10
THE HONGKONG
TELEGRAPH.
TUESDAY, JULY 27, 1987,
BOOKS Edited by Roger Pippett
Victorious
Gentility
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN IN VICTORIAN FICTION
T
By E. M. Delafield
(The Hogarth Press, 103, Gd,)
HERE was no nonsense-" Come, sir, let us have no nonsensei I expect you to obey me "about the genteel society which Mign Delalleid's minor Victorian authors reflect minutely and so exactly. The normal child or wife would have thought of defying God as soon as father or husband-almost sooner.
"TEMPTATION,"
If there were muliny, the authors saw to it that the
calamitons, consequences were and the development of a sense of guilt in the mutineer, usually ex- plated only by a long, gering death, was inevitable. This was the fate of Eric, the hero-may we Buy?-of Dean Farrat's really ter- rible book of school life, Eric, or Little by Little.
It is true that the Dean was not reflecting actual people so much as their fashionable allitude, but there was no one at the time to condemn his norbid morallsing and his massacre of innocente- how the Bon tored a good death! ----to point his inerals.
Henry Fairchild, the bad fad of The History of the Fairchild Family, was nut killed off by Mrs. Sherwood for disobeying bla papa, but I always think he had a succes- sion of very narrow squeaks. He was about seven when he rebelled at learning Latin from Mr. Fair- chilld. He was locked up. given bread and water and well flogged. Still he audked.
Henry." said his father," listen to me, When wicked men obalin- ately defy and oppose the power of God, He gives them up to their own bad henris.... I stand in the place of God to you whilst you are a child..."
The Light
Eventually, after further agonies. this little evil saw Day Helt mad usked pardon of his papa on his knees, Mr. F. was graciously pleased to forgive Him and, I imagine, sent a confidential memorandum to God announcing his decision.
Ea muels for the chapter "Pape and Stamu," which is followed by others on governesses, declarations of feeling for popping the question), ill-health (with its mysterious declines and clothes, parties HIRI
brain-fevers). "the fair sex."
When Guy, In Charlotte M, Yonge's The Heir of Redclyffe, proposed to Any, he did it very nicely," though with the tremulousness of subdued ngitation" and Amy, sweet thing, **flew off, like a little bird to its nest. and never stopped till, breathless and crimson, she threw herself on her knees and, with her face hidden in her mother's lap, exclaimed in panling.
smothered half
whispers...'0 niamma, manima, he says he says he loves mel
•
It was, in these novels, as rare for
la
A young gentleman to embrace betrothed and show any signs of pas- Klon As for a wife to question the wiiom of her husband. It is a shock
ps
to learn of the tank kissing between Daisy and Mr. Thorald (Daisy, by Elizabeth Wetherell when "s took their own answer" at hers: but then Daisy was an Americnn.
Reassuring
Miss Delafield contrusts the past with the present in an excellent intro- duction, and in her later quotations there is a faint rumbling of ancestral voices prophesying war, particularly over the question of Women's Rights. Miss Yonge, who wrote from 1844 to 1931, is actually responsible for a salicy gibe at "modern women when she makes Captain Duncombe describe them as members of "the Middlesex. Clubi
And Miss Delafield shows that wit of. hers when she doubts that it really constitutes progress to have the tra ditional children's hour" extended handsomely into the twenty-four, will "the dangerous impact of the adult personality on the fragile ego of the. developing child."
Such a doubt is, of course, positively Victorian.
F. G. II, 8.
an
affecting scene from Ladies and Gentlemen in
Victorian Fiction."
SUGAR IN THE AIR By E. C. Large (Cape, 7s. Gd.!
en-
YOUNG unemployed gineer named Pry is offered
mysterious
post by
mysterious company.
They have sunk a mint of money in a process to obtain sugar from the nir -and hus Jub in to see whether there is ony ise nt,nli in what the inven= for up to aŭd. If so, whether the sugur can be produced at commercial rates.
The inventor is mad, and his process is as useless as it is fabulously expen- sive But the company has a lot of gear lying Ille, some more money to spend and a faint hope of retrieving its losses.
With the discovery of a way of ex- tracting minute quantities of synthetic sugar and the ignominious dismissal of Inventor Number One and Manng- Ing Director Number Five, the fun really begiua.
There are two richly nusurd sides to this story, and of these the actual business of sugar-making is the lesser nonsense. Far more fantastic and yet ni tou possible-are the antics of the company, which, still upholding the banner of the shareholders' ideal, Anally staggers to ruin, even though Pry has succeeded in producing a marketable commodity.
The complicated and pompous
Idiveles of the commercial system, with
TALE-TWISTER
THE LATE GEORGE APLEY By John P. Marquand fRobert Hula, 73. Gd.)
mills lo ng pretty a plece of Action as has been published
T
this season--and yet you can read two-thirds of it and sill not be sure that it isn't what it pre- tends to be, the sober memoir of a Highly Respected American Citizen,
The humour is delightful, but re- struined. We are so used to the re tailing of pointless anecdotes about the early days of the great or the near- great that it is only after a tine that you realise that the incidenta solemnly recalled here are slightly more fatuous than usual.
A little Inter still you and them fall- ing neatly into pattem. And the joke is on you.
You have the pleasure of seeing emerge from this collection of letters and papera a devastating picture of Boston, the home of the bean and the cod-the wealthy, respectable side of Boston, that is, from the eighteen fifties down to the present day,
George Apley tukes the centre of
the stage. On one side are his parents and, on the other, his children. And, hovering in the background with the vacuous benevolence of an angel, is the Inimitable Mr. willing, his faithful biographer....
This novel is something new in the gentle art of debunking. Instead of chicap and easy oneers, there is a per- sistent attempt to present everything in the most favourable Right
Amusing as the book is, the general effect is saddening, for we watch George, the inheritor of a puritan tradition, trying vainly in his youth to break loose to a life less fenced round by the responsibilities of his wealth be beaten and social position, only
by his environment into accepting the old order so thoroughly that his one desire is to fix the some shackles on his son.
A nice old bird, George, defeated by Let time and his own good nature. bun sink quietly to his comfortable Iest, while you wonder whether John Apley will manage to do any better or whether he, too, will abandon his dreams, assume the same burdens and achieve the
ទេ mediocrity and релсе.
R. P.
THE TOTALITARIAN GUIDE
its queer mixture of honesty, inor. DURING a prolonged trip I have this place is a Oncentration Camp.
ance, gullibility and caution, has rarely. been more genially exposed. Poor Pry and his fellow technicians found the easier to deal with elements much
'than those kindly old gentlemen on the board of directors who made huy of everybody's efforts with the best intentions in the world.
Make a note of Sugar in the Air. An original, entertaining and provoking tate,
R. P.
BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON
M
By Dorothy L. Sayers (Gollancz, s. 6d.)
163 BAYERS has landed herself in an odd predica- ment. She, the creator of so much unnatural death, has brought Lord Peter Wimsey dts- turbingly to life. And it looks as though it may be the death of him. Consider these points. A corpse in the collar is made the occasion merely for a detective interruption to a love story. That may not matter so much. A honeymoon cannot last for ever.
But Peter and Harriet-of course it is Ilarriet Vane whom he has married- havo to discuss, in terms of personal integrity, whether or not he shall lif a Anger about it. However important his emotional state may be to him, his duty to the public lles in detection.
And, to cloud his mind so that he has to try to secure the acquittal of the confessed and impenitent invr- derer he has exposed is surely to ndu mystery and horror of quite the wrong sort. If, in detective flation, criminals are not thero merely to be hounded down, then the whole pretty cross-word tumbies to pieces.
For the reat, let it be clear that here are amusing writing, a well-conceived crime and a Peter and Harriet who will further endear themselves to the heart if not to the head,
RAPID REVIEWS
A
EVER THE WINDS BLOW, by Elliott
Merrick (Duckworth, de, ed.). long novel about a young Amerlean who has the usual school and college run and then revolts against the city. The last ninety pages are far and away the best.
THE SLEEVE' OF NIGHT, by Peter Trail (Grayton and Grayson, 7. 6d.). Who murdered Norma, the glamorous alster of the still more Was sho, in fact, giantorous Fay? murdered at all? And, if so, why? A good psychological thriller.
THE CHELTENHAM SQUARE MUR-
DER, by John Buda
(Skepington, 7a6d.). Death stalks in a quiet West of England apa. He struck an un- pleasant victim-and gave the police a run for their man. But they got A teasingly in- 'him in the end.
genious tal.
F. E. 11.
IN THE EYES OF THE LAW, by G, Evelyn lles and Dorothy R. Dix (Arnold. Ja. 64.). Legal procedure mado casy. As Lord Macmillan says in a foreword, "The expert is always far too afraid of talking in popular language about his speciality." Here Are two experts who aren't..
just made on the Continent 1] Most Continentals have never seen was able to study the methods of golf played, and this yarn will my Continental colleagues in the merely impress them with the guiding profession. Especially in power of the State. Italy, Germany, und Russia was I impressed by a technique that differed radically from that which, with my brother-guides in Edin burgh. I have practised for many
years.
TEACHER
LOOKS
BACK
I LOOK back
with' amusement なな certai Incidents of my school dayn In those excltlog years of Kitchener at Khartoum and Roberts In South Africa.
We had a teacher wits dearly loved Jest at the expense of any of the bays. One boy in that class aufered from the effects of a very irregular attendance. ife WAR
absent every Monday, and sometimes Tuesday (LA well, ultimately Anding himself so far behind the main part of the class that his long week-end must have come ax genuine relief to him. There was f Isere family, and Monday was washing day, James was an the carpet every week to expinin his absence.
"Why absent yesterday,, James?" asked the teacher.
"I was enwing the mangle, sir." salı Jamra.
"Cowing the mangle? Not cawing. surely added the teacher.
the
mangle,
sir." James
"Cin explained.
"Calling the mangle? How is that?" "This way, str.
sald James, and he went through the netlog of turning the big wheel of the angle.
"But you were not calling the mangle all day the master suggested.
"No, sir," said James, "but the li woman next door has hens, and they come into our garden.“
"What about that "" WAN the Rext quenon.
"Well, sir. I have to chase them out," explained Jntes,
"But do the itens come nerosa only on Mondays" asked the teacher.
"Nu, air but my mother chases them out herself when she's not washing." was the thual explanation.
Portic Injustice.
For a short time we had a martinet
of a muster. I reerived two of the beat every Monday morning for failing te quole correctly the next group of lines from Guldsmith's "eserted Village." You can imagine how I loved Goldsmith at the age of nievent
we
Fron 11 newspaper paragraph discovered that this tencher's Christian nane was Peter. We knew him after- One the Whaler." wards as "Peter evening towards Christmas one of my classmates was discreet enough to shout this tie after him, and dive round the corner into darkness. Next day at the spelling lesson we were asked to spell "huge" It would be dimeult to imagine how tonny different efforts were made-hugh, heugh, heuge, hunge hoogh, youge. But Peter had only one way of treating those who had not prepared for the spelling lossen.
Why I followed the profession of Peter I do not know, for In those days. the reward was a small one. Improve- ments Chine: hut bays still write explanatory notes for each other whey the excuse for absence is not very
Food,
the following One day 1 received. genuine note from an absentee on her return:"Please excuse Nary for being absent, she had watry pinkes un her neck. The explanation w'na simple, but there' was more than that on her neck,
As for truants, their methods and Accomplishments night at a volume. Two brothers became an intolerable nuisance. Their way to school lay by An old mill whose wheel had not turned for three yenra. On One mornings these hoys could hardly pass the place. They bid their books, waded in the the mill, and strom, climbed into played the aerobot inside the water. wheel like a pair of forest monkeys,
A peep at juvenile footba}} match,
visit Ik
to General Assembly when there is booing go- In the Mill Wheel ing on, will reveal to tourista some- We "do" historical Edinburgh thing of the fighting qualities of thoroughly, point out interesting our nation. features of the city, and tell Keep on mentioning Mr. Cham Bourists to keep hold of their hats berlain. Give him the credit for on the North Bridge. But we never every good thing, from the clean- mention the statesmanship of the tresa of Edinburgh's streets to the Prime Minister; we keep silent excellence of the view obtained about the height of the average from the Castle Rock. Every time Highlander since the advent of the you utter his name, salute, crying, milk bar; and, unwilling to stress "Hip! Hip!" Salute in the normal the obvious, we never tell tourists or Boys' Brigade manner, and not that this is God's Own Country, as if your jacket were causing you In short, we stick to guiding and acute discomfort under the armpit. undertake no propaganda,
All this will impress tourists with the might of the Prime Minister. this As an ultimate effect of propaganda carried on by guides, malicious violence wrecked the stulce. Continental nations will learn to.
country with a respect in uk steadfast purpose. The guide will. thus prepare the way for inter-. national understanding. If he is
My recent experiences on the Continent make me think that we I suppose there is are wrong. much to be anid for our methods. For one thing, the only lies we tell are
historical legends. But We are apt to forget that if we have
B
pro-
a duty to the tourist, we have a good at his Job and willing to study duty to the State, or, more im-
Italian medintely, to the Burgh. A little the work of experienced propaganda would not be entirely pagandists for instance,
reports of the Coronation-he may
►
out of place in our conducted tours, legitimately aspire to the post of Minister of Propaganda, which will be created sooner or later by Mr. Chamberlain. (Hip! Ip!)
T. G. 8. C.
Here are a few suggestions for which I am not going to claim the Copyright:→→→
Never warn tourists about the One o'Clock Gun. When they see us remain calm while they jump nervously, or, run for cover, they will admire the fortitude of our
race,
Salute all members of the police force, Including plain clothes men. This will give an excellent im- pression of our respect for dis- cipline,
Inform tourists that Weat Princes Street Gardens were util NO PASARAN! by Upton Sinclair a few weeks ago a marsh known (Werner ́ Zaurie, 71. 6d.). · How a as the Nor Loch. This informa- young Now Yorker caing to join the
tion will show how good we are as International Brigade and take
a nation at land reclamation. If part in the stand that stopped Franco at the gates of Madrid. Not in Mr. Binclair's best style.
this story goes down well, say the same thing about the Meadows,
used for growing crops. so that Edinburgh may be self-sufficient in time of war.
BE ROUGH WITII LOVE, by Laurandding that they are shortly to be
Whetter (Ward, Lock, 75. 6d.), you are a brilliant young band- leader and the girl you have set your heart on won't look at you- what happens next? Rend witty, distinguished romance
*359
COUNT THE
"TELEGRAPHS”-
EVERYWHERE
this
And
Places like Fetles College and Daniel Stewart's should be pointed out as Workers' Colonies so as to give a good idea of our social ser- vices.
If you can manago it, take your tourists out to the Brald Hills golf. course at a rush hour and hint that'
STOP
Muscular
PAINS
use reliable Absorbine Jr.
Soothing, quick acting-- the essential oils in famous Absorbing Jr. penetrale. Drings quick relief to care stiff muscles. For forty years Absorbine Jr. has been a favorite among cotches and athletes for keeping muscles active and Grm. Sife - Absorbine Jr. 300ths and heals — a de- pendable antiseptic.
Keep a bottle handy.
ABSORBINE JR.
For years has reffeved muscular and theur matic pains, cuta, sprains, sbessions.
|| Bales Agentą; Hüller, Marivan & Co., Inc.
How often they had tried to open the sluice, which by being claxed diverted the water into the
stream.
were nonked to the How often ther haunches
wind until the sun and rendered them comparatively dry.
One day the younger boy was climbing and swinging as usual inalde the wator wheel, when his elder brother by sheer which was suffering at any rate from long neglect, The water raced down over the wheel, which began to grind on its rusty axle, and then to revolve As of old. The young acrobat, taken by surprise, lost his grip inside the turning wheel, and ultimately he half- crawled, half-fell out from the side of It, though how he inlased being cut in two on the framework 1 cannot may,
The boy was thoroughly wonked and fearfully bruised. His brother assisted for. were him home. Their booki
ten among the whens and briar zores: but they never played truant again. Influenza So-called
And the compulsory officer long since departed this fe. I had occasionally suspreted that he was not doing the work quite honestly,
PRESIDENT LINER TRAVEL SERVICE
is Yours to Command
President Liners' frequent sailings and their unique slopover privileswe allow you to travel just exactly as you choose. And Dollar Steamaliy Lines and American Mall Line worldwide offices and agents are maintained to serve you shore in wislerer place you chance to be. Make your next trip mots enjoyable, travelling "The President Line way." -
TO SAN FRANCISCO NEW YORK AND BOSTON
TO SEATTLE, VICTORIA "TIR EXTRESS ROUTE"
Vla Shanghal. Kobo and Yoko- kama,
Via Stanghal, Kobe, Yokohama, Honolulu, San Francisco, Panama Canal and Havana.
Midnight Aug. 10 Pres. Jackson Noon
Aug. 21 Pres. Jefferson Midnight Sept. 7 Pres. McKinley Noon Sept.
Pres, Tatt Pres. Hoover Pres. Lincoln Pres. Coolidge Pres. Wilson Pres. Hoover
8.00 nm. Oct. Noon
Oct.
EUROPE, NEW YORK AND BOSTON
Via Manila. Singapore, Penang, Colombo, Bombay, Suez Canal, Naples, Genoa and Marsellies.
8.00 a.m. Aug. Pres. Harrison Pres. Polk
Pres. Pierce Pres. Van Buren Pres. Garfield Pres. Hayes
10 Pres. Gront
@Pres. Jackson
18 Pres. Jefferson.
Midnight July 30 13 Midnight Aug.
24 Midnight Aug.
Midnight Sept. 10
Midnight Sept, 24 Midnight Oct.
MANILA
THE MOST FREQUENT
SERVICE
Next Sallings.
Pres, Harrison
8.00 a.m. Aug. 15 Pres. Taft 0.00 nm. Aug. 20 Pres. Jefferson 8.00 a.m. Sept. 12 Pres. Hoover 8.00 a.m. Sept. 20) Pres Folk 8.00 .m. Oct. 10 Pres. McKinley
8.00 a.m. Aug. Midnight Aug. 6.00 p.m. Aug. 9.00 p.m. Aug. 8.00 am. Aug.
6.00 p.m. Aug.
MOST FREQUENT SERVICE ON TUR PACIFIC
DOLLAR STEAMSHIP AMERICAN
THE
PEDDER BUILDING-HONG KONG. CANTON BRANCH-11, FRENCH CONCESSION.
LINES LINE
SWEDISH EAST ASIATIC
ם
רגן
21
SERVICE OF FAST MOTOR VESSELS (with limited, but exceptionally good, passenger accommodation). TO PORT SUDAN, PORT SAID, ALGIERS, ORAN, ANTWERP, ROTTERDAM, (AMSTERDAM), HAMBURG, OSLO, GOTHENBURG and other SCANDINAVIAN PORTS. HOME WARDS
M.S. "NAGARA" ALS, SHANTUNG“
OUTWARDS.
Sailing about 29th Aug.
.29th Sept.
To SHANGHAI, YOKOHAMA, KOBE and OSAKA. M.S. "SHANTUNG" Passenger Rates:
Hong Kong to Algiers.... Hong Kong to Antwerp or London
Agents:
GILMAN & CO., LTD.
Hongkong-
18th Aug.
£49
£63
G. E. HUYGEN
Croton.
OUR
BRITISH CROSSWORDS
10
14
56
ACROSS
137
salisfac
1 Motion of the the sea that sug-
gests a boat landing torily on the shore.
> Formerly
10 Late in to inn (a silly anagram,
One evening I found one of my boys but it is done on purpose), lying at the rondside with his ankle 11 European broken. One of his classmate was
14 Supervisors, to make a party for
bridge it sounds.
up.
with him, and their eyelea lay there too. I helped to carry the boy home, hut somehow his name appeared in the 1st 10 Musical direction. of abachtee handed to the compulsory 19
Build officer so that he could make inquiry 20 Freed, regarding absence. This gentleman was 21 A colloquial succesS. dueredited for all time when he re-
22 Summon turned at the end of the day with his 23 The right lines for railways to lint, which bore opposite the boy's 23 Trame the word "influenta,"
be run on.
24 Past The remaining statements have been i 20 Fish. thro recently la examination in 20 One of the great rivers of the belonging to secondary pupils over 14
world. years of age.
27 Femline name.
18 The girl who shows a tendency
towards the left in politics. This in the nadvertisement of a travel agency does not sarily suggest Chaldaea.
It is said that Klug James I had a tongue too big for his mouth, but this is perhaps wrong, because when he w32 at the Hampden Court Conference is said that he spoke all the time.
The morality playa were plays dealing with the Seven Deadly Sins and other virtues.
Jandies in a disense which affects the jaw.
A certain class of monks who went about the country pardoning the wine of the populace were called papal bulle, Burna's father was very poor, and Borello fell back with bir rent. Barnn used to go into the town on Saturday night, where he met many of his friends at the inn.. He wrote in good poent about this, entitled The Cottar's Saturday Nicht."
Alexander M. Brown
Acces-
35 "Locate grime" (anog.). 30 A formal expression of will. 37 Apparently suggests deduction
bul is really senseless,
DOWN
2 This work of Wagner's was four. 3 Not new.
This is just the same as the Inst. 3 Some need to follow this to
make them healthy,
This comes into a simple aver- #1*0.
1 One cannot be robbed of what is
this.
B The sort of farwell that is popu-
lar in the Services.
12 The choice (that might appeal
a missionary?)
13 Disagreement.
14 Part of the body to get ready
for fighting.
15 Bird Ihut shows the votes cast
for the Socialist.
10 Sporting fish of Asia.
17 Stung to rashness?
29 Men would not expect i ofind
her among their enemies.
30 A spirit.
31 Consumed.
33 Desire that is left by the late. 134 Trees for the conqueror?
Yesterday's Bolution
PIPIT MEDITATE DI
A PROPOB SHIPMEN I LE1-T_PB G NOOK BCRAP BONY TUFA |G|E|L|| tSHOULDERBLADE {F RECIPHONE C FORGATHERINGS C BIMY MASONY LE CUFF NIPPY CATN OLEJREKN
TINEA SROUNDER ANA TURES LEGENDARY DONIC
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