Afloat and Ashore on the Mediterranean. By Lee Meriwether. (Sampson
Low, Marston, and Co.)—This book is a very curious medley of jest and earnest. Mr. Meriwether has studied the sub- ject of convict labour in his own country, where he held office as Commissioner of Labour Statistics for the State of Missouri. He pursued his researches abroad, in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey, investigated prisons generally whenever he could get a chance—and he showed considerable ingenuity in getting chances—and picked up as much as he could about sundry other social questions. He gives us, for instance, some balance- sheets of labourers' income and expenditure in various countries. We are not disposed to deny in toto their value, but we may remark that in England, at least in the case of the agricultural labourer, such balance-sheets are very hard to make out. Wages are ascertained easily enough, but it is the extras that puzzle the inquirer. This, then, is the serious part of the book, and it is of no slight value. The remarks, illustrated for the most part by personal inspection, on the prison system in the countries which Mr. Meriwether visited, are full of interest. Italian prisons, in particular, seem to be barbarous in the extreme, inflicting the punishment of solitary confinement with a quite remorseless severity. The gayer part of the book is also excellent in its way. The writer took with him a fund of high spirits which the natives did not always appreciate, but which make his adventures very entertaining. He ran not a few risks of various kinds, found him- self in, and extricated himself from, sundry scrapes, and brought home, as the result, a fund of experiences and recollections which was well worth giving to the public. Afloat and Ashore on the Mediterranean is a capital book of travel.
Previous page
