Shop Girls. By Arthur Applin. (Mills and Boon. 6s.)— Although
Mr. Arthur Applin's new book is interesting, he does not manage to achieve a complete result. His figure of " Lobb," the man who controls the great destinies of Lobb's Stores, is probably intended to be slightly symbolic, but it only succeeds in being rather unnatural. Lobb is a far more sinister person when believed by the reader to be impersonal than when the controlling force is visible. The details of the lives of "shop girls," first in the country and then in London, are well given, and the more unpleasant aspects of a great women's shop—the desire created for luxuries and soft, beautiful raiment—are clearly brought out. All the same, Mr. Applin will not persuade us that it is an immoral thing to keep a draper's shop. In this climate people must be clothed, and large Stores, conducted on humane business principles, are a most valuable asset of civilization.
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