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The Great Quest

By CHARLES BOARDMAN HAWES Those who read Mr. Hawes's first book, "The Mutineers," will realize what a treat they will find in his new adventure story. Those who have not read the earlier book may expect a double treat, for the author knows well the art of absorbing narrative which appeals to the adventurous in spirit and young in heart, and the second book will surely lead them back to the first. George Varian has provided illustrations fully as thrilling as the tale itself. $2.00

William Lloyd Garrison

By JOHN JAY CHAPMAN

The Atlantic Monthly Press is about to publish a second edition of one of Mr. Chapman's most brilliant and characteristic books. This is enlarged beyond the dimensions of the first by a new preface vividly suggesting the significance of Garrison's life as seen across the events of the past few years, and also by a full chronology of dates and circumstances. Probable price $1.50

The Seven Ages of Man

By RALPH BERGENGREN

A new collection of essays by the author of "The Comforts of Home" and "The Perfect
Gentleman"- no less humorous than these but with a seriousness of suggestion which
will give this new volume a place of its own. Mr. Bergengren is also author of our very
successful juvenile, "Jane, Joseph, and John."
$1.25

Many Children

By MRS. SCHUYLER VAN RENSSELAER

The publication of these delightful verses for children of all ages was delayed until the
ideal illustrator for them could be found. Mrs. Florence Wyman Ivins was obviously
that person and her many drawings in the little book provide an important element of
its appeal.
$1.50. Publication date, October 1st.

Wild Brother:

By WILLIAM LYMAN UNDERWOOD

Strangest of True Stories from the North Woods

Mr. Underwood, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a naturalist and photographer of distinction. In this fully illustrated account of a pet bear, he presents a unique contribution to the annals of natural history. Publication date, October 1st. $2.00

Zodiac Town

By NANCY BYRD TURNER

Miss Turner, Editor of the Children's Page of The Youth's Companion has written a
book of verse and prose for children which is full of uncommon wisdom, wit, and charm.
It is delightfully illustrated in black and white by Winifred Bromhall.
Probable price $1.50

Inside the House Beautiful Edited by HENRIETTA C. PEABODY

In this companion volume to "What Makes the House Beautiful," many skilful designs for interior furnishings are presented in a most attractive form.

$3.00

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THE LIVING AGE

NUMBER 4028

SEPTEMBER 17, 1921

A WEEK OF THE WORLD

SOCIAL CHANGE IN ENGLAND

SOCIAL changes in England, especially in the manners and habits of the younger generation, have recently been the theme of a newspaper debate in the London Times. The discussion was started by a letter from an 'Old Etonian,' who deplored the disappearance of top-hats, stiff collars, and the formal habits of dress which these typified, and of old customs and sports, including cricket. He deplored the current popularity of soft hats, soft collars, lounging clothes, easy manners, and lawn tennis, as their unworthy successors. Although 'Old Etonian' had some supporters, the weight of opinion seemed to be against him. Perhaps the most trenchant rejoinder is by a correspondent who writes:

What really annoys 'Old Etonian' is that the young men of to-day are ostensibly working. The class in which he and I were brought up were taught that, apart from the Devil, the Church of Rome, and Mr. Gladstone, the wickedest thing in England was the 'workingman'; echoes of that silly and mischievous doctrine have reached us in the last four months. One was supposed to live without 'working for money'; if one received a salary, one must find it inadequate to live on; money one must have, and credit, but the money must come from one's parents, the Turf, or some other source. There were a few exceptions. Curates and bishops were supposed to live on their stipends; rectors

and vicars not. If you played cricket well, you might live by it without loss of prestige, so long as you did not become a 'professional cricketer.' And of late years stories of the fabulous sums which changed hands on the Stock Exchange have tempted ‘Old Etonian's' predecessors to admit that a gentleman might be connected, though not too closely, with that body so long as he did not appear to know anything about business until the ladies had left the room, and then gave a few tips to the men.

The visible effect of all this horror of honest work was sartorial. Men were expected to be continually changing their clothes, so that there should be no indication in the evening of what they did during the day. They were expected to play cricket (in suitclothes) for days on end, to show that they able clothes) or to watch it (in suitable had leisure, and to spend hours (in suitable clothes) at the tables of idle women, 'hostesses,' for no reason that is now very easy to discern.

Those of us who have come back from the war have now a horror of 'eye-wash.' We have to work hard I work myself for twelve or fourteen hours daily, and usually for seven days a week - and we have little time for cricket or for 'hostesses.' We have learned how serious life can be, and how amusing; but we can see nothing either amusing or serious in the substitute for 'life' recommended by such as 'Old Etonian.'

'An Octogenarian' adds his contribution to this effect:

A six-months' residence at a seaside hotel has lately brought me into contact with a Copyright 1921, by The Living Age Co,

good many young men, from the 'fine flower' of public schools and universities to the offspring of newly enriched tradesmen, who have had no such advantages. These latter are sometimes (not always) insufferable young 'bounders'; the former, despite changes in dress and manners, to which

allusion has been made, are still in the main courteous, civil young gentlemen. Any deterioration in their manners is, I believe, as much due to the young women as to themselves. The modern girl, half-dressed, loud-voiced, cigarette-smoking, and bumptious-mannered, is at present an unlovely object, to whatever social rank she belongs; and at present, I am sorry to say, she is found in all grades of society. When she

mends her manners young men will mend theirs.

Economic changes are doubtless accelerating these social changes. Heavy taxation is forcing many ancestral estates into the market and thereby undermining the prestige of the country families who are the staunchest upholders of tradition. Recently the Duke of Portland said:

With regard to my own case, it may, or it may not, be possible for me and my family to continue to reside at Welbeck; but I fear that there can be but little doubt (I hope I am wrong) that those who come after me will be unable to do so. It is of no use whatever blinking the fact, however disagreeable it may be, and it is of no use deceiving either one's self or the country, that if the present high rate of taxation continues, and if the present scale of death-duties is maintained, there must be a wholesale closing down of the larger country houses, if not now, at all events when the present generation passes

away.

Commenting upon this, the London Evening Standard observes:

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Italy was a land of palaces; in the seventeenth century it had become, in the classic language of the picture-auction catalogues, a landscape with ruins.' The transformation was not the work of barbarian destruction; only a fraction of it proceeded

from the actual ravages of war. It was a result of the economic legacy of war.

Does a similar fate threaten the English countryside?

The British press has cited many specific instances where, after paying taxes, large estates have become an actual finanical burden to their owners. The Duke of Bedford submitted not long ago to the London Times a sworn statement, certified to by a reputable firm of auditors, showing that in 1920 his estate of 16,000 acres showed a deficit of 2518 pounds sterling. Sir Rider Haggard, who is regarded as an authority on land-problems, has issued a warning to the effect that, 'few, if any, landed properties are now capable even of paying their way, and therefore no one who has not other resources, or who is not able to earn money in some fashion, can continue to live upon them.' He asserts further that this state of affairs extends also to small land-owners who work their own property, and especially to those who have paid for it with borrowed capital,which is equally true of many a farmer in our own wealthier agricultural states, provided he bought his farm with borrowed money at the prices demanded for such property during the war.

RUMANIA'S POLITICAL PROBLEMS

THE Bucharest correspondent of the Journal de Genève views the present political situation in Rumania with the eyes of a pessimist. Before the war, some 2000 great proprietors, or boyards, owned practically the entire area of the old kingdom, which they administered as absentee landlords, mostly through Jewish bailiffs. The latter fact helps to explain the unpopularity of the Jews in that country. While the forms of popular suffrage were observed, members of

both houses of Parliament were practically appointed rather than elected.

When the war came, there was a complete revolution, and the peasants suddenly came to the top. They were converted into freeholders by a radical land-reform and given the right to vote. Simultaneously, some 3,000,000 former subjects of Austria and of Russia, none of whom had much political training, were added to the body of electors. These people have found new radical - not entirely disinterested-leaders, who are as incompetent as legislators and administrators as the people themselves are incompetent as citizens. The nation realizes that it is neither governed, administered, nor organized.' Scandals in public office are disclosed almost daily by the sensation-loving press of Bucharest. As a result, the masses have lost confidence in their governors, and there is a dangerous sullenness which may manifest itself in an explosion at any time. General Averescu, who was the peasants' idol a year ago, has lost his prestige. Happily the country will have an abundant harvest. 'It is no exaggeration to say that the future of Averescu's cabinet will depend largely upon his success in organizing transportation of grain so that it can be exported profitably for the peasants and for the government.

ECONOMIC RIVALRY IN CENTRAL
EUROPE

ANYTHING resembling an official Franco-German business alliance seems incredible in these days; yet that is the dire possibility which looms over the northern horizon in the minds of some Italians. Il Giornale d'Italia prints a sensational article apropos of the activities of Hugo Stinnes in the territories of the former Hapsburg monarchy, in which it more than hints at an understanding between the Stinnes group and the group headed by the French captain of industry and Min

ister of Reparations, Loucheur. Not only is this industrial alliance alleged to be absorbing the metallurgical industries of old Austria, but it is extending its designs to Russia.

The policy of Briand and his Minister of Reparations is apparently to work upon the following lines: Ensure the payment of the indemnity by Germany, and then come to an understanding with that country upon a continental policy designed to crush competing industries in other countries and to gain economic control of Russia.

This journal supports its conjectures by citing many specific events in the recent industrial and financial history of Europe.

BORDERLAND RUMORS FROM RUSSIA

MISS MELLOR, the English schoolmistress, who has recently reached Warsaw from the Ukraine, confirms reports already received of conditions in that portion of former Russia. Grandiose reforms were constantly inof practical realization. At Bielo Tseraugurated, but never reached the stage koff, where she was stationed, the local Communists would decide, for instance, that the town was to be provided with all the most up-to-date institutions.

A clean building would be selected and promptly labeled 'Sanatorium' or 'Technical School.' The tenants would be summarily ejected, but that would be as far as matters would go. There being none of the means at hand to realize the project, or any understanding among the initiators of what was really required, it would hang fire; the rooms destined for students or patients would be occupied by lousy Communists, who would break the furniture, scrawl inscriptions on the walls, misuse the sanitary appliances, and otherwise defile the place until it became unfit for decent occupants.

During the three months Miss Mellor was engaged in one government school, she had to give only about a

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