The Washington herald., 1918-07-21

: l0lO.
tons have filled the sap By an issue
of q fresh edition here-'frhe Early
IAfe OF William wordsworth" CAS-
neo. Il contains . PREDATORY note by
Leslie stephen. taken from an article
written for the National Review when
Lesouis book first appeared.
The Coed seIdier.
The Good Soldier" is the title Of
. new collection Of soldiers let
ters published July . The editor.
N. p Dawson. has supplied an tn
teresting introduction and prefaces
each letter with an explanatory
note. The volume really gives the
reader . better idea Of the soldier.
his life. ideals. his inmost
thoughts. than can be obtained
from almost any other single book.
Here are boys" Mrs. Dawson
writes. "ail sorts Of boys: French.
English, Italian, American, young
artists. budding novelists and poets:
musicians: drab and spectacled
London once clerks just OF stool:
an auctioneer from Brixton: elderly
married men. as old as thirty-nve.
and little nephews' of sixteen:
Catholics. Protestants. Christians.
Jews, grave young students In
arms: Crusaders Of France; Oxford
and Cambridge men and French
school boys; American college men
and American rich mems sons from
New York and California: q ball
player from Kentucky: those splen-
did Canadians': favorites OF for
tune and widows sons; French pris-
oners in Germany. and German pris-
oners In France. and little Antonio
In Austria looking longingly out
across the sea to Italy; a3iators
ambulance drivers. truck drivers.
stretcher-beare gunners: plucky
British oficers willing 70 bear the
blunt: and dashinE young Saint
Cyriens going into battle in white
gloves and piume-the elite OF the
world the new aristocracy. not
waiting to see or be summoned. but.
at the FIRST call to arms. rushing
forth as Kipling writes. as jostling
for honor
These are soidiefs' letters written
home. But reading. one finds that he
does not think OF them as letters at
all, but as boys: Emo, Antonio, Rob-
ert, Arthur. Castor. william, Marcel.
Harry. Victor. And one is filled with
pity that they are boys. mere men
as more than one Of them says. pitted
against professional soldiers. experts
In the refined arts Of modern war.
Is revealed in the letters, II Is that
the writers do not want to be pitied:
rather envied. One boy tells his par
la hxyh e.
with their worrying. to take the edge
Off from his own complete content
ment with what he Is doing. A French
boy says not to call him poor Jean.
rather to say dear Jean or brave
Jean or even little Jean but not
poor Jean All express In one way
and another that death has no ter
rors for the good soldier"
New Edition Of Henry Ryeeroft.
Henry Ryecroft. by George Gissing.
has just been sent out in a new edi-
ton by Boni and Liveright. New
York
In the preface to Henry Ryecroft,
with the transparent aim at realism
customary in such productions. Gis-
sing gives an account Of an imaginary
friend whose papers he Is editing.
This camouhage is likely to mislead
the reader who knows that the work
Is the autobiography OF Gissing. to
imagine that his life was passed In
the same quiet Devonshire retreat as
that imagined for his friend. Far
otherwise and far stormier was Gis-
sings life. although the reflections
embodied in the book are his own.
The novelist died in France. at ST.
10 l.. vAR hA .N-ae
only 46
Poverty to Gissing was not Pictur-
esque, as IL was to Dickens. II was
real and terrible. He wrote Of 1t with
long familiarity and not as an OBJ
server. But with the physical Ical-
ism went an ethical individualism
which distinguished him from other
painters Of the lower world. Il am
no friend OF the people," he says, in
Henry Ryecroft. they inspire me
with distrust and with fear; lie a Wis
ible multitude, they make me shrink
aloof, and often move me TO abhor-
ieEce. Right or wrong this Is
my temper. Take a man by himself,
and there is generally some reason to
be found in him, some disposition for
good; mass him with his fellows in
the social organism, and ten to one
he becomes a blatant creature, with
out thought of his own, ready for
any evil to which the contlgion
prompts him" Whatever we may
think OF this as a social creed. we
must recognize that this individual
ism is one of Gissing's marked traits
Gissing has many devotees but no
one would place him quite on a level
with Thackeray or Trollope. He
Fever rises to the heights of the
former. he lacks the breadth end
wholesome completeness of the latter;
but he is far greater than his scant
popularity would indicate.
The year of Gissing's death marked
the first edition Of this autobiosraph-
ical work. 1t deals with the earlier
struggles of the author and contains
as well his mature reflections on life.
1t is grave without being learned and
pedantic, wise and scepticaI without
being frigid, a rare treasure.
Austro-Hungarian Atrocities.
Records of fAustro-Hungarian atroci-
ties, collected and recorded by an
eyewitness, are embodied in a re-
port by r. a. Reiss, d. Sc, professor
of the University of Lausanne, ami
published by Simpkin. Marshall.
Hamilton. Kent and Company. Of
London.
In unliterary style and in tabular
form the facts are set down for the
reader. No attempt to make the inn
port of the fearful devastation OF
the country felt is here.
Page after page Of murder and fire.
of civilians slain by the sword have
a fearful cumulative effect on the
reader. The book is evidently writ
ten with no thought of anything but
the unvarnished truth, but here and
there bits of the heartbreaking
tragedy creep into the record. For
instance:
About fifty meters further on he