New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-04-29
THE SEAMY SIDE
The Misanthropy of a Rolling
Stone.
THE DIARY OF A SOLDIER OF FORT
UNE. BY Stanley Portal Hyatt. II
Illustrated. svo PIP. vii, S5s. The John
Lane Company.


Mr.. Hyatt left England at the age OF
seventeen, and returned home "only
twenty-eight in point Of years. but MID
dle-aged in reality. penniless, disap-
pointed, weary, a broken man. to begin
life anew IL I could. And that my
Good Comrade has made possible" Thus
ends this Chronicle Of eleven years wan
derings that carried its author clear
around the world. almost entirely IN
tropical ATTITUDES. He was an electrical
engineer and sheep station hand IN
Australia, a "nigger driver" hunter,
trader, transport rider, labor agent ana
cold storage engineer in British South
Africa. and a rubber concessionaire III
the adjoining Portuguese colony a lect-
urer in Durham, Mauritius. British India
and the Philippines. newspaper CORE
lspondent and American soldier there. ana
a tramp-the latter in the United states,
one assumes, for his record ends with his
Philippine adventures.
The book is excellent reading, as varled
In interest and color as one would ex-
trades Mr.. Hyatt has since then added
that of authorship. two novels having
already preceded this book Of his. one
Of them deals with the last days OF the
old South Africa, before the coming OF
the railroad, the other with the discom-
fort Of an adventurer returned 10 the
smugness Of civilization.
Civilization has become unpalatable 10
this rover, If, indeed. he did not already
dislike It when he babe 1t farewell,
mere bow. What lie saw OF It on his
travels was not tho best Of 1t, OF course
on it's rude frontier. where the worst OF
men is as likely TO come out as their
best He was in Rhodesia in the earliest
DAYS Of the Chartered Company; In fact'
the bulk OF his book is devoted to MS
South African adventures, Australia be-
ing dism,s IS ed with a scant chapter ana
the Philippines with five at the end, out
az a total of thirty-two. In Rhodes's
country he learned to hate the British
Africanders, to tolerate the Beers. but
with many reservations, and TO despise
the offspring Of British and Boer mar
riages. still more the horde OF foreigners
from Germans to Greeks, that followed IN
The wake of the Anglo Saxon advance,
tattening on it's labor. OF his own coun-
trymen he speaks with no less unre-
straint. giving the English In Rhodesia
credit however, for the lack OF char
acteristic that he found dominating them
again in Inda-snobbery. In fact, he Is
40 sharply critical throughout OF his TEL
low humans that one cannot help WISH
ing for a pen sketch of him by one or
more of those who came in contact with
him. as they saw him in their turn. me
African natives fare far better at his
hands. at least their chiefs and MS
Rasuto transport driver. or his OPINION
of the Americans in the Philippines more
later on.
Mr.. HYATT gives vivid pictures or the
soua,or. disbursement, hatred and I'M
charitableness, trickery and dishonesty
Of the early days Of the Rhodesian ad-
venture. He was already at that time
volunteer correspondent of a LONDON
financial paper, in whose columns, he
informs lis. he told unpalatable truths
that did not suit the stock exchange
side of the undertaking. 1t Is an I'M
pleasant picture, but, as already indl-
Gated, it is possible that allowance must
be made for the personal equation. The
best passages are those dealing with Mr..
Hyatt's subsequent free life as trans
IL, hn
lives He tells Of sport as well as of
work and trading, describes the jungle
of Portuguese East Africa with vivid
touch, and, incidentally, narrates how
near his brother-the loved brother who
went with him through all these later
adventures only to die in England
came to being poisoned at a native
kraal. The other great affection of
these lonely days Mr.. Hyatt sums up
in the following typical passage:
! / have come across but few men who
| had the loyalty and the courage and the
| patience of those treck bullocks Of mine.
| / would sooner find them in Wahalla than
| would meet ninety-nine out OF a hundred
OF the white men with whom | have
| had 10 do. They never went back on me-
! Bifel would come and shove his great head
under my arm when | called. To the crowd
| he might be a savage black bull of abnor-
! NAL size: TO me he was a faithful friend
! . . And then men treat Kafirs and
| bullocks as mere beasts, which merely
! proves what ] learned before had reached
! twenty-one, that the majority Of men con-
| sists Of shortsghted fools. If you
want faithful service, unselfsh love. I'M
| finching courage, look for II in a dog,
| Basuto or treck bullock. anywhere but
| in a white man on whom the curse or the
! South African tradition has fallen.
The two brothers left South Africa PEN
niless, and made their way eastward
around the world by all kinds OF de-
vices commanded by their continued
lack Of funds. Mr. Hyatt's views Of hu-
manity are reflected most strongly
perhaps in the tale he tells of his Philip
pine experiences. He divides the Amer
leans there into Southerners and Yam
KEGS, awarding all the virtues to the
former, all the crimes TO the others. He
praises the military establishment, and
condemns the civil administration. Sc
riously claiming that a plot was set on
foot to have him put out of the way by
the natives. The book Is n realistic
revelation of the seamy side Of vaga-
bondage, and Of the deplorable effect II
may have in shaping the view Of life
and men Of the immature. II Is curl
ously interesting reading.
HOLBEIN' ORGAN SHUTTERS.