The Rise of Ruderiek Cloud. By Josiah Flynt. (Grant Richards.
5s.)—It is not uninteresting or uninstructive to compare this- story with romances of the "Jack Sheppard" kind. Ruderick Clowd is a first-class thief—in New York, it should be understood —a quite natural result of his origin and upbringing. The story of his life as a thief is told ; it has its successes and its failures; all are related with absolute simplicity; there is romantic colour- ing ; there is no moralising. But, as may be guessed from the title of the book, he moralises for himself. After five-and-twenty years of work he finds that he has spent half his time in prison. He has drunk, it is true, lots of champagne and fared. sumptuously, but he has nothing left. He resolves to make a new beginning, has a chance of doing some service to law and order in the prison—these reflections are more likely to occur inside a prison than outside—and actually makes a fresh start. We see him in the "Epilogue—Fifty Years After." He is not a saint ; he is scarcely a penitent ; he can still relate his adventures with a relish. But " to this day the old man goes quietly to his work and then home again." He has to work hard for his living, and he is an old man ; but then he is "captain of his soul."
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