+ By Capt. there were this HA er ------ Books And Their Authors AND IT CAME TO PASS, By Guy Thorne. 345 Pages. Price, | $1.25. The Musson Book Co, | Toronto, Publishers, & Co, City. This is a story of the same style as Mr. Thorne's greatest 'When It Was Dark." dinary in many respects especially in R. Uglow the sea-miracle'that came to the R.| M.S, "Australia," in the Mediterran- ean. On a piece of floating wreck- age the sailors discovered and res- cued a little boy. Peculiar sigrifi- cance was attached to the wreckage, owing .to the fact that it took the form of a great cross, clean made, built of hewn-shaped logs, bolted to- gether with iron. The scene shifts to England, where we follow the subsequent events in the life of this! these must be attained. boy eaved from the sea. The author works out the situation very cleverly. | he requires is to be pushed and prod- The explanation?--that -- would be telling, wouldn't it? Besides, the book furnishes a better answer than could possibly be recorded here. It is an absorbing story, cleverly told, with muchditerary merit. THE FIRST SEVEN DIVISIONS, 338 Ernest Hamilton. Pages. Price, £1.50. E. P. Dut. ton & Co., New York, Publish. ers. R. Uglow & Co., City, i Capt. Hamilton has in this volume, answered the question, "What Have the British Done?' At the same time it is the splendid epitaph of Eng- land's professional army, the end of three months was practi- cally annihilated. The book presents' detailed and authoritative accounts of the fighting from Mons to Ypres, the most critical period in the war for the Allied armies, The first seven divisions were those constituting the First, Second and Third Army Corps, and were practically the standing army of Bri-| tain.. How these splendid soldiers fought and were wiped out by the thousands may be graphically gath-; ered frem a tallying of the First Bri- | gade alone. This gallant body mus- tered 4,500 In August, 1014. On Nov. 12th of the same year it was taken back into reserve. There were] Just 472 m t, © Barrative is full of ¢ . Those win- ning Victoria Crosses are so _many-- and so palpably deserving--that one wonde's if ever man were more pa- triotically valorous. Capt. Hamilton records 'that for five days on the Aisne the soldiers of Great Britain fell at the rate of 2,000 a day. There fs a refinement of language in the descriptions of the gruesome spec- tacles that is unusual in these days of bloody emphasis over war narra- tion. As pointed out in the. "Epi- taph' at the conclusion of the book, no war correspondents present with the first expeditionary force, and the world learned liitle of what was done. This book bears am- ple testimony that her little stand- ing army lived, fought and died up to the best British conditions. i ANTWERP TO GALLIPOLI By Arthur Ruhl. 304 pages. Hius- trated. Price $1.50. McClel- Iand, Goodchild & Stewart, To- ronto, publishers. R. Uglow & Co, eity. A year of war on many fronts-- and behind them--is described in volume. Few correspondents have travelled more extensively than Arthur Ruhl. Antwerp, Paris, Bor- deaux, London, German camps, Constantinople, Rumania, Bulgaria, the Dardanelles, Lemberg, Galicia, 'Austria-Hungary--all these and more have known him, and, through him are introduced to the reader as they appear under war con- ditions. The book contains a vast fund of information, and with the scores of photographs with which it is llustrated, presents a veritable moving pleture panorama of the war. Judging by the praise the author lavishes so freely upon the Austro< fn forces, the reader su- apects that he is not a elose triend of the Allied cause. As a narrative of the in the East, the book is. = A success, | It is extraor-| Which at .ia)y and therefore, socially, his in= Prison | carried them through, makes a thril- " KINGSTON, ONTARIO, SATURDA i Es 5 | which the soldier finds even in the midst of death. | MR. AND MRS, PIERCE. « | By Cameron Mackenzie. 404 Pages. Price, $1.35. McClelland, Good- child and Stewart, Publishers. and College Book Store, City, There are a great many Mr. and Mrs. Pierce's in the world. You and 1, gentle reader, know quite a few of them. Mr. Pierce is not born for | great things; he is a quiet, steady fellow who fills his lowly niche and | fills it 'well, but has no ambition to | climb the ladder that leads to fame and fortune, but Mrs. Pierce, she's different. She has ambition and to spare. Place, power, money, fame-- Her John is | just as clever as any other man; all ded ahead. She must take the reins --and the whip--into her own hands, and make a purse out of a sow's ear, Sometimes she nearly ac- complishes it, but the object of her | devotion must have often wished that he had lived next door to King} Herod. The "finished" product is usually a pitiful object. The Mrs. Pierce of this enticing story is young, attractive, ardent, happly married, but with that kind of an aspiration which Shakespeare described as 4 'vaulting ambition, which o'ertops itself and falls on 'tother side." So one fine day she makes up her mind to elevate her husband. He was to be raised finan- tellectual and moral status (Oh, happy husband), being all that a lov- ing wife could desire. 'Life's what you make it," argued Mrs. Pierce. "Determine what you'll be, and you can be it." Accordingly she invest- ed all the money she possessed and all the enthusiasm and energy of her ardent mature in boosting 'her hus-. band along the path that leads but! to a captain of industry. With sur- prising results, Mrs. Pierce's experiment makes an absorbingly interesting story of married life. Both Mr. and Mrs. Plerce are just such bright, well- bred, hopeful young couple as can be found in any city. Their problems are the problems that most of us face. Their story is absorbing be- cause it comes home to us. THE PHANTOM HERD. By B. M. Bower. 325 Pages. Price, $1.30. McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart, Toronto, Publishers, R, Uglow & Co., and College - Book Store, City. Stories of the ranch and of south- i western life among the cowboys, the Indians and the Gringos are Mr. Bower's specialties. Some of these books make interesting reading; some do not. Luck Lindsay, former ranch hand and later one of the managers of a moving picture com- pany, wrote a moving picture story of the true west, but was unable to find a producer. The "Happy Family" from the Flying U. Ranch, however, had faith in his venture to the extent of pooling almost their last cent for its production. Down to New Mexico they all trooped, there to live Luck"s story of "The Phantom Herd," while he registered it in the camera, How they fought through the hard season, how their difficulties and failures brought out all the human nature in "the com- pany," and how Luck's dogged wil Hing story. Incidentally, the reader gets an illuminating insight into the difficulties of a moving picture pro- duction, and will acquire a new re- spect for the men and women who pose before the camera. THE WALL STREET GIRL, By Frederick Orin Bartlett, 334 Pages. Price, $1.35, William fig £ i i ich he expresses his recruiting th a splendid gifts, ato the] t. MacGill if 1 i 2 i 3 T i § 2 fi fi ; i i h i i NS Toronto, | R. Uglow & Co. | MY FOURTEEN, MONTHS AT THE FRONT. | By William J. Robinson. 201 pages. Price, $1.00. McClelland, Good- i child & Stewart, Toronto, publish- ers. R. Uglow & Co. and College Book Store, city. Being the story of an American boy's baptism of fire and an addition to the flood of war books. Rebinson enlisted under the British flag "and soon learned that a drill sergeant was no respector of persens or feel- ings. He served as dragoon guards- man, dispateh rider, and motor car driver, and had many thrilling ex- periences. Young Robinson depiets the horrors of trench life, the excite- ment of battle and its gruesome after- math, He tells of the capture of a fourteen-year-old Belgian boy who was paid six francs ($1.20) each for every British officer he killed. He relates how he drove motor ears through bursting shells and crumbling walls of the city of Ypres with the streets choked with dead and dying. Out of thirty-one motor cycle dis- patch riders he was one of four sur- vivors, In a chapter headed "Germans Fear Canadians," the author writes: "A great deal has been said of the Can- adians and the wonderful fighting they did in Belgium in the spring of 1915. Too much praise cannot be given them; for men who had not been in action before, their conduet was marvellous. vw Just be- fore dawn the Canadians arrived. They didn't stop for anything, and went right over the top of us and at the Germans. We acted as supports for them during this engagement, and it was a treat to see the way they went after them. Trench after trench they took without any let up} The Germans contested every inch of the ground, but nothing could stop the Maple Leaf boys that morning. There is no doubt of the fact that the Ger- mans hate and fear the Canadians." WITH SERBIA INTO EXILE. By Fortier Jones. 447 pages. [llus- trated. Price, $1.50. William Briggs, Toronto, publisher. R Uglow & Co. and College Book Store, city. The writer has had the privilege of reviewing many war books dealing with aspects of the great struggle as it effected England, Canada, France, Belgium, Russia, Italy and Germany. This volume tells the tragic story of Serbia. Other books have been sad; this is melancholy; others have been serious; this is haunting in its ghastly details. To realize the 'travail through which this little pation pass- ed fills one's soul with sorrow. The one rift in the black, foreboding cloud is the undeniable heroism of a people who can be defeated, but conquered ----never, - Fortier Jones, the only American who was with/ the retreating Serbian army all the way from the Danube to the Adriatic, tells in this book a fact-story at once incredibly hideous and jncredibly heroic. There are de- tails, soberly and straightforwardly stated as dated 1915, which might have been lifted from a tale of horror and splendour belonging to the Middle Ages. Mr. Jones presents Serbia in its su- preme agony--the army of old and young, handicapped by snow and sleet and almost impassable roads, beset by hunger and lack of ammunition, fighting and retreating and dying: the straggling hordes of women and children fleeing they 'hardly knew whither, in automobiles, ox-carts, or heroically, 'In the person of the irre- pressible Gaspard, the author takes a typical tradesman called to the front --a Paris snail-dealer, no less--and takes us with him through all his ex- periences. Gaspard is wounded in his first engagement, but he returns to the front and comes back minus a leg. But the spirit of tae man is the spint of France--gay and brave even in the face of death--Those who desire to understand better the France of to- day should read this remarkable book. 5 ' een - RE QUEEN OF THE SECRET CITY By Joseph J. Doke. 319 pages. Hod- der & Stoughton, Toronto, publish- ers. R. Uglow & Co. and College Book Store, city. It requires.the imagination of a Ryder Haggart to create a story like "I'he Queen of the Secret City." In fact, it is a regular Haggart yarn; the setting is about the same; there are priestesses and strange rites and cere- monies, secret cities, ' imperious queens, the usual love episodes, ete. The story is laid in Africa, and port- rays the time-old conflict between Christianity and paganism. In this secret city is staged, too, the culmina- tion of a love affair: between the queen and a zealous monk, which had had its origin in other places and un- der vastly different auspices. As a yarn, it is deeply interesting and most entertamningly told. If the reader is looking for something thrilling and mysterious, he will find it here. IN THE YPRES SALIENT. By Beckles Wilson. 80 pages. Illus- trated. Price, 36c. The Musson Book Co., Toronto, publishers. R. Uglow & Co. and College Book Store, City. This neat little paper-covered vol- ume contains the undying story of a fortnight's Canadian fighting--June 2nd to 16th, 1916--in that histeric salient which has. become the final resting place of so many thousands of the empire's bravest and best. One thrills with pride as he reads the splendid part the Canadians teok in this struggle--how they stood their ground and nobly died before the overwhelming German hosts and of how, later, they gallantly recaptured all their lost trenches. The story has Leen told before by Col. J. A. Currie in his book, "The Red Watch," by John Buchan, in Nelson's History of the War," and by many other writ- ers; but it is one that we here at home can never grow tired of hearing. - THE LEOPARD WOMAN. By Stewart Edward White. 313 pages, Price, $1.35. The Musson Book. Co., Toronto, publishers. R. Uglow & Co.. and College Book Store, City. Stewart Edward White has travel- led and hunted extensively in Africa, as witness his recent book, "The Re- discovered Country." It is not sur- prising, therefore, that he fas chosen that great and little known continent as the scene of action in his new book. In it is much descriptive matter, which is informative; also there are an international intrique, Cuthbert son, the hero of the story, is sent by the British Government through the heart of Africa to the country of a powerful native chief to secure his alliance. A German envoy is on the same errand, starting from a differ- ent source. Aware of the British ex- pedition, Winkleman (the German) despatches a beautiful Hungarian princess--the Leopard Lady- overtake Cuthbertson and delay Some thrilling episodes follow. De spite temporary blindness, the in- domitable Britisher wins through, se- cures the aid of the native chief-- and a bride into the bargain. Thus the occupation of Germany's colonies follows. The story is replete with ad- ventureous situations, and sustains ths interest of the reader to the last sentence. 'White can tell a fine story well, and his local color is always Just as it should be. im. foot; the mobs of doctors, nurses, the rabble of relief expeditions, of one of which Mr. Jones was a member, sur- mounting difficulties almost beyond the power of imagination in their flight towards safety; little scenes, as of a Serbian higme and family when the German and Austrian cannon be- gan raining shells in the town; poignant vignettes of character, as of a ten-year-old Serbian sergeant catch- father, a private in the ranks, to pre. vent his elder saluting him---of such is Mr." Jones' report of the horrors an heroism of Serbia going into éx- e. 4 PRIVATE GASPARD, A SOLDIER te BF ; i i i gt wf d ing and kissing the hand of his ol his Y DECEMBER 9, 1916 hunting adventures, a love story, and | | The Man on Watch | od The excuse of some Kingston young men for not wanting to join ithe 253rd Battalion is that they not like the bagpipes. When did the Ontario Government Temperance Act was in force? A Portsmouth resident thinks that every voter in the province should have been served with a notice. tatoes and eggs for still higher prices may have judgments sent upon them, although it looks in these days as if the wicked do prosper. It seems strange that ghosts have begun to appear around the Willia ville water-tower since the 14th Regi- ment Guard was withdrawn and an- other substituted. The Lampman learns that the C. P. R. experts who consulted with the Board of Works this week found Councilman H. Nickle a hard nut to crack on every point. They came to the conclusion that he should be one of their number. 3 Is it possible that people in the rural digtricts in this enlightened age do not know that sixteen ounces con- stitute a pound, and not fourteen or thirteen? The country school marms should drill their pupils exceptionally well in weights and measures tables. With only 600 or more students in actual attendance, Queen's should easily get along without its Arts edi- fice. 'In the old days Principal Grant turned out the best of students with far less accommodation and as many in attendance. Tn Some of the Wolfe Island old folks were very nervous when they read in the Whig a few days ago that a pub- marine had been sighted off Long Is- land. It was hard to convince them that it was not our Long Island that was referred to. It is pointed out to the Lampman that Kingston still has children who are too proud to walk the streets with their parents. The old man may pur- chase the finery, but the "dutiful" offspring trot out to worship on the Sabbath leaving father and mother a long way behind so it may not be known that the plumed ones belong to them. The Lampman was glad that Law- yer Macdonnell took up the cudgels on behalf of the unfortunate prison- ers in the jail and has got the County Council to ask for a;change in garb. The Lampman is suré tha! Kingeiors tailors can fashion soMiething more becoming than the clothes now worn by the prisoners, who are nearly all men who got drunk ahd ape unable to pay the fines imposed upon them. THE TOWN WATCHMAN. PATRIOTIC FUND HAS STILL LARGE SURPLUS Contributions Exceed Outlay by About Three Million Dollars. Ottawa, Dec. 9.--A meéting of the national executive committee of the Canadian Patriotic Fund was held to- day under the chairmanship of the Duke of Devonshire, and attended by «delegates from different parts of the Dominion. This was the first meet- ing held since the Duke of Devon- shire accepted the presidency of the fund, and the duke took the oppor- tunity to assure the committee of his interest and sympathy. having learned from the late Governor-Gene- ral, the Duke of Connaught, of the important work that had been under- taken since the beginning of the war. While the demands of the fund are exceedingly 'heavy, the honorary treasurer was able to report that the total contributions to Nov. 30 exceed- ed the total expenditure by about $3,- 000,000, the treasurer having receiv- ed up to that date the sum of $16, 615,778.28, and disburséd $13,447, 214.73. At the present tate of ex- penditure, the balance in hand would suffice for the needs of thé fund for about three months, if peace were de- notify the people officially that its; , Perhaps those who are holding vo] I( | {Some Ottawa Glimpses | | _ Special Correspondence by H. F. Gadsby. r | Can Coalition & ~ { Ottawa, Dec. 9.--Numerous faint hearts in the Conservative party are suggesting a coalition with the Lib- erals as the only chance the Borden Government has of keeping in touch |'with the spoils of war until the war Mis over. In pursuance of this object the Conservatives would cheerfully | divide the blame for all that has happened since the war began-- paper shoes, spavined charges, fuse contracts, John Wesley Allison, and Sir Sam Hughes--with Sir Wilfrid Laurier and his colleagues, say mn proportion of nine Conservative cabinet ministers to six Liberal, fo that there would always be a big enough Conservative majority to put the raw stuff over, The coalitiogers are so keen about it that they might even consent to make Sir Wilfrid premier, after properly hampering him with a Cou- servative cabinet, which could out- vote and patriotic measure he mignt propose, to the detriment of their profiteering friends. 'The main thing is that they don't want to get separated from the plun- der, and with this end in view, they are prepared to sacrifice the Liber- als' chance of winning at the next general election, It's another way of coaxing a further extension out of the Liberals--that is to say by giving them a two-fifths interest in the reprieve. What they might say to the Liberals is "Come in while the water's hot, with a fair prospect of its getting hotter, Come in, brothers, and share the trouble." This sort of bargain reminds one of the white man and the Indian, who had shot between them six ducks and six crows, 'I want to be fair about this," said the white man, "so I'll give you your choice, Either I'll take the ducks and you take the crows, or you take the crows and I'll take the ducks." Such is the offer of coalition at present being whispered in Conservative circles. [The cynical observer will be in- clined to laugh at these anti-mortem blandishments of the Borden Goy- ernment. Sir Wilfrid urier's magnanimity toward a wi admin- {istration which has already been | stretched a long way may well hesi- | tate at this last proposal. It is the opinion of competent critics that no {Government could possibly be as | pusstilanimous and vacillating as tho 'Borden Government has proved, Outside of handing fat contracts to its party friends and running the | war as a donkey engine to the food monopolizers, it has not had the courage to do anything. Coalition, | therefore, is for it only another form of shirking. Since the Borden Government took office in 1911 it has shown its dread of responsible government by shifting its various responsibilities to ninety Royal Commissions of one kind and another. Whenever tho Borden Government wanted to avoid a run-in with public opinion or defer a duty, or dodge an obligation, it appointed a Royal Commission to keep the thing in the air. In this way it has accumulated ninety Royal Commissions which have cost the country .up to 'date something like one million doMars for doing work the Borden Government was elected and paid to do, There are on hand now all sorts and sizes of Royal Commissions, some of which have | reported, some of which will report | in the more or less distant future | and some of which, like the David- son Commission, have no apparent intention of reporting until the Bor- den Government is in its grave and beyond the reach of harm. At this very moment there must be four Royal Commissions, either marking time or in a state of trance, on the question of the high cost of ving. council, which plays tennis with the matter, knocking it about from one 'place to another, meanwhile expect- nn a ry - can get y started. A Government that had any intention of relieving the situ- 'necessary, Th thing showing, of aBimation 1s the ordsnthy Save Them ? i J law, and any other powers they might lack they have taken, by com- mon consent, under the War 'Mea- sures Act. In fact the only thing the Borden Government lacks is the will to help the people by lifting one little finger, No doubt Sir Wilfrid will think twice before he accepts an offer of coalition from a Government as anaemic as that headed by Sir Rob- ert Borden, a government not only anaemic, but suffering so badly from hook worm that it can't raise a hand. Another thought to give the coali- tion peuse is that it would be a coall- tion, not only with the Borden Gov- ernment, but with its sins--for ex- ample with the curtailment, at Eng- land's greatest period of trial, of the British Preference. The coalitioners are said to be willing to dump Premier Borden, if and make it Premier White instead. It makes little dif- erence. It does not seem possible | for Liberals to be happy with either, even were t'other dear charmer away. 'In fact the coalishing is none too good. One section of Conserva- tives, the forlorn hopers, favor it, but the other section, the great ma- Jority, are in favor of standing rignt up to the trough as long as there is anything left in it, It may. be that Premier Borden harbors the wistful thought of postponing the day of wrath by a coalition, but I doubt it, The fact that Premier Bor- den headed off the revelations con- tained in Sir Sam's letter by an nouncing the day before it was pub- Hshed that he intended to stay on the jobs tends to prove that there was something in what Sir Sam said, namely, that Canada's "stern, strong, silent son' was figuring how he could back away from the trouble, take the High Commissionship and save his face at 4 e time. It's a good bet that Sir "Robert would sooner quit cold, that is to say, re- tire to the dignity and seclusion which the High Commissionership affords, than invite more trouble by Becoming senior partner in a coall- tion, Moreover it is quite apparent from the heat displayed by the "Toronto News" that there is a faction in the cabinet actively opposed to coalition. As this faction includes the Hon: Bob. Rogers, Minister of Elections, and the Hon. A. E. Kemp, controller of the campaign fund, it ig not like- ly that a coalition will be pulled off, so long as these two gentlemen and Premier Borden remain friends, Sir Thomas White is the coalition- ers' other choice, Sir Thomas is an epicene in politics--Liberal till 1911 Consarvative since---an embodied coalition, as it were-the' traditions of the Liberal party in his bones, and the difficulties of Conservative party under his hat. - The only trouble Is that the Liberals have not forgiven Sir Thomas yet and the Conservatives have not wholly taken him to their bosom. He Is, so to speak, on probation. To the oM timers over whose heads he was lift- ed Sir Thpmas seems just a trifle too gay. Tom White, premier! Let him earn it first! Such are the sen- timents which stand in Sir Thomas' road, as premier of a coalition or of any other kind of government. Meanwhile the alleged horror of | the Canadian people at a war-time election is being overworked. In the fall of 1914 there was indeed such a horror, the issue of the war being then uncertain and meén's minds not indurated to its sanguinary wviciesi- tudes. But all that is changed now. We know that we are going to win the war and that the best way to win it is to put a competent government in which will live up to its opportun- ity for service, have been five provincial