Beautiful Jim. By "John Strange Winter." 2 vols. (F. V.
White and Co.)—The author of this military story, the latest of a long line of similar works, must have astonished others besides the present writer by dedicating her book to "The Best of Husbands." But it helps one to understand a certain peculiarity in these stories, and it goes far to justify a previous criticism on them.
The present writer remembers a partial mother saying of her little boy, "He ought to be a soldier : he dances so well." This essen- tially feminine conception of a soldier's career is the motive of "John Strange Winter's" military novels. Her soldiers never take the field. But in the drawing-room and the ball-room they are great. Beautiful Jim differs but little from its predecessors. Perhaps it is slightly above the average in merit. The second half of the second volume is decidedly good. But has not the author trans- ferred to her ingenue, Miss Earle, the manners of a very hardened garrison-town belle ? And really it is too much to expect that a reader should be acquainted with the earlier tales. Alexandre Dumas could join the " Vingt Ans apres " to the " Trois Mous- quetaires," and the "Vicomte de Brag,elonne " to that. But "Mr. Winter" has not reached Dumas's level. What is the fun of calling Lord Charterhouse "Mr. Winks"? At least, we might have had a note.
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