BOOK REVIEWS. THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN: a Christmas Yarn. By Edward Jenkins, M.P. Montreal: Dawson Brothers. 1878. When an author in his preface wishes his critics a merry Christmas, and assures them that, let them scalp him if they please, or praise him if they can, it is all one to him, for the public will still buy his book, one feels almost disarmed at such a display of ingenious ingenuousness. However, let us risk a winter's passage in the Kamschatkan, good ship and true, bound for Portland in a mid-December season, and freighted with a miscellaneous cargo of passengers. A short trip across the Atlantic is a good field for the story-teller. Attention is not much distracted by externals; people of different degrees of life are cast together pretty intimately, and yet have opportunities of retirement and solitude; and the space of time, though long enough to allow a short plot to develop itself, does not afford any temptation for undue prolixity. Mr. Jenkins has turned all these advantages to account in producing a lively, readable tale. He has fallen into an error, however, to which writers of nautical stories are very prone-he is much too fond of going into details of seasickness. A few modern writers are a little apt to think that coarseness and strength are synonymous, and that, because Smollett and Fielding wrote down in black and white what the gentlemen of their age would not have scrupled to talk and laugh about out loud, we can now-a-days write what no one would venture to describe in a conversation. This is the more to be regretted in authors who, like Mr. Jenkins, can show strength in other ways than this. The characters on board are amusing. There is an exceptionally promising young peer; an Irish Master in Chancery, of the type we had almost feared had died out with Lever; his wife, from whom he has been divorced; Sir Benjamin Peakman, of Quebec, a Colonial Cabinet Minister, his wife and daughter; and a host of others. There is a mystery on board, for a telegram was handed on deck just as the ship left Queenstown, that one Kane, a murderer, had taken his passage under an assumed name. A large reward being offered for him, it follows that the stewards and petty officers are all on the watch for some one to answer the description of the escaped felon. The unfortunate Irishman, who has travelled under the name of Fex, so as to escape the scoffs that have been showered on him, is suspected of being the culprit; and a most absurd interview takes place between him and the captain, in that worthy's own state cabin, which Mr. Fex had hired for the trip. As he confesses to the fact that Fex is not his real name, and cannot conceal a bruise on his left eye and a diamond ring that he wears, the identity is considered completely established, in spite of other discrepancies which he points out between his personal appearance and the description of the villain given by the telegram. But it will not do for us to tell how he is released from imprisonment, or how the real culprit is at last discovered, involving nearly all the dramatis persone in almost inextricable confusion. Poetical justice is meted out all round. An elopement occurs at the end under circumstances which a newspaper reporter would surely describe as "almost unique;" and this lively band of wayfarers scatter in all directions over the American continent in search of their Christmas dinners. It may appear a little rash of us to ask such a question of the late Agent-General, but is it usual for so many as 600 passengers to cross the Atlantic in a single vessel in the month of December? We may be wrong in thinking sixty nearer the mark, but we are certainly not wrong in objecting to Mr. Jenkins putting an absurd farrago of Yorkshire and Somersetshire dialects into the mouth of a steerage passenger, and calling it Norfolk. A Novel. By SHE MIGHT HAVE DONE BETTER. EVENINGS IN THE LIBRARY: Bits of Gossip about Extra-Christian Experience. By Nathaniel Ramsay Waters. New York: Chas. P. Somerby. 1877 SPARKLING MOSELLES. We have an overstock of these Fine Wines, which we must clear off before receiving our Spring Importations. REDUCED PRICES To Customers willing to lay in a Stock-All in Prime Order. QUETTON ST. GEORGE & CO. THE LEGAL PROFESSION. ARCHITECTS. BETHUNE, OSLER & M Dr, Barriste X, Solicit S, &C.; LANGLEY, LANGLEY & BURKE, Architects, Civil Union corner of Toronto and Adelaide Streets, opposite the Post Office, Toronto. F. OSLER. W. G. FALCONBRIDGE. Engineers, &c. Office--31 King Street West, Toronto. HENRY LANGLEY. MISCELLANEOUS. Price, Single Number, 50 Cents; Per MOWAT, MACLENNAN&D Hojal Insurance Build. All orders to be addressed to Canada. Offices-Royal ings, corner of Yonge and Wellington Streets. HUNTER, ROSE & CO., PUBLISHERS, TORONTO. PUBLISHED BY HUNTER, ROSE & CO., 25 WELLINGTON STREET, WEST. MONTREAL: DAWSON BROTHERS. HALIFAX: A. & W. MACKINLAY. CHARLOTTETOWN, P. E. I.: H. A. HARVEY. WHOLESALE AGENTS: THE TORONTO NEWS COMPANY, TORONTO. SINGLE NUMBER, 35 CENTS. YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION, $3.50 EVERY KEEPER OF FOWLS SHOULD BUY THE New Illustrated Poultry Book, BY "GALLINACULTURIST." WHO REARED IN TWO YEARS NEARLY 3,000 HEAD. Price 25 Cents, from all Booksellers, or the author, Robert Wilson, 26 Beech Street, Toronto, or the Printers, Hunter, Rose & Co., Wellington Street Wes. Toronto. "This little work is brimful of the very best information as to the rearing of poultry. Every breeder should have a copy. The price is within the reach of all-only 25 cents."- New Dominion. "The New Illustrated Poultry Book, by Gallinaculturist,' is addressed particularly to the farmer, and contains much practical information regarding the rearing and management of fowls on the farm- "Gallinaculturist' knows whereof he writes, having reared in two years nearly 3,000 head of poultry."-Canadian Poultry Review. "THE NEW ILLUSTRATED POULTRY BOOK.-The above is the title of a little book on poultry by a gentleman who writes under the nom de plume of Gallinaculturist. The book is written not so much for the poultry fancier, or for the practical poultry keeper, as for the farmer who has hitherto given little or no attention to the poultry on his farm. The work contains many valuable hints regarding improvement of stock, feeding and hatching, and also the profitable breeds with their advantages and disadvantages Also a list of all the poultry Journals and works on poultry extant. This book can be obtained from Mr. Robert Wilson, Toronto."-Hamilton Evening News. "This book while not aiming to all that the more elaborate and expensive works do, yet comprises much that is necessary and useful for those keeping poultry to know, especially those commencing poultry-keeping on a small scale. The work is neatly got up, and illustrated with different kinds of fowls."--Thorold Post "All who keep fowls should purchase the book on poultry by Gallinaculturist,' price 25 cents, as they will save ten times that amount in the expense of rearing birds after reading it. It contains a vast amount of useful information."- Whitby Gazette. "This work should be read by every one who keeps fowls, as a certain method of making poultry pay; comprising as it does the A B C of all that is required to be known respecting Farmers' Egg and Market Birds. It is of the greatest importance that this work should be perused early in the season, so that one of the several methods may be adopted by those, who up to now, have not had their experiments result in profit."-Poultry Herald. "This work is well worthy of the patronage of the Farming community, being specially adapted to the poultry yard on the farm, and is full of useful and instructive information."-Dominion Poultry Gazette. HUNTER, ROSE & Co., Publishers. 25 Wellington Street West, Toronto. |