CURRENT LITERATURE
THE-GLUTTON'S MIRROR. By William Caine. (T. Fisher Unwin. 7s. 6d. net.) ."
THE late Mr. William Caine, so well known as a novelist and
hurimrous writer; possessed an unsuspected talent;rare among authors, for draughtsmanship. The posthumous publication of The Glutton's Mirror, both written and profusely-illustritted by Mr. Caine, deVelops the humorous side of food and those who eat it in a vigorous and refreshing way, and the full-page drawings are really comic and delightfully composed. Perhaps the most ludicrously revealing of the cartoons is one which shows' two reflective diners hanging over a perambulating tank of live trout, while a portly waiter, fish-net in hand, awaits their selection. Another drawing which will strike a sympathetic chord in every gourmet's breast shows three bilious gentlemen listening to a negro saxophonist, while the letterpress explains that the reason why music is played in restaurants is beemise it is impossible then to taste one's food.
The text, a series of deliciously laeonie misinformation and criticisms of the glutton's menu, is definitely funny, and Mr. Caine obviously suffered as Much as any of us from other people's coffee and the regal habits of waiters. Here is an out of the way publication of the kind that one ends by buying in duplicate—one to keep to chuckle over many times at home,
and one as a gift for the right kind of friend or relative. The drawings have a deliciously lunatic inventiveness reminiscent of Edward Lear.
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