The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-01-14


 man effort, which came, more than once. very near to triumph, achieved the inn possible many times, and failed. from something which had nothing to do with arms nor with the men who bore them it is in this vein that the distinguished English poet who took part himself in the engagement discusses one of the most splendid military efforts in all history. The book is important as literature, as an interpretation of Englands point of view in the present war. and as the re- hection of the mind and personality of a great figure in modern literature amid scenes of fighting, bloodshed and dsas- ter
 When John Masefield was in this coun- try little while ago he was met from city to city and from town to town with question about the Gallipoli campaign. They usually began with "Why?" Why had the attempt been made in the first place? Why had it been made as it was and not in some altogether different way ? Why had this been, done and that not been done? Why had it been abandoned at last? Wouldn't a little more per- sistence have won?
 MT Masefield tried, he says, to answer these questions as they came up, and to settle them. But they followed him per- sistently, so that at last he began to feel the need of a printed leaf1et that would contain his replies and set forth his views. And, later when he had leisure, he began to consider" as he says, the Dardanelles campaign---'not as a tragedy, nor as a mistake, but as 8 great human effort, which came, more than once. very near to triumph, achieved the impossi- ble many times, and failed in the end as many great deeds of arms have failed from something which had nothing to do with arms nor with the men who bore them. So, as a. result of these questions, and of this detailed study, he has written book about Gallipoli He has an- swered the questions; he has set down in the simplest words and the dearest fash ion the record of what happened on the Gallipoli peninsula and why; he has chronicled in straightforward prose that valiant catastrophe. And the result is a piece of literature so magnificent, so heroic, so heart-brealxing that it sends us back to the Greek epics for compari son, and sweeps us again, breathless and with tears in our eyes, to look upon the brave deeds and the agonies of our time.
 The Germans boasted that no hostile army would be able even to land on Gallipoli. And before beginning to ana lyze what happened, it is, of course, necessary to consider well the place where the battles took place, the nature of the beaches, the conformation of the land. MT. Masefield explains this in the simplest detail, and then offers a sum- ming-up that Is a needed introduction to the chronicle:
 must think of 20 miles of any rough and steep sea coast known to them, picturing 1t as roadless, waterless, much broken with gullies, covered with scrub, sandy, loose and difficult to walk on, and with out moro than two miles of accessible landing throughout it's length. Let them picture this familiar 20 miles as domi- mated at intervals by three hills bigger than the hills about them, the north hill a peak, the center a ridge or plateau. and the south hill a lump Then let them imagine the hills entrenched, the landing mined, the beaches tangled with barbed wire, ranged by howitzers and swept by machine guns. and themselves 5000 miles from home, going out before dawn with rifles, packs and water bottles, to pass the mines under shell fire, cut through the wire under machine gun fire, chamber up the hill under the fire of all arms, by the glare of shell bursts in the whitening and crashing tumult of modern war, and then to dig themselves in in a waterleSs and burning hill while a more numerous enemy charge them with the bayonet. And let them imagine themselves endur- ing this night after night, day after day, without rest or solace, nor respite from the peril of death. seeing their friends killed and their position imperiled, get ting their food, their munitions, even their drink, from the jaws of death, and their breath from the taint of death, and their sleep upon the dust of death. Let them imagine themselves driven mad by heat and toll and thirst by day, shaken by frost at midnight. weakened by dis ease and broken by pestilence, yet ris- ing on the word with a shout and going forward to die in exultation in a cause foredoomed and almost hopeless Only then will they begin, even dimly, to un- derstand what our seizing and holding Iof the landings meant
 THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER" By Mark Twain. Illustrated in color by
 N. c. Wyeth. Harper Brothers, publish
 CTS, New York.
 In ''The Mysterious Stranger" Mark Twain, called the greatest American humorist, gives us a word from him after the grave has closed upon the speaker; the boom brings a message that is dismal and gloomy and carries with it much that is redolent of despair and desparation.
 The book is written with all MT. C1em- ems skill in words and 1t really is a masterpiece of literature
 One of the authors critics has said of 'The Mysterious Stranger and it's message:
 Tt moves swiftly, it wears the dress of fiction, and, in spite of the depres- sion it creates, it is not likely to be laid aside until finished. There is no ques- ton as to it's sincerity, nor for that mat ter. as to its truth, so far as it goes; the same truth expressed by Macbeth when he declares life tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signify ing nothing. We are hardly able, in this time when millions are dying in the cruelest and bloodiest of wars, when whole nations are being swept to de- struction. we would find 1t difficult to deny that the human race is capable of vast mistakes and terrible tragedies. But to admit that this is all, to assert that misery and wickedness and failure sum up the whole of the story, this Is to take superficial view, it is to be blind of one eye. the heaven-seeing eye, to refuse the testimony of good, to accept only that which is evil. The evil tes- timony Is true, of course. But to judge by it alone is to judge falsely and that is what Mr. Clemens does in this book "The author has chosen mediaeval setting for the story, village in the mid- dle of Austria, in the year 1590. when, as some said, it was still the age of belief in Austria. But they meant 1t as compliment, not a slur, and 1t was so taken, and we were proud of it. JOHN PENNELLS PICTURES OF THE WONDER OF WORK By John Pennell. J. B. Lippincott com pany publishers, Philadelphia. A book of amazing importance to Americans-working. thinking and enjoy- ing-is this handsome yet modestly priced