Various - Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, August 18th, 1920
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Various >> Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, August 18th, 1920
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If it be true art, as I rather think someone has said it is, to state what
is obvious in regard to a subject while creating by the manner of the
statement an impression of its subtler features, then Mr. PERCY BROWN, in
writing _Germany in Dissolution_ (MELROSE), has proved himself a true
artist. For in Germany about the time of the Armistice and during the
Spartacist rising certain things happened which got themselves safely into
the newspapers, and these he sets forth, mostly in headline form. Beyond
this Germany was a seething muddle of contradictions and cross-purposes,
which, it is hardly unfair to say, are capably reflected in his pages. Mr.
BROWN is a journalist of the school that does not stick at a trifle, a
German prison, for instance, when his dear public wants news. His crowning
achievement was to persuade Dr. SOLF, when Foreign Minister, to send
through the official wireless an account of an interview with himself,
which would, as he (SOLF) fondly hoped, help to bamboozle British public
opinion. When the article appeared, so well had the author's editor read
between the lines of the message that the journalist had to run for his
life. He was particularly fortunate too, or clever, in getting in touch
with the Kiel sailors who set the revolution going, but in spite of much
excellent material, mostly of the "scoop" interview variety, nothing much
ever seems to come of it all, and we are left at the end about as wise as
we started. All the same, much of the book's detail is interesting, however
little satisfaction it offers as a whole.
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_Ann's First Flutter_ (ALLEN AND UNWIN) will not arouse any commotion in
the dovecotes of the intellectually elect, but it provides an amusing
entertainment for those who can appreciate broad and emphatic humour. Mr.
R.A. HAMBLIN has succeeded in what he set out to do, and my only quarrel
with him is that I believe him to have a subtler sense of humour than he
reveals here. _Ann_ was a grocer's daughter, and after her attempt to
flutter for herself had failed she married _Tom Bampfield_, a grocer's son.
_Tom_ had literary ambitions, and was the author of a novel which his
father thought pernicious enough to destroy his custom. Strange however to
relate, the novel failed to destroy anything except the author's future as
a novelist, and when _Tom_ did succeed in making some pen-money it was by
means of a series of funny articles in _The Dry Goods Gazette_--articles so
violently humorous that the author's father thoroughly appreciated them.
Mr. HAMBLIN'S fun, let me add, is never ill-natured. Even bilious grocers
will not resent his jovial invasion of their kingdom.
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[Illustration: THE PRUDENT LOVER.]
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"City gunsmiths have been busy these days furbishing up sportsmen's
rifles for the '12th.'"--_Scotch Paper._
Personally we use a machine-gun.