YALE ALUMNI wWwWHRHEKLY
THE BOOK SHELF.
[Conducted by ALBERT LEE, "91.]
In the upper portion of the City of
New York, somewhere at one of the
city institutions, Mr. H. E. Hamblen
is employed as engineer. Near by or
perhaps connected with the institution,
is a library which is in charge of Mr.
W. S. Booth. For some years past Mr.
Hamblen during his off hours, has
spent much of his time in the library,
and he and Mr. Booth became friends.
The engineer had been a sailor before
he took to the more peaceful and mo-
notonous land trade, and like all good
seamen he can spin a yarn that com-
mands attention. So many good
stories did he tell to the librarian and
so well, that Mr. Booth suggested that
Mr. Hamblen set down his experiences
on paper. This he did, Mr. Booth
edited the manuscript, and now the
Macmillan Company have published
the yarns in a book, ‘On Many Seas.’’
The author ealls thimself ‘Frederick
Benton Williams” on the title page,
but this litle subterfuge has not kept
his true name out of print nor his por-
trait out of the newspapers.
“On Many Seas” is a truly remark-
able book. It is an autobi>graphy, but
I scarcely recall any piece of delikerate
fiction which contains more stiriing
adventure, more thrilling situations or
more interesting passages than this
record of some incidents in the life of
a Yankee sailor. There has been no
attempt at literary style in the writing
of these stories, yet the author has
succeeded in an unusual degree in put-
ting what has come to be called
“atmosphere” into his work. No book
that I know of gives a better idea of
real life at sea than this one—not
even Dana’s “Two Years Before the
Mast.’’ One yarn follows another just
about as the events actually occurred
in Mr. Hamblen’s life, and there is no
attempt on his part to make things.
any better or. any worse than they
actually were. The cruelty and harsh-
ness of a sailor’s existence are in con-
stant contrast with the romance and
.
adventure that has tempted so many
boys and men to embrace it. To any
lad who thinks of going to sea I com-
mend this book, and if he still per-
sists in his determination after read-
ing it, it will not be because any cf the
hard sides of the life have been left
untold.
At the same time, to the reader wo
takes up this book for the p!easure of
reading good stories, the impress. on
of a hard life is not the one that will
be the most profoundly made upon his
mind. ‘That is only the undercurrent,
and comes rather to the thoughtful
reader upon reflection. The striking
features of the book are the evident
truthfulness of the author and the
stirring romance of his yarns. Some
of them, met in fiction, might be con-
sidered clever, but not impressive; but
the wildest of Mr. Hamblen’s state-
ments never even raise a doubt. His
story of the attack upon the Chinése
junk, of the fight and of the capture,
is enough to take away the breaih ‘of
a man sitting quietly at home in the
present year of grace—esp:cia ally
when he considers that the occurrence
was doubtless within his own life time.
It is startling to read of Yankee
sailors deliberately puting off in small
boats from their ship at sight of'a
junk, which .they susipect may’ be.a
smuggler or a pirate; of their board! ng
the craft with pistol and cutlass, kill-
ing half the Chinese crew and taking
the rest prisoners to be carried “to
Hong-Kong and hanged. As Mr. Ham-
blen says, there was
tainty in his mind at the 'ttime the
being a boy then) as to which party
of that transaction were the pirates.
The book is full of just such stories
and it is to be hoped that Mr. Hatmb-
len will give us a second volume | of
yarns at a very early date.
There are a good many persons who
look with a certain amount of ‘super-
ciliousness upon any kind of a book of ©
etiquette,—but it is usually just this
kind of person that would be most
benefitted by the reading of
literature.
some uncéer-
such
“The Complete Bachelor,”
as esl Sit er geet | neha AS. sang a RG aT pete Se
(New York: D. Appleton & Co.,) is
not exactly a book of etiquette, but
rather a couple of hundred pages of
information and advice which no man
need close his ears to. The book was
written by the author of the “As Seen
by Him” papers in ‘‘Vogue,’’—which is
tantamount to saying that they are
humorous. “Him’ always has had a
laugh up his sleeve; but there are hun-
dreds who never detected this, and
cursed him for a snob and a pompous
bombast. Others swallowed his “man’’
and his “valet” his twenty ‘boxes’
*-when he travelled, and all that sort
of thing,—and in the meanwhile ‘“Him’’
went quietly about his business think-
ing up some new yarn to spin for the
edification of the Veneertown Four
Hundred or for the malediction of
those who knew better. Nevertheless
“Him” has had to be more or less ac-
curate in his weekly statements, and
as a result he has picked up a lot of ~
information about things that most
men want’ to know,—or, to put it more
sracefully, that most men want to be
reminded of. It is a peculiar fact that
no man will ever admit that he does
not know what the. proper thing is,
so far as dress is concerned. There can.
of course, be but one “proper thing.”
Yet even in large cities you may go
out any evening to any kind of a d'n-
her, dance, or other function and it
Will prove’ surprising to note what
cambinations men appear in. Given a
dress coat, a dinner coat, a white and
a ‘black waistcoat, a white and a black
tie, a high, and a low collar, you
might believe the perumtation mathe-
matically limited. But go forth and
See. Every mother’s son of them too
will insist that his combination is the
proper one for that occasion. ‘That is
only a small thing among the many
srygat ones treated in “The Complete
Bachelor.” Of value are -the’ hints
concerning the care of clothes,—things
we have all of us been told at one
time or another, and as soon forgotten.
“Hiim’’ has done well to put them all
conveniently between covers. It is al-
ways possible to learn something from
a man who has made a study of any
subject, and the subject treated in
_“The Complete Bachelor’? is one of a
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living interest to every self-respecting
man.
« MacMillan & Co.’s announcement for
books to be published in the Spring
and Summer, tells us that they wll
bring out a work by Prof. Albert Ss.
Cook, entitled ‘“‘Biblical Quotations in
Old English Prose Writers.” In an-
ticipation of the book itself it is per-
fectly safe to say that this will be an
exhaustive and scholarly contribution.
—_—_¢eo.
Mrs. Hadley’s Death.
Mrs. James Hadley, wife of the late
James Hadley, professor of Greek
Language and Literature at Yale Uni-
versity 1848-72, died on Tuesday,
February 2, at the home of her son,
Professor Arthur T. Hadley, ’76 in New
Haven. Mrs. Hadley was eighty-one
years old at 'the time of her death.
The funeral services which were held
Friday, February 5, were conducted
by .President Dwight of Yale. The
pall-bearers were: Prof. George P.
Fisher, Dr. Francis Bacon, Thomas
Hooker, Prof. E. B. Dexter, Prof. E. 8S.
Dana, Prof. Theodore S. Woolsey, of
New Haven, Dr. John S. Thacher, of
New York, Hon. Edward B. Whitney,
Assistant Attorney General, of Wash-
ington.
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