dern hero he is the classic biographer. That the eulogist
of GARIBALDI should hasten to the succour of Italian soldiers was
fitting, and how well he performed the task the records of the Villa
Trenta Hospital, near Udine, and of the ambulance drivers under his
command, abundantly tell. The story of this beneficent campaign and of
much besides is told with too much modesty by Mr. TREVELYAN himself,
in a book entitled _Scenes from Italy's War_ (JACK), which gives a
series of the vividest impressions of the Italian effort, and is
remarkable for the best analysis that I have yet seen of the causes
that led to the disaster of Caporetto. The pages in which Mr.
TREVELYAN paints the portrait of a typical Italian soldier, home sick
and perplexed, are likely to be borrowed by many more pretentious
historians of the War for years to come.

* * * * *

Mr. JOHN HARGRAVE, the author and illustrator of _The Great War Brings
It Home_ (CONSTABLE) has already a wide reputation in the world
of Scouts, gained not only by his enthusiasm but by his profound
knowledge of scout-craft. Here he tells us very plainly that the War
has brought home to us the fact that, if we are to make good our
losses in the ranks of the young and the fit, we have got to give our
children a better chance of living healthy, wholesome lives. He urges
the need of more outdoor education and as many open-air camps as
possible, and shows that, if we are to carry out such a scheme as he
lays in detail before us, scoutmasters and still more scoutmasters are
wanted. With reason he complains that none of these good fellows is
paid one halfpenny, and that nearly all of them are young men who have
to get a living. "Offer them," he says, "a living wage and how gladly
would they become national scoutmasters in charge of national camps."
You may, if you are on the look-out for it, find much that will seem
fantastic in Mr. HARGRAVE'S ideas; his appeal, however, is not to
those of us who, even in a case of great national urgency, cannot get
away from the tyranny of convention. Intrinsically his idea is sound,
and I plead with all my heart for a fair consideration of his schemes
and for help in their development.

* * * * *

Mr. REX BEACH is one of the few prolific writers whose stories
increase in power as they increase in number, and this though they are
essentially novels of action rather than novels of thought. O