GIFT-BOOKS.
A TALE OF THE SEA.* WE are not sure whether this book would or would not encourage a lad who bad the craving for the sea upon him,— possibly it is idle to suppose that a book could have any effect one way or the other. Perhaps we may say that it would make a " good-plucked " one more determined, and frighten off a less determined spirit. And this, doubtless, is what a book should do, always supposing that a book can do anything at all. Mr. Bullen tells the truth about the sea- faring life, probably not the whole truth, which could hardly be put into print. The portraits of officers which he draws are not attractive,—we have observed the same phenomenon in other tellers of sea stories, notably in Mr. Clark Russell. The skipper under whom Frank first goes to sea is a terrible creature who is seized with a fit of delirium tremens when the ship is only a few days out, and the mate, though a sober and thoroughly competent man, is hard and brutal. He, however, greatly improves as time goes on and circum- stances change. Possibly, if we regard the change from the literary point of view, it is a mistake, though famous novelists have often adopted the same procedure. But it makes the story run better, and Mr. Bullen himself would probably plead that the responsibility of power—the skipper goes alto- gether to the bad—and the sense that be has got to the place for which be was really fitted, work upon him for good. When we say that the adventures with which "Frank Brown, Sea Apprentice," meets are much the same as we find in other books of the same class, we mean to cast no reproach on Mr. Bullen. One story of the sea must, from the nature of the case, be very like another. Storms, calms, shipwreck suffered or avoided, officers savage or incompetent, and mutinous crews make up the dura natris, of which Alcaeus sang long ago, and with which his successors have to deal, whether in prose or verse. As a matter of fact, the reader does not tire of them if they are only well told ; and Mr. Bullen tells them admirably well. He writes of what he knows, and there is something of vivid personal interest in all his descriptions and narratives. And there is an unmis- takable touch of nature in his pictures of men. Such is the young Dane, Hansen, who is Frank's steady friend as long as they are together ; such, too, is Hawaian Oonee, with his quaint speech and unfailing good humour. Mr. Bullen, we may remark, has evidently a very high opinion of the Kanakas, not only as seamen, but as distinguished by kindness, and even generosity ; nor does he omit elsewhere to say a good word for the Lascars. We imagine that he would not sympathise with the colour exclusiveness which is so strong in some parts of the Empire.
It would be a mistake to omit all notice of the serious purpose which underlies Mr. Bullen's literary work. There is, as our readers doubtless know, the strong religious feeling standing quite aloof from all partisanship and clique narrowness. The drunken skipper had been taken on recom- mendations which spoke very highly of his "teetotalism and Christianity." And there is a fervent inel ignation at the abuses which so aggravate the inevitable evils of the sailor's life. He feels, for instance, very strongly the truth of the words which he puts into the mouth of the police officer at Honolulu :—" It's a bad place, is the city of San Francisco, for the guileless sailor man. He doesn't get any show at alL" The whole place is dominated, it would seem, by "a boarding-masters' ring,"
* Frank Brown, Sea Apprentice. By Frank T. Bullen. London : James Nisbet and Co. [Cs.]
which is "superior to justice and the law of the United States." Our friends on the other side certainly put up with such open defiance of the law as would not be tolerated here. It must not be supposed, however, that this purpose is intruded, or in any way spoils the story. Frank Brown is a tale of unflagging interest, admirably told from beginning to end.
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