Men

railing all round her." The insensibility attributed to Lord Panmure in this anecdote does at any rate reflect the official attitude in Crimean days to the claims of men who had fought and bled in the service of their country. The official pulse was quite unstirred; on the contrary, the official sympathies were under the most perfect control. They, too, were protected by an iron railing-of routine. who had fought at Inkerman and Balaclava were, in spite of the large fund raised for the relief of Crimean veterans-a fund not yet wholly expended—allowed not only to sink to the workhouse but to die there. That was how the fighting man was requited sixty years ago. Today we may hope that a different spirit pervades not only the nation but the War Office itself. That Department, however, is still a little slow in rising "to the height of this great argument" -the argument of a war demanding such unparalleled sacrifices and illustrated by such deathless heroism. The official mind seems painfully slow to grasp the fact that the proper pride which is aroused by what our Armies have done in this war is a great national asset which ought to be jealously guarded and cultivated. It

is not only that the men who have endured and achieved so much deserve a special recognition. Their "people," who have given of their best and dearest, are entitled to some outward and visible symbol of the distinction which their sacrifice confers. In their suffering and their mourning they should have the consolation of some honorable memento which they can cherish and which the world can recognize and respect.

Take, for example, the men who fought in that "contemptible little Army" which faced such fearful odds in the retreat to the Marne, and again in the first Battle of Ypres.

There are not very many belonging to those devoted divisions left to tell the tale of their immortal achievement. But there are thousands of households from which men of those divisions went forth, never to return-households that are entitled to some worthy token, in their bereavement, of the proud memory that they cherish. Why should not some distinctive badge, like the star that has been from time to time awarded for special campaigns, be issued both to the survivors of the original Expeditionary Force and to the next-of-kin of those who fought and died with it? It has indeed been announced that a chevron is to be awarded for the Marne, but a chevron is both inadequate and inappropriate. How can it be worn except with uniform; and how, above all, can it be made a household possession, an object of family pride to be handed down from generation to generation? The badge must be palpable, distinctive, and capable of display, and the star satisfies such conditions better than anything else yet suggested. No doubt in due time medals will be awarded for the great war; but that is no reason why the special achievement of that "contemptible little Army," which bore the brunt of Germany's onset in the full tide of her might, and which is now nothing but а splendid memory, should not receive worthy and immediate celebration. Such special celebration is, indeed, not merely an act of justice but also a measure of policy. It tends to keep alert the sense of national pride, which is the secret of any country's greatness and capacity to endure. It is twice blessed-it honors those who receive such an award and it dignifies those who bestow it. No nation can point to a prouder chapter of military history than that which was graven by British arms in the autumn months of 1914;

and if its commemoration by posterity is not in doubt, an immediate commemoration for those who wrote the chapter in their blood and tears is none the less opportune and urgent. The official mind seems more than half afraid of acting on what should be a natural instinct in this matter. It shrinks from "overdoing it." The

The London Post.

misgiving is unnecessary. If it were possible to recognize too generously such service and sacrifice as is here in question, it would still be true that error on the generous side is much more pardonable than error on the grudging. But action should be prompt if it is not to lose its virtue and take the aspect of churlishness.

Any man who may be inclined to be a "quitter," and by reason of hopeless illness, sleeplessness, failing po vers and the loss of friends to make, voluntarily, an end of it all, nay be helped to a different conclusion by reading Louise Collier Willcox's little essay "The House in Order" (E. P. Dutton & Co.). This bit of human experience will suggest to him that the mere effort to do the things which ought to be done before he dies, and to set his house in order by fulfilling his obligations to those who care for him and for whom he cares will keep him busy and prevent him from forestalling his destiny.

In "Understood Betsey" Dorothy Canfield tells a story which will delight children, while at the same time it points a moral for their elders. Her Betsey is an orphan, brought up with exaggerated painstaking by an aunt and great-aunt, and developing morbid symptoms in response to their anxious expectations. A sudden change in her great-aunt's health sends little Betsey, aged nine, to spend a winter with relatives on a Vermont farm, where homely common sense does wonders for her. The child will be hard to please who does not listen breathless to the end of Betsey's adventures at the Necronset Valley Fair, and mothers as well as teachers

will find "What Grade is Betsey?" fascinating. Henry Holt & Co.

Gilbert Murray has brought together, in a volume entitled "Faith, War and Policy" (Houghton Mifflin Co.) fifteen addresses and essays on the great European war, delivered or written at various times from August, 1914, to March, 1917. There is no intentional sequence of thought in them, but, arranged as they are in chronological order, and reprinted without change, they furnish a certain review of the shifting aspects of the great struggle, as they present themselves to an observer unusually just and broad of outlook. In a general way, it may be said that anything that Professor Murray writes is worth reading, but these papers are especially so, for they relate to the deepest human interests, and combine high ideals with practical lessons. Two of them-"Herd Instinct and the War" and "The Sea Policy of Great Britain" have been published in the Atlantic Monthly.

A timely and up-to-date study of "Alcohol: Its Relation to Human Efficiency and Longevity" is contained in the volume by that title, written by Eugene Lyman Fisk, Medical Director of the Life Extension Institute (Funk & Wagnalls Co.). The author divides his sub

ject into three parts-Alcohol and Life Insurance, Alcohol and Physiology, and Alcohol and Human Efficiency-and col-, lects, analyzes and sums up the results of the latest scientific investigations. The conclusion which he reaches is that "If alcohol is the key that unlocks the door to the chamber of disease, degeneracy and life-failure (as the evidence collected shows that it is), we must hold it solely responsible for the results that follow its use. The only safe course is not to use the key." This is a conclusion increasingly sustained by the world's experience and the world's conscience; and the present volume is a valuable contribution to the evidence. Dr. Fisk's book is authorized by the Hygiene Reference Board of the Life Extension Institute, and is warmly commended in a Foreword by the chairman. of that board, Prof. Irving Fisher of Yale University.

Few Americans have had a larger or more practical share in solving or helping to solve the problem of “The Religious Education of an American Citizen" than the author of the book bearing that title-Francis Greenwood Peabody, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals in Harvard University, and for many years preacher in Appleton Chapel. The problem, as he states it in his Preface, is how to conserve spiritual power, how to store it at its remote and hidden sources, how to keep it clear from taint and secure its abundant and unobstructed flow. Beginning with a consideration of the religious education of an American child, he passes to suggestions relating to the American boy and his home, the religion of a college student, the universities and the social conscience, the religious education of an American citizen, and the dominant traits of the American character, and

closes with a chapter on "The Place of Jesus Christ in a Religious Experience." Each chapter is of independent interest, but consecutive reading will be most profitable. The beautiful dedicatory poem "Now We See in a Mirror but then Face to Face" strikes a true and lofty note of religious trust. (The Macmillan Co.)

Dedicated to "An Awakened America," and especially prepared to meet urgent needs, "The Junior Plattsburg Manual," by Captain E. B. Garey and Captain O. O. Ellis of the United States Infantry, with a cordial and appreciative Foreword by Major-General John F. O'Ryan, is admirably adapted for use as a textbook in schools where, as in New York, military and physical training is made a part of the regular course, or in boys' camps, or in the training of boy scouts. The aim of the book is defined in the opening paragraph in these words: "Military training will give you a straight body, a straight mind, and straight morals, if you take it, not as a lesson in geometry, but as your first step in becoming an American citizen. Your study of Geometry, of Geography, of Latin, is to develop your mind. Your military training is to develop you into a patriotic, physically sound, upright and disciplined citizen." Keeping this high and useful aim in mind, the authors describe clearly, and in detail the training of the soldier, the squad and the company, target practice, scouting and patrolling, marching and camping, first aid to the injured, rifle exercises, and signals and codes; and more than 250 illustrations, scattered through the book, picture the right and the wrong way of following out the instructions. (The Century Co.)