10 FEBRUARY 1912, Page 28

Ye flow Men and Gold. By Gouverneur Morris. (Evoleigh Nash.

25. net.)—This is an autobiographical story of an American youth who becomes a treasure hunter, a reae for which nature has com- pletely unfitted him, both mentally and physically. To tell the truth Mr. James Parrish is a painfully stupid and gawky youth, and not till he is forced as a stowaway on board the 'Shantung' does he cut any sort of creditable figure in the eyes of the reader. Even when ROBB1B, the wonderful woman who runs the Shantung,' has given him a good course of physical training ho contrives to do the wrong thing in most emergencies. But at any rate his adventures and those of his shipmates, chiefly Chinese, are extremely exciting reading. The author has put just enough pidgin English into the book to be entertain- ing -without being tiresome. The hero indeed tries to learn Chinese, but finds an extraordinary difficulty in so doing, and as Jill, one of the Chinamen on board the Shantung,' courteously remarks, "You think Chinamen no good Mellican talkee ; me think you hellee dam bad Chinaman talkoe." The chief quarrel which the reader will have with this book of adven- ture is that the cheerful ending leaves him by no means certain that Jim and Bessie and Bessie's little boy are a sufficient crew to got the Shantung' into port. There is a holocaust in the last chapters both of the entire crew of the Shantung' and of the crow of villainous adventurers, who, after stealing Jim Parrish's secret, also go treasure hunting on board another steamer called Calliope.' The last page of the book finds the three principal personages positively the only survivors of all the dramatis personae, and, as they are in mid-ocean, it seems rather doubtful whether they and the treasure which they have on board will ever be saved. However, the author has conducted them safely through so many adventures that there are grounds for hope that his intention was to bring them to land.