The times., 1899-06-04


ed by the use of fresh instead of salt meat.
the latter being often imperfectly cured.
He does nci believe that lime juice has
much effect on this disease, but thinks that
prevention is in this case, as in most 9TH
ers, very much better than cure. tNew
York: Harper & Brothers. s6.00)
Some Sen Stories.
1t would be unfair to call "Idylls of the
Sea- the latest work of Mr.. Frank Bullen,
a collection OF sailors yarns, for they are
nothing of the kind, at least so far as the
language is concerned. To be sure, they
treat of scenes and incidents which only
but the abundance of polysyllabic rhetoric
in them is something painful. Mr.. Bullen,
it will be remembered, is the author of that
very fascinating book of deep-sea lore,
"The Cruise of the Cachalot." Remember
ing the praise which was justly lavished
on that, and looking at the present work,
the reader can only sigh and murmur in
the phrase of the political ''heeler," An
other good man gone wrong"
The trouble with Mr.. Bullen seems to be
that he has written one successful book
and having, as his friend Kipling said, put
enough material into that to make five
books. he is now moved TO write the FIVE
and use the same material over again.
That is a thing to which the reading pub
lie viii not submit Il objects to having
the wonders of yesterday hashed up for
food today. This is case in which funeral
baked meats are not wanted.
Several of the sketches in this book are
rehashes of those in the former book The
combat between the whale and the cacha-
lot, the story Of a modern Jonah. and four
or five other incidents recounted in the
first book are here retold in almost the
same language. What is still more objec-
tionable, Mr.. Bullen repeats himself even
in this book. He tells a story of a devil
ashland it is a good story-and a few
chapters further on you may find the same
story in slightly different connection. 1t
is all well enough for the Lamas of Tibet
10 cover whole pages with the same thing
repeated over and over, but that sort of
thing is not wanted here. man is not
expected to tell the same story twice in
the same book unless there is some obvious
and large reason for IL. The other glaring
faux in this book is its grandiloquence of
language. 1t may possibly be that the
fourth officer OF the Rainbow" whose
story is quoted in one chapter, was really
Ar. Bullen himself. in which case he might
possibly have told his tale in the words
reported, but in the ordinary company OF
sailors something would have happened to
to him if he did. When a sailor spinning
yarn gives utterance TO a paragraph like
the following, there should be a snarl of
some sort:
Being in high state Of discipline. each man
went straight to his boat, standing ready. at the
word. 10 lower and be of after the gamboiing
leyiaiian ahead.
"Gamboling leviathan!"
There is one tale, however which is real
ly good, and that is the one about the devil
fish. This is a finny creature of the skate
family, whose appearance, as Mr.. Bullen
describes ii. must resemble a Welsh rab-
bit nightmare. He says in one place that
he saw the creature while leaning over the
taifrail, and in another that he discovered
it while ashore, but the briefer story of his
encounter with it is as follows:
When youugster I was homeward bound from
SAINT Ana with cargo of mahogany, and when
of Cape Campeche was one calm afternoon lean.
ing over the taffrail, looking down into the blue
profound, on the watch Tor fish. A gloomy shade
came over the bright water, and up rose fear
some monster some eighteen feet across, and in
general outline more like skate than ANYTHING
else, all except the head. There what appeared
TO be two curling horns about three feet apart
rose one on each side of the most horrible pain
OF eyes imaginable. sharks eyes, as he turns
sideways under your vessels counter, and look.
up 10 see if anyone is coming, are ghastly green,
and cruel; but this things eyes were all tha;
and much more. | felt that the Book Of Reye-
lation was incomplete without him, and his gaze
haunts yet. Although quite sick and giddy
al the sight OF such bogeF, could not move
until the awful thing, soaring up out Of the wa
ter soundlessly 10 a height OF about six feet
falling again with thunderous splash that might
have been heard for 4 mile. At night
when there is wind, the sonorous splash i.
constantly to be heard, although why they make
that bat-like leap out of their proper element il
not easy 10 understand It does not seem posi-
ble to believe such awe-inspiring horrors capa
bic Of playful gamboling.
Another interesting chapter is on the
eruption of submarine volcano. 1t may
be remembered that this phenomenon is
treated in Kiplings sea-serpent story, "A
Matter of Fact" and that he describes
the ship after the event as coated with
grey slime like a craft gone grey with
terror" Mr.. Bullen mentions the same
thing, and says that the sea all around is
coated with grey pumice dust.
Still another chapter of interest to Eng
lishmen is that which treats of the large
percentage of foreign sailors in the mer-
camille service. According to his idea. this
percentage is quite alarming, and in case
of war with Germany might prove dam
gerous as the Germans supply most of the
foreign material.
There is also a well ll-written though
rather nightmarish, story of a fight which
lone mariner had with a lot of gigantic
crabs, somewhat like those of Rider Hag-
CARDS fantastic tale of ALLAN Quater-
main" But taken altogether, Mr. Bull
lens book bears plain marks of being a
potboiler and not much else. (New York:
d. Appleton & Co. $l.25)