10 OCTOBER 1925, Page 38

Snow Rubies. 'Ey." Caripat." (Blackwood. 7s. 6d. net.)— The elasticity

of the English language, is considerable, but it is doubtful wheihei it can be said-to emerge. with credit from a whole novel written in 'slang. The author would doubtless say that this is just how such a man as his hero—the novel is in the first person—writes and talks. That is no doubt true ; but the present writer confesses that the effect of page after page of the jocularities of everyday speech is to produce a sense of boredom with what, otherwise told, might have been an exciting story.