The chap- ier headings are, most appetising!— Turkish Travelling, Constantinople, Infidel Smyrna, Greek Muriners. Cyprus, Lady Hester Stanhope, Gallec, Damascus, and so on, and the whole book is written fra mas terly style,
Here we have the point of view of 1844, long before we were born; but what of the twentieth century and the present day? To discover that we must follow up the trait.
Chap ter seven in headed "Cyprus," and in W. II. Mallock's "In an Enchanted Island" we have one of the most de- lightful travel-books of nur time. "New Republic" has recently been reprinted, but this little book on Cyprus, which may be had in Nel- son's shilling series, will fascinate every router by its ne, descriptive passages and charm of style.
This ancient island, with its memories of Richard and the Crusaders, Turks, Genoese, Venetians;
its fantastle ruined castles and benutiful derelict churches. runged mountain-penkes
and crystal clear alr, transports us to a new world, while the various characters met are set before us with clarity and humour.
Then one might follow
this up. time permitting, with Lawrence's "Revolt in the Desert Doughty's "Arabla Deserta,"
Gertrude Bell's "Syria: the Desert and the Sown As a climax to give us the most up to date views of less eminent writers we might read It. V. Mor 1on's "In the Steps of the Master" and "St. Paul, and "Johri "Gibbon's "Road to Nazereth," while we might eat! travel by the man in the street. Farthest South
But enough of the East. What of the South, even the Antarctic? Here again we are fortunate, for Captaini Scott's "Voyage of the Discovery" is published in the same Nelson series in two volumes; and even more won- derful,
We may now have for
shifting in two volumes in the Pen- guin Series that maguificent story,
THE HONGKONG, TELEGRAPII. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1937.
A woman who will find freedom through the new Divorce Act asks:
Insanity, cruelty, or desertion may have torecked her marriage, vet chained her. Now she can be set free. The Divorce Courts re-open to-day.
HAVE Just been to see Aune. For the first time since I have known her (and I have known Anne for six years now) I found her really cheerful.
She certainly has not had much to cheer her ! now. Bobby, her husband, has never been normal since a motor smash in which he was involved in 1928. In fact, ever since then he has been and still is, in an asylum.
When Anne goes to see him ho does not know her. It must bo Krim to be tied to a husband who does not know you, to lead her strangely empty life without a real home.
Yet there are 32,000 husbands and wives who are placed as Anne 151.
And now the new Divorce Act is going to set her free. At last she will be able to get a divorce from 11. She will be free to marry
again, to have sane, healthy chil- dren and a real home.
Is it very wicked of me to feel happy?" she asked.
There is one other blot on that happiness, besides her concern for Bobby,
Anne is a sincere member of the Church of England. She has been to her parish church over since she sal on the benches at the three o'clock Sunday children's service.
She was baptised there, con-
·To-day's Thought EVERYONE has a right-to-
happiness and tee must not tolerate ang lain tohich tries to prevent that right being attained,
MY
-D'ARBLAY.
firmed there, hopes to be burled there. Only under the new Act she will not be able to get married there.
That is a new provision, and Anne thinks it a very hard one.
And I could not help thinking about Marjorie,
Her husband is not in an asylum, like Anne's. Poor thing. I daresay she sometimes wishes he were.
ARJORIE'S husband la
Ma confirmed and hope-
less drunkard, and there is no divorce for the wives or the hus- bands of drunkards under the new new Matrimonial Causes Act.
sun, that is an ungracious way to look at it. Up and down the country there are tens of thou- sands of men and-women like Anne who look to the New Year and the Divorce Act with an eagerness comparable only to that with which some of us, twenty years ago, were looking forward to the coming of Peace.
Men, ignored and neglected by wives, and women, beaten and abandoned by husbands, can look forward to the future.
Men and women whose wives or husbands love left them, but who were condemned to be the con- sorts of those they never wished to see again. will be given a new. chance to obtain happiness,
There are 150,000 people in
WORK
mistake and must now bear the consequences. I was five years old
"The Worst Journey in the World" PARLY in my life 1 made a smali
(Scott's last expedition to the South Pole), by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. This is an epic story worthy to take when I started earning my living, Its place beside the tales of the land since then I have had no re- world's greatest explorations, and spite from work. Yet life' should be about men everyone of whom was a joyful, and the object of work is hero.
make it so. Everything becomes habit.
to
IN
Is it WICKED
of me. to feel
HAPPY??
England and Wales who, judicially separated for cruelty or desertion on one alde or the other, are not free to be married again because they have not been divorced.
They have twenty thousand children, born of a second union, who are not lawful.
Now many of them, by showing their separation deed, will be able" to have it automatically converted into a decree absolute of divorce-
ment.
They will be free to marry. And many thousands of children will hold their heads more proudly.
But not all those 150,000 separa- tions can be made into divorces. Not all those 20,000 children will bo able to see their parents married.
A barrister friend has just been to see me. I suppose he handles more divorce cases than any man of his age in the Temple.
Only, as they are nearly all poor persons' cases, he never gets paid a penny for it.
1 There are lawyers like that, though. the public scarcely seems aware of R. Ho is worried, and when he gets' worried about a divorce problem you can be sure there is something in it to worry about not legal point, but
a human one.
"My client got his separa- tion in 1920," he explained. "
law, there was never any question
of three years' desertion, so they can't get a divorce now.
"It seems an odd way to treat people, and rather an invidious one.
"They can't have meant that." I Insisted.
"Good heavens! If we had to work out what the law meant to Ray we should all go off our heads. I'm concerned with what it does Bay, I shall have to tell film he has no case."
"But if he'd waited another twelve months in 1928-ll 1929 that la--he would be able to get n divorce now and free to marry again.
Exactly."
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STEAMER Y7HILE that barrister was With me I asked him
about the provision in the Act that has been so much discussed, pre-. venting any divorce from taking place within the first three years of marriage.
He did not seem to think it was very serious.
"Not more than four per cent, of divorces take place within the Arst three yeara marriage,
By George Edinger
wife ran away. and she wanted to earn her own living. be independent and all that.
She had been gone two years. When he got the separation order, two years was all that was neces- Bary under the old law, Now, of course, he wants that separation made into a divorce.
☆
66▼▼TELL, I don't see how it can be done. You see, this Act says that where there has been a judicial separation after desertion for three years and over, it can be made into a divorce.
"That's all very well, but where people got their separation after only two years, as they were per- fectly entitled to do under the old
THE
FILMS
tiful, picturesque citles. What
11
Anyhow." said. "The few that occur mostly take
place where the has marriage been forced on the two people by circumstance.”
"In that case,” I insisted, "they will be even more miserable during those first three years,"
"They would have been un- happy anyhow," he said.
No, the severest part of the Act seems to me its provisions for annulling marriage.
People who married epileptics or sufferers from contagious disease without knowing it can have the marriage annulled under the new law,
So can those whose partners re- fuse to consummate the marriage. But they have got to file their petition for nullity within a year of the marriage. If they discover the infirmity inter they have no redress. stmi. not very many people are likely to be affected by that provision.
On the other hand, the case of a labourer's wife whom I know in a small Essex town is typical of certainly be a happier one
By Mary Pickford pity: They do not know what they many thousands whose lot will
IN, AN INTERVIEW
ure losing, and what they are getting
the Act comes into force.
when
in return.
Her husband is unfaithful to a pity for the fine old net What
nother, but she does not want to go in their houses. What would
She Americans give, for those beautiful through the divorce court. old buildings which are pulled, down has three children and she does my time. Certainly, it has in Europe to make room for tasteless | not want to marry again. wasted cost many sacr|Bees--may sacridees modern constructions. They will re-i Since I was eight I have always of happiness.
gret it when it is too lite. had material interests in the films
The reason why I dwell so much on this is because for the overworked
At home in America I often feel mind and body the street is the place
accumlator which hos to of artistic recuperation.
Then
But though we lave travel we must spend some evenings at home; and what better companion could we as Scots have than Alexander Smilli's
I played in. First I was in partner- European Tonle "Dreamthorp," a volume of
essays ship with Adolph Zukor, then I be which must charm all, booklovers
director and also managing came Linlithgow, director of United Artists and other like on and us Dreamthorp is one which should specially appeal to lim companies When I sit in my supply current everywhere.
readers. Along with Hollywood
telephoning to take the first boat to Europe; it is Dible and Shakespeare Alexander Smith we might sample Paris, London, New York, Berlin, like a reservoir of renewed strength, Here one has time to see other Max Beerbohm in such books as &c., I am in my element.
Europeans do not realise this, and things besides one's work. Since "Yet Again" or "And Even Now," Lite has taught me many things, cannot appreciate what it means, giving up Alins, I read Ali stories and here we shall find style, humour, and it has not always been an easy Because of this they try to build and books about films which ore and satire, work in its own, medium or a pleasant school. Still I have American skyscrapers in their beau- being made. On my bed-table ile us clever ng his inimitable carica-
Edinburgh
tures.
As a restful change, again if time permit, we might add a novel by Anthony Trollope or Mrs. Gaskell. Those old Victorians are as good as a rest-cure' in our anxious bustling times, and both authors know how to tell a story, an art which present- day novelists too often seem to have lost.
of
If Mathew Arnold's saying is truc, that "poetry is a criliciam of life," we must not neglect this branch study, and in any case' good poetry is always refreshing to one's mind and may often inspire us to grenter zest of living.
"
of
To get away from the beaten track we might study A. H. Clough, whose narrative poem, "The Bothle Tober-na-Vuolích," tells a good story and pictures the Highlands for us; or T. E. Brown, the Manx poet, whose vernacular pieces are full lu- mour and racy of the soil.
Along with those a Shakespeare comedy, "As You Like 11o
or Twelfth Night," will revent to us new beau- ties of character, diction, ond setting, which will be like another summer holiday, and we shall find our win- tor is certainty not one of discontent. The programme may be modified to sultime and Inclination, but here are treasures priceless and free.
Geo. W. Cooper
THE
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two volumes Shakespeare and the Bible. These alone form my per- sonal reading-matter; everything else When one I read is for thy business. has invested half or a million dollars
All that she wants is to be left alone to bring up those children away from the bad influence of an unfaithful father who is always quarrelling with their mother.
her go.
CHE has no remedy now. Her husband will not let And because she cannot
show that he has ever even threat- ened hor with anything that could be called eruelty she must just go on lying with him. But only till the beginning of next year.
Under the new Act she can go
in a film, one has to know something to the magistrates, who will not her about these inatters.
It is hard to say whether I am more of a film-artist or a business-woman. When I am reading the proofs of my Ilims through, I do not think of my impressions, I think of the public; otherwise I would often have a dual
personality, I have been through a hard school in the criticism of public laste.
"To-day I follow a very simple but a very effective system. I very sel- dom make use of new film matter or books, but I buy up novels, storles, and theatre plays, which, before be= ing adapted for the screen, have had an outstanding success, either liter- ary or on the stage, This success must not merely have been local;
It must not have appealed to one particular country only. It must be a success which has swept Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Budapest, and Chica- 超口,
Films are expensive goods, and
free from the necessity of Uving any longer with an unfaithful husband. There
of women.likust be thousands
and be-
her.
of these It is because of edure of those others, soon to be freed from lunatic wives and hus- bands, from those who maltreat them and those who have deserted them. because, too, of those thousands of children whose parents will now be
Ico to marry, free that the Act is being welcomed all over England and Wales.
And even if Marjorie will still be bound to her drunkard and Anno can no longer be married in her parish church and some 200 couples every year will have to wall three years for their divorce, the year 1038 is probably being more joyfully anticipated by many
people than any other that wo
only show a profit when they are of can remember International value, like the gold
which produced them.
Iditions of success nre totally distinct.
The poallon of a cinema proprie- A good film? It must appeal to tor Ja quite different from that of a an Internationat public and is a plece producer. Ille equipment and con-of international business,
7
LONDON (via Australia) from £127.10. (Australian Newspapers on filo).
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130
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12200
·
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ACROSS
of
1 Another cholce bit for the missionary.
10
20120
11
23
2/26
127
advice
8 One must be as much again.
9 No epithet for the best butter.
12 From here the way is down,
Mony live on lee before this.
13
14 The age of an engineer's as-
sistant.
10 One obviously not in the selcet
clrcie. 17. Hazard.
18 Break
water?
in น
hill caused by
20 One for whom a Biblical hero
certainly had a weakness.
24 Subject for a kitchen grate. 20 Part of the river that mars the
Eight.
28 Trec.
20 What to do after taking the
plunge.
31 This cannot be far away! 32 A virtuous beglaner. 33 Metal,
34 Epithet for what will capture
the attention.
DOWN
2 Not a nice thing to have in a
boat with you.
3 Wrap.
J
4 A growing concern in the house.
A feeler.
The removal of this may dis close interesting, features.
7 The art of taking one's chances, & Given this one might secure a
horsc
110
מצן
10 This throws light on 30 down. 11 Without the fifth letter this fea- ture of Alice's ten party might represent one of the participants (two words).
10 Paddy grows in this 13 across. 10 Can we say that this is of no significance to the photographer? 21 A tributary of the Thames. 22 Very heavy,
23 "Have lec" (anug.).
25 Nol extensive in one direction. 27 A saving grace, but not without
a daw."
30 Early in the day for poets. 31 Thla lends a charcteristle note
to the hunt.
Yesterday's Solution
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ARCHDUKE PENCE, UWAZEE
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