Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Friday 7 April 1916, page 5


FICTION OF THE DAY.

-A

RIDER RICKARD'S NEW NOVEL.

Age cannot wither nor custom state the interest of Sir Rider Haggard's Allan Qiiaterrain stories. The latest of them is "The Ivory)' Child" (London: Cassell) a thrilling tale of an expedition into the heart of Africa in search of a white woman. The woman is discovered, eventually, in the sanctuaries of the "Kendall," a people who worship in gold in the form of an ivory image of a child. She is the nurse, or guardian, of the child, and plays the part of an oracle, uttering, his France, what are supposed to he the decisions or desires of the gods. There are, however, two separate races, or strains, amongst the Kendah the light-coloured race, who worship the "c_ild,",arrd a darker race, who worship a fiendish deity, supposed to be incarnate in an elephant. The struggle between the black and the white Kendah culminates in a terrible battle at the close of this very engrossing and excit-ing story.

KNlJINEEIUKG IN AMERICA.

A vigorous and gripping story of pioneer-ing work by a young engineer in Western America is "Still Jim," by Honore Willsie (New York: Fredk. A. Stokes Co.). The interest of the novel never flags from the first page to the last, and, although the author has an obvious purpose, he does not allow it to overpower his tale.' The hero is a young New Englander, whose father has been killed in a quarry. Descended from the original Anglo-Saxon stock, This man has learned, to his bitter cost, that the policy pursued by the United States, of opening her doors wide to immigrants' of every race, has had the effect of overwhelming the Anglo-Saxon stock, and making life very difficult for them. He sees the stock dying out and the country given over to polyglot races without a common national ideal, and the thoughts that beset him are very bitter. Still Jim-his son, who has earned the soubriquet by his habit of quiet thinking and his infrequent speech, absorbs his father's ideas, and when he has qualified as an engineer, and enters the United States Reclamation Service, he looks forward to the work with peculiar satisfaction, -because he regards it as a typically Anglo-Saxon scheme, and believes that in doing his part he will be leaving an indelible Anglo-Saxon mark on American civilisation. The story of his journeys and adventures and hair-breadth escapes in finding a site for the Makes dam is thrilling, and the account of his work on the Cabillo project, and his fight with the grafters, is equally absorbing. A strong love element, always subservient to the main story, lends a strong secondary interest. It is a book which is well worth reading.

JÎLTOaVATIOS,

Characteristically American, in sentiment and ideas is Emma S. Allen's book, "The House of Gladness." (Philadelphia: Geo. W. Jacobs and Co.; Melbourne: Geo. Robertson.) It is the story of a young woman who has been brought up in a peculiarly worldly wealthy set in New York. Her father commits suicide, leaving her penniless. Her mother has predeceased him. By dint of selling her jewels, and by the help of some of her friends, she keeps going for a time, hoping for a proposal of marriage from a man who has been her warmest admirer, and whom she loves deeply. When he fails her, she is in despair, and taking a sleeping mixture to induce a night's rest, she swallow's too large a dose, and is with difficulty saved from death. One of the younger doctors in the hospital to which she is taken chances to be, her own cousin, and through his agency she is offered a home with her father's sister. This aunt is married to a clergyman, and has never met her niece so far apart their ways have lain, though they have lived in the same day. To the young girl with her worldly material outlook, embittered by her cruel experiences, the atmosphere of love and gladness 111 her aunt's home is a revelation of unseen and unknown forces in life. The greater part of the story is concerned wit-her life in these new conditions, and with the reformation 01 redemption of the man who failed her in the hour of her deepest need. It is a wholesome story, whose religious tone will make a strong appeal to many readers.

PAYING THE PRICE.

Miss Margaret Peterson is one of the younger novelists who is expected to do really good work. Ker "Lure of the Little Dunn" was a book that attracted considerable attention, for it manifested qualities of work above the average, and was written with a certain telling force. She has not so far produced anything else to equal it, but her new book, To Love" (London:

Hurst and Blackett; Sydney: Edwards, Dunlop, and Co.), is distinguished by some excellent character drawing. The subject of the novel is one which, at the moment, fails altogether to appeal. Joan Rutherford, a clever, impulsive girl, has broken away from the restrictions of the simple country life lived by her uncle and aunt, and has persuaded them to allow her to earn her own living in London. She ab-sores readily the ideas obtaining in certain circles about marriage and freedom, and, having the courage of her convictions, when she falls in love agrees to dispense with the marriage bond. The arrangement, however, is of short duration, and Joan, finding that her lover's views of the situation are essentially different from her own, returns to her aunt in the country. There, after a brief time, her relatives are made aware of what the girl has done, and in their deep indignation they cast her off, arranging to pay her an allowance for her maintenance. The story of the difficulties and trials she has to overcome and endure before she finds 11 haven in the love of a good man, is told with considerable detail, and is not lacking in power. But the subject is less suited to the authoress's powers than that of her

first and best book.